-Barack Obama sometimes appears to be naive and politically tone-deaf. This may derive from an abundance of confidence.
-Rick Perry is full of bluster and often seems confused.
-Herman Cain talks a good game, but he suffers from a dearth of ideas.
-Michelle Bachmann spends so much time trying to seem authentic that whatever substance she had to begin with has long since eroded away from constant burnishing.
-Were Newt Gingrich to become the Republican nominee, Democrats would be dancing in the streets.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Winter trains part 3
There might have been a sense of community in the broad atrial waiting area of the station, but it was quickly drowned out by the survival instinct that emerged among comfortable people who are slightly alarmed. Lines formed quickly at the handful of fast-food/coffee places and people scarfed pizza with wary eyes trained on their neighbors, eating as a dog does: quickly and too efficiently to relish the alimentation. Sulking overcoated patrons trudged everywhere to and fro or circled shark-like for the remaining seats on the benches. Smart ones read to stave off impending madness, with ever-more erudite reading fodder glimpsed around every corner.
I was reading Tony Judt with two different frowns. Alternately I displayed my public-transit-has-forsaken-me-never-will-I-see-home-again grimace, and then my furrowed-brow-because-Tony-Judt-is-postulating-a-complex-political-idea-in-clear-and-readable-prose-and-I-am-striving-to-understand frown. I have discussed with my significant other that I ought to stop frowning when trying to understand something or flesh out a thought because the expression is frightening at close range. Maybe I'm often puzzled. I do feel the need to manifest what's going on in my head to the world at large. I furrow my rather prominent but nonetheless brow and try to work out a sentence that might express what I'm thinking.
I was reading Tony Judt with two different frowns. Alternately I displayed my public-transit-has-forsaken-me-never-will-I-see-home-again grimace, and then my furrowed-brow-because-Tony-Judt-is-postulating-a-complex-political-idea-in-clear-and-readable-prose-and-I-am-striving-to-understand frown. I have discussed with my significant other that I ought to stop frowning when trying to understand something or flesh out a thought because the expression is frightening at close range. Maybe I'm often puzzled. I do feel the need to manifest what's going on in my head to the world at large. I furrow my rather prominent but nonetheless brow and try to work out a sentence that might express what I'm thinking.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Winter trains part 2
Our train that was set to depart at 6:25 had not physically reached the station until 6:45. The people turning and sheepishly working back through the Lowell deluge after the official boarding announcement were Newburyport commuters with a scheduled theoretical departure of 6:45. What cheek to think they would leave the station within 10 minutes of on-schedule. Their delay was heard fading as I shuffled the platform with the horde, and it gave me a vague sense of justice served. The perverse mind of the frozen delayed commuter; his misery is actively seeking company, and he condemns those who aren't foundering with him yet.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Winter trains part 1
The coffee came to 1.07. I had the nickel at the ready, expecting 1.04, but the tax had gone up under Democrat control, and I fumbled with two pennies, hastily produced from some pocket.
The coffee's purchase was a thing definitely settled, and in my arrogance I thought it marked me out as a seasoned traveler, beater of chills. With hot liquid input and vigorous walking in the station, I could overcome the dual disadvantage of a pronounced lack of personal insulation and 15 minutes on the platform in sub 10-degree Ipswich already chilling the flesh. This is special cold that can't be rooted out by the heat in most train cars; it is the rare one that can play the role of microwave and re-heat humans who are starting from a refrigerated imbalance, it being hard enough to maintain the warmth of people who enter the cycle at a neutral level. I was unable to get rid of the cold in my feet, which felt like wet soldiers in draft canvas tents at Valley Forge.
The chill is an unwelcome houseguest, insisting on one more glass of wine after an awkward dinner, and then another glass, reveling in others' discomfort. After it is gone, the hollow remnant of its presence lingers. It can't be forced but by bluntness and boldness. Even this, though, requires appropriate conditions.
The coffee was hot and needed but I had rashly chosen the Dunkin Donuts medium over large at the same price from McDonald's. I was already cold again before the last sip. Sidling up to the rail employee in front of the service window, I wait for other harried commuters to ask longsufferingly about their trains, which are as a matter of course delayed so long they aren't worth asking about (assume twenty-five minutes off the top). Trying to play the cool customer, seen-it-all-before commuter rail veteran of a dozen cold Januaries. I smile nonchalantly as I mosey over with my inquiry queued up in the brain-catapult, but stumbling on the destination (usually Haverhill, now Lowell) I ask the question and get the answer everyone else is stuck with; a 5 or 10 minute delay in theory stretches out to around 30 in the real world.
The coffee's purchase was a thing definitely settled, and in my arrogance I thought it marked me out as a seasoned traveler, beater of chills. With hot liquid input and vigorous walking in the station, I could overcome the dual disadvantage of a pronounced lack of personal insulation and 15 minutes on the platform in sub 10-degree Ipswich already chilling the flesh. This is special cold that can't be rooted out by the heat in most train cars; it is the rare one that can play the role of microwave and re-heat humans who are starting from a refrigerated imbalance, it being hard enough to maintain the warmth of people who enter the cycle at a neutral level. I was unable to get rid of the cold in my feet, which felt like wet soldiers in draft canvas tents at Valley Forge.
The chill is an unwelcome houseguest, insisting on one more glass of wine after an awkward dinner, and then another glass, reveling in others' discomfort. After it is gone, the hollow remnant of its presence lingers. It can't be forced but by bluntness and boldness. Even this, though, requires appropriate conditions.
The coffee was hot and needed but I had rashly chosen the Dunkin Donuts medium over large at the same price from McDonald's. I was already cold again before the last sip. Sidling up to the rail employee in front of the service window, I wait for other harried commuters to ask longsufferingly about their trains, which are as a matter of course delayed so long they aren't worth asking about (assume twenty-five minutes off the top). Trying to play the cool customer, seen-it-all-before commuter rail veteran of a dozen cold Januaries. I smile nonchalantly as I mosey over with my inquiry queued up in the brain-catapult, but stumbling on the destination (usually Haverhill, now Lowell) I ask the question and get the answer everyone else is stuck with; a 5 or 10 minute delay in theory stretches out to around 30 in the real world.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
NFL network misheard
The broom is off the Lions' rose. Pick sicks. He will go up and get it at 11 feet. Clocking was a little too rude.
Laundry!
Landry.
Go get it A-1!
For the first time in Lane's history
Laundry!
Landry.
Go get it A-1!
For the first time in Lane's history
Friday, September 30, 2011
Found exactly where I left it
Machine-Age Espresso
The changes effected affected us. The coffee machine was taken away to avoid ambiguity and duplication. Coffee is dark, ideally faintly smoky. Medium roasts are said to have subtler and more complex flavor profiles, but this is not universally agreed upon. Coffee is good on ice, but it is not candy and should not be mistreated by the addition of pumpkiny treacle. Coffee can be consumed hot, ideally not boiling.
habitual consumption may contribute to osteoperosis
Coffee is sometimes avoided in the mornings so that I can deceive myself regarding my dependency upon it. Coffee is prepared by the cup in the K cup machine at work. K cup != K Street; Coffee is not a conspiracy of powerful Washington lobbyists.
recent studies suggest that these may be the result of relieving the initial symptoms of overnight caffeine withdrawal!
French cooks were the first to Westernize coffee brewing techniques in the mid-1700s. Coffee is decaffeinated sometimes which is to say denatured and disemboweled, without being too dramatic.
The changes effected affected us. The coffee machine was taken away to avoid ambiguity and duplication. Coffee is dark, ideally faintly smoky. Medium roasts are said to have subtler and more complex flavor profiles, but this is not universally agreed upon. Coffee is good on ice, but it is not candy and should not be mistreated by the addition of pumpkiny treacle. Coffee can be consumed hot, ideally not boiling.
habitual consumption may contribute to osteoperosis
Coffee is sometimes avoided in the mornings so that I can deceive myself regarding my dependency upon it. Coffee is prepared by the cup in the K cup machine at work. K cup != K Street; Coffee is not a conspiracy of powerful Washington lobbyists.
recent studies suggest that these may be the result of relieving the initial symptoms of overnight caffeine withdrawal!
French cooks were the first to Westernize coffee brewing techniques in the mid-1700s. Coffee is decaffeinated sometimes which is to say denatured and disemboweled, without being too dramatic.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Update from @work
-Eating cheaply with rice and beans - very good move. Lots of chickpeas and cabbage, and my favorite, parboiled rice, which has an 'improved nutritional profile,' and is resistant to weevils [boll or otherwise].
-I woke up at 6 this morning and went running on autopilot. Couldn't have even been awake for the first half mile or more. It was good enough, and could become something like a twice-a-week activity. Overtraining could be a risk, though.
-Wrote a list of plausible rejected Jon Huntsman campaign slogans [in an attempt to be funny]. Maybe I'll post them later, if they stand up to increased scrutiny. Or if they make A laugh.
-Plain yogurt, maple syrup swirl. Perhaps not as good as yogurt and honey, but still bears further investigation.
-District of Columbia: 200 range of ZIP codes. Federal Government: 202-205 range. Virginia: 201, and 220-246 ranges. Massachusetts, of course, 010-027 range. Shall I go on? I have a ZIP code map of the United States in my office. ZIP codes are very interesting. It stands for Zone Improvement Plan, if you were wondering.
-Idaho: 832-839 range. Tennessee: 370-385 range....
-I woke up at 6 this morning and went running on autopilot. Couldn't have even been awake for the first half mile or more. It was good enough, and could become something like a twice-a-week activity. Overtraining could be a risk, though.
-Wrote a list of plausible rejected Jon Huntsman campaign slogans [in an attempt to be funny]. Maybe I'll post them later, if they stand up to increased scrutiny. Or if they make A laugh.
-Plain yogurt, maple syrup swirl. Perhaps not as good as yogurt and honey, but still bears further investigation.
-District of Columbia: 200 range of ZIP codes. Federal Government: 202-205 range. Virginia: 201, and 220-246 ranges. Massachusetts, of course, 010-027 range. Shall I go on? I have a ZIP code map of the United States in my office. ZIP codes are very interesting. It stands for Zone Improvement Plan, if you were wondering.
-Idaho: 832-839 range. Tennessee: 370-385 range....
Monday, September 26, 2011
Rudie can't fail
Glimmering like a slim sequined dancer
Slatted ceiling scatters light
Carapace of discrimination
-----
cauterize
hearten
uncouth
warden
Slatted ceiling scatters light
Carapace of discrimination
-----
cauterize
hearten
uncouth
warden
Sunday, September 18, 2011
We took the long way so we could have another
She spends her money on cigarettes and such, well I love her and cigarettes so much, I love her and cigarettes so much
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