ZeeGeezer

So is Gravity a Mosaic Law?

Speaking of God, this dialogue between God and Moses is brilliiant.

Thanks, Andy.

Way to Make Me Feel Ignorant

So Library Thing has published its list of the "50 top-rated authors". Aack! There's only one there that I've even heard of. A cookbook writer.

Oh and God is in there. Another one I've heard of. Yes, that God. The one who wrote the Bible. Also known, apparently, as "The Lord God Almighty". Would that be a double-barrelled surname? But it would seem that God didn't write the Book of Mormon or the Koran. Nobody wrote those. Well, some people think Anonymous wrote the Koran.

Unfortunately for God, he she umm comes in at no. 40 of the top 50. No Booker Prize in store for him her umm I guess. Mind you, it could be worse. God could be in the "50 lowest-rated authors", along with Immanuel Kant.

Neologisms I hate, part 1

• "penned" for "written" or "wrote", as in "Douglas Coupland (of Generation X fame) pens an engaging Guardian non-interview with Morrissey". This is especially galling when Mr. Coupland himself almost certainly wouldn't dream of saying he had "penned" anything. This sample from Andy Towle, who normally, um, pens better than this. What's intriguing is that this particular synecdoche seems to have started only after everyone stopped actually writing anything longer than a telephone number on a trick's hand with a pen.
• "inked" for "signed". Sports pages seem to be full of this. Well, I can't attest for the sports pages themselves since I haven't looked at a sports page in about 20 years, but certainly the sports headlines I see in Google News are full of inkings.

Almost certainly both these horrors came from sports penners in the first place. Or should that be penists?

The Showers that Loom in the Spring, tra-la

So I was just looking at the weather, in one of my continuing, and quite successful, attempts to avoid doing any work at all today, and I was struck by something odd. Today is the vernal equinox. At something like 10:52 PST, the sun crossed the plane of the equator heading north and Spring officially began. Now, the word equinox implies that this is the day when the day and night are the same length. How come, then, that the daylength today is officially 12 hours and 8 minutes?

It being the first day of Spring, it is, of course, pissing down with rain. No bike ride today. But yesterday was a gorgeous day.

And since when did Spring start on the 20th? When I was a lad I was taught it started on the 21st.

Tu quoque, Brute?

Today is the Ides of March. I was going to say that 2,050 years ago today (give or take a calendar adjustment or two) Julius Caesar was murdered. But apparently the Ides in 44 BC fell on a day more likely to be our 14 March. So I (and National Public Radio) is off by a day.

According to the Wikipedia, the Ides was an auspicious day. The little dip into Wikipedia was fascinating. The Romans, for instance, didn't name their days. And they had, essentially, an 8-day week, since every 8th day was a market day. And because their calendar was so screwy, they didn't have leap years when a just a day was added, but had leap years in which a whole month was added.

The leap year business was fixed by Julius Caesar and his new calendar came into effect just a year before he was assassinated.

HA HA HA!

Which literature classic are you?


Oscar Wilde: The Portrait of Dorian Gray.

You are a horror novel from the world of dandies, rich pretty boys, art and aesthetics, and intellectual debates between ethical people and decadent pleasure-seekers. You value beauty and pleasure but realize their dangers, as well.
(brought to you by Quizilla)


via Mikerzz

Stormy Sunday

Got up at the crack of dawn yesterday to go for my ALC training ride. 50 miles up hill and down nary a dale. By mile 16 my legs were ready to go home. And, of course the best was yet to come. Jefferson Ave, the hill that never ends. [ I was told this morning that the climb up Jefferson is on the actual ALC route. Guess I'd better go up it once or twice more.] Rode home straight into the high winds that the Weather Service had warned us about. But a free massage from a trainee masseuse was waiting at the end of the ride.

Then home to await The Rocker who had promised to soothe my pain by sharing a nice bath. Called him, no reply. So I had to soothe my pain in a bath all by myself. And eat a lonely lunch.

And then it turned out that my rehearsal was cancelled, so I hadn't had to refuse PharmaJim's invite to watch the Oscars after all.

Finally The Rocker called to say that his mother was on death's door (literally) and he wouldn't be able to come because he had to drive to some god-forskaken place north of Sacramento. I shed a little tear for his mother.

And then I watched the Oscars. It's actually quite nice watching the Oscars in California - it starts and ends at a reasonable time. Well, 5 o'clock isn't entirely reasonable to start, but it does mean it ends before 9:00. So you can watch a while and then fix dinner during the boring bits. All the time exclaiming, "What IS she wearing!". Having only seen one of the nominated films, I have no comment on whether Brokeback was rightfully snubbed or not.

And then into my lonely bed before 10:00. That, of course, meant I woke up at 5 o'clock this morning.