Dude:
Reeking of skunkweed and hasty lavatory wiping is no way to go through life. I’m just saying. I pity the poor bastard who had to sit next to you for three and a half hours. It must have been like having a coach seat in Willie Nelson’s outhouse.
So, seriously, dude: Before you subject anyone else to your (literally) crappy pot-smoking ass, air out and take a second pass with the TP wad. It’s really not too much to ask.
Thank you for your attention.
You go there now. That’s an order. And if you don’t know who Frederik Pohl is, please launch yourself into a wood chipper. That is all.
An interesting article in the New York Times about the diversity of the families to which the First Family belongs:
The family that produced Barack and Michelle Obama is black and white and Asian, Christian, Muslim and Jewish. They speak English; Indonesian; French; Cantonese; German; Hebrew; African languages including Swahili, Luo and Igbo; and even a few phrases of Gullah, the Creole dialect of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Very few are wealthy, and some — like Sarah Obama, the stepgrandmother who only recently got electricity and running water in her metal-roofed shack — are quite poor.
The article notes the First Family is more diverse than most families, and it is, although I wonder if it is in fact substantially more diverse. My own extended family has white, Hispanic and black members, Christians and non-believers, straights and not-so-straights, poor and well-off, college graduates and those who didn’t finish high school, liberals and conservatives, and so on and so forth. Diversity happens, simply as a consequence of people being people, to whom one just happens to be related.
To be sure, the Obama-Robinson family overachieves in the diversity area as they appear to do in so many things. Damn overachievers! But it’s an issue of degree, not kind. As the article suggests, this is the direction we’re headed. I can’t see a problem with this, personally. Look where it’s gotten the Obamas.
More coming later in the day when I have some real work done, but first: Notes!
* First, hey, I made it home. And it’s good to be here. For three days, after which I travel again. Sigh.
* After a week of working off my Acer netbook, my desktop monitor looks like a stadium Jumbotron. It’s awesome.
* I have a little more than a week’s worth of mail to wade through, which I will try to do today and tomorrow. I’ll do my usual Obligatory Mail Post when I’m done with that, signaling you if you’ve not heard from me and wanted to that you may resend. Please don’t until then.
* Yes, I watched the inauguration, and yes, I teared up. For a couple of reasons, which you can probably figure out. Then I walked about saying “Happy New President Day!” to people. That said, my feeling at the moment is: Congratulations, Mr. President. Now get to work.
* I’m very disappointed that in the previous comment thread, people spent so much time feeding the troll. Really, people: Haven’t I trained you better at this point? Do you really need me to be here and moderate every thread? When someone comes in brandishing several of the Troll Playing Cards™ and slaps them down on the conversational table, don’t you know to walk away? It’s the three-card monte of online conversation: no matter what you say, the troll wins. Please leave trolls alone, won’t you? Even when I’m away? I would appreciate it. Thank you.
Now, off to catch up on some stuff. See you all a little bit later.
