Sabbatical

Not that anyone would notice, but I'm going to take a break from the blog.

I blame my short attention span.

Quote of the day

"Countering the currently fashionable alpha dog “pack theories” of dog training, Horowitz notes that “in the wild, wolf packs consist almost entirely of related or mated animals. They are families, not groups of peers vying for the top spot. . . . Behaviors seen as ‘dominant’ or ‘submissive’ are used not in a scramble for power; they are used to maintain social unity.”

(Cathleen Schine, reviewing the book Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and Know, by Alexandra Horowitz)

Quote of the day

"In the beginning, man created God..."

(from a public poster sponsored by an atheist group in Chicago)

Dueling Bus Ads Advance Free Speech

Michael Jackson's still dead, and somebody's in a lot of trouble

"Propofol is fairly easy for a doctor to acquire, but is never intended for home use, where proper equipment to resuscitate a patient is typically absent, says John F. Dombrowski, director of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. Nor is the drug ever intended to help someone with sleep troubles. "That'd be like me taking chemotherapy because I'm tired of shaving my head," Dombrowski says."

(from today's Washington Post)

Now I can sleep at night knowing I'm not alone in my white-hot hate of the new-age light bulb

"Although the law does not, strictly speaking, ban the incandescent bulb, it only mandates energy efficiency standards that amount to a ban, the bottom line is that consumers will have to replace the familiar old bulbs with compact fluorescents. And earnest green hype aside, CFLs are not the same. The light they give off is a little bluer, they cost about six times as much (twenty times as much if you want to use a dimmer switch) won’t fit in all existing fixtures, and, let’s face it, look dumb. Oh, and also they contain mercury so are bona fide toxic waste. Not only can’t you recycle them, putting them in the trash is illegal in many places."

(Frank Curmudgeon)

Frank is being added to my short list of heroes for speaking the truth about those crappy, crappy new light bulbs. The reason they use less energy is because they give you LESS LIGHT, genius. And now I find out not only are they toxic and it will be a complete hassle to try to get rid of them (assuming we're interested in taking the legal route), the positive impact they will have on "saving the planet" is next to nothing - a speck, a fraction of a speck. You're skeptical? Check out the details.

What a bunch of assholes. First they took away the most effective nasal spray I ever had to "save the ozone" (screw me and my stuffed sinuses, I can just lie down and die), and now the light bulbs. I think Frank has a good idea; go out and buy as many real light bulbs as possible before we can't get any more and delay, if only by a few years, that time when we'll have to spend the rest of our lives sitting in dimly lit rooms, reminiscing about the olden days when we could actually see something at night (you remember - it was called the 20th century).

I could understand replacing harmful things with more modern things, if the more modern things actually functioned as well as the old ones, but this is not what is happening. It's not an even trade, it's all take-aways, replacing old things that worked well with new things that are inferior, from nasal sprays to light bulbs to who knows what else. And that warm, fuzzy glow from "going green" must be giving you quite a buzz if you don't realize that we are being totally ripped off, for no measurable benefit.

I think I'm going to find a good spot in the house to store some light bulbs.

Stick that in your Mayflower and smoke it

"Look at him, Joyce said, and when I saw Brian dozing away with this chin on his chest I nodded off while the wives went on with their lamentation about the Irish in general and this day in particular, Alberta saying, Everyone warned me that the Irish are great to go out with but never marry them. I would have defended my race and told her how her Yankee ancestors had nothing to be proud of the way they treated the Irish with those signs everywhere that said, No Irish Need Apply, except that I was weary from the strain of being married by a man with a lisp while I carried Byron's green umbrella and my heavy responsibility as groom and host at Diamond Dan O'Rourke's. If I hadn't slumped with the weariness I would have reminded her how her ancestors hanged women right and left for being witches, how they were a dirty-minded lot, rolling their eyes in shock and horror at the mention of sex, but having a grand time between their thighs listening in court to hysterical Puritan maidens claiming the devil appeared in various forms and frolicked with them in the woods and how they became so devoted to him all decency went out the window. I would have told Alberta how the Irish never carried on like that. In the whole history of Ireland only one witch was hanged and she was probably English and deserved it. And, just to clinch it, I would have told her the first witch to be hanged in New England was Irish and they did it to her because she said her prayers in Latin and wouldn't stop."

(Frank McCourt, in 'Tis)

Now I need a magnifying glass to buy vegetables

Remember the uproar in the news about genetically modified fruit and vegetables and how people said they should be labeled so we know what we're getting? Apparently, they already are. The little sticker that you peel off and throw away has a number on it; if it's four digits the item was conventionally grown; if it's five digits starting with a 9, it's organic; and if it's five digits starting with an 8, it's genetically modified (oh no, a Frankenpepper!).

So say the sleuths at Cook's Illustrated. I don't know; it all sounds just too easy and straightforward. Not complicated enough, not enough drama. Oh, wait - there's always health care reform!