Ponderings

Stop! Shower time

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Sure, it produces cleanliness, but it feels like wasted time to me because any thought I have in the shower is likely to be forgotten by the time I’m dressed and at my desk.

So there’s no point of thinking at all while taking a shower. God forbid I actually have an interesting thought in the shower, because there’s little chance I’ll remember it in 15 minutes. I can listen to the radio and sing along, which lessens the danger of thought. But then I’ve to lug the boom box around.

I need a water-proof writing system in the shower. That would help. I could also check off my to-do list in the shower. Shampoo hair — check. Wash unmentionables — check.

And so on.

Mmm … diseased kitties

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

The New York Times reports:

Today’s lifting of the travel advisory coincided with an announcement by researchers here and in Shenzhen, just across the border in mainland China, that they had discovered a virus in a rare species of tree-dwelling cat that is virtually identical to the virus believed to cause SARS in humans.

Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiologist at Hong Kong University, said that the corona virus had been found in the feces of masked palm civets, a nocturnal species found from Pakistan to Indonesia that is considered a delicacy in southern China. Some of the first known cases of SARS occurred last November among chefs and others in Guangdong Province involved in the preparation of wild game for expensive banquets.

As Karen likes to say, “Cats are crazy!”

She’s just a girl

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

I don’t understand what Vijay Singh and other men golfers are so concerned about.

Singh, who has since eaten crow a bit, said he hoped teen golfer girl sensation Annika Sorenstam missed the cut at the Colonial Invitation next week.

“She doesn’t belong out there,” he said. “What is she going to prove by playing? It’s ridiculous. She’s the best woman golfer in the world, and I want to emphasize ‘woman.’ We have our tour for men, and they have their tour. She’s taking a spot from someone in the field.”

First, as has been noted repeatedly, the PGA is gender neutral. It is not making an exception to let Sorenstam play. She’ll be hitting from the same tees, using the same clubs, playing the same game. The only equipment she’ll have that the men don’t is what she was born with.

So what’s the problem? That she’ll take a “man’s” spot? But the spots don’t belong to men or to women, but to the best players. Sorenstam is the best woman golfer in the world. Now she wants to see if she’s one of the best golfers, period.

I guess in Singh’s mind, golf balls aren’t the only balls that matter when it comes to competing on the links.

UPDATE: I was not aware that Sorenstam did not have to qualify for the tournament like the rest of the players. That changes things a little bit. Still, once on the links she’ll be playing by the same rules as everyone else.

I do think she should have to qualify like any other player, though.

Happy birthday, Hootie!

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Apparently, Darius Rucker, lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish is also celebrating his birthday today. At least I’d assume he’s celebrating it. Maybe he’s just observing it. How do we really know?

He’s 37. I’m 26. It’s also Dennis Rodman’s birthday. He’s 42.

People tell me it’s a crime

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

It’s foggy in Chicago tonight. It’s that thick kind of fog that makes the street lights radiate and buzz about. There’s a chill in the air too, tonight.

I walked the dog and smoked a cheap cigar, and I couldn’t tell where the smoke ended and where the fog began. Sport tucked his nose between spots of the wet grass, tracking the hidden scent.

I’m happily, finally tired. I returned home with hands and ears and face cold and wet to the touch. I kissed my wife. And it was good.

Now it’s raining. And the lighting is striking. Good night; good, good night.

What have you done for me lately?

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

I’m not sure why, but I haven’t been in the mood to blog lately. I’m not insanely busy right now, and there’s plenty to talk about: the NBA playoffs, certain idiotic statements by certain Republican senators, a little post-war nonsense, and more.

But there’s an itch that I usually get that makes me think, “Oh! I should blog about that.” And the itch doesn’t go away until I do.

No itch lately, though.

DST – Government at its worst

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

OK, so the Nazi regime was probably government at its worst. But daylight saving time ranks somewhere up there.

That’s right, daylight saving time, not daylight savings time. This link claims to explain why.

But, you know, daylight saving time really is just a bunch of politicians telling you when to get up and when to go to bed. As Roberston Davies so eloquently put it:

I don’t really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen.

As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves.

Right on.