In the comments to this post, Sean corrects my spelling of the word "estimable", which I had spelled "esteemable". Looking it up, I see that he is, of course, entirely correct; but this word is just bugging me now. I'm a good speller (although in the heat of the moment I'm likely to use "there" instead of "their" or "hear" instead of "here"), and I've long known that the English language's spelling conventions tend to not make a lot of sense, to put it mildly. This one, though, is sticking in my craw. If we have "esteem" and "esteemed", why on earth do we have "estimable" instead of "esteemable"?
Up with this I will not put.
The personal blog of author Kelly Sedinger, chronicling the adventures of one overalls-clad wanderer.
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Give 'em hell, Simon! Yeah!!!
The new season of American Idol has begun. Yes, I am an unapologetic fan. If Kevin Drum can still watch Survivor, after seven or eight incarnations, I can watch American Idol. Sue me.
Now, I didn't watch the first version at all, and I only tuned in to the initial episodes of the second version mainly to see if this Simon guy was as mean as I'd heard. And yes, there was a certain thrill in watching people who literally cannot tell one note from another work under the belief that they are actually good singers. (This, I'm sad to say, is not unrealistic -- I remember music majors in college who suffered the same affliction.) I figured I'd abandon the show once it got to the actual competition, but strangely, I found it compelling and kept watching. It's not the same formula each week, like Survivor (tribes argue, play a game, have a reward, argue some more, play another game, argue a bit more, someone gets voted off).
And that's because I like the idea of a show that rewards people for talent and hard work, and it doesn't do any goofy stuff with "alliances" and doesn't involve mean-spirited tricks like Average Joe or so many other reality shows. No, we're not talking astounding music here, but the show really does seem to want to reward actual singing as opposed to lame stagecraft and sexual histrionics. The people who win aren't the ones who sing in the shower and have a brother or sister tell them, "Hey, you should do that Idol show!", but those who have sung for years and have really worked on it.
I read an interview with Clay Aiken a few months ago, in which he said something like, "Yeah, I'm vanilla and I admit it. But vanilla's the top selling flavor of ice cream in America, so that's gotta count for something." That's about right. Vanilla may not be the most exciting flavor out there, but it is a flavor.
Now, I didn't watch the first version at all, and I only tuned in to the initial episodes of the second version mainly to see if this Simon guy was as mean as I'd heard. And yes, there was a certain thrill in watching people who literally cannot tell one note from another work under the belief that they are actually good singers. (This, I'm sad to say, is not unrealistic -- I remember music majors in college who suffered the same affliction.) I figured I'd abandon the show once it got to the actual competition, but strangely, I found it compelling and kept watching. It's not the same formula each week, like Survivor (tribes argue, play a game, have a reward, argue some more, play another game, argue a bit more, someone gets voted off).
And that's because I like the idea of a show that rewards people for talent and hard work, and it doesn't do any goofy stuff with "alliances" and doesn't involve mean-spirited tricks like Average Joe or so many other reality shows. No, we're not talking astounding music here, but the show really does seem to want to reward actual singing as opposed to lame stagecraft and sexual histrionics. The people who win aren't the ones who sing in the shower and have a brother or sister tell them, "Hey, you should do that Idol show!", but those who have sung for years and have really worked on it.
I read an interview with Clay Aiken a few months ago, in which he said something like, "Yeah, I'm vanilla and I admit it. But vanilla's the top selling flavor of ice cream in America, so that's gotta count for something." That's about right. Vanilla may not be the most exciting flavor out there, but it is a flavor.
Project Buffalo Blog continues....
Well, I delved very deep into Google's search results for Buffalo Blog, and I have yet to even crack the top two hundred! That's bad, folks. It appears that my mission may never leave the drawing board....
Monday, January 19, 2004
Malls, malls, malls....
We went to one of Buffalo's malls the other day, and it occurred to me then that I did not set foot in a mall a single time during the entire Christmas shopping season. And what's more, I didn't really miss it -- there was no conscious decision to avoid malls, just the fact that my Christmas shopping last year never took me to a mall at all. Now, I don't want to read terribly much into this -- had we still lived in Syracuse, I am certain that I would still be regularly going to Carousel Center, which is simply the most beautiful mall I've ever been in -- but it interests me nonetheless. (I didn't buy anything online either, the first time in six years that that has been the case.)
My family has always been a mall-going family; my parents can tell you which malls are the best ones in an impressive number of metro areas in the Great Lakes region, and it was not uncommon for us to pile into the car when I was a kid and drive two hours to another city to tour one of their malls. I specifically remember shopping in a number of the malls on DeadMalls.com, and we even bought one of our more memorable cats at the pet store in this mall way back in 1978.
But that was all a long time ago, and a person familiar with the malls of today no doubt finds the idea of driving two hours (or, occasionally, more) to "do a mall" somewhat ridiculous, since malls today are pretty much the same. Not the design, exactly -- they still use different lighting, different architecture, et cetera -- but in the shopping experience itself. The stores are all the same these days. You'll find the same clothes on sale, in the same layout, in the exact same stores, in malls everywhere. When my wife and I took our honeymoon to the Boston and Cape Cod area in 1997, we stopped at what looked like a spectacular mall in Framingham, MA, and when we walked in, we were shocked to discover almost the exact same selection of stores that can be found at Buffalo's Walden Galleria.
It wasn't always that way, though. You'd find very different stores in malls in different cities, and going to a mall in Rochester, NY was a very different experience than going to a mall in Buffalo. These days, though, we seem to have made "sameness" the desirable quality. We seem to want the same stuff on sale everywhere, and in the same layout, and we seem to want the same selection of fast-food in the food courts.
I'm not really complaining or griping here, but it struck me that going to the mall just wasn't as much fun anymore, and this is a large part of why, I think. There is nothing particularly unique about the whole "mall" thing anymore, except for the fact that one mall here in Buffalo has a carousel and nifty kids' play area while another has a really cool sporting-goods store with two-story climbing wall that's fun to watch as people scale it (although, strangely, the wall was closed when we were there on a weekend recently).
I'll read news stories about local malls and retail development, and they'll say something like, "Such-and-such Mall was struggling recently, but now they've rebounded with 92 % occupancy", meaning, I guess, that 92 % of their space is occupied by stores. But when I go to these newly-resplendent malls, I discover that what's being talked about in the articles is space, not the number of stores. What seems to happen a lot is that the big chains -- the Gaps, Old Navy's, American Eagles, Pottery Barns -- get bigger, taking over flanking slots. Thus, instead of two separate stores, you get one big store. So the smaller, often more-interesting and locally-owned stores get driven out and are taken over by larger versions of the same stores that everybody in the country already has.
I know I'm far from the first person to notice the homogenization of American culture, but there's still something disconcerting about actually seeing it in action.
My family has always been a mall-going family; my parents can tell you which malls are the best ones in an impressive number of metro areas in the Great Lakes region, and it was not uncommon for us to pile into the car when I was a kid and drive two hours to another city to tour one of their malls. I specifically remember shopping in a number of the malls on DeadMalls.com, and we even bought one of our more memorable cats at the pet store in this mall way back in 1978.
But that was all a long time ago, and a person familiar with the malls of today no doubt finds the idea of driving two hours (or, occasionally, more) to "do a mall" somewhat ridiculous, since malls today are pretty much the same. Not the design, exactly -- they still use different lighting, different architecture, et cetera -- but in the shopping experience itself. The stores are all the same these days. You'll find the same clothes on sale, in the same layout, in the exact same stores, in malls everywhere. When my wife and I took our honeymoon to the Boston and Cape Cod area in 1997, we stopped at what looked like a spectacular mall in Framingham, MA, and when we walked in, we were shocked to discover almost the exact same selection of stores that can be found at Buffalo's Walden Galleria.
It wasn't always that way, though. You'd find very different stores in malls in different cities, and going to a mall in Rochester, NY was a very different experience than going to a mall in Buffalo. These days, though, we seem to have made "sameness" the desirable quality. We seem to want the same stuff on sale everywhere, and in the same layout, and we seem to want the same selection of fast-food in the food courts.
I'm not really complaining or griping here, but it struck me that going to the mall just wasn't as much fun anymore, and this is a large part of why, I think. There is nothing particularly unique about the whole "mall" thing anymore, except for the fact that one mall here in Buffalo has a carousel and nifty kids' play area while another has a really cool sporting-goods store with two-story climbing wall that's fun to watch as people scale it (although, strangely, the wall was closed when we were there on a weekend recently).
I'll read news stories about local malls and retail development, and they'll say something like, "Such-and-such Mall was struggling recently, but now they've rebounded with 92 % occupancy", meaning, I guess, that 92 % of their space is occupied by stores. But when I go to these newly-resplendent malls, I discover that what's being talked about in the articles is space, not the number of stores. What seems to happen a lot is that the big chains -- the Gaps, Old Navy's, American Eagles, Pottery Barns -- get bigger, taking over flanking slots. Thus, instead of two separate stores, you get one big store. So the smaller, often more-interesting and locally-owned stores get driven out and are taken over by larger versions of the same stores that everybody in the country already has.
I know I'm far from the first person to notice the homogenization of American culture, but there's still something disconcerting about actually seeing it in action.
Could someone beat Chris Matthews with a large rubber stick, please?
The host of Hardball in on the Today Show right now -- oh, mercifully, he's just ended -- and my God, is he always like that? (I don't have cable, so I don't get to see his show much. To my pleasure, I suspect.) First of all, there's his speaking style, which is as close to a perfect, pure monotone as anything I've ever heard, including comedian Steven Wright. It's nearly impossible to tell where Matthews ends one sentence and begins another, which would be hypnotic if his voice wasn't whiny to begin with. But then, at one point, he's going on about which Democratic candidates in Iowa are cold because it's cold there right now because it's winter and he just saw the Edwards campaign bus roll by and Senator Edwards waved from inside where he was warm but it's cold outside in Iowa and it's like football where teams that are used to playing in the cold win and man is it cold.
The wife and I literally said, at the same time, "What the hell is he babbling about?"
How do the political bloggers out there watch Matthews and these people on a regular basis?
The wife and I literally said, at the same time, "What the hell is he babbling about?"
How do the political bloggers out there watch Matthews and these people on a regular basis?
The climb begins....
Yes, my nefarious scheme to scratch-and-claw my way to the top of Google's rankings for "Buffalo Blog" has begun, thanks to the esteemable Mr. Cory and the also-esteemable Mr. Johnson (who, btw, once played for a Minneapolis rock band that might have gone places if that harlot Yoko hadn't messed everything up).
That's a lot of water, making that journey.
Check out Catherine Berlin's nifty post about Niagara Falls, complete with pictures and a fascinating image detailing the altitudes of each body of water in the Great Lakes system, from Lake Superior all the way down. The drop-off there for the Falls is part of the Niagara Escarpment, a land feature that is very prominent in the part of Southern Ontario up against which Western New York resides.
Which reminds me, now, of a favorite book of mine from when I was a kid: Paddle-to-the-Sea, in which a yound Indian boy carves a small wooden figurine in the shape of an Indian paddling a canoe. This he sets afloat in the waters of Lake Superior, and the book traces Paddle-to-the-Sea's journey as he bobs along all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. I should track down a copy of that book, one of these days.
Which reminds me, now, of a favorite book of mine from when I was a kid: Paddle-to-the-Sea, in which a yound Indian boy carves a small wooden figurine in the shape of an Indian paddling a canoe. This he sets afloat in the waters of Lake Superior, and the book traces Paddle-to-the-Sea's journey as he bobs along all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. I should track down a copy of that book, one of these days.
Go Panthers!
(WARNING: Unseemly bashing of this year's AFC Champions ahead.)
As might be expected, I am now the World's Biggest Carolina Panthers fan -- not because they beat Philadelphia, a team that I like a lot and actually rooted for yesterday, but because the Panthers are now the sole obstacle to total and complete hegemony over the NFL by the greatest force for evil known in the sport since the days of Jimmy-n'-Jerry, the New England Stupid Patriots. Only the Panthers can keep Teddy Bruschi from doing that stupid dance he does every time something good happens to the Stupid Patriots, and only the Panthers can erase that "Awww, shucks!" grin from Tom Brady's face. Here's hoping. Random observations:
:: I'm sure there will be all manner of hand-wringing in Eagles-land that Donovan McNabb "can't win the big one", but from what little I actually watched of that game (and also last week's game), McNabb doesn't seem to get a whole lot of help from his supporting cast. The Eagles might need to go out this offseason and bring in some free agent talent, as opposed to expecting McNabb to both pass for 250 yards and run for 100 every game.
:: Someday, Adam Vinatieri's karma is going to come crashing down and he's going to miss a huge kick. I hope that day comes sooner rather than later. Say, two Sundays from now in Houston.
:: The Panthers were 1-15 two years ago, which is about as bad as an NFL team can possibly be. (Nobody's ever gone 0-16.) That year, the Panthers were one of the Bills' only victories in a 3-13 year. Now, they're in the Super Bowl. It's amazing how fast you can rebuild a team now, and it also highlights the frustration that the rebuilding didn't take here in Buffalo.
:: This Super Bowl's dynamic sounds a lot like the one that existed two years ago, when the Stupid Patriots rode the greatest wave of luck in football history all the way to the championship. The matchup involves a heavily-favored team that went 14-2 and won its first championship two years earlier against a "lesser" team comprised of low-priced cast-off players from other teams that had won its conference championship on the road. Here's hoping this Super Bowl plays out like that one did, with the "lesser" team shocking the juggernaut.
:: The Stupid Patriots are only the fourth AFC top seed since 1992 to advance to the Super Bowl, and the Panthers' win yesterday keeps alive the NFL's ten-year streak, beginning in 1993, of not having both top seeds advance to the Super Bowl in the same season.
:: Five of the last six Super Bowl champions were teams that, to the point in their franchise history, had never won the Super Bowl; and while history tends to not favor teams making their franchise's first-ever Super Bowl appearance, the last two teams in that situation won the game. Reasons to hope for the Panthers!
UPDATE: In comments, Jess Nevins points out that my dislike of the Patriots doesn't seem particularly rational, and I pretty much grant the point, thinking it obvious since I've taken to referring to them as the "New England Stupid Patriots", which is about as rational as, say, Redskins fans referring to the "Dallas Cowgirls". That said, I responded that I genuinely dislike Bill Belichick, I find the amount of respect he has commanded (prior to this admittedly outstanding season) overblown, and I find it hard to forgive the football organization that made Brian Cox, one of the most nauseating football players ever, a guy with a Super Bowl ring.
As might be expected, I am now the World's Biggest Carolina Panthers fan -- not because they beat Philadelphia, a team that I like a lot and actually rooted for yesterday, but because the Panthers are now the sole obstacle to total and complete hegemony over the NFL by the greatest force for evil known in the sport since the days of Jimmy-n'-Jerry, the New England Stupid Patriots. Only the Panthers can keep Teddy Bruschi from doing that stupid dance he does every time something good happens to the Stupid Patriots, and only the Panthers can erase that "Awww, shucks!" grin from Tom Brady's face. Here's hoping. Random observations:
:: I'm sure there will be all manner of hand-wringing in Eagles-land that Donovan McNabb "can't win the big one", but from what little I actually watched of that game (and also last week's game), McNabb doesn't seem to get a whole lot of help from his supporting cast. The Eagles might need to go out this offseason and bring in some free agent talent, as opposed to expecting McNabb to both pass for 250 yards and run for 100 every game.
:: Someday, Adam Vinatieri's karma is going to come crashing down and he's going to miss a huge kick. I hope that day comes sooner rather than later. Say, two Sundays from now in Houston.
:: The Panthers were 1-15 two years ago, which is about as bad as an NFL team can possibly be. (Nobody's ever gone 0-16.) That year, the Panthers were one of the Bills' only victories in a 3-13 year. Now, they're in the Super Bowl. It's amazing how fast you can rebuild a team now, and it also highlights the frustration that the rebuilding didn't take here in Buffalo.
:: This Super Bowl's dynamic sounds a lot like the one that existed two years ago, when the Stupid Patriots rode the greatest wave of luck in football history all the way to the championship. The matchup involves a heavily-favored team that went 14-2 and won its first championship two years earlier against a "lesser" team comprised of low-priced cast-off players from other teams that had won its conference championship on the road. Here's hoping this Super Bowl plays out like that one did, with the "lesser" team shocking the juggernaut.
:: The Stupid Patriots are only the fourth AFC top seed since 1992 to advance to the Super Bowl, and the Panthers' win yesterday keeps alive the NFL's ten-year streak, beginning in 1993, of not having both top seeds advance to the Super Bowl in the same season.
:: Five of the last six Super Bowl champions were teams that, to the point in their franchise history, had never won the Super Bowl; and while history tends to not favor teams making their franchise's first-ever Super Bowl appearance, the last two teams in that situation won the game. Reasons to hope for the Panthers!
UPDATE: In comments, Jess Nevins points out that my dislike of the Patriots doesn't seem particularly rational, and I pretty much grant the point, thinking it obvious since I've taken to referring to them as the "New England Stupid Patriots", which is about as rational as, say, Redskins fans referring to the "Dallas Cowgirls". That said, I responded that I genuinely dislike Bill Belichick, I find the amount of respect he has commanded (prior to this admittedly outstanding season) overblown, and I find it hard to forgive the football organization that made Brian Cox, one of the most nauseating football players ever, a guy with a Super Bowl ring.
Sunday, January 18, 2004
Returning Kings, Return'd
Sean lists things he likes and doesn't like about Return of the King.
For reference, here is my own such list. Sean and I agree on a lot, apparently.
For reference, here is my own such list. Sean and I agree on a lot, apparently.
Gypped in '92
Late in my high school years I became quite the political junkie; that is when I started to realize that there were real issues behind all the political slogans and rhetoric and whatnot. This was around 1986 to 1988, and I graduated in 1989. And when I was looking into college, I eventually narrowed my choices to a school in Iowa and one in Ohio. One small factor that led me to choose the school in Iowa was that I'd be in college during the next round of Iowa caucuses, in 1992. This prospect excited me deeply; I'd have a front-row seat for the official beginning of an election cycle. No, this was not the deciding factor -- not even close -- but it was in the back of my mind.
But when 1992 finally rolled around, something strange happened to the caucuses: Iowa's own Senator, Tom Harkin, decided to run for the Democratic nomination. (Since President Bush the Elder was running as an incumbent, the Republican caucuses were pretty much a "rubber-stamp" affair.) Harkin's candidacy pretty much let the air out of the excitement that should have surrounded Iowa; the favored son won the caucuses, and nobody much paid attention to Iowa. Everything, instead, focused on New Hampshire. So I got gypped.
I've been remembering all of this in the course of watching the current round of Iowa caucuses reach a fevered pitch, what with something like six candidates all within four percentage points of each other and so on. So, you students of Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa had better be enjoying this! You turkeys got my caucuses!
But when 1992 finally rolled around, something strange happened to the caucuses: Iowa's own Senator, Tom Harkin, decided to run for the Democratic nomination. (Since President Bush the Elder was running as an incumbent, the Republican caucuses were pretty much a "rubber-stamp" affair.) Harkin's candidacy pretty much let the air out of the excitement that should have surrounded Iowa; the favored son won the caucuses, and nobody much paid attention to Iowa. Everything, instead, focused on New Hampshire. So I got gypped.
I've been remembering all of this in the course of watching the current round of Iowa caucuses reach a fevered pitch, what with something like six candidates all within four percentage points of each other and so on. So, you students of Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa had better be enjoying this! You turkeys got my caucuses!
I am the Voice of Buffalo, darn it!
Today's edition of The Buffalo News has a big, front-page article on blogging, with profiles of three Buffalo-area bloggers. None of whom, I might point out, are me. Harumph. Harumph, I say! (I seem to be saying "Harumph" a lot these days. Must be something in the water.)
Anyhoo, I decided to turn to the All-Knowing Oracle in an attempt to find out why I so completely avoided detection in this fine journalistic endeavour, and I find that according to the Oracle (Google, of course), Byzantium's Shores is not listed in the top one hundred results for "Buffalo Blog". Seems to me a Google-bomb might be in order....you know, something like this: Buffalo blog. (My blog vanity knows no bounds, apparently, but I'd much rather be known by "Buffalo Blog" than, say, "Syracuse Lutefisk". Harumph, indeed!)
By the way, the three blogs profiled in the aricle are:
Berlin Blog
Outside the Law
Unknown Geek
Incidentally, I'd never encountered these blogs until the article in the News, which probably points out a lesson to be learned about looking around one's own surroundings. The Net is an amazing thing that allows the formation of friendships between people from disparate corners of the country and the world, but I wonder if sometimes we Netizens get so caught up in that aspect that we forget that there are interesting people blogging just minutes from our own doors. Our physical doors. You know, that rectangular slab of wood that you swing out of the way to accept the pizza from the nice kid in the ugly hat.
UPDATE: Well, once again the Buffalo News's web operation is, shall we say, a tad inept. The paper's print edition contains the story linked above, but it also includes a sidebar where one will find excerpts from these blogs, plus the URLs (which, except for "Unknown Geek", are not given in the main article). That sidebar is online -- read it here -- but the News doesn't link that sidebar from the main article! So, if you're reading this article online, you have no way of knowing about the sidebar at all. I'd really think that by 2004 the Buffalo News would have a website that wasn't so much of a muddled mess.
Anyhoo, I decided to turn to the All-Knowing Oracle in an attempt to find out why I so completely avoided detection in this fine journalistic endeavour, and I find that according to the Oracle (Google, of course), Byzantium's Shores is not listed in the top one hundred results for "Buffalo Blog". Seems to me a Google-bomb might be in order....you know, something like this: Buffalo blog. (My blog vanity knows no bounds, apparently, but I'd much rather be known by "Buffalo Blog" than, say, "Syracuse Lutefisk". Harumph, indeed!)
By the way, the three blogs profiled in the aricle are:
Berlin Blog
Outside the Law
Unknown Geek
Incidentally, I'd never encountered these blogs until the article in the News, which probably points out a lesson to be learned about looking around one's own surroundings. The Net is an amazing thing that allows the formation of friendships between people from disparate corners of the country and the world, but I wonder if sometimes we Netizens get so caught up in that aspect that we forget that there are interesting people blogging just minutes from our own doors. Our physical doors. You know, that rectangular slab of wood that you swing out of the way to accept the pizza from the nice kid in the ugly hat.
UPDATE: Well, once again the Buffalo News's web operation is, shall we say, a tad inept. The paper's print edition contains the story linked above, but it also includes a sidebar where one will find excerpts from these blogs, plus the URLs (which, except for "Unknown Geek", are not given in the main article). That sidebar is online -- read it here -- but the News doesn't link that sidebar from the main article! So, if you're reading this article online, you have no way of knowing about the sidebar at all. I'd really think that by 2004 the Buffalo News would have a website that wasn't so much of a muddled mess.
Oh, those goofy kids!
Remember how David Letterman used to have a routine where he'd go to a Taco Bell or some such establishment in suburban NYC and basically "have a little fun" with the drive-thru customers?
Well, apparently some kids in Detroit had a similar idea.
(Via Mickey)
Well, apparently some kids in Detroit had a similar idea.
(Via Mickey)
I hate predictions, but....
....I just don't see the Patriots losing today. I've seen a number of folks predicting a Colts victory, based probably on the fact that Peyton Manning has been incredibly hot and that you'd think the Law of Averages would work around to handing the Patriots a loss eventually, but I just don't think that will be today. Maybe in the Super Bowl -- both coaches in today's NFC title game can probably beat Belichick, despite the guy's apparent status as "George Halas and Vince Lombardi rolled into one scowling body" -- but not today.
I, of course, will be rooting strongly for the Colts, but I've seen enough great offenses shut down by great defenses to know that this is the likely result today. So, I'll have to stomach another Patriots appearance in the Super Bowl.
I, of course, will be rooting strongly for the Colts, but I've seen enough great offenses shut down by great defenses to know that this is the likely result today. So, I'll have to stomach another Patriots appearance in the Super Bowl.
Gosh Dang It!
Over on Collaboratory, John Hardy is collecting expletives designed to get around the Second Commandment (the one about taking the Lord's name in vain).
(Side observation: I couldn't remember which of the Commandments this was, so I did a quick Google search since actually walking the twelve feet to the book shelf where I keep my trusty copy of the King James just wasn't an option, you know? Anyway, when I Google'd "Ten Commandments", the first two hits had nothing to do with the Bible, but rather centered on computing (Ten Commandments of HTML and C programming, respectively). Hmmmmmm.)
(Side observation: I couldn't remember which of the Commandments this was, so I did a quick Google search since actually walking the twelve feet to the book shelf where I keep my trusty copy of the King James just wasn't an option, you know? Anyway, when I Google'd "Ten Commandments", the first two hits had nothing to do with the Bible, but rather centered on computing (Ten Commandments of HTML and C programming, respectively). Hmmmmmm.)
Saturday, January 17, 2004
A Very Rare Saturday Post....
....just noting that I've moved the "Marketplace" section of the sidebar up, for greater visibility. All auction links have been updated (something I tend to be lax about doing here), and new items are listed. Help support my continued online presence and the livibility of my domicile by taking books off my hands! (Yeah, like I'm not gonna go right out and buy new books to replace the old ones. Eeeek. And there's always the tip-jar.)
See you tomorrow!
See you tomorrow!
Friday, January 16, 2004
Friday Burst of Weirdness
(This one's slightly morbid, folks.)
I'd always heard the phrase "running around like a chicken with its head cut off" as a kid (mainly used in reference to something I was doing at the time, but we'll leave that unexplored for now). I never really understood this until I learned from a girlfriend who grew up on a farm (who was actually my future wife, but we'll leave that unexplored for now) that when you "process" a chicken -- i.e., send it on its journey from pecking at seeds to the KFC bucket -- you first behead the bird, at which point it flops around wildly until expiring.
On some level, I guess I always wondered why the body should behave in such a way, and it turns out that many of a chicken's activities are actually controlled not by the poultry's brain but by its brainstem, so the bird is actually still "alive" in its headless state until it bleeds out. Fair enough -- but this raises the possibility that if the beheading isn't executed quite correctly, the headless chicken can survive for quite some time. Months, even. It will continue to "peck" at the ground and stamp its feet and, generally, act "chicken-like".
But hey, don't take my word for it.
I'd always heard the phrase "running around like a chicken with its head cut off" as a kid (mainly used in reference to something I was doing at the time, but we'll leave that unexplored for now). I never really understood this until I learned from a girlfriend who grew up on a farm (who was actually my future wife, but we'll leave that unexplored for now) that when you "process" a chicken -- i.e., send it on its journey from pecking at seeds to the KFC bucket -- you first behead the bird, at which point it flops around wildly until expiring.
On some level, I guess I always wondered why the body should behave in such a way, and it turns out that many of a chicken's activities are actually controlled not by the poultry's brain but by its brainstem, so the bird is actually still "alive" in its headless state until it bleeds out. Fair enough -- but this raises the possibility that if the beheading isn't executed quite correctly, the headless chicken can survive for quite some time. Months, even. It will continue to "peck" at the ground and stamp its feet and, generally, act "chicken-like".
But hey, don't take my word for it.
Riddell's Theorem
"Any suffiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from conspiracy."
BTW, Paul Riddell wants more traffic, so if you like pithy, scientific-minded commentary, go read him. He's often hilarious.
(Also BTW, I didn't know that I could use links in Blogger's titles. Cool!)
BTW, Paul Riddell wants more traffic, so if you like pithy, scientific-minded commentary, go read him. He's often hilarious.
(Also BTW, I didn't know that I could use links in Blogger's titles. Cool!)
Yeah, I still watch "ER". Got a problem with that?!
On the off chance that any of my readers watch ER: Are you, like me, watching every moment of the new-and-improved, moderately happy, "putting her life together and seeking new challenges" version of Abby (Maura Tierney) and waiting for Sally Field to walk in and ruin everything?
And in today's embarrassing admission....I watched an entire episode of that Donald Trump show, The Apprentice or The Accomplice or Survivor: Manhattan or whatever they're calling it. It was a mildly-interesting reminder of just why people under 30 who have achieved some business success tend to be the most obnoxious and/or downright contemptible people on the planet. And I just loved that one guy, the team-leader dude, who, having been assigned to supervise the creation of an ad campaign, decided not to meet with the client. Oy!
And in today's embarrassing admission....I watched an entire episode of that Donald Trump show, The Apprentice or The Accomplice or Survivor: Manhattan or whatever they're calling it. It was a mildly-interesting reminder of just why people under 30 who have achieved some business success tend to be the most obnoxious and/or downright contemptible people on the planet. And I just loved that one guy, the team-leader dude, who, having been assigned to supervise the creation of an ad campaign, decided not to meet with the client. Oy!
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