Tag: Unclassifiable

Posted on

Sleep, the nectar of the Gods

Kevin Drum today:

Of the many things I hold against conservatives, one of the less cosmically important is that so many of them seem to belong to the annoying eager-beaver wake-up-at-the-crack-of-dawn club.

Yeah, I’m deeply suspicious of the crack-of-dawn crowd myself. (The fact that I may be becoming one of them is of no import, because nobody is more deeply suspicious of me than, well, me.)

The ultimate cautionary tale against this “Early to bed, early to rise” nonsense is philosopher Rene Descartes, who all his life had the habit of staying in bed until noon — that is, until he was hired by the Queen of Sweden to be her tutor. Sadly, she required him to be up at the crack of dawn for her study sessions, and within a year, Descartes had ceased thinking, and therefore being, altogether.

Share This Post

Posted on

Lord….

OK, I need all of my readers from Minneapolis to chime in here, as soon as possible. Let me know you’re all right.

UPDATE: This is the bridge that collapsed:

Here’s the bridge’s location in relation to downtown Minneapolis. The bridge is at the far right; that’s the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome near the middle, and downtown Minneapolis dominating the lefthand side of the image.

How horrible.

(I’ll keep this post at the top of the blog until tomorrow.)

Share This Post

Posted on

America

It always saddens me that on July 4 these days, we hear that Lee Greenwood song a lot, and “God Bless America” a lot. The latter’s a good song and all, and I don’t really care for the former, but what actually makes me sad is that Woody Guthrie’s great tune doesn’t seem to get heard much at all outside of folk circles.

This land is your land, this land is my land!
From California, to the New York Island;
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters,
This land was made for you and me!

As I was walking a ribbon of highway,
I saw above me an endless skyway.
I saw below me a golden valley;
This land was made for you and me!

I’ve roamed and rambled and I’ve followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts.
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me!

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling;
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting:
This land was made for you and me!

As I was walkin’, I saw a sign there;
And that sign said: “No tress passin'”.
But on the other side…it didn’t say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

In the squares of the city, in the shadow of the steeple,
Near the relief office, I see my people.
And some are grumblin’, and some are wonderin’,
If this land’s still made for you and me.

I wish that was our national anthem, quite frankly. But enough of that: Happy Birthday, America.

Share This Post

Posted on

Wakka wakka wakka

John Scalzi asks: Is Pac-Man a mammal?

Well, obviously, no, he’s not, so far as we can tell from the evidence. There’s no hint that Pac-persons nurse their young, and one of the cartoons in Ms. Pac-Man clearly establishes that Pac-babies are not born to Pac-persons at all, but are delivered by Pac-storks.

Pac-people are not mammals. So what are they? Who knows? He didn’t ask that!

Share This Post

Posted on

Economy? What’s that?

The Family and I made a trek into the wilds of Western New York’s Southern Tier today. Nothing really to say about that, except that if one sees one of those omnipresent “dollar stores” decked out with giant banners indicating a “Clearance Sale” — well, setting aside the troubling thought that things are so bad in that town that a friggin’ dollar store can’t make it, how does a friggin’ dollar store do a “Clearance Sale”, anyway? All items for fifty cents? Can they even call themselves a Dollar Store if they do this?

On a more positive (and more serious) note about economic matters, I read in today’s Syracuse Post-Standard that the Central New York region is facing a labor crunch. More firms are apparently planning to hire this month than this same month a year ago; the region has added more jobs this month than the same month a year ago; and employers may find that hiring is actually more difficult now as the work-force shrinks (apparently due to the retirement of baby boomers, a trend which will only accelerate in the coming years). Maybe someone out there who knows more than I about economics can say something more about this, but it seems to me a pretty good sign, right?

Share This Post