T-Shirt Friday (January)

Coming in a bit late, but it’s still Friday for another hour and a bit here in the Atlantic states. This is a shirt my Albino Ex bought for me the second time we saw Puppetry of the Penis. I still think it’s one of the most brilliantly funny shows that ever went on the [...]

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The Tulip Pose

If you are a fanatical runner, especially if you are a guy, and prone to saying with a self-deprecating grin “I know I should stretch but…” Just cut it out. Stop making excuses and stretch or cross train or do something before you end up like the 60-year-old runners who land on my table with [...]

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The Oak of Damocles

Tonight they are talking a quarter-inch of ice in parts of the region. Pray to fuck it doesn’t get that far in my hood, because hovering over my bedroom is the Oak of Damocles, which stands on the property of my dimwit and penny-pinching neighbors but in August of 2007 deposited a branch bigger than [...]

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Medical Mayhem

If you want to tell me how invasive diagnostics save lives, go on Oprah, OK?
I worked on my second gratuitous colonoscopy victim this past weekend.  I did not have a good feeling when this lady told me that she was having a tandem colonoscopy/upper GI done before her next appointment. Seems her blood work had [...]

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The Tomb of the Unknown Kitty

There is a short block of divided road just before I turn into the gym parking lot, and Friday morning, right before my turn, I spotted a small whitish heap on the asphalt, inches from the median. Whenever I see things like this I hold my breath until I can tell it’s a painter’s rag [...]

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But Will It Grind?

That’s the question Giuseppe Verdi is reputed — probably apocryphally — to have asked when running a chorus from a soon-to-premiere opera by one of his inner circle. In the days before iTunes, you had public exposure if the organ grinders picked up your songs, and Verdi was popular enough that security measures were required [...]

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A Special Hell

I want it ordained, and now, for people who are otherwise perfectly capable of sophisticated intellectual activity but treat the Internet like a heavy blunt instrument.
I have an old client who has moved to parts afar. During her government career she dealt with international, multilingual trainees; she speaks three languages herself, and taught one of [...]

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Synesthesia

A quiz-thingummy over at Casa Az, which I at first mistook for a reference to the actual diatonic keyboard scale as on a piano or clavichord, reminded me of the synesthesias, if that’s the right word, that I have always had relating to numbers, musical notes and days of the week.
Unlike those who manifest full [...]

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Delurkation

I caught this notion from Nursemyra who caught it from someone else who… well, apparently it’s a national week for owning up that you visit someone’s blog.
I have to admit it piques my curiosity. I am sure I speak for us all when I wonder: do the hits on individual posts, usually double or triple [...]

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Gimme My F***in’ Senior Discount

I had this marvelous lady on the table today, a rugged old Kraut professor whose recovery from a hip replacement has involved timing herself on various walks around local exhibition gardens. She is a rabid fan of gardens and botanically interesting park trails, and has been periodically checking her mileage and elapsed time on all [...]

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