QOTD

Life is a matter of compromise, tedium, hard work, and sucking it up. Nothing is perfect – especially not other people. They’re often annoying, thoughtless, cruel, stupid, dull, and occasionally odiferous. Sometimes they’re breathtakingly wonderful. The trick is finding someone you like well enough to compromise with.

I am officially old

I just saw the photos of the people arriving at the Grammy awards, and I did not recognize any of them.

Condescension

It is funny, I have become much more aware of freedoms, as I get more and more interested in second amendment issues and other civil rights. Human rights, not to put too fine a point on it. As I have become more aware, I have become more sensitive to the glee in which humans like to tell other humans what to do. I find it very grating now, and it shows up in unexpected places.

I was listening to Lynne Rosetto Kasper’s Splendid Table the other day. Now, I like food, and I like to eat food, and I like learning about food. I’ve gotten some very good ideas from Lynne. But she casually mentioned San Francisco’s ban on McDonald’s Happy Meals, and that some people thought this was an infringement on the people’s right to choose. (Not to mention doesn’t the City Council have better things to do with it’s time than being a nanny to the people of San Francisco?). But Ms. Kasper mentioned that a lot of these McDonald’s restaurants were in poor areas, and didn’t the poor have a right to be protected?

Protected? The implication that the poor were stupid, and dumb, and needed wiser heads to help them make better choices was just glaring. I’m a college professor and a supposedly educated man, yet I know I do plenty of bone-headed things over the course of a day. But I would take great umbrage at being told I have a right to be protected. Children and the feeble-minded have the right to be protected. Adults have the responsibility to make their own choices, for good or for ill.

In that one sentence, Ms. Kasper, showed her education, her elitism, and her scorn, and that has left a bad taste in my mouth. It is true that there are some hobbies that are more typical of the upper classes than the working classes. Usually the distinguishing factors are money and time. Polo is different from stock car racing. No doubt about that. To say that one is morally superior than the other, well, that is snobbery.

The thing is, Ms. Kasper seems like a lot of fun. I’ll be she’s a nice person and fun to be around. It’s much more disturbing to see unconscious meanness, because it makes you wonder about yourself.

I Don’t Know What Is More Disturbing

in THIS story, the skin magazines at Hooper’s store or the time they had Cookie Monster eat his shotgun.  Hat tip, BREDA.

Good Heavens

This is extremely significant.  Tell the Megratheans.  Hat tip, TAM.

This Could Save Us All So Much Time

Hat Tip, Lili

Blue Angels

Four to six  Blue Angels have beenb flying around my house for the past couple of days.  No, not the above blue angel, F/A 18 Hornets. The Cleveland Air show is this weekend.  I did get a chance to see a B17G moving under its own power, which is always exciting. It’s the Yankee Girl--unfortunately they’re not giving rides over the weekend.

The Moscow Rules

Mentioned by CIA master of disguise Tony Mendez, a probably apocryphal list of rules to live by, demonstrating Condition Yellow.  Not a bad condition to be in the world at large.  It’s a dangerous place.

• Assume nothing.
• Murphy is right.
• Never go against your gut; it is your operational antenna.
• Don’t look back; you are never completely alone.
• Everyone is potentially under opposition control.
• Go with the flow, blend in.
• Vary your pattern and stay within your cover.
• Any operation can be aborted. If it feels wrong, it is wrong.
• Maintain a natural pace.
• Lull them into a sense of complacency.
• Build in opportunity, but use it sparingly.
• Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
• Don’t harass the opposition.
• There is no limit to a human being’s ability to rationalize the truth.
• Technology will always let you down.
• Pick the time and place for action.
• Keep your options open.
• Once is an accident. Twice is coincidence. Three times is an enemy action.
• If you see it for sale, and it is unique get it.

Very few things are unique in the age of mass production.  Use your head.

Finally!

I just recently got confirmation that I had paid off a load of student debt. There is quite a feeling of relief. I’m not totally out of the woods yet, but I’m very, very glad–it was certainly a worthwhile investment, but it took YEARS–and professional school may take years more–but it was worth it.

I do find it amusing, that my school, whom I work for, hits me up for

• alumni contributions,
• my student loans, AND
• An employee’s contribution to the annual fund.
• United Way
• A day of Service to the community

Yeah.  I keep thinking we should work out some sort of barter system here, but it never transpires.  I don’t mind paying the loans–that was part of the deal after all. The other funds, I give to my undergraduate alma mater, and pay for scholarships, so some other poor schlub can go to college. For the rest, I think keeping my work life and home life separate is a very good idea.

Don’t Panic!

It’s my Douglas Adams Birthday. Yep. I’m 42, the same age as the ultimate answer. The answer to life, the universe, and everything. Actually, though I don’t feel forty-two, being a forensic pathologist has taught me the meaning of life.

The meaning of life is that it stops. Sometimes abruptly, and you don’t know when. So you should always know where your towel is.

It has taken me many years to learn that, but I really don’t feel forty-two. I feel like I’m around twenty-five. I’m quite glad that I am not twenty-five anymore. I wouldn’t mind twenty years of my life back, nor would I mind the metabolism of a twenty-five year old, and all that goes with it, but I’m quite content with where I am now, thank you very much. I perceive that I’ve learned a few things over the decades-improbably enough-and I’m really quite thankful for that.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go mix myself a pan-galactic gargle blaster. With any luck, I can find a good friend to Vroomfondel my Majikthise. (Good idea, Lili!)

Don’t wait up.