Tommyjournal archive July 2007
I like silk shirts and undershirts. I like how they feel, I like how they look, I like how they don't hold odors as much as cotton or polypropylene shirts do.
Now I find out that only women are allowed to wear silk, not men.
But...! That's just for this life. Men can wear silk in paradise.
Friday 13 Jul 2007 1 comment
I lived the first 21 years of my life in the New York metropolitan area, most of that in a suburb about 25 miles from Manhattan.
I remember New York City having two massive power failures: one in 1965, and one in 1977--thirty years ago today. (The village I lived in had its own electric utility and didn't lose power either time.)
After the 1965 power failure, newspapers were full of stories of people directing traffic, helping one another out of stalled trains and elevators, and so on. After the 1977 power failure, the front pages had photos of looters carrying merchandise away from stores. I was struck by how much more opportunistic crime occurred during the 1977 power failure than in 1965.
The NY Times is running a cool set of photos from the 1977 outage (not all about looting). Unlike photos in today's web-published media, these are all in black and white--which I think suits the subject matter well.
Ten years ago, I got tired of city mayhem in general and chose the different set of tradeoffs associated with small town life.
Thursday 12 Jul 2007 comment?
Paul wrote:
... I love chatting with gay men because there's this openness about sex and also often a constant undercurrent of sexual innuendo and flirtation that makes me very happy.Me too.
Conversely, I sometimes find chatting with many straight men (and women) strange because of how reticent they tend to be about sex.
Why the difference, I wonder.
And what a contrast: gay men being open about sex as adults, after (in many cases, e.g. my own) having been guarded about discussing sex in adolescence, living among relatives and friends who were generally not accepting of homosexuality.
Boeing introduced the 787 a few days ago--on 7/8/7.
The night before, they had arranged for a 707 to land at Boeing Field in Seattle at 7:07 P.M., a 717 at 7:17, ... a 767 at 7:67 (a.k.a. 8:07), and a 777 at 7:77 (a.k.a. 8:17).
I don't know about you--but to a number-o-phile like me, that's way cool.
The planes lined up on a taxiway (larger image here):
Saturday seven-seven-seven 1 comment
Fires started by lightning yesterday:
( approx. location of my house marked with an × )
image credit: GEOMAC
Thursday 05 Jul 2007 2 comments
The Scooter Libby affair is significant because of its roots in the lies used to sell the war to the American public.
I'm struck by how such lies become a big deal only when a war doesn't go well. Lies used to sell a successful war are more readily ignored.
The first Gulf War was sold with lies too. The war, Desert Storm, was preceded by Desert Shield, a massing of American forces in Saudi Arabia, sold to the American public as a bulwark against (improbable) further Iraqi expansion--hiding its true purpose of mobilization for a war that was a foregone conclusion.
To bolster support for the war, Iraqis were demonized with a fabricated story about Kuwaiti babies pulled out of incubators.
Bush 41 paid no great political price for those and other lies, as his war was widely regarded as a success. But even seemingly successful lies have hidden costs, e.g. when they encourage further and more troublesome lying.
It's hot, 104°F at my house.
More remarkable is that it's drier than I've ever seen. At 3:00 this afternoon, the nearest station (Bishop) reported 107°F with a dewpoint of -1°F, giving a relative humidity of one percent.
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