Thursday, February 15, 2007
Snow Day Blogules
- Brushes with Fame, no. 1: Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CT. I met Senator Dodd at a fundraiser several years ago. A family friend introduced us. He said to me – this is absolutely true, and I remember it well -- “where's the bar?”
- Brushes with Fame, no. 2: Henry Rollins. I met HR during my halcyon days as a college radio dj. He and I had an extended, and quite pleasant, conversation in which we discussed our mutual love of Miles Davis' Theme from Jack Johnson. He also told me about a time John Lee Hooker tried to pick up his girlfriend.
- Quoth The Girl, beaming proudly: “I wipe mine boogers with mine sock!”
- Every girlfriend I ever had for long enough to use the term 'girlfriend' was left-handed. The Wife, too, is left-handed. I attribute this to a semi-conscious desire for my future male progeny to be left-handed, since left-handed pitchers don't even have to be good to make the big bucks. The Boy is right-handed. God has a sense of humor.
- I'm thinking of starting an internet petition to the companies that make clothes for toddlers and young children. “We, the undersigned, beseech you to please, for the love of all that is good, make the neckholes big enough that you can take the shirt off the kid without inflicting major cranial trauma.” Kids' heads are proportionately larger, relative to their bodies, than adults'. You'd think shirtmakers would have figured that out by now. We don't even try turtlenecks anymore.
Although I've never seen a study specifically on this, I bet that Midwestern Scandinavians make lousy therapists. “Have you considered whining less, and perhaps walking it off?”
My simple, two-part plan to improve 24:
Teach Chloe a second facial expression.
More Nadia. Much more Nadia. Much, much more Nadia.
I recently reread Straight Man, by Richard Russo. The money quote, from page 357 : “A liberal arts dean in a good mood is a potentially dangerous thing. It suggests a world different from the one we know.” I laughed out loud.
The Boy didn't believe me when I told him that when I was growing up, we only got four channels on the tv. Once I finally convinced him it was true, which it was, he responded: “You must have used the computer a lot, then.” I am now officially old.
My 13 year old son tried to make a call last year and he was very confused by the sound on the other end. He asked me why the phone was making that strange noise. I asked him what kind of noise? He didn't know. So I listened.
A busy signal. In this age of call waiting and voicemail, he had never heard a busy signal before.
: 7:57 AM : 7:59 AM Then there was the joy of getting proper reception with the antennas . . .
: 8:25 AM Chloe completes me.
: 8:55 AM That's one of the Habits of Highly Effective People that Garrison Keillor hails in Homegrown Democrat. Others: Everybody Else is Just as Cold, and Don't Be a Noise With Legs.
We had a TV channel that was split between two stations! Educational TV (college public station) during the day and NBC at night.
24 could be improved a lot by having the star prosecuted for war crimes. Might also help our image overseas.
You can probably tell I am a midwestern scandinavian by one of my replies to SecondLine's comments (or were they trolls?).
: 10:19 AM : 2:40 PM As for the Midwestern Scandinavian bit? It's why I'm a historian, not a therapist!
I was on the stairmaster next to Barney Frank's stairmaster at the Metropolitan Health Club in Boston. On the TV in front of our group of stairmasters, a reporter for the ABC Evening News was interviewing Frank about President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. On the TV, Frank was wonderfully acerbic in his criticism of the Southern Republican Congressional leadership. On the stairmaster next to me, watching himself interviewed, he was sweating because his workout time was nearly finished.
We only get six channels on our television right now. But we do have ... er, seven computers in the house when the college kids are home.
TR
As a student and faculty member at big state schools, I also loved reading Jane Smiley's "Moo." My fav. moment of that book is the interdisciplinary meeting, where everyone applies the theories of their field to analyze their colleagues. The psychologists and English professors are especially funny.
My right handed brother and sister-in-law have a son the Boy's age who is a budding left-hander. My brother and I try to encourage this by playing catch left-handed with him. It's quite a sight, especially if we're using a football.
Straight Man -- what a great book. I was taken by the quotes about the power of a chair unfazed by others' impressions and enabled by a competent secretary.
: 9:33 PM I should go re-read that to console myself for my unemployed state.
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