Seasoned Sounds

Ah, the modern, all-purpose, inoffensive carol:

Dashing through the Stuff
In some kind of open Thing
Oh, what joy we'll know
Oh, what songs we'll sing!

Generictime, Generictime, Generictime is here
Filled with joy
And goodwill
And general Holiday cheer!

To the stores we'll go
Making registers ring
How we'll spend and spend
We'll buy most anything!

[Chorus]

We won't offend a soul
(Should we have used that word?)
A cultural black hole
Come on and join the herd!

[Chorus]

Weaseling The Words

Claire Wolf linked to a Rasmussen survey on reactions to the most recent set of docs yanked into the light of day by Wikileaks, in which we find this interesting example of contrast:

"While 55% of Mainstream voters agree that leaking the documents is treasonous, a plurality (45%) of those in the Political Class disagrees."

Why, yes, I can see how terribly different the two groups are: 55% of the Political Class would also be either thinking the leaks were treason or haven't made up their minds. Gosh, those two groups are sooooo different on this issue!

If you ask me, they're both wrong, too, and kinda right as well. While the earlier military leaks bothered me 'cos it could get working soldiers killed, this batch is, aw, c'mon. Diplomats are supposed to know better; if you wouldn't say it directly to the Ambassador from Armpitistan, don't effing write it down, either. What is this, Junior High School? That kind of stuff is like mold or cockroaches and a nice dose of sunlight might help limit the infestation. On the other hand, if the leaker is still the same soldier boy (as seems to be the case), his actions probably are treason per the letter of the law and he will be paying the price.

As for WikiLeak's principal, he strikes me as a right snot and not at all noble. He's after attention and he's getting it, too, which is a pity. If he's so all-fired selfless, why didn't he just lay low? Especially since he is supposedly living on the run. A cad, a bounder, seems likely. A traitor, he's not: he's not a U. S. citizen.

But encouraging diplomats to act like grown-ups, to mean what they say and say what they mean? Call me simple but it sounds like a good idea that's never been tried. It won't be this time, either -- they'll try to scrape it under like a cat on a tile floor and pretend it goes away.

Local Boy Makes Good

Politically, we were often poles apart and yet there's something in Kurt Vonnegut's authorial voice that speaks to me. Certainly, I agreed with him on one thing: people ought to be nicer to one another.

Indianapolis has decided to be nice to him: the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library is up and running downtown. Is there a field trip in my future? Count on it!

And so it goes.

(A tip of the hair to Turk Turon for the tip. Geesh, ya gotta wade through the NYT to learn what's happening in your own back yard).

Arrrghfest

Sorry, nothing new for this evening -- I have been seriously worried about Tam and the tooth; she copes with the discomfort well but hates all the folderol and overhead of dealing with the issue. I don't blame her for that and especially not in light of this being her most major issue along those lines, ever. (Me, I have had lousy teeth all my life and welcome advances in dentistry with glee. They've kept just ahead of most of my teeth, sigh. I tend to nap while they drill and fill). Her dental insurance is what mine was until my current job (opens pocketbook, gnats fly out). So she's checking her options.

Spent a half-hour this morning uploading files for the I Work On A Starship book in the wrong format and some time tonight correcting that. If -- and it is iffy, the text is a PDF and they loathe PDFs because Us Customers struggle with formatting -- I can get it right, I should be able to keep the price under $10.00 per each plus shipping. Autographs are free. Ask real nice and I might be able to get Big Tom, Handsome Dave and/or Conan the Objectivist to autograph them. Maybe even Turk Turon if the timing is right.

On The Funny Pages

Fans of XKCD (and who isn't, at least among the cool kids?) are missing out if they don't take a gander at Abstruse Goose.

(Nods to both Brigid and Jim of Supersonic Reflectoscope).

It's A "Medium," All Right

Readers may remember the popular TV show, "Quantum Leap." Every episode, our intrepid meddler hero ended up a short-term tenant in someone else's body, needing to correct something in that person's life.

Okay, if you can overlook the meddlesome others-know-best idea, it's a cute notion. It got good ratings, too.

...Only it turns out, it wasn't all that original. On the other hand, it was cribbed from a trio of geniuses: the Marx Brothers were (almost) there first, with Deputy Seraph, "in which Chico and Harpo were angels whose job was to possess people for brief periods of time: bringing two lovers together, exposing a criminal, and so forth." Sound familiar? --Oh, and Grouco is their boss, the title character.

Alas, Deputy Seraph never got past a few minutes of film to frame the pilot. A routine medical check prior to insuring the actors found Chico had advanced hardening of the arteries; he got a downcheck on insurance and the show never got off the ground. Two years later, he was gone.

The idea, however, must have still been in the air a few decades later....

If there is anything new under the sun, Hollywood's already working on sequels followed by a remake. You have heard they're reshooting the Wizard of Oz from the original MGM script, haven't you?

(Just to take the edge off, at this link you'll find about 45 minutes of Chico and Groucho in their radio program Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel, giving the legal profession the full benefit of their skills).

"Puritanism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere is having a good time."

H. L. Mencken is gone and more's the pity; an even greater pity is that puritanism, by his definition, is not.

The latest target in the fun-hater's crosshairs is alcohol-infused whipped cream. Sold only to those old enough to buy Demon Rum, it is nevertheless -- according to the nanny-minded -- a Dire Scourge, presumably because it might be fun. I guess it's okay with them if you wanna slump at the bar and grimly choke down gin with Winston and Julia, or gulp cheap whiskey in your dingy office while waiting on clients, lulled by the clatter of Raymond Chandler hammering out another chapter on the other side of the too-thin walls, but if you enjoy an occasional drink, why, That Is Just Too Much and by the time we get to high-test foamy topping for an Irish Coffee on a cold day, it makes their heads explode.

Having driven the alcohol-and-caffeine energy drink just about off the (legal) market -- "for the children" -- their arrogance grows. What's next? Boxed wine? Premixed drinks?

This needs to be nipped in the bud. We already have laws, tons of 'em, aimed at keeping intoxicating beverages away from citizens under 21 (we'll let 'em go trade gunfire with baddies, but a beer? Oh, heavens no! That takes three more years of growing up) . Those laws aren't perfect but making this stuff illegaler only penalizes the people who are old enough to buy it.

You can't legislate foolhardiness out of existence but if you try hard enough, you can outlaw fun.

Don't let 'em.

More Bookshelves

Can't have too many!I had shelves on that wall that were about an inch too wide for the space -- and which had a shelf exactly at the height of the light switch. Solving the second problem solved another one: the cordless phone had been awkwardly located on a lower shelf. Since this is a nice, central spot, I didn't want to relocate it.

Snapped this after supper -- but before loading the dishwasher. So, no looking at the kitchen!

I'll post a little more at Retrotechnologist.

Broken Car Update

So, Sunday evening when I left for work,* Tam -- who has much better car-fu than I, unless the car in question is British and a bit old; and maybe not even then -- suggested cycling the driver's-side lock just for kicks.

Of course this freed up the outside door latch, so now all I have is a broken inside latch. I looked at it, there's only one screw holding it, and hunk of plastic has cracked right off. Amazon will sell me a new little assembly (unless someone out there happens to have an inside left door latch assembly for an '02 Hyundai Accent laying around?). I just have to figure out how the strange little retaining clips that hold the bent ends of the latch and lock actuating rods work.
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* Electronic voodoo: if I'm already on-site, watching when high-dollar stuff happens, the widgets won't goof off. Alternatively, if they burst into flames, I can throw myself on the conflagration.... There actually is a middle ground between suttee and sympathetic magic where I'd be of some use.

Victorian Engineering

Imagine your bathtub was a merry-go-round. No, a turnstile--

H'mm. That's not the place to begin. How does a road cross a canal? A bridge, of course. If it is a low bridge and the canal is actually used for boats, it might be a lift bridge or a swing bridge.

Okay, how does a canal cross a road? An aqueduct, right? Yep.

Fine, almost there. How does a canal cross a canal? Especially if the lower canal is for huge ships and the difference in height won't clear them?

As far as I know, this problem has only come up once, over a hundred years ago. The answer was a swing aqueduct -- the Barton Swing Aqueduct (and companion road bridge) and it's still in use. Follow the link and see it in action!

Simple and easy; you seal off a great long section of canal and gently pivot tonnes and tonnes of water out of the way, with no fuss or muss and very little noise. Why, anyone could do it...if they were clever enough. (Some details).

Living within a short bicycle ride of Indy's very own canal, I'm a bit jealous. Ours is only navigable by tiny boats, thanks to low bridges, and they chase you right off ahead of the system's only (non-moving) aqueduct.

It's 24° Out There!

We have officially reached "Bobbi doesn't wanna go outside" weather. Arrgh.

"Useless Without Pictures" Department

From the Land Of No Chewing Gum:
"The skimpy trunks sported by Singapore's men's water polo team at the Asian Games are causing red faces back home.... The trunks display the Singaporean flag's white crescent moon on the front of the red briefs in what has been described as an inappropriate fashion."

Yahoo News quoted only the text from the illustrated Reuters original and didn't link to it, either. Thousand words, anyone?

Meanwhile, no word on how well the team did in actual competition. Tsk.