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| Wednesday, July 5, 2006 |
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Send scouts 
| | When I picked up my kid from basketball camp yesterday, this dialog ensued: |
| | "How many points did you score?" |
| | "Four. But I was the second-leading scorer on the team." |
| | "How many points did he score?" |
Sixties redux
| | It reminds me of the 1960s, when idealism, mind drugs, new music, civil rights, and the anti-Vietnam war sentiment fueled a cultural revolution. In today's context, the Web is the mind drug, iTunes (despite its DRM) is emblematic of the new music, Iraq the unpopular war, cyberspace a new civil rights battleground and idealism is once again fueled by a movement, this time led by millions of bloggers, podcasters and vloggers reaching hundreds, thousands and millions of people. |
| | The 1960s melted away, one war ended, another started, drug abuse exploded, civil rights struggles continued, and the vast majority of young, idealistic 'revolutionaries' impacted by the movement drifted into the mainstream, with mortgages, jobs and families. Forty years from now, the idealism and liberating aspect of the Net germinating now will hopefully have altered the patterns of repetition that seem to mark the existence of our species on this planet, but don't count on itŠ |
| | Two differences: 1) the U.S. will no longer be the center of the action; and 2) the seas will be higher*, pushing most other pressing matters off the table. |
| | *I'm not saying that humans are responsible for causing this, just that rising seas are a good bet during a warming interglacial period, and humans will have to deal with it no matter who or what gets the blame. |
Making the case
| | Ari Kaplan in Law.com looks into why more lawyers don't blawg. Doing the math, well under 1 percent of lawyers are blogging. He offers good advice for raising that number. |
It got worse
| | Ken Lay has died while awaiting sentencing. Pull-quote from the linked WaPo piece: "I guess you could say in the last few years I've achieved the American nightmare," Lay told the jury from the witness stand during the trial. |
Afterflash
| | My set from here in Santa Barbara is kinda lame. |
| | Anybody recognize the famous penthouse in the foreground here? |
Dead Pet du jour #6: Sissy
| | Sissy wasn't one. She was fearless in defending the family (especially Mom) from attacks, real or perceived. Her given name was Sisco, but nobody called her that. Pop brought her home as a gift for Mom in 1959. At the time Sissy was four years old and had been neutered after producing two sets of puppies. She came from an older woman who could no longer keep a pet. Pop thought Sissy would be ideal for a family that had experienced bad luck with male dogs. "This one," he said, "Won't run away." |
| | Soon as Sissy entered the house, she became an accessory to Mom. He calling in life was now to protect Mom and keep her company. The first time Pop reached over to put his arm around Mom while they were sitting on the couch, Sissy was hanging from his arm, growling. |
| | She eventually warmed up to the rest of the family and became a fun dog for all of us. |
| | Her specialty was chasing balls. Unlike most dogs, Sissy didn't hang on to the balls she retrieved. She'd catch the ball in the air or chase it down, bring it back and put it in your lap or at your feet. If several people were present, Sissy would make them take turns, bringing the ball back to one person after another. Only in her later years did she tire of the routine. |
| | Sissy was a good, smart, fun dog. Also the only successful pet we had while I was still in the house. (I left at 15 to go to a boarding school, and was off to college after that.) |
| | Sissy died in 1969, at age 14. I know she had become quite sick, and I believe my parents had her euthanized so she wouldn't suffer any more. Unlike our prior pets, Sissy was not buried anywhere, to my knowledge. My guess is that she was disposed of in whatever manner veterinarians employed in those days. (Cremation?) |
| | I can only find one picture of Sissy. It was shot 41 years ago today, in our back yard in Maywood, New Jersey. Mom is in her square dance outfit. I'm 16 years old with a broken front tooth and weighing about 70 pounds less than I do today. Sissy is stretched out on the lawn and Mom's dress, facing away from the camera. |
Belated happy birthday
Quotes du jour
| | At this point, I have to channel the loa of Friedrich Hayek, and marvel at the wonders of the market--that, like a god, knows that in Singapore there is demand by Belle Waring for Red Mill stone-ground coarse polenta, and that diverts bags of the stuff to be carried by truck, train, containership, and porter to her local store. How wise is the market! How its information dwarfs that of any conceivable electro-mechanical-electronic-positronic-gluonic brain! |
| | Saying that the blogosphere is losing credibility is like saying the spoken or written word is losing credibility. It's not the medium that matters- it's the person at the other end of it. |
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