'S Up With English?

ME:  I got to use the word [SIGN-cure] in a sentence.

YOU:  Um, I think it's pronounced [SIN-a-cure].

ME:  <  hmf ?  >

(Later . . . )

VOCABULARY.COM:  [SIGH-na-cure] !

ME:  <  hmf ?!  >

Some reasons I should have died by now

Unlimited salt intake
Rode bike with no helmet
Slept on the shelf behind the back seat on long trips
No car seats in cars when I was a kid
No booster seats in cars when I was a kid
No seat belts in cars when I was a kid
Walked / bicycled to school
Played in street
Playground without adult supervision
Barbecue food
Kool Aid
Movie popcorn
Fireworks
Played with matches
Played Scientist with old household and garden chemicals
Bacon
Tree climbing
Sibling fights
Playground fights
Baseball
Dodge Ball
Keep-Away
Red Rover
Parade Magazine quiz 1974: "Headed for trouble"
Drove too fast for the rating of the tires
Drove too fast in the fog
Drove so fast stopping distance > headlight beam
Got knocked upside the head by Dad (more than once)
Childhood diseases before all those vaccines
"Hydration" was not a thing -- drinking out of the garden hose was a thing
"Electrolytes" was not a thing -- potato chips was a thing
Ate the green potato chips
Got a "D" in math in third grade
Wouldn't eat Mom's overcooked beef liver
Went trick-or-treating on Halloween without adult supervision
Ate the Halloween candy we got

 . . . And that's just a start!

Not an empty longing. A full longing.

Forest Interior, 1850, Barend Cornelis Koekkoek

When I saw this picture it reminded me of Little Dorrit. 

And suddenly my heart was overflowing.  My spirit welling up.

Oh, how I sometimes long to be in an imaginary place, in a world whose volume is all Love; where shadows do not express darkness, but serve to prove the Light; where the falling leaves, and the sear and sallow garden reveal a Beauty strong and abiding; where I am among the book people, favorite characters, deathless and True.

The longing is so full it grows to an ache that stops my senses and becomes a focus in itself, a concentration to see and understand such a multidimensional fullness.

Spending many moments in that world of Love and Light and Beauty and Truth makes it difficult to re-enter the "real" world.  This old here-and-now seems flat and queerly fluorescent-lit and artificial.

Yet I am so grateful for the glimpse of the wide, full world.

Jerusalem, my happy home,
When shall I come to thee?
When shall my sorrows have an end?
Thy joys when shall I see?

O happy harbor of the saints!
O sweet and pleasant soil!
In thee no sorrow may be found,
No grief, no care, no toil.

... Our sweet is mixed with bitter gall,
Our pleasure is but pain:
Our joys scarce last the looking on,
Our sorrows still remain...

"Jerusalem My Happy Home" -- "The orig­in­al man­u­script in the Brit­ish Mu­se­um, dat­ed around 1583, is in­scribed, “A song made by F. B. P. to the tune of DIANA.” The au­thor is thought to have been a Ca­tho­lic priest who based the hymn on the writ­ings of St. Au­gus­tine."   [ from CyberHymnal ]

Libertarian Epidemic Response

By the way, have you noticed the silence from the Libertarian wing regarding the Ebola crisis? 

No? 

I understand.  It is hard to hear what is not being said.

Other than some random bitching about how Gummint is Situation Normal All Fouled Up, Libertarians (even small-L libertarians) haven't been offering much.  As far as I know, even  Doctor Paul hasn't appeared in front of a microphone and a camera to offer expert advice in this instance.  Okay, he was OB-GYN, but still. 

I surmise that the Libertarian response is that market forces will take care of the whole thing by means of an invisible hand or some such. 

Maybe some entrepre-freakin-neur will come up with a free-market cure for hemorrhagic fever.  And if not, blame it on Gummint. 

Default Response to Complexity: Become Vague

My employer's normal response to any situation is inversely proportional to the complexity of the stimulus. 

If the situation is perfectly simple and everybody involved is already perfectly clear about everything, he will speak at length and in detail.  If the situation is a huge rat's nest of intricate odds and ends, his response is likely to be a bland smile as he hands over some accumulated notes: "Here, deal with this."  -- After the fact, and with no briefing on the history of the whole thing. 

Remember:

WHEN IN DOUBT, BE VAGUE.

Barack the Barmy will now teach trolls to dance.

ISIL [sic] is not "Islamic".  No religion condones the killing of innocents…

Transcript of Obama’s speech (10 Sept 2014) on Islamic State strategy in Mideast - Middle East - Stars and Stripes

 "I declared Iraq a success.  This will only take a minute.  I'm going golfing." 

I wonder if there is a Las Vegas betting line on which will come first: Global Conflagration or Civil War?

Workplace dialogues

CO-WORKER:  (Comes over to borrow my 24 oz. ball pein hammer)

ME: Here you go.

CO-WORKER:  (sings) If I had a haa-merrrr...

ME: You wouldn't have to come over here and raid my toolbox!

CO-WORKER:  No, it was an old folk song.

ME: It's still an old folk's song.  Nowadays only old folks sing it!

CO-WORKER:  !!!