Thursday 13

Thirteen Random Musings 1. Inspired by the friendly debate between Mary and Frank over the use of Beatles songs in Across the Universe, this TT was going to be "Thirteen Covers that I Actually Like," but so far I haven't been able to come up with thirteen. Any suggestions? 2. I am mostly aging calmly, but one thing has caught me by surprise: the frown lines forming between my eyebrows. I was prepared for laugh lines and those nifty little crows feet that indicate one has spent a certain portion of one's life squinting into the sun. But frown lines?! No. Not even the knowledge that most of my frowning happens when I concentrate is bringing me any comfort. 3. Speaking of squinting into the sun, it has occurred to me that I can probably credit my commute with the fact that I do not suffer from SAD. Four or five mornings each week, I bask for forty to eighty minutes in whatever amount of light is shining through the T-tops in the MR2. Even with our sad lack of sunny days, it helps. Gotta take my silver linings where I find them. 4. We are facing some tough choices in our European vacation planning. With our start date dictated by Live and Learn and our return date dictated by a certain need to get home and start making money again, there is conflict between our desire to spend as much time as possible with Chiara and our desire to spend as much time as possible in Ireland. Hmm. Maybe Chiara can come to Ireland with us... 5. Here and here are the cottages that have made our short list for Ireland. 6. As I do from time to time, I am considering going blue* and becoming a full-time employee at the Velvet Sweatshop. The Pros and Cons lists are of equal length and weight, so it's a tough decision. Or a shrug, depending how you look at it. * "Going blue" refers to obtention of a blue cardkey as opposed to the orange one I possess now as a lowly temp. (Look, Steph! I just scored extra indexer points by using the word "obtention" in this footnote!) 7. A friend recently asked for my help in disputing an article forwarded to her by a right-leaning friend. The article (in a fine example of yellow journalism) was titled, "Twelve-month-long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming." The article cites Hadley and NASA as two of its top sources. And yet thirty seconds' Googling led me to these: NASA - "2007 Was Tied as Earth's Second-Warmest Year" http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20080116/ Hadley - "Global temperature 2008: Another top-ten year" http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2008/pr20080103.html As much as I might long to share in the persistent optimism of the deniers of global warming, the facts do not support it. Sad to say. Sadder to ignore. 8. Have I mentioned that I bank online? I love it, especially the page that lets me pay a whole stack of bills in less than a minute. And it has completely cured me of my former tendency to spend an hour getting the checkbook to balance to the penny. Checkbook balancing is a dying art. 9. As I type this, Frank is downstairs watching Keith Olbermann. Keith is complaining about Bill O. again, which is fine. But my Worst Person in the World has been and will be for a long, long time one George W. Bush. Yes, worse than Osama bin Laden. No contest. Here's why: Deaths 9/11/2001: 2973 Deaths in Iraq since 3/19/03: - American military alone — 3974 - Civilian deaths from violence — 80,000+ And counting. With no end in sight. All for a lie. 10. An Irish singer performed at my sister's wedding last month. I'm happy to report that he didn't sing Danny Boy (definitely click that link!). And this pub in NYC is banning the song this St. Patrick's Day. It was written by a Brit, you see. They also think it's too sad, but then many of the best Irish songs are. I've had a soft spot for "Molly Malone" for some time, mostly because the lyrics were featured in a book I read, and reading the lyrics, I realized I knew the tune, despite having no conscious memory of ever having heard the song before. Racial memory? But my most recent favorite "Irish" song (this one written by a Scottish-born Australian) is "No Man's Land," especially as covered by (aha!) Dropkick Murphys. 11. The Danny Boy link above led me to some great drum battles on YouTube: Animal and Harry Belafonte Animal and Buddy Rich Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa Buddy Rich and Jerry Lewis Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton, and Chico Hamilton 12. Someone said something last weekend about House not being likable. But I like him very much. Or maybe I just like watching him. He (and occasionally one of his cohorts) gets to say things we wish we were brave enough to say. Example: "Have you ever seen an infected pierced scrotum?" Okay, that was a joke. How about this one: "You put the Queen on your money, you're British." Or the line I'm sure Omar Epps was thrilled to say: "It just means we need to kill more white people." But it is interesting. I don't like jerks in real life, but jerks on TV can be my favorite protagonists to watch. And serial killers. And sleazy cops (at least in the first couple of seasons). But not all sleazy cops. 13. Don't you just love the Internet?

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