Month: March 2006

Are they made from real Girl Scouts?

Someone in Bookdwarf’s cabal has given us several boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. This is a disaster for freedom, by which I mean my nutritional peace of mind.

This blow against my rock-hard abs is somewhat mitigated by adequate information about the farming practices used by the chocolate farmers whose chocolates go into their cookies and of course delicious special recipes made with those cookies.

But still, that half box (OK, quarter-box, as of this afternoon) of Thin Mints on top of the fridge is posing a dangerous threat, and must be destroyed. A targeted strike force is at the ready, and I anticipate that the destruction will be delicious.

Bad News

These “boot camps” seemed like a good idea at first, but remember that they’re still basically a cross between summer camp and jail. And that they are populated by the most troublesome teenagers in the area. So it’s not that surprising to find that a kid got beaten to death by the guards at one. I’m actually surprised it hasn’t happened more.

At first, I thought this headline read “Bush Defends Mediocre Plan.” But that wouldn’t make sense: I haven’t known him to make any plans that good.

Comments

OK, I’m turning comments back on. We’ll see if I attract spammers.

Next: trying to write something worth commenting on.

Cutting off your nose to spite your face

Spite is often considered to be the one action that truly distinguishes humans from the lower beasts: only we are foolish enough to hurt others even if it hurts us as much, or more. This isn’t technically true– swans are known to engage in spiteful behavior, and I think chimps got caught at it once or twice as well.

Still, it’s worth bearing in mind when you think of the fact that a 100-year-old adoption-oriented charity has shut down rather than comply with state anti-discrimination law.

See the Slate article on family law and gay parents for more detail on what it means to seek “the best interests of the children,” as the legal standard specifies we must do in these sorts of cases.

Current Reading

The Zanzibar Chest, by Aidan Hartley: Fascinating account of a white English boy born in Africa who grows up to be a journalist– he goes into a lot of depth about his family history and how it’s involved in the history of the region, as well. I recommended this to Luis, warning him that it started sad and got sadder. He said, well, it is Africa.

Charcuterie: Some of the recipes in this cookbook require expensive equipment, and some of them require almost none. Many of the items take days or months to make, and some may kill you. They are sausages and preserves and hams. So far I have packed some lemons in salt and put them in the back of the fridge; they’ll be ready in June. The next item I want to make is my own (fresh) sausage, then maybe beef jerky or my own bacon. But first, I need to buy more salt. I used up nearly five pounds last night, and we’re out.

The Paradox of Choice, from a prof at my brother’s school, Swarthmore, covers the fact that more choice doesn’t always make us happy. The idea applies to a lot of areas of life, such as user interface design and the success of specialty grocery stores. Also I think it has something to do with my ongoing pastoral fantasy: if we all just lived like Laura Ingalls Wilder, it’d be so much easier. We wouldn’t have to make decisions. We’d just survive. It’d be so great!