grab bag
1) I'm in love with John Stuart Mill.* Now I guess I have to actually learn something about him. I've ordered On Liberty from the library.
2) Cook is reading a book (one of my all-time favorites) by an earlier crush of mine, about Scott's trip to the South Pole, and it's driving him crazy. "PONIES!!!" he groans, "why would you take PONIES on a trip to the South Pole?!" and then we discuss turn-of-the-century British attitudes.**
3) The rain has begun! It's officially fall! Soup! Tea! Blankets! Sweaters! At the moment, I'm feeling pretty good about this, planning all sorts of baking and reading and indoorsy-whatnot. In two months, maybe not so much. We'll see.
4) I'm reading a book for one of my classes that I think will help me with my negotiations with Dutch. All my books for that class could easily be found a self-help section of the bookstore. So after I Get to Yes with Dutch, I will Make Meetings Work.
5) I've been listening to something beautiful.
6) On my birthday, I got onto a streetcar crowded with a class of 7th graders and their chaperones. There was nowhere to sit, as is usually the case on the streetcar, and as I put my bag down and got out my magazine, one of the chaperones, a woman at least 10 years older than me, OFFERED ME HER SEAT. Apparently, reaching the advanced age of 32 has pushed me over a threshold, and now I look like a person who really needs to sit down. The grave is gaping before me!
7) Please take a moment to make sure you're registered to vote at your current address.
* Read the article! What an awesome guy!
**In case you haven't experienced a brief obsessive interest in turn-of-the-century Antarctic exploration, here's a synopisis. Amundsen got to the Pole and back before Scott got there and then didn't get back. Scott was all about courage and pluck and honor and whatnot, and based his expedition on horses and "motor-sledges" - the sledges broke, the horses died, the canvas clothes didn't exactly keep anybody warm, and people died. Amundsen was all about thoughtful planning and Scandinavian understatement, and based his expedition on dogs and skis. Nobody died, nobody even got frostbite (they wore fur), the trip was a relative breeze. People have been arguing fruitlessly for the last hundred years about whether Scott was a hero or a total ninny. I lean strongly toward the total ninny argument, myself. But, as Cook pointed out, Scott et al would have died in World War I anyway, if they'd survived the trip. So no harm, no foul, right?
2) Cook is reading a book (one of my all-time favorites) by an earlier crush of mine, about Scott's trip to the South Pole, and it's driving him crazy. "PONIES!!!" he groans, "why would you take PONIES on a trip to the South Pole?!" and then we discuss turn-of-the-century British attitudes.**
3) The rain has begun! It's officially fall! Soup! Tea! Blankets! Sweaters! At the moment, I'm feeling pretty good about this, planning all sorts of baking and reading and indoorsy-whatnot. In two months, maybe not so much. We'll see.
4) I'm reading a book for one of my classes that I think will help me with my negotiations with Dutch. All my books for that class could easily be found a self-help section of the bookstore. So after I Get to Yes with Dutch, I will Make Meetings Work.
5) I've been listening to something beautiful.
6) On my birthday, I got onto a streetcar crowded with a class of 7th graders and their chaperones. There was nowhere to sit, as is usually the case on the streetcar, and as I put my bag down and got out my magazine, one of the chaperones, a woman at least 10 years older than me, OFFERED ME HER SEAT. Apparently, reaching the advanced age of 32 has pushed me over a threshold, and now I look like a person who really needs to sit down. The grave is gaping before me!
7) Please take a moment to make sure you're registered to vote at your current address.
* Read the article! What an awesome guy!
**In case you haven't experienced a brief obsessive interest in turn-of-the-century Antarctic exploration, here's a synopisis. Amundsen got to the Pole and back before Scott got there and then didn't get back. Scott was all about courage and pluck and honor and whatnot, and based his expedition on horses and "motor-sledges" - the sledges broke, the horses died, the canvas clothes didn't exactly keep anybody warm, and people died. Amundsen was all about thoughtful planning and Scandinavian understatement, and based his expedition on dogs and skis. Nobody died, nobody even got frostbite (they wore fur), the trip was a relative breeze. People have been arguing fruitlessly for the last hundred years about whether Scott was a hero or a total ninny. I lean strongly toward the total ninny argument, myself. But, as Cook pointed out, Scott et al would have died in World War I anyway, if they'd survived the trip. So no harm, no foul, right?
Comments
you must have skipped a grade. either that or descendants of swedish folk start kindergarten a year earlier in the states?
fascinating!