Scheie on Shunning

Eric Scheie recently wrote about the way that "Social Shunning Promotes Self-Censorship". He describes an incident that happened when he was 8, when a neighbor woman issued an ultimatum to his mother:

She laid down the law with my mom, and told her that she should get rid of the toy guns (my toy guns!), and that until she did, she would not allow her son to come over to our house and play with me!

His mother was intimidated, but his father was dismissive. So little Eric kept his toy guns but lost his playmate.

I remember how stressed my mom was. She was a people-pleaser, and feared social disapproval. Hardly an irrational fear, for social disapproval can have consequences. Not only might you not get invited to the "in" parties, but you might not get to join that country club to which you aspire, and in some cases, you might not get that promotion!

When someone shuns

should you bend to their will

or stick to your guns

and put up with the chill?

Sprung

Water's burbling in the pool,
and people sitting near it,
swear that they can hear it
whisper: "Just skip school."

Demi-Monde

New York magazine ran a big investigation about the sort of woman that Tiger Woods was hanging out with in the VIP areas:

Most of his mistresses lived in a nebulous in-between world. Not prostitutes, no, but just about halfway there. As surely as he has changed the game of golf, so too has Woods exposed the grazing ground of the halfway-hooker, and her natural habitat, the nightclub.

Tracy Quan doesn't think it's really news:

Ever since the first self-important cavedude boasted that he "never pays for it," there have been "lite-hooks," "models," party wenches and so on who "don't charge for sex." But sex does happen, the rent gets paid -- and 21st-century bottle clubs are part of an ancient tradition.

I guess I would say that the transaction is ancient, but that the social customs surrounding it are always changing. That why I enjoyed the New York magazine piece, even though it was less than appetizing - it filled me in on a social scene I didn't know about.

There's supply, and demands,
and gifts changing hands,
but no prices are heard.
That line is left blurred.

Who Needs More Hospitals, Anyway?

The new Health Care law singles out a particular kind of hospital to punish:

While the new health reform law may seem threatening to many Americans, it is pure poison for physician-owned hospitals, which are being forced to drop plans for new hospitals and immediately halt expansion projects.
...
Provisions of the law "virtually destroy many of the hospitals that are currently under development, and leave little room for the future growth of the industry," Ms. Sandvig said.

I wonder if the non-profit hospitals were behind this. I wouldn't be surprised. "They have an unfair advantage," would be the story. "We need to level the playing field," would be the mantra.

They say they want to "level the playing field."
But they take up the law as the handiest weapon to wield
to crush competition while keeping their motives concealed.

They Didn't Start Out As Nonprofits

News-gathering businesses are in terrible financial shape in the U.S., and I've seen speculation that a Federal bailout may be in the works.

Some say it might take the form of NPR-izing everything - making all these news agencies into nonprofits with government funding. Like National Public Radio! Or the Public Broadcasting Service!

Why not have an American Newspaper Bureau?

But in a recent survey, news executives are not yet biting at the bait:

The survey found that 75 percent of all news executives, and 88 percent of newspaper executives, have “serious reservations” about direct government subsidies. Nearly half (46 percent) are even concerned with the idea of tax credits for news organizations, and only 19 percent support that idea despite ongoing industry woes.

My favorite quote from the story:

“If the government becomes the ‘money bags’ for journalism, journalism will become the ‘bag man’ for the government,” wrote a member of RTDNA. “This would be an assault to the First Amendment of the Constitution.”

Subsidies are a fine way to finesse
freedom of the press.

You only pay for acceptable views,
and you get less offensive news.

Nothing is actually banned
but it all turns terribly bland.

The Polish Tragedy

Reportedly it was an experienced pair of pilots who crashed that plane with the Polish president and cabinet:

Both Captain Protasiuk and his second officer, Major Robert Grzywna, were experienced pilots with more than 5,000 hours of flying experience between them.

I did hear someone express the opinion that experienced pilots were more likely to attempt risky landings.

I suppose that makes sense. They feel more in control. They have survived previous dangerous situations.

Thinking you are danger's master
sometimes leads to disaster.

Can of Worms

Autoimmune diseases, such as asthma and allergies, present many puzzles.

But how about this for creepy:

...people infected with parasitic worms suffer less from allergies and other immune diseases,

Must we re-invite
the parasite?

Or can we please invent a med with a fancy name
that works the same?

But Are They Illegal?

They walk among us:

One in five adults believe aliens are on earth, disguised as humans...

The poll questioned 23,000 adults in 22 countries and found that more than 40 per cent of people from India and China believe that alien life exists with a human facade on this planet.

I must say I find it spooky,
that here on this planet we share
theories incredibly kooky
are simply everywhere.

Somewhere Over The Foodchain

Zebricorns gallop on black and white rainbows
whinnying high in the African sky
laughing at lions who gaze up with longing
hungry for mouthfuls of zebricorn pie.

Arthur

Why was he able
to draw the sword from the stone?
It was sort of a knack
or something like luck.

At any rate, it came unstuck,
and he stood alone,
no going back,
holding a blade,
knowing some men would bow
and others attack.

So he had to figure out how
these warring knights could be made
to let the feuding cease
so they could sit in peace
around a table.

The Knife Man

We read The Knife Man, by Wendy Moore, for book club. Good review by Jim Henderson here. It's about John Hunter (1728-1793), who is considered the father of modern surgery.

It's not often you read a book where a body snatcher proves to be a true hero.

Of course, dissecting the dead is still a key feature of medical education.

To know where to cut
you need to know what
is under the skin
your patient is in.

John Lennon Would Be Larfing

Strange days indeed:

Two women tried to board an easyJet flight with a dead relative strapped into a wheelchair, saying that he was disabled, frail and “always likes to sleep like that”.

The widow and stepdaughter of Curt Willi Jarant, 91, insist that he was moving and breathing on the way to Liverpool John Lennon airport. But staff called a medical team after noticing that he was cold and motionless.

It was a flight to Germany, where the three were from. Maybe they meant to bury him there. But there are rules:

Bodies being repatriated across international boundaries are required to have the necessary paperwork and be contained inside hermetically sealed, zinc-lined coffins in the cargo hold.

Sounds like that would be costly, in time and money.

It's extra expensive to travel when dead.
It's cheaper to be a "sleeper", instead.

But though he had a valid ticket,
authorities said it wasn't cricket.

Quake Quack

Deepak Chopra has accepted responsibility for creating that earthquake the other day:

"Had a powerful meditation just now -- caused an earthquake in Southern California," Chopra wrote to his nearly 179,000 Twitter followers shortly after the quake.

And then, to clarify: "Was meditating on Shiva mantra & earth began to shake," he tweeted. "Sorry about that."

Please, everybody, as a public service, if you're in California, lay off the Shiva mantra!

He meditates,
and tectonic plates
begin to shake,
and soon a quake
disturbs the earth.

So he says, for what it's worth.

Birth Trend

American births are down. It's the recession!

But births to women in their early 40s... are up.

Is it because they have more cash
to pay for the cost of an OB doc?

Or are they simply making a dash
to beat the biological clock?

Sex Guru

India - it's a lot like America!

A Hindu holy man with thousands of followers across India resigned as head of a religious organization on Tuesday after police began investigating his role in a sex scandal, officials said.

He says the tapes are fake,
but is going to take a break.

The Shock Of Being In Hock

Now they tell us:

Lost amid last month's passage of the new health care law, the Congressional Budget Office issued a report showing that within this decade, President Obama's own budget sends the U.S. government to a potential tipping point where the debt reaches 90 percent of gross domestic product.

National debt -
how much worse can it get?

We may find out yet.

Hoppy Easter

The Easter Bunny's legs
are surely extra fast,
hiding all those eggs
before the night is past.

7.7 Miles

My seasonal running habits, a sonnet:

Because I run one marathon a year,
some people think I must run every day.
Not true. And in the colder months, I fear
it's more like once a week - the treadmill way.

But then I'll say "I do run to the train,"
and people smile, thinking that's just a joke,
although, in fact, I've spoken true and plain.
In the morning I often go for broke,

galloping at high speed to catch the choo-choo,
taking the quarter mile at high speed.
Perhaps such running's something you would pooh-pooh;
it does, however, fill a functional need.

Today - warm weekend weather! So I ran
more than I have since all that snow began.

Amusements of Catdom

When I came home from work yesterday, my wife told me that one of the cats was missing, for a couple of hours already

When last seen, the cat had been out with Marsha in the yard when she was gardening. Had she wandered away?

I volunteered to go on a cat-hunt by bicycle. But when I opened the garden shed to get my bike, out came the cat!

Silly cat, don't go sneaking in the shed
when your mistress turns her head!

Orpheus Unplugged

The legend, redone for fun:

Orpheus was a god who strummed
the ancient lyre, and he was bummed.

The woman he loved above all ladies
got bit by a snake and sent to Hades.

Therefore he chased her down to hell
and played a concert there so well,
they said she could follow him home, if he
never looked over his shoulder to see
just where she was.

                    But sad to say,
he did look back, and she *poofed* away.

Day of the Fool

We come to the end of April Fool.
I hope the pranks you played weren't cruel.

Humor can heal
or sting like steel.

Primate Pioneers

As you may know, there are 2 kinds of monkeys: "Old World" (Africa and Asia) and "New World" (Central & South America).

Scientists think that monkeys originated in the Old World, and then rode rafts to the New World.

All the other monkeys laughed
when I said: Look at my raft!

I ignored them, and, what a thrill,
I'm cruising to Brazil!

Okay, that's not the theory. The theory is that they were sitting on big coastal masses of vegetation, on the shores of the Paleo-Atlantic. Then the vegetation broke away.

The voyage occurred by error,
and they floated away in terror.

But the Atlantic wasn't so wide
and they reached the other side.

In Geneva It's A Go

In today's really big news, or rather small news, the Large Hadron Collider finally starting smacking protons together today.

Two beams of protons were sent hurtling in opposite directions toward each other in a 17-mile tunnel below the Swiss-French border — the coldest place in the universe at slightly above absolute zero.

"Coldest place in the universe"? Please. And how would we know that, Mr. Journalist?

This is a 10 billion dollar project. No one's really sure what will come out of it. They will tell you that they are testing hypotheses, and that's true, but what they are mainly doing is setting up a whole new class of high-energy observations.

Every time we smash tiny things together faster, we are hugely surprised by what happens.

Some of the stuff you hear in learned lectures
turns out to be the thinnest of conjectures.

Go Ahead

I'm thinking of organizing the Doormat Party.

Revolted by revolution?
Submission is the solution!

The Devil's Pool

Victoria Falls, in Africa, is twice as high as Niagara falls. At the top it, right at the edge, is a swimming hole:

A famous feature is a naturally formed pool known as the Devil's Pool, near the edge of the falls, accessed via Livingstone Island. When the river flow is at a safe level, usually during the months of September and December, people can swim as close as possible to the edge of the falls within the pool without continuing over the edge and falling into the gorge; this is possible due to a natural rock wall just below the water and at the very edge of the falls that stops their progress despite the current.

Video:


Great still shots here.

I think I might be too chicken to try this.

It's a great sight,
but - oh - the height!

Have Our Money Ready!

A couple of would-be Connecticut bank robbers decided it was best to call ahead.

So they picked up the phone and told the bank they were on their way - and to have the money ready! Unfortunately, the bank called the cops.

Instead of getting the cash
they had requested,
all their hopes were dashed
and they got arrested.

Circles

I didn't see this stone circle personally, but I saw another like it in Ireland. They are feats of stone age engineering.

They piled huge stones upon the hill
and to this day they stand
in perfect circles arranged
mysteriously planned
and minimally changed
since the old days when
those very ancient men
worked their determined will
upon the waiting land.

Wonderful New Product

Picture worth a thousand words:


Yes, it's a back flap for cats & dogs:

Is your pet feeling left in the dirt because of his/her unsightly rear? I’ve got them covered... Rear Gear is handmade in Portland, OR and offers a cheerful solution to be-rid your favorite pet’s un-manicured back side.

We have more than one pet
so I should buy a batch,
however I haven't yet
figured out how they attach.

I Hope PETA Comes To His Defense

Today's sad story comes from Pennsylvania, where a man tried to breathe new life into a dead possum:

Trooper Jamie Levier of the Punxsutawney barracks said witnesses saw Wolfe, 55, locking lips with the lifeless marsupial about 3 p.m. in a remote area about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

After receiving several calls, troopers arrested Wolfe along an isolated stretch of the highway and charged him with public drunkenness.

An overdose of alcohol would never
lure me into such a bold endeavor.

Serious Monkey Business

Do you have a service monkey?

Not the old-fashioned organ grinder kind...

...the serious modern kind who help people with disabilities, from agoraphobia to devastating spinal cord injuries.

You may have been wondering what the TSA procedures were for searching your monkey.



Wonder no more!

# Security Officers have been trained to not touch the service monkey during the screening process.

# Security Officers will conduct a visual inspection on the service monkey and will coach the handler on how to hold the monkey during the visual inspection.

But don't say, "Listen, flunky,
keep your hands off my monkey!"

Perelman Refuses

The Fields Medal is the most prestigious prize for work in Mathematics. It is awarded once ever 4 years.

One man won it and refused it: Grigory Perelman, a Russian, who lives with his mom in St. Petersburg.

Now some U.S. institute wants to give him a million bucks.

Again, he refuses.

The mathematician is reported to have said "I have all I want" when contacted by a reporter this week about the Clay Millennium Prize.

According to the UK's Daily Mail newspaper, he was speaking through the closed door of his flat.

Leave him alone!

Just get out of his path,
and let him work on math.

Gigantic Quantum Computer

Latest wildly speculative physics theory:

In Decoding Reality, Vedral argues that we should regard the entire universe as a gigantic quantum computer. Wacky as that may sound, it is backed up by hard science. The laws of physics show that it is not only possible for electrons to store and flip bits: it is mandatory. For more than a decade, quantum-information scientists have been working to determine just how the universe processes information at the most microscopic scale.

As Tim Shell suggested to me, this sounds like Newton's Clockwork Universe theory, with the technology updated.

Jeffrey Small figures he now has an explanation of the Big Bang - it happens when the computer tries to divide something by zero.

Divide zero in the code,
and existence will explode,
creating an infinity
of stuff in the vicinity.

Cassandra's Chorus

This is who you encounter as you enter Dream Theatre's current show, Agamemnon.

Here's the short video of the preshow.

I've seen it 3 times and I'm going with Marsha the weekend.

Here's a review roundup:

Ian Epstein at Chicago Theatre Blog

Chris Arnold at Steadstyle Chicago

Tony Adler in the Chicago Reader

Me, here

A clever torture, by a god conceived:
she saw the future - but no one believed.

A Failure Of Our Educational System

A young man bungles a burglary:

Investigators said the 17-year-old logged into his MySpace account while at Bella Office Furniture and that made it easy for them to find him. He also spent time looking at pornography and trying to sell stolen items, all while using the business' computer.

They tracked him down, of course.

Why is no one complaining?
Our burglars need more training!

Party Lines

My congressman was the only Illinois Democrat to vote against the big health bill. Maybe he simply followed his judgment. Maybe he followed the will of his constituents.

"Dan has a tremendous amount of resolve," Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) told me when we talked in the Capitol. "And great desire to vote what he considers to be in his district's interests. He often does not waver in his convictions."

One odd thing about this bill was that those in favor were strictly one-party. But the opposition was two-party.

One party domination
can result in abomination.

Historic

The Washington Post has an online headline:

The Take: Historic win or not, Democrats could pay a price

To me the only question is how high that price will be. And I get the impression it will be high.

Also, I'm tired of all this "historic" bluster.

Prohibition was historic.
The fate of booze seemed sealed.
But through public anger,
the damn thing was repealed.

Bad Luck Kitty

Here's an odd entrepreneurial idea, a "stress relieving vending machine":

The “Passive Aggressive Anger Release Machine” is a machine that allows you break a dish or two until you feel better. All you have to do is insert a dollar, and a piece of china will slowly move towards you until it falls to the bottom and breaks into a million pieces.

If you track the links back, it seems to be the work of some artists. But I see commercial possibility!

Are you feeling too much stress?
Is your life a steamy mess?
Put some dough in the machine,
smash some china figurines
to smithereens!

Parachuting Pooch

This story features a great photo of a military bomb-sniffing dog jumping out of a plane with his handler:

"They don't perceive height difference the same way humans do, so that doesn't worry them. They're more likely to be bothered by the roar of the engines, but once we're on the way down, that doesn't matter and they just enjoy the view."

I'm skeptical about the height-perception claim. I think they perceive it just like we do - at normal ranges. You don't see dogs jumping off cliffs to their deaths.

I think the issue is that at 10,000 feet you don't really perceive the distance with your eyes. You just conceive of it mathematically with your mind.

The dog has superior power of smell,
but doesn't do math so well.

Direction Selection

We had a lively discussion tonight, which began with Dagny Taggart (from Atlas Shrugged), and the question of how you make moral judgments about other people, and how you communicate such judgments.

One interesting thing about Dagny is that she is exposed to the full set of striker arguments, but still goes back to the world. The strikers don't think she is evading the facts, they just think she has more to learn. This leads to the question, how did the strikers come to this particular conclusion? (It may help that 2 of the leaders of the strike are in love with her... but we didn't go there.)

Somehow we also ended up talking about, of all people, Barack Obama, and the widely varying views people have about who he really is, and what he really stands for.

Toward the end we were focused on globalization, unemployment, and the things the government has done to make hiring more risky and expensive for companies.

The discussion was wide-ranging.
It seemed like the topic kept changing!

Wish I Wasn't Along For The Ride

Half hit the brakes. Half stomp the gas.
Up, ahead, it's Demon Pass.

Teamwork

It's hard being a good dad:

Men involved with child care may hurt women's self-esteem

Should the father be the weak player on the team,
just to boost the mother's self-esteem?

Egri vs. Coward

I've been skimming The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri, first published in 1942, and considered a classic in its field.

His 7th chapter is "Why are some bad plays successful?" and he tackles the problem, as he sees it, of Noel Coward's popularity:

A war-weary audience, surfeited with blood and death, gobbled up his farces. The lines seemed witty because they helped the audience to forget the battering the world had taken. Coward, and many like him, came and lulled the shocked audience into numbed relaxation. His reception today would be tepid.

In retrospect, this is funny, since Coward continues to appear on the stage, often to enthusiastic applause. And somehow his lines still "seem witty".

Egri glowered at Coward,
but Coward has not soured.

Limitations

My dog can look upon a star,
but he will never ask me why
a source of light so incredibly far
can be detected by his eye.

Daring to Compare

German scholars are going to produce a critical study of the text of the Qur'an.

What this means is that the research team is in the process of analysing and transcribing some 12,000 slides of Qur’an mansucripts from the first six centuries of the text’s existence. Once that is complete, the way is open to producing a text that annotates and, presumably, provides some sort of exegesis on the differences found in the early manuscripts.

I'm not sure how much variation there is. I gather there is some. You can see how it might creep in, especially if at first the text was memorized, then written down by different people, and later standardized.

Variations in a sacred text
can leave believers vexed.

Quatrains

This morning I spent a couple of hours talking with elementary school students about poetry. 9-12 year olds. It was great fun.

They had been working on rhyming couplets, so I talked to them about quatrains, close cousins to couplets. We wrote some, too.

Take 2 couplets, and intermix;
a quatrain will come along,
standing like 4 rows of bricks,
symmetrical and strong.

Booted

Desiree Rogers, Obama's social secretary, recently tendered her resignation.

She was frequently blamed in the press for letting those people sneak into a White House party.

A lot of people say she was forced out because of it. The White House says that incident was not her fault, and that she's not leaving because of that incident.

Who to believe?

A well known Chicago columnist has a different and much more gossipy explanation:

Is the real reason White House social secretary Desiree Rogers was stripped of her power and "pushed" to resign that she was stealing the thunder of first lady Michelle Obama and first friend Valerie Jarrett?

You bet.

I can't vouch for the theory, but it paints quite a picture.

You hear it said that men are more competitive than women.

Perhaps it's statistically true.
But women can be competitive too.

Boom

An article in The Weekly Standard begins by quoting the Speaker of the House:

"Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance."

I guess we need free housing and food, too. Because those needs also force artists into day jobs. But leave that be. What really disturbs me is this comment by the article's author, Mary Katherine Hamm:

If liberal Boomers such as Nancy Pelosi insist on creating government incentives for a generation of people to be unemployed artists who nonetheless have their health care paid for by productive members of society, there will be fewer productive members of society.

Back it up right there. Nancy Pelosi turns 70 this month. She was born in 1940.

A baby boomer is one of the 76 million Americans born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom.

In 1940 World War II wasn't over. For Americans, it hadn't even started yet.

Pelosi may be a late bloomer,
but she's no baby boomer.

Oak Forest 5k

 
A pleasant run in the woods in the rain,
with an Irish theme and medals to gain.

I have often bicycled this route, but running it was new, and I was quited surprised, when we passed the wetland area, to see clear evidence of beaver construction activity. I had never noticed it when zooming by on my bike.

They've built a dam and flooded land - where it was merely muddy.
But did these rodents file their environmental study?

Self Exam

Some thinkers say there is no self.
To me it's clearly there.

Still, when you try to look at it,
it slips away from your stare.

Relax and let it shyly come
to stand before you bare.

Observation

A rhetorical flourish
sounds swell,
as well it ought,
but does not nourish
like careful thought.

Agamemnon

I was blown away tonight. I didn't expect to be. I expected to enjoy a night of theater, in the form of an intimate 2-person play. I expected to be given lots to feel and think about. I had attended a reading of the play, and remembered the high points of the plot.

But I was blown away. The play is Agamemnon, by Jeremy Menekseoglu, which is not much like Agamemnon by Aeschylus. This play is about the relationship between Agamemnon and Cassandra, the prophetess no one ever believes.

I'm not even sure exactly why I was blown away, except that the story is harrowing, the performances were stunning, the set was spectacular, and so on and so on. Everyone who contributed outdid themselves.

The whole play takes place on a ship at sea. Agamemnon, having led the Greeks to victory at Troy, is sailing home with the captive Cassandra. As the story opens, he wants her to be grateful to him, but she is not, and she fears the worst, and she is right to do so, since this is a tragedy. But like some of the great Greek tragedies, the doomed characters transition to a higher plane of understanding, particularly about themselves. That is the actual gift which they give to each other.

Courtney Arnett plays Cassandra with a down-to-earth manner, but she makes Cassandra mysterious nonetheless. You believe she has been touched with a special power. Jeremy Menekseoglu plays Agamemnon, a dangerous and commanding man, with profound restraint. You feel the vulnerability under the bristling ego.

I don't want to call it a love story. That would be wrong. It's a love-hate story. With magnetic performers.

Before the play begins, by the way, you must deal with Cassandra's Chorus, in the lobby and in the aisle. They, too, have lines written by the playwright, so listen to them. Anna Weiler, Alicia Reese, and Molly Gray guide you to your seat for the journey. They tell you that this is Cassandra's play, not Agamemnon's.

I think they have a point.

After all the deeds are done, and all the words are spoken,
hers is the spirit that truly remains unbroken.

Evolutionary Ecology

At book club we discussed The Mind of the Market by Michael Shermer.

He makes the case that our recent evolutionary past as "hunter-gatherers, living in small bands", "created a psychology not always well equipped to understand or life in the modern world."

He is not calling for a return to nature. He just thinks we should understand our own minds better. I liked the book. He makes an interesting attempt to integrate recent psychology research with free market thinking.

Of course, some do call for a complete return to nature:

Anarcho-primitivists advocate a return to non-"civilized" ways of life through deindustrialisation, abolition of the division of labour or specialization, and abandonment of large-scale organization technologies.

We do not live
as we evolved.
Nor would I want to!
We have solved
the limits of
the tribal way
and stepped into
this global day.

If you prefer
to hunt and gather,
be my guest!
But I would rather
keep the gifts
of trade and science
while you starve
in blind defiance.

Tickle Fight

I love this sentence from the NY Times:

Representative Eric J. Massa, who resigned from Congress amid allegations of sexual misconduct, vehemently denied any wrongdoing during a television appearance on Tuesday even as he described having tickle fights with staffers in a house they shared.

He didn't grope - at least I hope
he didn't slide down that slippery slope.

All he did was give a tickle!
How could Congress be so fickle?

Oh Deer

It's fairly rare to hear
of an airplane hitting a deer.

It happened at a small Illinois airport - which has no fence around it. John Olson was in a private plane, ferrying 5 family members, including 2 grandchildren. He was coming in for a landing when 3 deer sprinted across the runway.

One deer fell to the ground in his path.

He pulled up and, for a second, thought he had cleared the animal. Then he felt a bump. His daughter saw the back wheel wobble. And he noticed oil on the wing.

"That's when I said this is definitely going to be a problem," Olson said.

He had lost his left landing gear. 

So he flew to a bigger airport nearby, and managed to land safely on one wheel.

Maybe they could put up a warning sign?


You may receive a lovely funeral benison,
if you make the mistake of colliding with venison.

Subtext

"Subtext", as we use it today, started out as a method acting term.

The actor, in his role, says one thing while thinking another. As real life people often do.

Mistakes were made,
but not by me.

(I'm afraid
of responsibility.)

Alpine Innovation

Not all squirrelly ideas come from California:

On Sunday, the Swiss will vote on a referendum that would compel all of Switzerland's cantons to hire animal lawyers. The rationale: If people accused of mistreating animals can hire lawyers, the victims of such abuse are also entitled to representation.

If you have a cockatoo
that's tired of having to bill and coo,
it may think it's time to sue
you.

Neglect

A lot of people we call "bad parents" are people who wound their children's minds. Then there are people like this:

A computer-addicted couple let their real life baby starve to death while they raised a virtual daughter online, police said today.

It happened in South Korea. They were spending their nights - 12 hours at a stretch - at computer cafes. Playing a simulation game.

Where were the grandparents? Well, they made an effort:

Worried about their addiction to the games, Kim's parents had been taking care of the baby - but, tragically, had returned her to her mother and father just two weeks before she died.

Why didn't someone call Child Protective Services? I did come across a study:

Korea has recently begun social intervention in cases of child abuse, but faces many difficulties resulting from cultural dilemmas. In particular, Korean society has the value of corporal punishment and negative attitudes toward social intervention into family issues.

But I'm sure this behavior is revolting by South Korean standards too.

It's five kinds of wrong
served extra strong.

Domestic

You can lobby against domestic violence by day, but you can practice it by night.

She is a registered lobbyist for an anti-domestic-violence outfit. She is charged with killing her husband. She is 45, he was 26.

Witnesses told police that Bridges was wearing a nightgown and a shower cap as she argued with Rankins on the sidewalk on North Avenue near West Peachtree Street around 10:45 p.m. Monday.

And moments later, witnesses said, they heard shots. They said she then "calmly walked away."

They had been married 5 days.

You know the honeymoon's over
when she leaves you pushing up clover.

Jolting Forward

Toyota is getting raked over the coals by the owners of GM and Chrysler.

Their cars "suddenly accelerate" sometimes. I know one way to make that happen. You stomp on the gas pedal.

...anyone who's looked at the problem knows that the vast majority of cases of sudden unintended acceleration are the fault of the driver applying the gas pedal when s/he thinks s/he's pressing the brakes.

Well, that's just a law professor talking. But I suspect he's right.

Why are those 2 pedals next to each other on the floor?

I'm used to that system, so I'm not eager to change it. But when you're driving, you can't actually see what your feet are doing. It seems ripe for error.

And those manual transmissions,
stick another pedal into position,
known as "the clutch".

Isn't that a bit much?

System X

Take the statement, "Social System X is good for everybody."

If true, it's a compelling endorsement for quite different ethical viewpoints.

Egoists will say "I want X because it helps me."

Altruists will say "I want X because it helps others."

Utilitarians will say "I want X because it helps produce the greatest good for the greatest number."

Hardly anyone thinks you should
oppose a universal good.

Nihilists maybe could dissent
and find a reason to lament.

Beached

The Chairman of the House Ways And Means Committee has stepped down, at least temporarily.

Ways And Means is where new federal tax legislation starts in the U.S. system.

Every corporation that wants a tax break wants a chance to whisper in the Chairman's ear.

And then, oddly enough, some corporations helped pay for him to go traveling in the Caribbean.

Charlie Rangel
got caught in a tangle -
taking trips
with corporate sponsorships.

Act One

I just finished Act One, a partial autobiography by Moss Hart, who wrote a lot of hit plays in the thirties, forties, and fifties.

It starts off with him living very poor, with his family, in a New York tenement apartment.

It has a lot of quotable excerpts. Like this:

It is always best if one is about to embark on a wild or reckless venture not to discuss it with anybody beforehand; talk will rob the scheme of its fire and make what seemed...daring merely foolhardy. Present it as an accomplished fact, turn a deaf ear to argument, and go ahead with it.

It ends with his first big Broadway success, Once In A Lifetime, a comedy about Hollywood during its panicky switch from silent movies to "talkies".

Autobiographies often proceed at a pace that's somewhat sickly.
But this one zips along quickly.

Prague Spring

"Prague Spring" was a real historical event:

...a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Slovak Alexander Dubček came to power, and continued until 21 August when the Soviet Union and members of its Warsaw Pact allies invaded the country to halt the reforms.

As metaphor, a Prague Spring is any temporary thaw in a regime of icy oppression.

Liberty broke through the ranks,
until the Soviets sent in tanks.

Herpetology On Stage

Friday night I saw actors playing lizards doing mating dances, in M.A.T.E.

Saturday night I saw an actor playing a newt doing a mating dance, in Jeeves In Bloom.

Two nights in a row,
in unrelated shows!

Tell me, what were the chances
of parallel belly-crawling mating dances?

Non Neocon

The Chicago Reader, a free weekly, ran an article that mentioned the course my wife is co-facilitating at Shimer College. The reporter does a decent job with her factual reporting on the course, but the headline is amusingly wrong:

Who's Buying Shimer?
A former student follows the money behind the new neoconservative bent at the local Great Books college.

My wife's friends had a good chuckle over the idea that she was neocon.

I don't know much about the other focus of the article, the "buying" of Shimer. It sounds like the college recently took on new funding and new board members. But the article does nothing to flesh out the neocon angle.

Perhaps in a certain ideological frame
all non-progressives look exactly the same.

Strike Three

Serial killer whale:

Tilikum, the largest killer whale at any SeaWorld park, has been involved in two previous deaths.

If I were a trainer, I'd give up on training this one.

Don't turn your back
or he may attack.

M.A.T.E.

I saw a comedy tonight, M.A.T.E, which is about animal mating strategies.

It starts off with 4 scientists lecturing the audience on the topic. They have their own relationship tensions, which play out during the show.

But the scientists also become the animals they are talking about, acting out the mating strategies in a sort of cartoon form. Chris Delgado, Danielle Gennaoui, Keland Scher, and Deanna Myers were very energetic and amusing.

The show is set in a bar, and made good use of the setting. One scene involved 2 "lizards" meeting on a blind date. The girl lizard was reading a romance novel and holding a flower while sitting at the bar.

Bacteria can reproduce
in solitary splendor.

But human beings must work to seduce
someone from the contrary gender.

What Happened To "All Dogs Go To Heaven"?

Certain Christians believe that the virtuous will be lifted up to heaven as Judgment Day nears. This miraculous event, called the Rapture, will leave sinners behind on earth.

It will also, allegedly, leave all animals behind. Including the beloved pets of those virtuous enraptured Christians. Thereby arises a money-making opportunity:

...61-year-old Bart Centre has come up with a plan to look after those domestic animals not scooped up in the heavenly exodus. In July, he started Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, a pet-sitting service to care for those critters.

"Each Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you have received your reward," the company's Web site promises. "Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus."

By this means he hopes to capture
cash from those who plan to rapture.

There Is A House

I just finished The House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Liked it, didn't love it.

The House of the Seven Gables
is a densely woven fable
with miscellaneous strengths
and a somewhat padded length.

I like The Scarlet Letter
eight times better.

Bittersweet Medals

Here is research that 3rd place makes you happier than 2nd place:

Research by three U.S. academics, who analyzed heat-of-the-moment reactions, medal-stand temperament and interviews of Olympians, shows that bronze-medal winners, on average, are happier with their finishes than silver medalists. Take silver, and you tend to fixate on the near miss. Score bronze, and you are thankful you were not shut out altogether.

Suppose two of you are in very hot
competition for the number 2 spot...
Should you slow down? I think not.

Pole Dancing In The Olympics

It sounds like something I would suggest in jest:

Hong Kong-based Ania Przeplasko, the founder of the International Pole Dancing Fitness Association, the sport's fledgling supervisory body, believes Olympic recognition is only a matter of time and would be a victory for underappreciated sports worldwide.

"There will be a day when the Olympics see pole dancing as a sport," she said. "The Olympic community needs to acknowledge the number of people doing pole fitness now. We're shooting for 2012."

Since pole vaulting is already in,
I bet pole dancing will be a big win.

Nanny State Newspeak

New York City reinstates "bake sales", if you can still call them that:

Months after it barred schools from holding most food fundraisers, the city says bake sales can go on - as long as no homemade treats with undisclosed calorie counts grace the fold-out tables.

A "bake sale" with nothing homemade
is a promise betrayed.

Devilish Ducklings

Devilish ducklings come in many types. The evilest of all has zebra stripes.

Madison and the Angels

We had a great discussion last night about James Madison's hypothetical comment concerning angels:

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

What did he mean by this? Did he mean that we are beasts? Did he mean that we are cursed with original sin? Such is sometimes argued.

Or did he just mean we have the *capability* of doing the wrong thing? Maybe because we have free will?

Angels seem stuck on "rejoice"
but humans have a choice.

Homicidal Suicide

The Texas kamikaze's suicide note is all over the political map, raging against George Bush, the Catholic Church, Big Business, the IRS, and so on. He hated almost everybody!

So it's hard to pin him down on the left-right continuum. But that won't stop people from trying! As the NY Daily News puts it:

The right called him a socialist, and the left branded him a right-wing tea partyer.

Few want to claim him for their own. Which is a good thing. You would have to worry about the fate of a country where a high percentage of people celebrated such behavior.

I notice that he badly frightened his wife the night before he totally flipped. She took her kid and spent the night in a hotel. When she came home she found he had set their house on fire.

I think she did a very smart thing in going to a hotel. I suspect he would have killed her and the kid on his way out that morning. Why? I don't know exactly, but that's what mad-at-the-world killers often do. They kill their immediate families along with themselves. I think it's some kind of deadly narcissistic gesture, where you spitefully try to destroy all "your stuff," including your family.

His political outlook may be hopelessly hazy,
but he sure went out in a blaze of crazy.

Santelli Rantiversary

It was one year ago today that Rick Santelli ranted on CNBC that it was time for a tea party.

There had already been a good-sized protest or two, but Santelli's rant gave the movement a name.

I want to mention something paradoxical I've observed. At these protests, the signs are often angry, but the people are usually smiling. They're having a good time exercising their rights to assemble and air grievances. This suggests to me that it may have staying power. People like participating.

Not everyone is happy:

Progressivism purports to protect the toiling and exploited masses from the amoral rapacity of big banks, big insurance, big tobacco, and whatnot. It must be exceedingly frustrating to have the toiling and exploited masses turn against the policies you have designed for their own good.

How annoying of these proles
to march with signs on poles
objecting to their bettering
with obvious hand-lettering.

Serenity Now!

I think Ann Althouse is right to object to public school programs requiring students to meditate.

Somehow the Other's religion is neuroscience, to be imposed on rowdy children to make them serene. Thanks, Hollywood liberals. You know, I can't think of one Hollywood movie about kids that had a placid protagonist.

If private schools want to require it, that's one thing. I certainly recited my prayers aloud in Catholic school. But the wall between church and state should exclude this stuff in state schools.

Althouse really lets loose in the comments.

Because all we have is our time. How dare you steal time, systematically, on a daily basis from children? Let a school be a school, and leave the spiritual training to the family and the individual.
...
If I was a kid in a classroom where they did this to me, there is no way I would think about my breathing. I would think about how much I objected to being treated this way. I would either misbehave and get punished (or drugged) or I would compose vicious essays and stories in my head, and put them up on the internet later.

I love her for these 2 comments, above all because she remembers what it's like to be a kid.

In too many schools
they're treated like fools.

Technology Marches On And On

In Switzerland, a shocking solution:

Brothel owners in the Lugano area say electric shock treatment to restart customer's hearts is needed because so many elderly customers are using their services.

The most recent victim was a pensioner, thought to be having fun with the help of anti-impotence medication.

If you're on a so-called "date"
and she sets your heart a-beating,
at a most irregular rate
your existence may be fleeting.

But if they have a defibrillator with them,
you have a shot at getting back your rhythm.

Technology Marches On

Big Brother was allegedly watching, and now there's a lawsuit:

They claim Lindy Matsko, an assistant principal at Harriton High School, spied on their son, Blake, at home by remotely activating the webcam on his laptop.

It was a school-issue laptop, with "security software" that let you view through the webcam remotely.

Some people like to creep and peep
and watch your children while they sleep.

Hollow Theory

While in Florida we visited Koreshan State Park, a very pleasant hiking location, which is the former site of a utopian commune.

It was founded by some crazy religious group who believed that the earth is a hollow sphere - and we are living on the inside!

If we were in a hollow sphere
I'd expect to look up from here
and get a look at China's Great Wall.

But I don't see that at all.
Instead, I see a clear night sky.
I wonder why.

"I Am Dr. Amy Bishop"

Amy Bishop, PhD, killer of biologists, has a history. The latest bizarro research item:

In March, 2002, Bishop walked into an International House of Pancakes restaurant in Peabody with her family, asked for a booster seat for one of her children, and learned the last seat had gone to another customer, according to a police report.

Bishop strode to the customer, identified in the report as Michelle Gjika, demanded the seat and, after a profanity-laced rant, punched her in the head while yelling ‘‘I am Dr. Amy Bishop.’’

This was in Massachusetts. She got probation.

Court records are unclear on whether a judge granted the prosecutor’s recommendation she take anger management classes.

These classes, if taken, obviously didn't work.

At this point she's done more damage
than the average thug in the hood.

Please, please, Alabama,
lock her up for good.

Rand and Marketing

A couple of months ago, the Wall St. Journal ran an op-ed by Heather Wilhelm, arguing that Rand shouldn't be included in marketing materials for the free market movement.

But in an age where hope, change and warm-hearted marketing clearly resonate, is revitalizing and glorifying Rand's acerbic "virtue of selfishness" doing the free-market movement any good? Doubts are starting to emerge.

It's funny to think that doubts about Rand's approach are just starting to emerge. She has always been controversial, even among those who advocate free markets.

In today's Daily Caller, my wife and Gen LaGreca argue that Rand makes a vital contribution:

It’s amazing that in all their talk of Rand’s “harsh message” and “confrontational language,” many free-market defenders haven’t asked themselves why her writings have inspired millions to become advocates of capitalism. They don’t understand that she completes the 18th century vision of the American Revolution by presenting a morality that fully justifies capitalism and individual freedom.

Rand’s morality of rational, enlightened self-interest defends the individual’s right to his own life, the power of his own liberty, and the glory of his pursuit of his own happiness.

Appeasement can be a crutch,
limping along too long.

Confrontation, as such,
isn't always wrong.

Roger Enright and Me

Someone asked me online, in jest no doubt, if I was related to Roger Enright, a secondary character in The Fountainhead.

Here he is in the movie version, played by Ray Collins.


Once in a while someone asks me, seriously, if I changed my last name to match Roger's.

I would like to claim him as a distant relation,
but that would be unmerited,
since he got his name from her imagination,
but mine was simply inherited.

Valentine's Day

We saw the movie, Valentine's Day. It's designed like Love Actually. It wasn't actually as good, but it's pretty good, if you like that sort of thing, and I do.

It all takes place on one day,
like a sort of classical play,
but with vast inventories
of characters and stories.

Anesthesia During Childbirth

In the Bible, at one point, Eve is told that she will be punished for her sin with increased pain during childbirth.

I think the writers of the myth had noticed that humans had more trouble with childbirth than domestic animals.

I think, in fact, this is due partly to our big skulls required to house our big brains.

So, when anesthesia was invented, some people thought it was a circumvention of divine will. But then along came Queen Victoria...

[Her] fourth child was to be born on the morning of April 7, 1853 in much the same circumstances except one – the use of chloroform that produced an uncomplicated and completely painless childbirth that electrified the entire nation of Great Britain and helped push a still little known medical procedure into public consciousness – the use of anesthesia.

Anesthesia during childbirth remains a controversial topic among feminists:

...there are feminists who reject natural birth and support a woman's right to choose medicated childbirth, and there are feminists who believe that a rejection of medicalized childbirth is a key component in advancing feminist values.

I have no particular views,
except that I'm pro- the right to choose.

That Bag Sure Looked Little

We had a choppy time on the plane. I was checking the seat pocket to find the paper bag... just in case.

A lady near us did undergo reverse peristalsis.

Why is it that a bumpy ride
ejects stuff from your inside?

Test Tube Cave Baby

People are thinking about cloning Neanderthals:

A stem cell with Neanderthal DNA could be implanted in a human blastocyst--a cluster of cells in the process of developing into an embryo. Then, all of the non-Neanderthal cells could be kept from growing. The individual who developed from that blastocyst would be entirely the result of Neanderthal genes.

Their manners may be crude,
but if they will shovel snow
in exchange for fire and food,
the project is a go.

Traps and Nets

A professor of English says:

Graduate school in the humanities is a trap. It is designed that way. It is structurally based on limiting the options of students and socializing them into believing that it is shameful to abandon "the life of the mind."

He's bitter, apparently because he's seen too many people with grad degrees and big debts working in low-paying jobs.

I do get the impression that there are far more would-be professors than there are professorial positions.

Similarly, there are more would-be rock stars than there are recording contracts. Musicians are "socialized into believing" that it is shameful to abandoning their instrument of choice.

Perhaps it's a kind of bet
that what you haven't caught yet
may still fall into your net.

Kings Who Wrote

For book club we read part of the Thomas Nelson Chronological Study Bible, which is the whole collection of Protestant scriptures, rearranged into chronological order.

We read the part with David and Solomon, which meant we also read some works attributed to them.

Ecclesiastes preaches the utility
of just accepting life's futility.

Many Psalms
are meant to calm your qualms.

Proverbs advises: be wise
and honored in men's eyes.

No Pressure

This will seem counter-intuitive to many:

Parents who want their children to discover a passion for music, sports, or other hobbies should follow a simple plan: Don't pressure them.

As a matter of fact, I suspect the best way to get some kids interested in music is to tell them not to be.

If you tell them they must stop
playing that nasty hip-hop,
you'll see - the very next day
they'll be working as a DJ.

Rand as Realist

From Revolution in American Drama:

In [1927] appeared one of the most popular of modern melodramas, Bayard Veiller's The Trial of Mary Dugan... While the situation was one of extreme theatricalism, he courtroom scene itself was treated with minute realism. Ayn Rand's The Night of January 16 (1935) went one step further in this direction by selecting a jury from the audience at each performance and paying them at legal rates. (p. 235)

It's amusing, at least to me, to see Rand singled out here for pushing the envelope in the direction of realism. In later years, she was frequently attacked for not being adequately realistic.

I do think a shift occurred in her writing. We the Living is highly realistic, and makes much of the method of realism, particularly in its emphasis on the grinding quality of poverty and oppression. So devotees of realism frequently see it as her best effort.

I grew up as a sci-fi fan,
so I wasn't bugged
by the inventive events
of Atlas Shrugged.

Snow Day!

The Federal Government in Washington is closed on Monday due to a snowstorm.

Closing the federal government for one day costs taxpayers roughly $100 million in lost productivity...

I really wonder where that estimate came from. Federal employees produced it, I bet.

On the bright side, presumably various crippling new regulations will be put off for a day.

The economy may get a boost
from regulations unproduced.

Toy Story

Hit the panic button - it's a gun!

...a 9-year-old student at PS 52 in Staten Island, N.Y., was in the school cafeteria Tuesday playing with LEGOs when he was taken to the principal’s office and threatened with suspension. One of his toys was a LEGO policeman that holds a 2-inch plastic gun. The school has a no-tolerance policy when it comes to toy guns.

A lot of these "no-tolerance" policies are "no sense" policies.

A 2-inch Lego gun
will never hurt anyone.

The kids learn a lesson, all right:
some teachers are not too bright.

Complexities of Victimization

In most colleges, women now heavily outnumber men. These women are victimized!

Women on gender-imbalanced campuses are paying a social price for success and, to a degree, are being victimized by men precisely because they have outperformed them, Professor Campbell said.

This confuses 2 distinct groups of men. The men who were outperformed are NOT in college. The men who are "victimizing" are the high-achievers who kept up.

The NY Times points out a parallel kind of victimization:

In this way, some colleges mirror retirement communities, where women often find that the reward for outliving their husbands is competing with other widows for the attentions of the few surviving bachelors.

Pity the poor wife
who out-competes her husband in the race for longer life
and regrettably then
finds a shortage of men.

These women are improperly rewarded!
Could excess men from China be imported? 

Aelita & Shiny Boxes

We saw Aelita and Shiny Boxes at Dream Theatre tonight, a double bill of plays by Bil Gaines and Mishelle Renee Apalategui.

Both were surreal and involved multiple murders and the walking and talking dead. But they went in completely different directions. Aelita is an abstract philosophical fantasy. Shiny Boxes is a poetic memory of a birthday party gone terribly wrong.

Due to a mishap, Anna Weiler, who directed both pieces, had to step in at the last minute and act in Aelita as well - just for this weekend. Apparently she was up till late last night memorizing her lines. But she never seemed to miss a beat. Probably it helped to have been directing it for weeks and weeks!

Performances were wonderful. I particularly enjoyed Alicia Reese as the motherly Magda, Judith Lesser as the flirtatious Cannon, and Giau Truong as the gigantic Amboy.

When the plays had ended,
the living dead, all mended,
arose and bowed
while we clapped aloud.

Ancient Timex Time

"The first computer under 100 dollars." Yes, I had one, a Timex-Sinclair 1000.

It was pretty horrid. But I did learn Basic on the darn thing.

It didn't come with any sort of disk, floppy or hard. Allegedly you could hook up a regular cassette player to use for offline storage. That worked sometimes.

There was also a VisiCalc-like program available for this 2k machine. What was VisiCalc?

VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program available for personal computers. It is often considered the application that turned the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool. VisiCalc sold over 700,000 copies in six years.

Before Lotus, and long before Excel,
VisiCalc served accountants well.

Free of Prejudice

When I was a kid, computers didn't play chess well. That's ancient history.

(Nerd alert - I actually owned a Boris chess computer, in the late 70's).

Now people try to learn from the computer's style of play. Gary Kasparov says:

It is entirely free of prejudice and doctrine and this has contributed to the development of players who are almost as free of dogma as the machines with which they train. Increasingly, a move isn't good or bad because it looks that way or because it hasn't been done that way before. It's simply good if it works and bad if it doesn't. Although we still require a strong measure of intuition and logic to play well, humans today are starting to play more like computers.

Those computers are tyrannical,
making our play more mechanical,
unless you're hell-bent on choosing
a whimsical path toward losing.

Colorful Record

Illinois had some too-close-to-call primaries Tuesday.

Who will run for Governor? We don't know. Not for the elephants. And not for donkeys.

But we DO know who will represent for Lt. Gov. And in the case of the donkeys, it's not pretty:

Scott Lee Cohen -- a pawnbroker who shocked state Democratic leaders Tuesday night by winning the party's nomination for lieutenant governor -- was arrested about four-and-a-half years ago and accused of holding a knife to a former live-in girlfriend's neck, newly obtained court records show.

The misdemeanor charge against Cohen was dropped weeks later when the woman -- who had just been found guilty of prostitution -- failed to show up to testify, according to those records.

You might think Lt. Gov. isn't really an important job. But....

Our current governor's name is Quinn.
He was Lieutenant Governor when
Blago got caught on tape, and then
Mr. Quinn, of course, stepped in.

How Insulting

Sarah Palin wants Rahm Emanuel fired for privately calling liberal activists, "f---ing retarded."

He has since apologized.

Perhaps we should no longer read Shakespeare because he let MacBeth say that life is a "tale told by an idiot".

For those who wish to generated Elizabethan insults, see here.

Idiot was the old fashioned insult. Retarded was introduced as a nice word. But then it got taken over as an insult. "Special" got recruited as a nice word. But now that is used as an insult too.

The term "mental retardation" is a diagnostic term denoting the group of disconnected categories of mental functioning such as "idiot", "imbecile", and "moron" derived from early IQ tests, which acquired pejorative connotations in popular discourse. The term "mental retardation" acquired pejorative and shameful connotations over the last few decades due to the use of "retarded" as an insult.

I guess I'm tired

of people getting fired

and almost hung

for slips of the tongue.

Rhyme = True

If it rhymes,
it sounds more true.

The ringing of chimes
beguiles you.