Or, at least, an unrelated happy event. Here’s a line from one of his letters to a friend: “The little one is very sickly and must go to Arosa [where there’s a sanatorium] for a year. My wife is also ailing. Worries and more worries. Nevertheless, I have found a nice generalization of the Sommerfield-Epstein […]
Error Message
Dealing with my health insurance’s online presence is amazingly frustrating. One small example is this error I received when trying to reset my password: “The reset function is unavailable at this time. NOTE: Representatives at this phone number can only help you with Registration, Forgotten User Name, Forgotten Password issues. For all other issues, please […]
Signing In
Some esoteric grammar talk coming up. Run and hide. I haven’t seen this addressed anywhere else, so here I am addressing a need. (I haven’t looked very hard, but whatever.) Do you “sign into” the web site, or “sign in to” the web site? It’s used both ways all over the place, but in my […]
Pan (ic; demic; demonium)
It means absolutely nothing has changed since yesterday, except for the way it feels. Swine Flue is a pandemic. Australia (especially my probably-someday-to-be-adopted city of Melbourne) has allowed the enemy to gain a foothold. Same with the U.K., I guess, and Japan.
Congratulations to English!
The English language has (arguably) hit its million-word mark. See for yourself. [Thanks to @foliosociety]
Big Book
If anyone’s interested in Agatha Christie, or books, check out this beast. The front cover is over a foot away from the back cover. Funny thing is, it’s only 4,000 pages. They could have made it bigger all round, sparing the footlongedness of it all. But obviously they didn’t want to!
R.I.P. Tom Paine
Tom Paine believed in Liberty, and he fought tyranny his whole life. His writings helped spark a revolution, the effects of which are still felt to this day, exactly 200 years after his death. He also believed in God, but not in the Bible, which got him in some hot water here and there. And […]
Patriots Should Use Sacagawea Dollars
There, I’ve said it. If you live in the United States and want to fight the national debt, then buy and use Sacagawea dollars. The potential savings to the US is apparently 500 million bucks. Ok, that’s paltry when compared to the actual national debt, but it’s nothing to sneeze at. Don’t think about the […]
Einstein
I’m reading a biography of Einstein, by Walter Isaacson. There are lots of “didja knows” throughout the book, but the theme seems to be how Einstein’s creativity and irreverence were the keys to his scientific life and success. A few notable items that have nothing to do with that theme: 1. He had an illegitimate […]
Failure to Communicate
Sitcoms are Stupid In the world of sitcoms and dumb movies, a guy going to a foreign land is bound to say something completely idiotic in the strange language. While shaking hands with a possible business partner, he says, “your rhinoceros is very snotty.” Or “your mother is pregnant with my baby.” Then, either everyone […]