The Trouble with Macs

Finally discovered what's fouling up the works.



(photo reblogged from Frybos.)

Things That Worry Me

The final entry in my American Heritage Dictionary is zyzzyva, for which there aren't nearly enough relevant tiles in Scrabble, though it's at least a 43 point move. (Damn!)

Does this really mean that the weevil gets the last word?

Addendum: I learned that the highest single word score evah is 360 for quixotry, by a non-expert level tournament player. Read more here.

The Good Book

Today I was fired from Barnes and Noble because a customer complained that I had stocked Christian Bibles in the fiction section.

(reblogged from One Sentence archive - story #3286)

I've always felt that it's a big mistake on the part of the public school system not to make The Bible a part of the freshman year English curriculum, as they did at my non-denominational private school. Let's face it, those stories are the basis of most of Western literature and art. Sadly, I was bumped back into public school for 9th grade (that was a matter of denomination of the greenback variety), so I missed my Bible primer. Most of my intermittent exposure to Sunday School was spent at the Mormon church, where they focused more attention on a whole other book of mythology.

Which reminds me of a time when I was maybe eight and we were driving to a LDS summer camp. I was deeply engrossed in D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, which gave rise to great concern amongst the ladies in the VW Bus. They were very sweet about it, but oh what an uproar of ridiculous clucking! I endured their worries for my immortal soul, and somehow suppressed the impulse to roll my eyes. By the way, if any of you true believers out there have any ambitions for your children to attend a decent university, please don't deprive them of exposure to the classics and other belief systems. Keeping them ignorant of history will not assist them in pursuit of a Liberal Arts education.

In any case, I had to wait for Art History classes and Joseph Campbell to really start soaking up Angel Wrestling, Sacrifices of Beloved Sons, Decapitating Bitches, and Loaves and Fishes. Religion is, of course, a matter of faith for some and a matter of choice for others, but I think even many rational Christians can agree that there is some manner of literature on those hallowed pages. Whether God actually wrote it (which I seriously doubt, bereft as it is of consistent poetry, humor & joy), or it's the work of man, its value is not diminished. Whatever the case, B&N can suck it.

The Radiance

...We sense there is some sort of spirit that loves
birds and animals, and the ants --
perhaps the same one who gave a radiance to you in
your mother's womb.
Is it logical you'd be walking around entirely
orphaned now?
The truth is, you turned away yourself,
and decided to go into the dark alone.
Now you are tangled up in others, and have forgotten
what you once knew
and that is why everything you do has some weird
failure in it.


- Kabir, 13th C (translated by Robert Bly)

"Compassion is the ultimate attitude of wealth:

an anti-poverty attitude, a war on want. It contains all sorts of heroic, juicy, positive, visionary, expansive qualities. And it implies larger scale thinking, a freer and more expansive way of relating to oneself and the world. It is the attitude that one has been born fundamentally rich rather than that one must become rich."

- Chogyam Trungpa

Beautiful Fox Pass, USA

We've all been there a time or two. I visit nearly every time I open my mouth.



*(aka faux pas, though in truth, it's a mere spelling mistake, not a true gaffe. Sometimes you have to sacrifice accuracy for a joke or a sign of gratitude.)