Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

February 5, 2014 · 10:11 pm

Girl Scouts v. Guns

In California, a young girl selling Girl Scout cookies knocked on a man’s door and he opened it and pointed a gun straight at her.  The girl, and her father, backed away quickly, and called police immediately.  The police came and arrested the guy.  At least that.

He undoubtedly feared for his life

He undoubtedly feared for his life

Since this happened in America, it’s not even certain they will take the guy’s gun away, much less whether or not he will do any jail time.  It’s not like he was smoking pot or anything.

I suspect it’s closely related to the Girl Scout cookie boycott that is being organized by anti-abortion groups, because somebody associated with the Girl Scouts said something about how Texas State Senator Wendy  Davis (who they hate hate hate) was a good role model for women.

Both police and the Girl Scouts are trying to play this down, calling it an “isolated incident,” but it is not an isolated incident.  It is an incident of a crazy person with a gun using that gun to intimidate people by threatening to kill them.  Sometimes they actually do kill people.

It was the problem in the Trayvon Martin incident, it was the problem in Gabby Giffords’ shooting (let us not forget that, while Giffords made a complete recovery, several people died that day), it was the problem when that ex-cop shot the guy in the cinema for texting, it  was the problem at Columbine and Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook and at all of the school shootings which have happened recently, apparently they are coming at the rate of a couple every week, they don’t even make the news any more unless massive numbers are dead.

It is a huge problem and the solution is simple.  Crazy people should not be allowed to have guns.

Maybe there should be a test.  Question #1: a 10 year old girl knocks  on your door.  It is broad daylight, and she is wearing a girl scout uniform, and has a wagonload of cookies.  Do you

a) Say “No, thank you. I object to the Girl Scouts due to my bizarre political ideology.”

b) Say “Oh, yes, please.  I love Girl Scout Cookies.”

c) Pretend you are not home.

d) Point a gun at her and threaten to blow her head off.

If you answer d, you should not be allowed to own a gun.

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February 4, 2014 · 10:14 pm

Lost

Prague is a city of infinite variety and even after living here for 15 years I still find myself, at times, in neighborhoods I have never been to before.  It’s one of the most interesting cities to be lost in in the whole world, and I’ve been lost in London, Paris, Bangkok, Jerusalem and many others.

Today I got royally lost but, since I was on my way to a new class, it was a bit of a pain in the ass.  Interesting, though.

Watch Your Step

Watch Your Step

We left plenty of time in case we got a bit lost.  We, because the Iranian embassy school had asked us to provide two teachers for classes at the same time.  It would have been much more convenient if they could have had the classes back to back and one teacher could have done it, but the customer is always right, so Annie and I met up at noon and set out.

The first part went smoothly enough, metro and tram and we got into the neighborhood with a half hour to spare, and I thought my little hand drawn map, which I’d copied from  the internet, was perfect.  The first surprise was that what looks like a nice 3 block walk on the internet proved to be straight up a long flight of ice covered stairs.

The problem started at the top of the stairs.  The street we were supposed to be looking for wasn’t there.  Now, Prague is notorious for not having a lot of street signs.  You can sometimes walk for blocks and not see an identifying sign.  To make matters worse, locals often don’t know the names of the streets, navigating more by landmarks.  Also, the locals don’t particularly care if anyone who is not a local is lost or not.

So, I took my best guess (she was more or less following me, which was a big mistake on her part) and we set out.  We asked directions frequently, and the responses ranged from ‘don’t know’ to  ‘I think it’s sort of that way’ in varying degrees of certainty, but one encouraging sign was that everybody who said ‘I think it’s up that way’ was sort of pointing in the same direction.

They were all quite mistaken.

We eventually did find it, after a few phone calls, and we were only about 10 minutes late.  The lessons went well, and they were pretty understanding about it so, in retrospect, it was a lovely 45 minute walk.

After the class, I picked up Isabel from school and we were almost late for her tennis lesson.  I’m worn out.

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February 3, 2014 · 11:44 pm

Thoughts on the Superbowl

Congratulations, Seattle friends!  Tough luck, Denver friends, better luck next year.

Of course I didn’t actually watch the game.  The time zone thingie made it rather impractical.  I’m old enough that there is pretty much nothing that’s going to keep me up until 4 a.m., especially when I have to wake up at 7 a.m.  I don’t even stay up for election results, and that’s a hell  of a lot more important to me than a stupid football game.

This is how Americans eat on Super Bowl Sunday

This is how Americans eat on Super Bowl Sunday

Also, what with all the commercial breaks, an extended half-time for the show, time-outs and anything else that can stop the clock, the game (which is officially 60 minutes long) takes about 3 hours.  That’s as long as a Lord of the Rings movie and those at least had the justification that they were trying to do justice to a long and complicated book.

Of course, most people don’t actually sit still for that long, there are trips back and forth to the kitchen and the bathroom and, unlike watching a Lord of the Rings movie in the cinema, you are allowed, even expected, to jump up and down and cheer and shout excitedly at irregular intervals.  Of course, Seattle fans had a lot more of those chances than Denver fans.

A lot of people I talked to (mostly Denver fans) were complaining that it was really a pretty poor game but one thing I liked about the result was the completely unexpected nature of it.  I love seeing experts proven totally, wildly wrong.  It happens more in sports than real life but it still keeps things interesting and gives us hope that anything can happen.

The weird thing about Super Bowl Sunday is that, like Black Friday, it is morphing into an American holiday.  What with the elaborate snack trays, and extended groups of family and friends gathering at the home of whoever has the biggest TV, it is like Thanksgiving in February.

One Super Bowl tradition I really don’t get is this obsession over the advertisements.  I don’t care how much money they spend on them, how high the production values are, how many celebrities are in them, it is still just a commercial.  They are trying to convince you to buy something.  It may look like a work of art, but it is still just a sales pitch.

There’s one commercial in particular that I’ve been hearing about, and that’s just because of the reaction to it.  (disclaimer: as I said, I didn’t see the game and I haven’t seen the commercial – I  am commenting on the reaction.)  I’m referring to the Coca Cola commercial wherein, apparently, some people sang America the Beautiful in languages which were not English.

Teabaggers are going nuts and threatening to boycott Coca Cola.  They are offended that such a patriotic song should be sung in any language other than English.  I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir of my liberal friends when I say those people are racist, illiterate morons.

But, one thing I’d like to add: There’s no way they are going to boycott Coke.  They were raised on Coke, it was the drink which weaned them from their mother’s milk.  They deep fry it and eat it on a stick.

The Coca Cola company doesn’t have a thing to worry about.  This will blow over quickly.

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February 2, 2014 · 6:50 pm

The Mind is a Tardis

Today is both Super Bowl Sunday and Groundhog Day.  How often does that happen?

Anyway, Punxatawney Phil saw his shadow, so lots more winter to come but, logically, that should only apply to the region around Punxatawney and, in this era of the internet and high speed fact checking, we know that the groundhog’s predictions are correct no more often than random chance would account for.  Also, nobody would pay any attention to G Day at all except for that movie where Bill Murray falls in love with Andie McDowell which really had nothing to do with it except that’s the setting.  Since it was one of the best movies ever, I take this opportunity to mention it.

As to the Super Bowl, I don’t care who wins.  Pro sports always comes down to which city has spent the most money to attract the best players.  I suppose I’m rooting for Seattle, because I know more people there than I do in Denver, but if Denver wins it will not ruin my day and I’m certainly not planning on staying awake to watch it, although if I’m still up at 1 a.m. I may glance at the sports channels to see if it’s on.

You can't see what's inside from the outside

You can’t see what’s inside from the outside

What I want to write about tonight, though,  is a poem I’ve been trying to write since Thursday.  Thursday at 6:54 a.m. to be precise, I was on the bus on my way to my first class when the idea hit me.  Basically, the idea is that there’s no way we can know just from looking at somebody what’s going on inside their heads and the universe of thoughts that’s contained inside each one is as infinite as the outside universe.  I’d started and crossed lines out a few times and this morning got these 4 written down…

I see your face, I look into your eyes

they are the windows of the soul, it’s said

No way! No matter how hard I might try

I cannot see the thoughts inside your head

…and that’s where I got stuck but for the 2nd stanza the image that popped into my mind was that of the Tardis, bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.  I don’t know if it will actually fit into this poem, a lot depends on what rhymes with what and poems (at least my poems) tend to write themselves and don’t always wind up saying exactly what I intend them to say, but…

I wonder if the creators of Dr. Who thought of that metaphor, if the Tardis is actually supposed to represent the mind, the imagination, an entire universe of possibilities contained within a very small, manageable space.

If they didn’t, perhaps they should have.  It’s a good metaphor.

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February 1, 2014 · 11:29 pm

Dumb Dogs

Like most dog lovers, I’ve got my favorite breeds.  I love border collies and cocker spaniels and terriers of all kinds – mid-sized, high energy dogs you can run around the park and have some fun with.  I’m also rather fond of huge dogs, like St. Bernards and Rottweilers, but that’s more an aesthetic appreciation.  However, dogs are individuals and they have individual personalities.  I’d always feared Pit Bulls and, by extension Boxers, who are often mistaken for Pit Bulls, until I got a Boxer, sort of by default, because his previous owner had to relocate rather suddenly due to legal problems.  Zappa was a great dog.  Whenever I was sitting on the couch watching TV, he would climb right up.  He had no idea he wasn’t meant to be a lap dog.

Dumb, but Lovable

Dumb, but Lovable

I’ve seen plenty of lists of most intelligent breeds, and I enjoy reading them, but this puts a bit of perspective on things.  The 5 dumbest breeds.  Apologies to anybody who is a big fan of one of these, but some breeds had to be the dumbest, and I’m not terribly surprised with any of the ones on the list.

Chihuahuas are obvious.  They bark at everything, which is dumb because they’re not big enough to do anything about it and the constant yapping just makes you want to kick them in the teeth.  Nonetheless they are popular with little old ladies who live in small apartments and would probably be happier with a cat, but you can’t take a cat for a walk, so there you are.

Pugs are no surprise, either.  They just plain look stupid.

I was a bit surprised to see Weimaraners on the list, but that’s just because I’ve never given them much thought at all.  They are beautiful animals, but since I’ve never really thought of them as bright dogs, I’m not stunned to see them on the dumb list.

Irish Setters were no surprise at all.  They are pretty, especially when they are leaping to catch a Frisbee, but they will leap just the same if you throw a rock.  I once knew a guy who had an Irish Setter and he would do that, throw totally inappropriate objects and his dog would leap and catch them.  Actually, he was a bit of an asshole.

I’m also a bit surprised to see Basset Hounds on that list because they are hunting dogs and hunting requires a bit of brains, but I guess you just have to have more than an opossum, which ain’t much.  Their other job is to be a floor decoration on a hillbilly’s porch, and that doesn’t require a canine genius.

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