Have a holly jolly Christmas

 

Too many people work for the government...

if it is someone's job to ban caffeine in alcoholic drinks.

Which it apparently is.

After the snow

 

I couldn't resist showing this picture of a typical day in Upstate New York.

New developments at Duke

concerning the 88 professors who rushed to judgment:

[N]one of the 88 guilt-presuming professors has publicly apologized.... Many of the faculty signers -- a majority of whom are white -- have expressed pride in their rush to judgment. None was dismissed, demoted, or publicly rebuked. Two were glorified this month in Duke's in-house organ as pioneers of "diversity," with no reference to their roles in signing the ad. Three others have won prestigious positions at Cornell, Vanderbilt, and the University of Chicago.

Actually, signing this document was the most astute career move any of them could have made:

Among the most prominent signers of both the ad and the letter were Karla Holloway, an English professor, and Paula McClain, a political science professor. They also slimed the lacrosse players in opaquely worded, academic-jargon-filled individual statements full of innuendo.

This disgraceful behavior apparently did not trouble Duke's Academic Council, which in February 2007 made McClain its next chairwoman -- the highest elected position for a faculty member.

Three of them moved on to better jobs:

The three Group of 88 signers hired away by other leading universities are Houston Baker, Grant Farred, and Charles Payne.

Vanderbilt was so proud to have signed up Baker, a professor of English and African and African-American studies at Duke, in April 2006 that it prominently featured a photo of him on its website for months. This was shortly after Baker had issued a March 29, 2006, public letter pressuring the Duke administration to dismiss the lacrosse players....

If you eat right, don't smoke, wear your seat belt, and watch your weight....

you will live forever, right? Wrong. Well, at least you'll live longer--right? Yes, but--the race is not always to the swift, or the battle to the strong, nor is good health something you can assure by rational behavior. But the theory of "preventive care," which our President seems to think will actually prevent illness is actually just that--a theory.

A member of my family died not too long ago of Lou Gehrig's disease at the age of 51. He ate properly, rode a bicycle to work, blah blah. Died anyway. No-one knows why.

Having lived a long time already, I know that our bodies have a sell-by date. I am not the person I was at 25. I am less.

We are genetically programmed to wear out and die. Some of our illness can be prevented, some can be alleviated. Doctors and other health professionals work very hard to put off the inevitable, and that is as it should be. But the idea that annual checkups will catch disease in its earliest stage--that you can "take the blue pill" and be all right--is simplistic garbage.

Me

 

Getting to know the Sheridans

We changed our phone number recently. For one reason, we kept getting calls for the Pattersons. Some of the callers even got surly about it and thought we were covering up for the Pattersons. Honestly, no. We would have gladly put any and all Pattersons on the phone, had they been handy.

So we got a new phone number. All was peace and harmony for a long time. We received calls only from Happy Harry telling us our prescription was ready to be picked up and the occasional chat from Rep Mike Castle.

Then the Sheridans entered our lives. I don't really want to discuss them, having been worn out by the Pattersons' wide circle of friends and relations. However, if your name is Vicky Sheridan, you'd better start paying back your student loan!

Happy holidays from Joe Biden

brought to you by the Teamsters.

Scaredy cat

 

That's me as a kid. Looking back from my currrent viewpoint, I must have been a bit of a trial. I was scared of everything. I was scared of the merry-go-round. The ferris wheel--I don't think I went on that until I was twenty. I was scared of dogs, especially if they were bigger than me, which most of them were. I was scared of the animals in the zoo. I was too timid to go to a birthday party.

I think I can attribute this to a sense of impending doom, which I have noticed also in my brother the genius. He used to drive around Columbus, OH in a crash helmet. We bullied him out of it, but I think deep down he still would like to wear one if no-one were looking.

Friday the 13th took place on Sunday this year

but it was still horrible. Frustration with loading the software on the new camera, as the CD drive does not work. Tried to download software, but couldn't. I figured it was me, called tech support. The first "customer service rep" was downright rude and hung up on me. Customer service! The second told me that the software wouldn't download because I have a 64-bit computer, which I understand is the equivalent of wearing brown shoes with a tuxedo. However, she informed me my card reader would download the stuff anyway.

I asked her, why bother with the CD, then? She answered none too pleasantly. So...Nikon goes back in box, returned to sender. Another company boycotted.

I know my little private boycotts don't work. What does Dell care? Not at all. They are actually in the loan shark business with a computer company on the side. Nikon aren't losing any sleep either. But it makes me feel better. Consider it a placebo.

Next, went to a party last night. Beautiful house, with woodsmoke and two obese cats. The woodsmoke touched off my allergies, my friend--and driver--was allergic to the cats. Beautiful house, though. We got out of there after 45 minutes, just ahead of anaphylactic shock. Sneezed and coughed all the way home.

When I got home, I discovered that I had left my unbrella at the host's house. That's okay, because I only bring umbrellas with me for show. I never open them, it's not worth the trouble, except in London. When I got home, I discovered that I had left my gloves in my friend's car. Thought briefly about what an idiot I am, shedding my possessions as I move through life. So, what could I do.

Went to bed.

Michael Dell is the second richest man in America?

Or so I read somewhere. This happened, I believe, because his company made really good computers back in the day. Now, not so much.

My latest, purchased just a bit over a year ago, has some kind of problem with sound. Dell, of course, gives no customer service. You bought it, you took it out of the box, you're on your own.

The first time it ceased to produce sound, I took the speakers back to Best Buy. They tested them and declared them good. Dell, of course, was silent on the subject--as silent as my computer. But I did manage to find a bit of advice online somewhere: just restore the computer to an earlier point. I did, and the computer spoke again.

Lately, I have had to restore it on an average of every two weeks. But there is a new problem. I bought a new camera and tried to download the software. The CD drive doesn't work. I went to the Dell website and tried to download new drivers for it, but no success.

The damn computer is not two years old yet, so I don't want to replace it. It's too expensive to discard, but it costs too much to fix it. Mr Charm's new computer, on the other hand, is inaccessible because a password and username are needed to access it, and he has forgotten them, understandably, as he has been hospitalized or rehabbed for six months.

My family has had about eight Dell computers in the last 5-7 years. Small beer for some, I know, but for us, impressive. Now I am going to switch to HP for my computer needs, because they have good customer support. For now.

The situation reminds me of what happened to domestic cars a couple of decades ago. American auto companies got complacent and decided they could fob off any old thing on the public. They had a rude surprise when people started buying Japanese cars.

I sense a niche market here, for an idiot-proof computer. Surely there are more idiots like me around than there are techies?

I am wondering whether I am seriously weird...

I have a serious problem wearing socks that don't match. I found myself frantically looking for a matching pair of socks to wear, even though I was going to wear knee-high boots and no-one would see my socks.

As I fumbled through the drawer, I was scolding myself for this stupid attitude. It does not matter whether socks match or not. Stop this! You're wasting time!

Is this an offshoot of the idea that people must wear clean underwear in case they are in an automobile accident and someone in the hospital might see their underwear?

I finally found a pair that matched. What a relief!

carnations

 

Fried peppers

 

Is there such a thing as "Ameritrash"?

No doubt both of them--or the third one whose picture I don't have--were honor graduates from very selective institutions of higher learning and volunteered their time to care for the homeless as well as coaching softball for underprivileged girls.

This item is no longer available as a refrigerator magnet...

What a shame.

There is a woman at the gym I attend who has one of those 60's hairstyles. She is a normal-looking woman, but looks like she has a basketball for a head. Where did she find a hairstylist old enough to fix her hair this way? Or did she do it herself?

Somewhere a mop...

is missing its strings.

Holly berries, fallen leaves

 

Tree with orange leaves, blue lights, Longwood Gardens

 

On a misty November day.

Tall people make us short people look ridiculous, don't they?

These short people would look a lot better without those tall people next to them.

I wonder who they all are?

Two limelight hogs

Bless his heart?

What does "Bless his heart" mean?

Whenever I tell someone how old my aged relative is, the response is: "Bless his heart!" uttered in admiration. I guess.

Anyone who has lived long enough is forgiven for everything short of murder.

Thousands don't have car insurance...

even though it's the law.

Why should they?

Think about it. Mandatory automobile insurance hurts the poor most.

States with higher poverty rates show a corresponding rise in uninsured drivers.... Simply put, people skirt car insurance when they can’t afford
it.

Poor people can't afford it, so they don't buy it. Apparently mandatory auto insurance doesn't make the roads any safer, either.

Nearly 40 years of car insurance mandates — which the insurance industry says have failed to make roads safer or lower auto insurance costs — raise questions about how well such mandates work.

They don't work. Mandatory auto insurance benefits only the insurance industry, and possibly not even them. I'm not an actuary, so I don't know the answer to that one.

I have car insurance, because I own assets, including property. I can't afford to be sued. Poor people, however, don't have anything to lose.

If everyone didn't have to buy this expensive and totally useless product, those who do want it--like me--could purchase additional coverage for accidents involving uninsured drivers for a nominal sum. That's the way things used to be before mandatory car insurance was instituted.

Then the poor people could spend their money on something they need and want, like food, for instance.

Of course, they don't need mandatory health insurance either.

People standing in the rain, watching fountains

 

Decking the halls, Longwood November 2009

 

Literally!

James Taranto takes John Kerry to task for misusing the word "literally."

First of all, remember when they kept telling us how smart Kerry was? The guy doesn't even know how to use the word "literally."

This is mean and completely unfair.

In political speech 'literally" means "sort of" or "not really, but close enough for government work." I am sure the Greeks had a term for this metaphoric use of words, but I don't know what it is and it's almost midnight so I really don't want to look it up.


Examples: "I was caught in a rain shower, I was literally wet from head to toe" means "I got some rain on me." "I ate so much I literally thought I was going to hurl" means "I ate a lot." Got it?

Other words that are used in this fashion are: "honestly," and "sincerely," "I swear!" all of which generally mean the speaker is lying.

Selling your house

The new mantra about how to sell your house concerns "staging." This is the art of turning your home into something impersonal. It's supposed to look like nobody lives there. Think motel room, or better yet, motel lobby.

Down come the pictures on the refrigerator. Off comes the wallpaper. Personal mementos: rent a storage locker. Antiques and collectibles: in the attic, or a friend's attic if you don't have one. You are allowed to keep your washer and dryer, but all laundry, clean or dirty, must be disposed of.

My experience of buying a home is different. Our first house: all I saw was the little oriental rug and fancy light fixture in the entrance hall, the landing halfway up the stairs with a window revealing sparkling sunshine, the strawberries on the wallpaper in the kitchen. These spoke to me, and I didn't notice until later that the bathrooms had been designed during the Hoover Administration, the stove purchased during Roosevelt's first term,the carpeting was threadbare, and the exterior paint was peeling. We had moved in before we noticed these things, and to make matters worse, the charming Oriental rug--I am allowed to say Oriental, am I not? had been removed by the previous tenant, revealing more shabby carpet.

Our second house featured harvest gold appliances, obviously from the sixties. The bathrooms had blue toilets, which you can't get any more, thank God, unless the sixties look comes back in vogue. The kitchen was papered with sixties daisies in a color similar to the harvest gold appliances, but a bit uglier. The bathrooms featured flocked wallpaper, even on the ceiling.

But it was Mother's Day, and the tableau of the cute young couple who were selling it, their presentable parents, and their winsome five-year-old boy gamboling on the lawn made it look idyllic. Also featured was a sunken garden, which contained an oak tree that must have been there in Alexander Hamilton's time. It gave a sort of secluded, private air to the place. Except in the winter, when the leaves fell off the trees, we had a good view of the Burger King down the road, which sort of diminished the rustic ambiance.

Our present shelter was sold to us because Mr Charm liked the the double green doors and the green trim at the front entrance. I liked the big screened in porch adjoining the patio. I could just imagine it filled with charming wicker furniture and charming guests sitting upon the same. A few potted plants, maybe some hanging ones. Laughter and jollity and good will all around.

We forgot to notice that there was a steep flight of stairs leading up to the second floor. Actually, we failed to notice that there was a second floor. The floors were hideous and there were no cupboards. Most of our kitchenware had to be stowed in the basement, where it resides to this day. The porch is nice, however.

What I'm trying to say is that decisions to buy a house are not based on rational thinking. One couple of our acquaintance were afraid to look at the second floor of the house they were buying because they feared afraid the owners would be annoyed. A friend of mine recently moved into her new house and discovered there was only one drawer in the kitchen.

Choosing a house is sort of like picking up someone cute in a singles bar. He might be the man of your dreams. Or he might be the Boston Strangler.

Remembering the Gettysburg address

at Gettysburg, PA.

The Union Army's victory in the Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War. Lincoln delivered his brief but powerful speech while dedicating the cemetery on Nov. 19, 1863.

146 years ago on this day.

Commenting

Why don't I ever get any comments? Is commenting disabled? Or what? Or has this blog become boring?

Nobody even says "boo!"

For those who want to get a head start on Thanksgiving preparations:

It's not too early to post the picture of Bush with the "plastic" turkey, a perennial favorite bit of moonbattery. It's been proved over and over that the turkey is real, but that's not the point. The point is:

Bush lied, and people died!

Outrage

I am just heartsick at the thought of the five terrorists being brought to New York for trial. Quite aside from the problems of providing security and the inconvenience to its citizens, New York will be polluted by their presence there.

This is a politically calculated act, carefully designed to--what? Punish Bush and Cheney? Appease the unappeasable America haters? I cannot even comprehend the mindset that would devise such a loathsome action.

I hope the Republicans will take note of Eric Holder's activities, so when they are in power they can prosecute him for war crimes. They want to keep score? Let's us keep score, too. What goes around comes around.

Roses 11/15/09

 

He deserves a sign pasted on his posterior...

that says, "Kick me."

Some interesting local color

from Saudi Arabia, of all places.

Warty Bliggins

By Don Marquis.

I should explain that the following was written by archy, a cockroach, who composed by hopping from key to key on a typewriter. He could not operate the shift key, thus no caps. No punctuation, either.

i met a toad
the other day by the name
of warty bliggens
he was sitting under
a toadstool
feeling contented
he explained that when the cosmos
was created
that toadstool was especially
planned for his personal
shelter from sun and rain
thought out and prepared
for him

do not tell me
said warty bliggens
that there is not a purpose
in the universe
the thought is blasphemy
a little more
conversation revealed
that warty bliggens
considers himself to be
the center of the same
universe
the earth exists
to grow toadstools for him
to sit under
the sun to give him light
by day and the moon
and wheeling constellations
to make beautiful
the night for the sake of
warty bliggens

There's more, but you get the idea. Every time I witness our president preening, I am reminded of Warty bliggens.

Oxymoron

Fat-free half and half.

Very true.

and well put.

For those that have not been paying attention, Islamofacist terrorists declared War on America in the 1970s. In 2001, we finally declared war on them. As for Israel, these terrorists began their Jihad 1400 years ago. Israel has fought back brilliantly from a military standpoint. Yet from a public relations standpoint, it pains me as a Republican Jew to see the two worst marketed products on the planet be the Republican Party and Israel.

I thought Eric Cantor and I were the only Republican Jews in existence. Wow! Another one!

Read the whole article. There will be a quiz on Monday.

Non-news

At the gym, being a captive audience while riding the recumbent bicycle, I was treated to an interview with Gorbachev. Yes, that one. The fellow who stood by as the Soviet Union finally self-destructed. I suppose one should be grateful that he didn't turn his thugs loose on the rebellious citizenry. However, I don't know that his advice to President Obama is really of much use.

But there he is, bloviating, dispensing advice, a totally derisory figure who nobody in the world has listened to for oh, two decades. He probably works for a liberal think tank. Or maybe he's a professor at one of the Ivy League universities. He has a little of Al Gore in him, in the sense that he is obviously trying to use words of one syllable in order to be understood by the mental defectives who are citizens of this country.

Obama is a jerk, but he's never been chief jerk of the Soviet Union. All he aspires to be is First Citizen of the World, a kind of Pontifex Maximus --he does like to pontificate--or maybe Senior Class President. With him, it's difficult to know.

Painting of some roses

 

Why Jews are lefties

I keep getting e-mails from Townhall.com, full of articles by right-wing fanatics like myself, asking me to subscribe to their magazine.

I'm never gonna do it.

Why? Because this site continually features articles by Pat Buchanan, a barely-disguised anti-Semite whose views are anathema to me.

The left (generally) pays lip service to Israel and to Zionist causes. They may express sympathy for the suffering of the Palestinians, and carry on about the so-called "Peace Process," but generally come out in favor of Israel's right to exist. Right-wingers like Pat Buchanan, however, are full of ominous mutterings about undue Jewish influence. Jewish conspiracy theories! I wish!

The views of Buchanan, along with the often voiced opinion on the Christian right that we are all going straight to hell if we don't acknowledge Jesus, are enough to offset all the good will of all the Christian groups who wish Israel well.

Add this to the natural impulse of people who have experienced discrimination to feel for the underprivileged and minorities, and you have a group of people who gravitate to the Democrats. Not me, of course. I don't care for a party that considers Che Guevara hip, cool, and groovy.

Tenure means never having to say you're sorry

and "gender studies" are just plain idiotic.

So over at Depaul University - allegedly a college - students and faculty are up in hairy arms over the denial of tenure to Melissa Bradshaw, a professor of "women's and gender studies." In case you don't know what tenure is, it's a guaranteed lifetime job. And in case you don't know what "women's and gender studies" are, join the club - neither do I.

And here we have a magnificent collision of two idiotic practices: tenure, which relieves professors of trying altogether, allowing them instead to pursue ideas that would fail miserably in a world of measurable achievement; and gender studies, a fuzzy field where earnest types angrily analyze the "phenomenon of gender." Usually while wearing underwear made from hemp.

I couldn't have said it better myself. So I won't. Go read it.

Things on my to-do list I'm pretty sure I'm never going to do

1. Dig out the instruction booklet for my clothes steamer and figure out how to use it.
2. Weigh myself every day.
3. Stop eating chocolate.
4. Get liposuction. (Unless I stop eating chocolate, drinking chocolate, thinking about chocolate.)
5. Clean out the closet in the spare room.
6. Weed my shoe collection.
7. Match every single sock in the drawer to its mate or throw it out.
8. Look up algorythm. Read the definition. Understand it. Memorize it.

I'm tired. Making out this list has exhausted me. I need some chocolate to restore my energy. Consider it medicinal.

Art made of Scotch tape

Who knew?

More about "higher" education

From stuff white people like:

When white people go away to college, they tend to study what are known as the Arts. This includes actual Art, English, History, Classics, and Philosophy. These can of course be broken down further into Film, Womyn’s Studies (yes the spelling is correct), Communications, Gender Studies, and so forth. It is important to note that a high percentage of white people also get degrees in Political Science, which is pretty much like arts, and only seems to have the word “science” in it to make white people feel better about themselves.

I don't think you can go wrong adopting the general principle that, in college curricula, anything that includes the word "studies" involves a minimum of studying and a maximum of feeling sympathy for the downtrodden of all races, genders, and income levels.

To generalize further, people who major in Communication cannot communicate in any language less rudimentary than smoke signals, and any field of study that is designated "Science," for example social science and political science, has no scientific basis at all.

From broadstuff, via Instapundit.

A painting I don't feel like finishing

 

Tasteful understated Halloween decorations

 

This is part of the display at my neighbor's house. There is more, but I don't want to stand in front of their house taking photos, so this was all I captured.

George--the neighbor--decorates his house for every occasion. He says he does it for the grandchildren. Yeah, right.

Sentences I never finished reading...

From an article about style:

Sally Singer, Vogue’s director of fashion news and features, who has the most sociologically and historically sophisticated antennae in fashion (honed by her fanatical childhood home sewing, her Berkeley-dropout stint as a beautician in Oakland, her graduate work in American studies at Yale, and her quasi-Marxian rigor as an editor at the London Review of Books)...

Unintentionally hilarious?

Last roses, October 2009

 

My rosebushes continue to bloom. It's a nice bonus, brought to you courtesy of global warmening.

Halloween costumes

 

Driving in New Jersey

I just spent a somewhat harrowing hour plus driving home from New Jersey with the sun in my eyes. I could see some, part of the time, but at one memorable moment I got off a ramp onto a highway totally blinded. I guess my number was not up.

Living in Delaware has seriously impaired my ability to hold my own in New Jersey traffic. The trucks intimidate me, especially when they are on all sides of my puny little car. They could crush me like a bug. If all the 800,000 people who live in Delaware got on the road at the same time, Delaware traffic still wouldn't be as bad as New Jersey.

When I drive in Delaware, I listen to WRTI, which gives traffic reports from Philadelphia and New Jersey during rush hour. As I listen, I feel sympathy for those people who are stuck behind an overturned tractor-trailer that is holding up traffic for ten miles. But I also feel a little smug.

I was kept company by the woman who resides in my GPS. Really, it's almost like having another person in the car, and it's helpful. If the voice had not directed me I would have gotten lost, especially because of the fancy lane changes required. Sometimes I resent the voice, when she tells me to take a u-turn and I know a better way. Then I disregard her advice. Sometimes I wonder if she will get mad at me and give me false advice to get even. You may say that there is not a person residing in this device, but how come she led me to the Home Depot parking lot when I instructed her to guide me home? Doesn't this show some malice on her part?

I told my stepmother about my GPS voice, and it seems she has a woman living in her GPS also. She uses it when she drives, but when my father drives he totally disregards the voice. Being a much nicer person than I am, she hopes her GPS doesn't get its feelings hurt.

In related news, I managed to get someone to pump gas for me! Yes, it's illegal to pump your own gas in New Jersey. Now there's a law I can get behind. Much, much more useful than banning trans-fats. And the gas was cheaper.

Safest driver ever

and they drive on the wrong side of the road.

They are making too much of this

Never thought you'd hear me say that, did you?

In a 2004 book describing his deployment to Iraq the year before, Mr Cash calls Islam violent, a faith that “from its very birth has used the edge of the sword as a means to convert or conquer those with different religious convictions”.

This chaplain is a preacher whose services President Obama attends with some frequency. The other day, I heard Sean Hannity droning on and on about him. It's a cheap shot. Unless Cash makes a derogatory reference to Islam in the President's hearing, it's not at all similar to the case of the Rev Wright. Wright was an intimate of Obama's, married him, baptized his children.


Besides, it's true: Muslims have "used the edge of the sword to convert of conquer." Christians have too. The entire course of recorded history is the story of the sword.

Lots of stuff about Acorn

Will Acorn make a comeback?

Probably.

What interested me most about the whole child-prostitution-brothel-tax-evasion thing was how quickly and decisively Acorn acted. They fired the malfeasors. Bang, bang! and don't let the door hit you on the way out!

Clearly Acorn is not a union shop. There are teachers on "paid administrative leave" sitting around the board of ed's headquarters doing Sudoku because they have done something so heinous that the authorities dare not let them enter a classroom. The paycheck, however, comes regularly twice a month. These teachers are members of the teachers' union.

Nor are they civil servants. I know for a fact that it takes a year to fire for cause someone who has a civil service job in New Jersey. A case must be built, brick by brick, like a huge Lego tower. New York is the same, according to Mr Charm. The other 48, I don't know, but I suspect it is the same.

Not a union shop! Quel dommage! Why doesn't the SEIU organize these exploited workers? Because they are the people who are exploiting them? The poor masses, ground down by the evil rich--my heart bleeds for them.

Loving Mao

what a fuss!

When Glenn Beck aired a video of White House Communications Director Anita Dunn praising Chairman Mao — one of her “two favorite political philosophers” — in front of an audience of high school students, the conservative blogosphere lit up like a non-denominational sustainably harvested Kwanza tree.

The woman meant no harm. Anita Dunn didn't really mean that Mao was one of her favorite philosophers, I'm sure. I doubt she has any "favorite" philosophers. In fact, I doubt she has ever read anything by Chairman Mao or Karl Marx unless it was in the Reader's Digest Condensed Philosophy in One Easy-to-Read Volume. Maybe, just maybe, she's read about some of Lee Atwater's incendiary remarks. Or maybe one of her speechwriters has. I'm sure she's a know-nothing idiot who has benefited from an Ivy League education or equivalent or has majored in Communication, with a minor is Leadership.

What all these killjoys don't understand is that Mao is chic. He has a certain je ne sais quoi not appreciated by squares like Roger Kimball, Mark Steyn and all the rest who stayed indoors and plowed through these thinkers' work while the Anita Dunns of the world were out in the fresh air demonstrating in favor of _____________ (insert name of your favorite left-wing hero here) or going to Barack Obama rallies.

It's all about style. Mao might have caused a bit of trouble, but he is a Designer Name to the left. As is Fidel Castro. Ditto Che Guevara. Tossing off these names carelessly in a speech signify that the speaker is hip, cool and groovy and capable of deep thought.

The actual activities or writings of these iconic figures are irrelevant. Quoting them is as important as wearing the right kind of jeans, and has as much significance.

One of my friends was considering a vacation trip to Cuba. I protested: "Don't you know Castro puts poets in jail? And homosexuals into concentration camps?" Her eyes glazed over as she dismissed these irrelevant observations. A visit to Cuba was the in thing to progressives like her. The actual facts could not matter less.

Most useless Christmas (or Chanukah) gift of 2009

 

It's time to celebrate the birthday of the Savior. No, not that one!


I can't imagine anything will come along to match it. (From the Dick Blick catalog.)

Sketch

 

Eugene Freyssinet, French engineer

Books

I like to read. In fact, I prefer reading books to other, newfangled methods of killing time. But I am cranky and hard to please. I like very little of the popular fiction that is currently cranked out. Here are some stars of my hit parade of rottenness:

Mysteries with cats in them, particularly if the protagonist has chats with the kitty. For some reason, books with dogs in them are not quite as bad as those that include cats. Mysteries about people with unusual occupations-- window cleaners, home handymen, opera singers, or particularly cooks. Books about cooks that include recipes are absolutely beyond the pale and should be forbidden by statute.

I also loathe books which include picturesque dialects, and that goes for Thomas Hardy and Robbie Burns too.

I dislike books that, by the time you get to page 52, are still strongly hinting at something to be revealed later which the dumb heroine is clueless about. Or some secret out of her past that will explain everything, if the author could just get the descriptions of scenery out of the way.

Too many words. Too much psychological analysis. Long descriptions of mountains, fjords, valleys, rivers, or of the music our hero is listening to or the car he is driving. Or the food. Did I mention recipes?

In self-defense, I have taken to reading biography and history, usually American history.

I love a good library story

How a library helped one young man.

Thanks, Norm Geras.

Music in Delaware

 

I've been very lucky in finding good music here in Wilmington. Two weeks ago I heard a really good concert by the Delaware Symphony. The program featured Gershwin's American in Paris, which I've heard about as often as I've heard Barack Obama--that is, way too often. I thought I could not possibly get anything from hearing this piece again. I was wrong. I don't think I've ever heard it played live before, and the brasses were not to be missed. David Amado conducts with distinction. I think he is headed for bigger things.

Meanwhile, David's wife, Meredith, was also to be heard from. She has a new piano quartet, called the Pyxis Quartet, which played at a very special concert at the Delaware Art Museum. The concert took place in one of the galleries. I don't think I have ever heard music in a more intimate venue. The acoustics were excellent, and it was so nice to be so close to the performers, and in the presence of lovely paintings. The music must have sounded as it was originally meant to be heard.

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Last survivor of Warsaw ghetto uprising dies

No witness remains.

"We knew perfectly well that we had no chance of winning," he recalled. "We fought simply not to allow the Germans alone to pick the time and place of our deaths. We knew we were going to die. Just like all the others who were sent to Treblinka."

Only anti-semitism remains.

Anonymous commenter solves a problem

Regarding first date panties:

I asked, "What are first date panties"?

Click on the link and be the first in your group to know.

Also available from the same source: knicker tickets:

Knicker Tickets™; are fun, easy to use additions for your favorite "date" panties. Stop giving out your number on matchbooks and cocktail napkins. This pack has 10 Assorted Knicker Tickets™.

Thanks, anon.

Why the silence about child abuse?

Where are the advocates for young girls?

It’s weird that child advocacy groups (secular and religious) haven’t raised more hell regarding ACORN who, on tape, in multiple locations, and on our dime, were perfectly peachy with the potential sex trafficking of little 13-year-old El Salvadoran girls. That’s what’s weird.

This, together with the Roman Polanski defense, leads me to think that perhaps child prostitution is considered not so very bad by liberals. Not for our own daughters, of course. But woman's advocates have been agitating for recognition of prostitution as a valid professional choice, like being a nurse. We call them "sex workers" nowadays. We view movies like "Pretty Woman," and don't feel nauseated.

Underage sex is also accepted. Everyone "does it," don't they? It can't be stopped. Make sure the youngsters use condoms, of course, but otherwise, let 'em rip. If there is a chance of "being punished with a baby," there's always choice, aka abortion. The implication is that sex is as beneficial as aerobic exercise: in fact, it is aerobic exercise. Repression is harmful to people, isn't it?

So perhaps there is a perception that what Polanski did is not so bad. The kid probably wanted it, at some level. Anyway, she had to learn about sex some time, didn't she? Why not at the hands of a world-famous director, a "great artist"? It was probably a life-enhancing experience for the youngster, having sex with such a distinguished chap.

Rape is not so bad, unless it involves a college boy trying to talk a coed into having sex with him when she's had a few drinks. Even if she says yes, she's been exploited.

A delicate instrument

I laughed when my daughter told me that you couldn't put a leaf of lettuce down the disposal. But when the plumber came to fix the thing, he showed me how the thing had met its match dealing with a piece of lemon. The plumber told me more stuff you can't put in the disposal, among them rice.

The plumber told me that the disposal is a delicate, exquisitely calibrated mechanism and gave me a list of things you can't put in it. Everything I mentioned was forbidden. I was starting to think that the only food congenial to the disposal was homemade chicken soup, maybe. If you strain it.

In related news, the ants are still having fun with their ant trap. They have invited their sisters and their cousins and their aunts to visit my house, along with their brothers and uncles. Quite a lively crowd.

Can you put ants in the disposal?

Also, the car has caught whatever virus is affecting the house, and now refuses to regulate the temperature in the car. I believe it will have to be dis-assembled piece by piece to fix the broken item, which costs 69 cents. Labor costs are estimated at an undisclosed figure.

Meanwhile, my camera and GPS have gone missing. I think they were stolen out of the car.