November 2005

Underwhelmed.

November 30, 2005

My buddy Steve is a pretty good karaoke singer. He usually sings old standards such as “The Lady is a Tramp,” “The Summer Wind,” and “Volare.” He’s good enough that couples will get up and dance during his renditions—and he scats “Minnie the Moocher” better than anyone aside from Cab Calloway himself. Anyhow, last night I [...]

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On turning 30.

November 23, 2005

When growing up, you go through a stretch where birthdays are more than mere parties featuring the eating of cake, slurping of punch, and opening of presents. Starting at about your tenth birthday, they take on greater significance; you look forward to them with greater eagerness than before, for they mark rites of passage into [...]

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“Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels.”

November 20, 2005

One of my favorite novels is A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr. It tells of the recycling of civilization centuries after a nuclear war, from the vantage point of a Roman Catholic monastery in Utah. My favorite dialogue is when Abbot Zerchi and a doctor argue about using one of the abbey’s courtyards for examining people [...]

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Idolatry.

November 17, 2005

I was going to write about the Georgia price-gouging “scandal,” but a former student of mine brought an interesting little tidbit to my attention. (Incidentally, is there any such thing as a “large” tidbit?) Evidently there is an on-line fan club dedicated to me—one that I didn’t start myself. Modesty would compel me to say that I am [...]

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Both beggar and chooser.

November 12, 2005

I had some difficulty deciding what to write about today, for there was much in recent days that raised my ire: Oil company executives having to defend their prices in front of Congressmen who can spend as much of other people’s money as they want, raise taxes on other people’s money almost as much as they [...]

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Arrrr.

November 8, 2005

Occasionally there are items in the news that seem almost anachronistic, as though they shouldn’t be happening now. A particular event may seem too archaic to be happening anymore, or too futuristic to be happening yet. Case in point: the riots outside Paris “should not” be happening. The prototype of the modern welfare-state should not be dealing with [...]

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Halloween night.

November 3, 2005

I finally had a somewhat strange Halloween experience of my own. I had an interview in Bradley, Illinois on Tuesday at noon. This quiet little town is only about an hour south of Chicago, but I didn’t want to take the chance of driving down Tuesday morning and getting caught in horrible traffic, or getting hit by a blimp or [...]

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