So Pithy

Or not.

Category: Miscellany

Lend me your ears

You can’t get there from here.
Actually, you can get almost anywhere from here, but it’s usually going to take at least two flights.
Which is fine, except for some reason my ears won’t pop after the second flight. They’re fine after the first one, but not so much after the second.

When I dream of Africa

Sometimes I dream about Africa.
I’ve been to Africa. Once. For a couple months during the summer.
In my dreams I’ve been back several times. But not to the continent I came to know. My subconscious has transformed it into a collage of extremes, juxtaposing tropical coastlines with Middle Eastern cityscapes. It’s nothing like the blend of [...]

Fresh or frozen

A couple weeks ago I stopped buying frozen vegetables (California blend) in favor of fresh carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. I’ve since switched back. The reason? Price and ease of preparation. And to tell the truth, when I do a good job steaming the frozen veggies they don’t taste that much worse. Although that may be [...]

Hydration

As I run longer and longer distances, and especially as I do so in ever warmer weather, keeping hydrated has started to become an issue. So I’ve started looking into possible solutions, and so far I’m leaning towards CamelBak’s Stamina II, which includes not only two water bottles but also space for my iPod, some [...]

I’m a loser, baby

Ok, I’m not a loser, but I tend to have a bad influence on the performance of the Red Sox whenever I watch or listen to games live. Tonight, though, things turned out better than I expected–though it was touch and go for a while there. Hopefully I’ll have the same luck when I take [...]

Even worse

The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.
Apparently it’s even worse than I thought…

Backwards

Some people seem to think torture is ok (or at least tolerable if it “works”) but gay marriage is immoral and will destroy everything our country stands for.
Seems to me they have it backwards.

Standards

I am not (appearances to the contrary, perhaps?) always the model student, but when I hear about graduate students failing to turn in papers for weeks without an explanation, or plagiarizing an admissions essay, or when I see examples of copy/paste from Wikipedia, I become a little disheartened.
Then again, if this is my competition on [...]

Slumdog Millionaire

Good movie, but isn’t it a bit of a stretch that he not only knew all those answers but learned them in the order they came on the show? Also: does it work differently in India, or did the movie just take artistic license (to heighten the tenaion) by making it seem like he would [...]

Let them eat cake

One might not expect me to have an opinion, but I do: I think the best cake decorator in the country is Bronwen Weber (her poor showing in Food Network’s “Last Cake Standing” notwithstanding–when she’s on she can’t be beat.) And I think the funniest is Geof Manthorne (of Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes“.)
Funny thing [...]