Chatting About The Cattiness Of Cats

I sip at, Wikipedia, fount of neutral wisdom:

The problem of universals is about their status; as to whether universals exist independently of the individuals of whom they can be predicated or if they are merely convenient ways of talking about and finding similarity among particular things that are radically different.

It seems a hard choice - "independent" or "merely convenient".
I seek another path, objective but lenient.

No Spoilers

For me, Dark Knight Rises
held pleasant surprises.

Graphic Failure

Here's a light-bulb-with-caduceus graphic, from a Chicago Tribune article. The opinion-piece, by an "ethicist," argues that tech innovation will thrive under the new health care reform law.

Getting efficient about handling records, data, imaging, biomonitoring and sharing information is a key goal of reform.

Yes, they need more info about your health on federal computers. And it's going to work well! After all, it's a "key goal".

(I will say nothing about how well federal programs generally meet their announced "key goals".)

Anyway, what interests me is the graphic. Why does an article about federally-induced tech innovation feature an old-fashioned incandescent light bulb? Shouldn't it feature a federally-mandated twisty fluorescent?



These pricey bulbs, although
mandated from above,
have failed to earn the glow
of consumer love.

South Shore Tri

I did Chicago's South Shore Triathlon this morning.

Last time I swam without a wetsuit. This time I wore won. My swim was faster this year - by about two minutes.

But my transition from swimming to biking was slower this year - by about two minutes.

The trouble with wetsuits in triathlon is - the time you spend getting OUT of them counts against  you.

The advantage gained
was not retained.

Polling the Disturbance in the Force

So now everybody's polling the "didn't build it" thing:

Republicans are doing their own voter surveys, and they note that Mr. Obama's problem is that his words cause an emotional response, and that they disturb voters in nearly every demographic.

"Nearly" every. Well, clearly some demographic likes it! Progressive intellectuals, I suppose.

The clip, even the long version, sounds too much like a person who is begrudging the success of others. That makes Americans uneasy. They sense there's a sort of sin involved in assaulting simple success.

Envy eats at the soul.
Don't let it gobble you whole.

Why Did The Mantis Cross The Sidewalk

I'm not sure why he was crossing the sidewalk, but he was, which is why I was able to see him. In the grass he would have been invisible to me.

I knelt low to take this photo, so low that a lady driving by stopped to ask me if I was okay!

Why did he venture across the gray
open expanse of concrete?

Was he going to church to pray,
or looking for something to eat?

Time and Time Again

Finished reading Alan Ayckbourn's comedy, "Time and Time Again". As usual with his plays, I thoroughly enjoyed the reading, but felt dissatisfied with the end. There's laughter in the chase and a bitter aftertaste.

In Context

Context doesn't always soften
an ugly quotation.

Often,
it makes the reputation
of the speaker
even weaker.

Repeat What I Meant, Not What I Said

New York's mayor went on tv and declared he couldn't understand why cops don't go out on strike to demand tighter gun control laws:

“I don’t understand why the police officers across his country don’t stand up collectively and say, ‘We’re going to go on strike. We're not going to protect you unless you, the public, through your legislature, do what's required to keep us safe,” Bloomberg said Monday on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” as part of his ramped-up campaign against illegal guns in the wake of the Colorado theater massacre.

Of course, a lot of people thought this was an idiotic proposal. So the next day he tried to rewind that that suggestion:

“I didn’t mean literally go on strike. In fact, in New York, they can’t go on strike. There’s a law against it."

That thing I said? I didn't mean that. Somebody else repeated it!

They repeated it word for word,
and somehow it sounded absurd.

Tri Training

Workouts make Thighs ache.

Got Bot?

If a robot kiss
would fill you with bliss,
perhaps you should hurry and order this:

Marat/Sade

Saw Marat/Sade tonight, in its spectacular Right Brain Project production. I had never seen or read it before and was surprised by what a philosophical play it is. Ah - the French. They do like plays with some abstract argumentation! It's also a lively and very theatrical script, and this was a very well done production.

I also had no idea how musical a play it is.

It was closing night - and sold out - but I went anyway and they had a few cancellations so I was able to get a seat.

Lucky me,
I got to see.

Real Dirt

Some spoilsport scientist is debunking my favorite rule of low cuisine: the "5-second rule".

This rule states that food dropped to the ground is still safe to eat if you can pick it up within 5 seconds.

“A dropped item is immediately contaminated and can’t really be sanitized,” says Jorge Parada, MD, MPH, FACP, FIDSA, medical director of the infection prevention and control program at Loyola University Health System. “When it comes to folklore, the ‘five-second rule’ should be replaced with ‘when in doubt, throw it out’.”

What I like about this guy is that his new rule, 'when in doubt, throw it out,' rhymes.

But here's one point I wish to insert -
every carrot was once in the dirt.

But about that dirt we don't care at all,
even though it's a place where bacteria crawl.

You People

Today at work someone was cluck-clucking about Ann Romney reportedly saying "you people..."

I asked who she had said it to. It sounded like she had said it to reporters. If so, I though, this didn't amount to much. Reporters aren't an oppressed group that people feel sorry for.

Since then, I'd heard she was answering a black reporter, which would raise the question of whether she meant "you reporter people" or "you African American people".

But, now it seems she didn't even say the offending phrase.

I'm still not sure why "you people" sounds so bad. If you said "you human beings" it wouldn't sound nearly so awful, would it?

It's a case of misquotation
with unfortunate connotation.

For the Birds

Some crows spilled some flour,

which somehow tied up a HazMat team for an hour.

Races Enumerated

Athlinks.com let me know recently that it had found 100 races I'd run. It's an online web service that robo-searches through "race results" web sites and ties the results back to individuals.

Because it's a program, it does make some mistakes. Sometimes it double-counts a single race. Other times it mixes me up with a different John Enright, who's a couple of years younger than me, but who lives in the greater metro area. So once every couple of years I go in and clean up their data.

So, instead of them having 100 of my races, it was more like 91.

But... their data for me only goes back to 1996, and they don't catch every race.

I do have every race I've run. In a text file. Very old school. It's not set up for easy counting, but I just counted. Races completed: 206.

I had no idea and I'm kind of shocked. Granted, that goes back 25 years.

I'm thinking of all the entry fees
I've paid to go pounding the road with my knees,
and all the rubber soles
I've scuffed away in pursuit of my goals.

Somebody Else

Over at Taranto's "best of the web" on the Wall St. Journal site:

Barack Obama really does seem like an Ayn Rand villain at times.

He's referring to this bit of brilliance:

If you've got a business--you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.

Right, there are no individual contributions. There's no such thing as earned success.

Don't bother working hard.
For no matter what you do,
he's ready to play the card:
"Somebody Else" helped too!

Today At Calumet Park Beach

I saw a couple married on the sand.
It was a public beach, the children played,
the lifeguards rowed. I lounged and read my book.
They stood in white and joined their lives together.

When it was done, the two walked hand in hand
toward the water, for a calf-deep wade,
then kissed, and turned, and waved and threw a look
back to their friends, and up to sunny weather.

Perhaps The Police Could Teach The Proper Technique

In Stockholm, Sweden, police arrested a bunch of middle school kids for pot smoking, but none of them tested positive for drugs in their bloodstream, so they were all set free again.

Widell of the police also had a theory as to why none of the students tested positive for marijuana.

"Kids at this age don’t inhale the smoke properly. That’s one explanation why they didn’t test positive,” he said.

I know there's a Bill Clinton joke in here somewhere!

When kids don't inhale
marijuana smoke,
police raids fail
and look like a joke.

Third in Chinatown

I see that I took third place in my age group yesterday in the Chinatown 5k. There were only 8 in my age group.

They did not hand out age group medals. So I'm glad I didn't hang around afterward! I mean, I thought I had a chance. It was a smallish race. And it seemed to have drawn lots of young people, not lots of old people.

Age group medals are kind of a funny thing. It's not quite "everybody wins!", but it's a step in that direction.

In that little 8 person race,
I took third place.