No More Wi Wuv Woos.

I declare, as of this moment, an eternal moratorium on the use of the letter "W" in acronyms.

Why, because it's just plain stupid to use that letter for abbreviating anything.

Let me clarify.

Of all the phonemics we ascribe to English language characters, "double-ewe" is the only one that requires more than one syllable. Moreover, it takes three syllables to identify that particular Roman character. This makes it an exercise in futility to abbreviate a "W" word that contains less than four syllables because one reaps no net benefit from the shortening of the expression.

Now, I'm kind of an all or nothing guy but I'm willing to let slide true acronyms, those that are pronounced as if they were words: NASA, IATSE, ASVAB, BASTARDS and, to use a germane example, WYSIWYG. One does, in fact, shorten the amount of effort expended through this act of abbreviation. However, abbreviations that are identified by pronouncing the attendant phonemes ascribed to the characters, like FBI, ATM, ISBN, DUI and PPPoE, should not involve a "W." "Double-ewe-tee-eff,"requires more effort to say that "What the fuck."

I see two possible solutions. The one with which I began this post, simply saying "World Trade Center," rather than saying, "Double-ewe-tee-see," or we give the "W" a better name. Personally, I think that the second option is more functional. I suggest "wha" as the name for the character. I doubt that the etymological community is likely to go along.

Posting Will be Scant for a While

They tell me the reason that reality shows are so popular with networks is because they are so easy to make.

I don't know who came up with that because this gig is wearing me out.

A Hazy Shade of Winter

Earlier this month the temperature dipped into the teens. By Atlanta standards, that's cold.

Despite this, I left my heat off. I haven't turned on my heat in three years. I've weathered three winters with only blankets and an eight inch space heater. It sometimes gets cold enough to see my breath in my own living room. I'm bothered not at all by it.

Perhaps this is because the back room in my old house had been a storage space and was never properly insulated when remodeled into my childhood bedroom. I doubt it, though.

I'm not much bothered by heat, either. I turn on my AC for only the hottest few weeks each summer when the mercury breaks one hundred degrees and then only really to prevent the furniture from warping.

It's not that I don't feel the temperature, I do, very much. I sweat and I shudder. I bundle up and I strip down. I'm quite aware of the elements; I'm just not much concerned by them.

Most people live lives as comfortable as they are desperate, divorced from the oscillations of atmosphere. They never walk in the rain. They rarely go out into the wind. They hate to sweat and they never shiver. They live in hermetically sealed boxes, shielded from the weather as if underground.

I couldn't live like that.

Don't we loose something that way? We're made from the same meat and dust as the rest of the world, fed from the same soil, breathing the same air and ultimately powered by the same sun as all else and it seems that we should not shy away from the engine of the Earth. We rightly seek shelter from hail and hurricane but should we really sweat a little sweat? Aren't we less in being removed from that aspect of the world?

High Pressure System with a Chance of Perky

Most of the things that delineate others' good days from the bad are things over which they have little or no control. Realistically speaking, that is. One could simply quit a job or divorce a spouse over the balance of days in which the relationship with lover or employer are less than radiant, but most aren't willing to reorder their lives so easily or so often.

These things being so arbitrary and so inconsequential, I've decided to base my evaluation of each day on only the weather. Really, it's the deciding factor in most other people's days, so I might as well try it.

My advantage, I like to think, is that I lived in England and the upper mid-west as a child. When the day is cold or rainy, I'm delightfully reminded of my childhood and when it's sunny and pleasant, well, it's just sunny and pleasant. It's a win/win all around.

Thusly, I have concluded that every day is a good day.

I'm not sure how long I'll be able to persist in this world view but it's worked pretty well for most of the afternoon.

Popularizer is an Evil Word.

Science is as resolutely personal an enterprise as art, even if the chief prize be truth rather than beauty (though artists also seek truth, and good science is profoundly beautiful).

-- Stephen Jay Gould.

Thinning the Herd

Romney pulled out.

I've got a dollar that says he cut a deal to be McCain's running mate.

Any takers?

Before You Throw my Heart Back on the Floor.

In matters of faith there are times when, "We don't know," is a perfectly acceptable answer. Indeed, there are likely times when it is the only acceptable answer.

Distrust anyone who would say otherwise and claim to be selling wisdom.

A Note About Gravity.

Anyone who says, "Why would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?"

Obviously hasn't seen the planes that we use.