Lacatus I, a $7 red wine, is a great value. Lacatus II is the white version and it’s just not very good. Not that I’m going to leave the bottle unfinished. No, I am grimly determined to work my way through it.
Author: Aaron Weber
Jobs I Don’t Envy
Part of an ongoing series. The ER nurse of The Write Wing doesn’t envy the OB folks.
Vitriol
Special thanks to the clever and insightful Ogged (not to be confused with the best audio format ogg) for pointing out the scathing words of Lucy Mangan in the Guardian. Wow is she smart and mean. My favorite.
Message to New Hires: Just Hope They Don’t Get Sick
One NY city is reversing its decision to offer health-care benefits to domestic partners of new city employees. Now, this doesn’t touch either of the two people currently insured under this policy, who are currently insured as partners of current city employees. The city just says that domestic partners of new employees, or new domestic partners of current employees, won’t get health care.
So, you had a system which was discriminatory. You replaced it with one that was fair, but which religious groups disliked as cooties-ridden. And so now you’ve further revised it to be something everyone can hate.
You know, this wouldn’t be a problem if we had a decent health care system to begin with.
How to Annoy Mortgage Brokers and Realtors
When realtors ask if you’re pre-approved for a mortgage, tell them you plan to pay cash.
That obscure object of desire
Hey, check out the obsessive consumer lust for specific genres of gear: Not just gadgets and cars, Smaller things, like t-shirts, coffee machines and basketball shoes.
And In the Legitimate Press…
I am only slightly jealous, and highly impressed, that Bookdwarf was mentioned in this Denver Post article about litbloggers.
Out of Fashion
As a weblog name, A Fistful of Euros is brilliant: it describes the topic (Europe and finance) while at the same time playing with the idea that Euros just aren’t all that exciting: it is, after all, incongruous to imagine Clint Eastwood fighting for Euros the way he did in For A Fistful of Dollars.
That incongruity suggests that we readers feel that US currency is the best one, not just because it is easily converted and stable, but because it’s just plain cooler. It is the coin of the American cultural empire, of rap stars, of Hollywood. It connotes international power and wealth in a way that no other currency does. Bank notes with color in them just seem all funny: in the Simpsons episode “Blame it on Lisa,” kidnappers finally getting a ransom say “Gee, our money sure is gay.”
That may be changing. According to Slate, the dollar is going out of style in that bastion of economic innovation, the illegal drug smuggling racket.
Story Time
My grandfather was persuasive and confident man, as southern leftists had to be, even more so in 1935 than now. In those days he was a student at the University of Virginia, making money tutoring gentlemen who slacked off all year and studied only under duress, usually in last-minute cram sessions that he would prepare for all semester.
I don’t know whose car it was, but he and a friend were driving in a thunderstorm in the evening. Yes, a dark and stormy night. They were moving slowly, so they had plenty of time to see the woman walking down the middle of the road in a thin cotton shift. They helped her into the car: she was apparently fleeing a drunk and violent husband.
I don’t know if they gave her a ride to the bus station, or bought her some coffee, or perhaps a meal. I do know that her story was one that everyone has heard before: husband out drinking late, a violent attack, passing out by the woodshed, he’d likely kill her if this kept up. At some point my grandfather said, “I’m surprised you don’t just wait for him to pass out, then chop his head off with an axe. That’s what I’d do.”
Several hours or weeks later, that’s what she did. In her defense, she said a man from the University had told her it was a good idea. She didn’t recall his name, and he didn’t come forward to announce himself as an advisor or accessory to the crime. The result of her trial isn’t part of the story either.
I’m not sure what I would do in her situation, but it’s quite likely that in his, I’d have made the same off-hand remark. And if I said it, and she then killed her tormentor, I would have to wonder whether I was indirectly responsible for his death. And if I didn’t, and she died at his hands, would I be indirectly responsible for hers?
