Category Archives: fun

slow motion dogs

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This is a really beautiful Pedigree commercial. Beautiful in the sense that the dogs in it are.

Somebody sent it to me a couple of days ago, and now I can't remember who, or who I shared it with in turn. But it doesn't seem to be here on the blog, so now you have it too.

Enjoy … One thing, though. Don't just click the play button. That plays a wimpy little version.

Click the little button in the lower right corner of the video that looks like this.

This will open the video in full screen. When it's over, press the Esc button on your keyboard.

fair warning

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I’ve been known, though not widely, to say I like all vegetables. “I never met a vegetable I didn’t like,” or something, say I.

I’m generalizing. There are a few veggies I cannot abide. For example, I like corn. I like it just about any way you want to cook it. But I absolutely do not like those little baby corn cobs I all too often encounter in Asian dishes.

Disgusting. I don’t know why.

So, just don’t say you didn’t know, in advance. Nobody puts baby corn in my food, nobody gets hurt.
Capiche?

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It’s

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If you’ve been wondering how your brain works – or not – John Cleese will explain it very quickly.

Just a little something to get you over the hump, if that’s how it goes.

poor little moron

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We are reformers in spring and summer; in autumn and winter we stand by the old — reformers in the morning, conservatives at night. Reform is affirmative, conservatism is negative; conservatism goes for comfort, reform for truth.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

He’s right, you know; at least, he has me down. I don’t usually discuss my politics on this blog, but they are a motley stew. For the most part, change that bears at its core a sense of compassion is a good thing, because things as they are kinda suck.

Which reminds me of something I saw on the freeway yesterday. There was a white van in the slow lane, going slow, and bearing on its back end, in large lettering, this:

Slow Driver
Please Be Kind

And I thought What an amazing idea. He’s not arguing for his right to go slower than the rest of us, or insisting that we’re all going too fast, or in some other way saying bite me. He’s just asking for kindness. It’s something that in our culture – no, we don’t actually have a culture – in our population, we don’t seem to value highly. Unless someone is kind in some very heartwarming way and it winds up on the news, we could scarcely care less.

In my life, I have adopted the phrase Gentle hands, kind words, which I thought was a quote of Albert Schweitzer, though it does not Google well. So I don’t know. But it has become a mantra for me, which I apply to my relationships with small animals. You are not a small animal, so if you cut me off in traffic then Heaven defend your ass.

I’m kidding. I have a phrase for you, if you stumble upon the thoroughfare and cause us all some calamity:

Poor little moron.

It’s the same thing I say of myself when I mess things up. Like the time, not long ago, when I was trying to make myself a blueberry smoothie with my blender. I put in the ice and water, the low-calorie mix, the blueberries, and hit ON. But had a forgotten the lid. Kablooie! All over the kitchen. Poor little moron.

It has a ring of pity or sympathy, right?  I think it’s something my grandpa used to say. And it reminds me of the Nasrudin jokes I’ve heard from Coleman Barks. That’s the best I can do. But sometime in the future, we should ponder this one from old Doc Schweitzer:

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

no more rooms?

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Since January 2007, the Guardian has published a series of photos and personal commentary “Portraits of the spaces where authors create,” called Writers’ Rooms.

The series seems to have come to a whimpering end. The most recent installment was added July 18, with the portrait of a musician’s room.

That there is no note on the Guardian’s site about the end of the series, or on a summer holiday hiatus, etc., may speak to a yawning lack of professionalism as much as a deliberate conclusion. Even those of us who publish personal blogs would mention if we planned to take a longer-than-usual break. That a major paper wouldn’t bother is simply sad.

Still, I have enjoyed and appreciated the series as an entertaining glimpse into the personal lives of my fellow artists. It was a good idea, generally well executed, and a bit of fun with my coffee on Saturday mornings. … Cheers.