What I'm thinking about
A periodic posting of thoughts and observations.
2006 08 08 - Help!
As I mentioned on the home page... I'd appreciate you taking a moment to send me your nomination of "The most dangerous word in America". Send it to my email, or use the 'Feedback' feature of the Forum page.
2006 07 25 - Like Science Fiction...
That Takes Brains
2006 07 05
I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July. Sandy and I had some friends and family over to celebrate. We were able to borrow a smoker on a trailer from one of her co-workers, and I was up every 90 minutes throughout the night stoking the beast. Fun!
Now the fireworks are going off in earnest around the neighborhood, and my poor little dog is scared to death, as usual on New Years, July 4th, and anytime there's thunder. Last night, with both thunder and early fireworks, was bad. Sigh.
I just got one of those periodic emails extolling the Pledge of Allegiance and wondering why anyone could possibly object to the phrase "under god" contained within it. My comments forthcoming, soon. I hope you'll read them and reply with your comments -- do you agree with my thoughts, disagree with my thoughts, did I change your thinking at all? Look for that sometime this week.
2006 07 05
Pet Peeve: I don't mind the automated attendants that have you push 4 for this and 9 for that... but what *does* bother me is the all-too-common message, "Please listen to the options, as our menu has changed." Would you **please** help me out just a little bit here, and tell me *when* your menu changed? If I just called yesterday, might I know the order of the numbers I have to pick? Why make me listen to the whole menu tree if I wrote down the numbers two days after you last changed it?
2006 05 27
Whatever else you might think about Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay -- with the jury verdict in, you've got to admit that they are men of great conviction.
2006 05 08
OK, I know it's old news... but with all the brouhaha about Brokeback Mountain... doesn't the whole thing boil down to a movie about two Ang Lee men?
2006 04 16 Immigration
For a paradigm shift on immigration -- regardless of which side of the argument you're on -- take a look at the similarities between immigration of Hispanics to Texas now, with the immigration of Anglos to Texas in the 1830s, when it wss a Mexican territory. Maybe our current problems are just a case of "what goes around, comes around"?
Observations peripheral to the question:
- A television news program here in the Houston area a few months ago talked about the prevalence of some respritory disease (asthma?) among "American-born
Mexicans". I had to wonder how they were Mexicans if they were born in the US, as well as whether the same problems were seen in American-born Guatemalans, Brazillians, Equadorians, etc.
- It's always interesting to hear Mexico referred to as a South-American country... and to think they signed up for NAFTA!
- And I'm surprised how often I hear someone refer to people as "Mexicans" by sight alone. How do you know where a person was born by looking at them? And how do you tell the difference between an American Hispanic, and a native-born Mexican?
2006 01 30
In a Starbucks recently (a rare occasion in itself, but I was hoping to nab some internet access), I heard/saw a couple come in. She stopped to look at the gegaws and gimcracks (coffee cups and such). I heard her pick one up and start to show it to her husband: "Oh, look at...." At which point he interrupted, "We don't need any coffee cups."