From the back cover:
“Written in 1921, We
On the front cover:
“A new translation…”
Ordinarily I would not even pick up a book written in 1921 translated from its original Russian, but it was recommended by a friend. That was not enough though until I was told that Ayn Rand was influenced by this book. After finishing the novel, I have to admit that I did not really see the influence in Rand’s work although there were some common threads.
Sorry this is not a baseball post. Those of us living in Pittsburgh with the hapless Pirates; holders of the longest losing streak of all professional sports (17 years and counting) don’t talk about much about professional baseball. Our president gave his first pitch at a State of the Union speech and apparently did not hit the strike zone. I confess to not watching as I could not bear to see Ms. Pelosi popping up every 30 seconds, Obama’s use of the words “I” or “me” a gazillion times or his unusual speech pattern whistling his S’s. The fact that he is on television every 17 hours giving a speech did not weigh in his favor either. I played tennis on our Wii (I achieved “Pro” status during his speech).
One of the most common pieces of advice that you will ever hear is;
“Don’t sweat the small stuff!”
I am in my third week of a new job and the stress is often quite high. The stress is higher because it is actually a new career since it is quite different than my previous jobs and I entered the company at a high level. Expectations (both mine and the owner’s) are rather high. The break in period lasted about three hours. I still have not finished reading the company manual and started doing payroll before I got my first paycheck.
This is a favorite story that I heard on the radio a few years ago…
The local school district had scheduled a meeting with parents before implementing their new sex education program. As expected, the auditorium had a lot of interested parents in attendance. The administration went through the curriculum and referenced all the relevant research supporting their lesson plans.
A father in the audience listened for a while and noticed a conspicuous absence of abstinence from their strategies. He screwed up his courage and asked why. His question was met with snickers from the audience and condescension from the educators. They were kind enough to prove him how wrong his views were. They were the experts after all. You can imagine this poor man slinking in his seat after what seemed like a scolding.
It started as a relatively modest groundswell as average citizen awoke to the path politicians were forcing us down. The groundswell was followed by a trickle as more folks got engaged and even the main stream media started to actually report rather than cheer on the Obama White House.
The groundswell and trickle has lead to a flow!
The first example is the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart. Jon is a liberal stalwart who generally leans severely left while occasionally getting it “right.” While the rest of the lame stream media ignored the Climategate scandal, Stewart made this broadcast. This must have been a shock to Stewarts audience. Ordinarily I would embed the video here, but it is no longer available on YouTube. This link will take you to the clip.
Dr. John A. Zoidberg: If you have ever watched the animated television series, Futurama, you are familiar with Dr. John A. Zoidberg. Dr. Zoidberg seems to be a hapless character who is not well liked and is not particularly competent at his job as the medical officer for his company, Planet Express. His beliefs are backwards as he thinks food is digested in the heart and cannot tell the difference between robots and humans. He seems to be unaware of common human customs and socially inept to the point that most cannot stand to be in his presence and detest him.
When I posted Life Meanders, I had just found out that I was being furloughed (layoff without the possibility of parole or being called back). It was a crappy time in my life. I actually had a lead on a job within a few days and interviewed four days after my last day. It took another two months to actually start the job. Being out of work once you know that you eventually have a job takes the pressure off…somewhat.
The latest novel in Susan Wittig Albert’s
It isn’t too long before China finds a body. This is a good, light mystery as you would expect from an Albert book. What I thought was a nice component of the novel was the parallel story that takes place in the same Shaker Village, but a hundred years earlier. I had heard of Shaker furniture, but did not know anything about the people. A deeply religious and chaste people, their story also involved intrigue, love, theft and murder.
“A Florida nonprofit that has sued more than 700 businesses claiming they violate disability access laws targeted at least two Pittsburgh hotels in its latest round of court action.”
That is the first paragraph in a story carried in our local paper about a group that targeted two Holiday Inn Hotels for violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act. When you look at the surface of the story it sounds like a worthy organization (it is a nonprofit) is suing a big corporation (it is for profit) on behalf of disabled people. A few things jump out from the article:
Brief 1: The Associated Press reported that a man stripped off his clothes and began to jog near the White House. He was quickly apprehended and taken to a hospital for mental health observation. The nude jogger posed no threat to the President, who was home at the time. It was unclear, however, whether CNBC’s Chris Matthews would be available for his Hardball telecast or would be committed to a mental health facility for further observation. An angry Keith Olberman was overheard saying, “That damn Matthews. I wish that I had thought of that. That would make Obama love me more.”