D&D

Dis and Dat. Not Dungeons and Dragons. Do people still play that?

Went to the supermarket today. I feared it would be crowded, and it was, fairly so; lots of him and her couples -- hims wander aimlessly or push the cart; hers tell him what to put in it; occasionally you get interesting conversations like "Hey, look at that, we should get that"; "Thats not what we normally buy, this is; its the same thing but it costs less" ; "Yeah, but this looks really good!". Also lots of old people, movin' slow. I have no great problem with that; I'll be doing that sooner than I think, I expect. I do have a problem when they put the damn cart over here, and stand over there, so as to maximize their use of space. Sometimes its while they're getting something, and taking their time to study the alternatives; sometimes, its just so they can stand and stare in blank befuddlement at the vast array of goods presented by the American Consumer System, as presented by Giant Food Stores: (Their motto: Just Because You Like It Doesn't Mean We'll Keep Selling It. ).

It occurred to me, watching these people, that a supermarket is a highway system, with offramps and billboards and traffic flow, complete with choke points and phantom traffic blockages. I found myself thinking 'They need a lay-by here to handle the people parking their cart while they go forage'. Express lanes in the aisles would be nice, too. I just want beans, for god's sake; do I HAVE to slog through all those people looking at the ten thousand kinds of tomato pastes?

But I got it done.

Kind of bummed: I was reading The Autobiography of Santa Claus and had to bring it back to the libe; someone else had requested it. Its kind of an interesting book. You can almost believe it's real.

I learned recently that an acquaintance of mine, a cardiologist, has dozens of different heart-shaped objects scattered over her desk. Bet she'd like this page.

An article in The Age says that US researchers from Harvard School of Public Health see no indication that the protocols used in security screening actually do any good. I'm not a defender of 'take off your shoes' thinking, but I do suspect they're missing the point of restricting inherently dangerous items which could easily be used by a malefactor -- even if the TSA's response does include the seriously bogus observation that 'more than thirteen million' prohibited items have been confiscated. Handkerchiefs! Let's make handkerchiefs prohibited! Just the ones with, umm, monograms!!!

Personally, I'm in favor of a government floor to airline ticket prices. I don't suspect that'd be too popular, though the airlines would like it. I'd also like to have the Privileged Traveler Gets An Express Line Through Security junked, too.

Apparently, the latest Spears pregnancy is ricocheting through the culture. This is an interesting Times article about it. The comment in the article about 'you can have sex in the middle of the day ' makes me want to lock my daughter up in a nunnery until she's twenty five. And I really appreciate the support of Hollywood in promoting role models, too.

Next week I make an 'Apple Betty', which I've never made before. A little apprehensive about that. I'll be making brownies, too. And, of course, the tiramisu. I'm really surprised how easy it was. Of course, my presentation is no where near professional standards. Then again, neither is my price!

I want to put out some more lights this afternoon. We are not major light users, but we do like to put out, oh, fifty or sixty gigawatts of multicolored brilliance, so as to dazzle the Russian spy satellites that peer enviously down at us. Think I spent too much time in SAC? Sadly gone, now, but remembered for its amazing ability to blend operational excellence with intensive paranoia. And, of course, their motto: Peace is Our Profession. Usually followed by the muttered codicil "...War is our Hobby."