Month: October 2005

Flyover territory

I’ve always regarded Indiana as a land of homespun wisdom, sweet corn, and eighteen kinds of pie, but with books like Jesusland, about the travails of an interracial family living out there in the 80s, I began to wonder if its friendly reputation concealed some kind of dark underbelly.

Yes it does. Oh, my, yes it does. Apparently, according to several news articles, this is for real: A bill that would ban unmarried people and gays from getting IVF donations. (Apparently doesn’t require this if you’re planning on being the parent of the child– only for donations which would mean that one genetic parent wasn’t involved after the birth). But still– something that would require you to go through a placement agency to adopt a zygote? Something which could deny you that permission if they thought you weren’t religious enough, or didn’t have good taste in flooring, or had too-good taste in flooring and and might like the flooring more than the child and try to return it? Sure, I’ve often said you should need a license to raise one of those things, but I was joking!

Fortunately, the news articles note that “Indiana Lawmakers Seek to Ban, Control Assisted Impregnation”. So unassisted, miraculous impregnation is still in the clear.

Date with Destiny

Well, this Saturday I have a 10:00 AM date with a 1.4 liter (excuse me, 88 cubic inch) twin-cylinder engine attached to a Harley Davidson. They didn’t have the futuristic-looking V-Rod in stock, so we’re going with the Heritage Softail Classic, which is sort of a retro-touring-style bike, and has the advantage of big comfortable passenger seats.

1.4 liters is almost twice as much engine as I have even contemplated wanting. Yes, I’m getting the extra insurance.

It’s interesting when people die

I found out by watching the TV at the gym that Lisa Marie Presley has done a cover version of Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry.” It’s practically written about her, and she does a good enough job with it, with the style evoking 80s hair bands and the movie clips evoking 90s media frenzies. On the other hand, the heavy breathing goes way past “sexy” and “creepy stalker on the phone” to “has she got asthma?”

That was one of my favorite songs when I was about ten, but I thought it was actually about laundry.

Will there be a place to plug in my laptop?

Spook, the new book on the afterlife by Mary Roach is due out this month. Roach is most known for her earlier book Stiff, a witty layman’s approach to what happens to our bodies when we die: burial rites, brain banks, medical cadavers, interviews with forensic entomologists, the whole deal. The book even made a short appearance on Six Feet Under.

Spook continues the funny, informative approach in her desire to find out what the afterlife is like, starting with whether there’s a place to plug in her laptop. Along the way she covers ghosts, soul-weighing, and ectoplasm, and makes short detours into quantum mechanics, information theory, and one man’s search for the moment that a soul enters a human embryo.

Both books have the same winning balance of humor and information, and I recommend them strongly.