Friday Odds and Ends

T.S. Eliot must have lived in the Hinterlands.


Just finished Imaginary Friends by Alison Lurie and thought it was as enjoyably good as everything else of hers I've read. I'll spare you the details but will hint that the title is significant.


I am getting awfully sick of the media blitz over Imus (but I sure love that Wikipedia). Yes it was a horrible thing to say, the basketball team is justifiably outraged and there should be appropriate censure. However....
----from the outset it sounded like a whole lot of talking newsheads were really enjoying repeating the slur.
----he's know as a Shock-Jock DJ with a particularly mean mouth so why are we all acting so surprised?
----why have we elevated certain slurs into greater crimes than others? Do you really think there would have been as much fuss if the show had stopped at just "hos" ["whores"]? What about that "Hymietown" flap back in 1984? What about the pervasive use of "gay" to mean "lame" or "stupid"? Why wasn't there a call for total media reform over those things?
----that whole "media reform" concept sounds like censorship to me...and I thought we as a nation were against that.
----some individuals are getting a whole lot of self-righteous television time they wouldn't otherwise have had; is that personal gain from other's pain I smell?
----whatever happened to the concept of forgiveness? Much though it pains me to agree with the man, Pat Robertson made a good point last night with "He asked for forgiveness and they hung [sic] him" (and as far as I know he's the only "man of the cloth" who has made such a statement.)
----speaking of forgiveness, don't those with moral superiority issues realize that the position of "you're so unimportant and insignificant that I can forgive you and move on; you're to be pitied rather than hated" is one of much greater strength than "how dare you hurt me?"
----why is this stupidity more important to broadcast than the war getting our young people killed and the lies leading up to it?

Okay, I'll shut up on that subject now but not before commenting that I think this was a great response to a nasty slur.


Public Service Suggestion: If you use black pepper at all, switch from the ground kind to whole peppercorns nevermind that the grinder is more expensive than a shaker. Not only is the flavor on a whole new and improved level but you will no longer have to be concerned about the fact that the acceptable standard for insect parts and other extraneous matter is not zero.


This is a really interesting blog.


I don't believe ConAgra about the peanut butter or the Chinese about the wheat gluten. Caveat Emptor has never been more applicable.


You can buy these at the local drugstore now--blew my mind when I walked by the display last week.


I've decided I'm not a big fan of knitting designs that have you progressively increase till the yarn is all gone...reminds me of that wedding gown story I read a few years back.


Ray had an excellent post today with which I couldn't agree more.


Have a happy spring weekend and practice tolerance, y'all!