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Seasonal Prospects
[Image found accompanying the "Christmas Snow" (December 25, 2010) post at John Bedell's bensozia blog] From whiskey river: Snow Walking through a field with my little brother Seth I pointed to a place where kids had made angels in the snow. For some reason, I told him that a troop of angels had been shot [...]
The History of English, in Ten(ish) Minutes
When I was a sophomore in high school — this was just a plain old everyday public high school, not a school for high-achieving nerds or anything — our English teacher let us write an end-of-year research paper on any topic we liked. I have no idea why, of all possible subjects, at the age [...]
When Non-English-Speaking Sp*mmers and Roget Collide
Sp*m comment o’the day: I’m not lily-livered of facts, I welcome facts but a congeries of facts is not match to an idea. This is the primary error of the pretended “scientific” mind. People who howler facts for ideas are undone thinkers; they are gossip. I’m not scared of facts, I appreciated facts but a [...]
Perfect Moments: “I Shot ‘im, Paw.”
The house in which The Missus and I live now is over twenty years old, as is our immediate neighborhood. But the area in general has only recently started to get built up. Real honest-to-gods wildlife, not yet squeezed out by housing and new roads, can still be spotted here and there — foxes, a [...]
When Cats and Boxes Converge…
…the boxes lose. [hat tip: Eschaton] _____________________ P.S. A follow-up video is called “The box which Maru can’t enter.” Oh, yes, Maru can.
Victims of Fashion (Men’s Department)
Someone, no doubt, has taken a census of active bloggers and other social-media types, focusing on gender. I don’t know what the breakdown might be; maybe I’m stereotyping at least one sex, if not both, but I would not be surprised to learn that more women than men contribute to the ebb and flow of [...]
Getting Through the Day (and Knowing It)
[Image: xkcd.com #324. The image's title attribute there says, "Sometimes the best fun looks like boredom." (Click image to enlarge.)] From whiskey river: Questions Before Dark Day ends, and before sleep when the sky dies down, consider your altered state: has this day changed you? Are the corners sharper or rounded off? Did you live [...]
Real-Life Dialogue: Return of the Bathroom Talker
It’s been a long time since I last posted about this guy. Not that I’ve had no further interaction with him, no. It’s just that all further interaction with him has been of the same unvarying sort. Nothing new to report. And I’ve also gotten cleverer about avoiding him. But this latest example just pushed [...]
The Writers’ Word-Time Equivalency Scale
Let’s suppose you are a writer, and value your time spent writing, and measure your success in a given writing session in terms of words written. So far so good. This describes about ninety percent of the writers I know. Let’s take it to another level. Suppose you are behind — or perceive yourself to [...]
The Shape of What You Live
[Image: "Angular Momentum," from xkcd.com. The tooltip/"hover title" at the original page says: "With reasonable assumptions about latitude and body shape, how much time might she gain them? Note: whatever the answer, sunrise always comes too soon. (Also, is it worth it if she throws up?)"] From whiskey river: Remembering And you wait. You wait [...]
