Archive for the ‘All’ Category
Cézanne in Provence
This weekend Isaac and I hosted a couple of friends, one of whom was celebrating a birthday, so we had a special outing on Saturday that included a visit to the National Gallery of Art (Washington DC) and dinner at Annie's Paramount Steak House (Dupont Circle). We went to the National Gallery specifically to see […]
Meanwhile in Missouri….
Now we turn to John Mills, KMOV News 4 in St. Louis, for the latest from the Missouri state legislature: Missouri legislators in Jefferson City considered a bill that would name Christianity the state's official "majority" religion. […] The resolution would recognize "a Christian god," and it would not protect minority religions, but "protect the […]
Of Nipples & Coal Miners
CBS was fined $550,000 for showing Janet Jackson's right nipple on live television. Coal mines that endanger the lives of their workers are commonly fined $60 per violation. [Cenk Uygur, "Janet Jackson's Nipple versus the Lives of Coal Miners", The Huffington Post, 3 March 2006.]
Style Q&A
Thanks to Maud Newton (in "Miscellany") I learned that the Chigago Manual of Style has posted new Q&A. I whet your appetite with but one example: Q. The information posted on the Possessives and Attributives Web page comes close to answering my question, but I would appreciate a more detailed explanation: Did we have dinner […]
Moyers on the New Gilded Age
Bill Moyers, in a piece about the curious symbiosis between Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff, corruption and the Northern Marianas Islands, wrote Back in the first Gilded Age, Boies Penrose was a United States senator from Pennsylvania who had been put and kept in office by the railroad tycoons and oil barons. He assured the […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Plus Ca Change...
The Young Queen
A friend sent a link to a video of a performance by a young teenage boy of Mozart's notorious "Queen of the Night" aria. It's amazing, but not only from the dancing-bear angle. His voice is a bit young sounding compared to the expected mature-soprano voice, but his pitch is impeccable — not an easy […]
In: All, Music & Art, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
The Cellist in the Mall
Today, in celebration of Washington's Birthday*, we did what we frequently do on Monday holidays and went shopping at one of the larger outlet-type malls within a couple hours' drive; generally, most of them are too far away for us to go at other times. Today's adventure took us from our Maryland suburb into the […]
Brown Accuses
Via Pam's House Blend ("The Lying Bastards in the White House"), this fascinating quotation from an AP story: …[Former FEMA director Michael] Brown's appearance in front of the Senate investigative panel came as new documents reveal that 28 federal, state and local agencies — including the White House — reported levee failures on Aug. 29 […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
But Is It Science?
It is not often that I laugh out loud while reading court decisions. True, I may smile at a clever argument or an adept turn of phrase, or maybe chuckle over displays of willful stupidity; however, cackling is not a common response for me. Today I'm finally giving a first read to Judge Jones' decision […]
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science, Laughing Matters
Death Promotes Life?
Speaking of humpty-dumptyism, Josh Rosenau* pointed out this curiously overt example to issue from the mouth of Kansas Senator Brownback# If use of the death penalty is contrary to promoting a culture of life, we need to have a national dialogue and hear both sides of the issue. Fascinating. —– * Josh Roseanau, "Brownback confused […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Such Language!
Bush Cries Wolf!
Today we're hearing the very, very exciting news from the Bush League that the War On Terror is working.* We were concerned there for awhile. It seems that they just discovered that we thwarted — no doubt by using illegal surveillance techniques — a horrible, 9/11-style attack on a tall building in LA whose correct […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
Loose Lips Are Often Funny
There were amusing quotations that have come from the testimony of Attorney General Gonzales before a congressional committee about Bush's self-admittedly unwarranted and illegal surveillance of US citizens. "Our enemy is listening, and I cannot help but wonder if they aren't shaking their heads in amazement at the thought that anyone would imperil such a […]
In: All, Laughing Matters, Splenetics
The State of the President
Oh dear — I haven't been paying attention to the rules. According to Susie Bright When you publish a blog, you are obligated to write a scathing opinion the day after the President makes a State of Union speech. You have to prove you stayed awake— although it's hardly likely. I didn't even watch it. […]
Mandarin Oranges
I was happy to have yet another naming issue cleared up, thanks to an article I just read called "Mad about mandarins"*, referring to the citrus fruit. It turns out that Clementines — which I had neither seen nor heard of until just a couple of years ago — are, indeed, tangerines or — more […]
Homo Irony
You may remember from not long ago the story about the arrest in Oklahoma of one "Reverend" Lonnie Latham, a fundamentalist, homophobic minister who was picked up on soliciting charges after he asked an undercover cop back to his place for oral sex. He claimed he just wanted to give "pastoral comfort" to conflicted homosexuals. […]
All In Perspective
From a report about Exxon's latest record earnings*, this extraordinary statement For the full year, net income surged to $5.71 per share from $3.89 per share in 2004. Annual revenue grew to $371 billion from $298.04 billion. To put that into perspective, Exxon's revenue for the year exceeded Saudi Arabia's estimated 2005 gross domestic product […]
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science, Splenetics
Sequences of Integers
While I was doing a bit of personal research on sudoku puzzles today, I tripped over the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, maintained by Neil J. A. Sloane, an AT&T Fellow. You might wonder for a moment what an "on-line encyclopedia of integer sequences" might be, but the answer is indeed as obvious as it […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, The Art of Conversation
Washington State on Gay Rights
We got the news last Friday that the State of Washington finally passed some gay-rights legislation that has been pending since forever. This is the same bill that lost last year by one vote, which loss was thought to be spurred by Microsoft's taking its support away from the bill — and that action was […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
The Gay Boyfriend
We spent the evening at some friends' house — they were hosting a party for another friend, who turned 50 today. I was hoping to pick up some pointers on crossing the 50s threshold since I'm going to be doing it myself in just a few months. Anyway, late in the evening I was having […]
Cottonmouth Water Moccasins
Continuing the path started in a previous small but informative posting ("Clam Names") towards sorting out common names for common objects, today I discovered in reading the latest New Yorker that the "water moccasin" and "cottonmouth" snake are one and the same. Ever since my youth, when we'd visit my maternal grandparents on their farm […]