Thanks to Steve F., I saw this when it was excerpted in Harper's back in 1999. Now some kind soul has posted the answer to the question all of us seek when faced with a tough life decision: WWJD?
As a recovering Catholic, and admitted music fan, it helps to know that others also have Somethin to Hide, and are Feeling That Way, waiting Patiently under the Lights as the Winds of March blow, and the Wheel In The Sky keeps on turning, for the answers that may come Anytime in the music that Opened the Door. La Do Da!
Monday September 9, 2002 is ASA'sDining for Life. Check out the link for the list of restaurants, make a reservation, and have a bottle of wine & appetizers.
My fave is Wink, but unfortunately, I'm going to be in Houston for work Monday evening. If you go there, have an El Rey for me for dessert. Mmmmmmm.
Mild and tenderness are the basic of our living life...
Let's try homeparty fashionably and have a joyful chat with nice fellow.
This site has no Stephen Hawking or 9/11 content. (She said sheepishly, feeling silly all of a sudden...)
Jack's link to Stephen Hawking's site almost led me to post a comment, then it got too big for a mere comment. First off, Hawking was diagnosed with ALS in 1963, shortly after his 21st birthday. He was not expected to live 5 years. He has since married, rebutted some of the most deeply held quantum theory in existence, fathered three children and secured the post of "Lucasian Professor of Mathematics" at Cambridge that Isaac Newton once held back in 1669. He has also been instrumental in the development of advanced computers and communications devices (such as the amazing one he uses) greatly assisting those with ALS or Motor-Neuron Disease. Oh yeah, and he managed a guest spot on The Simpsons. Wow. Talk about not letting life get you down. He has several web sites besides the PBS one Jack linked. I like this article as an introduction.
But on to sillier things. In looking at his list of Strange Stuff explained, I was struck by the term "Schrödinger's Cat," which seemed strangely familiar to me. At first I thought of the Theory of Purrpetual Motion which involves feline aerodynamics and dairy products. But no, that was not it. I even read the info on Hawking's site, which described a somewhat twsited scenario involving a cat and radioactive material that I won't detail here. Then it dawned on me--an Austin band is named Schrödinger's Cat, and I have actually seen them. They play what they call "Big Beat a Capella," music that really must be seen to be fully appreciated, but you can download some here. Their website is an amusing triumph of fun Flash design, and politely includes an HTML-only version for those without the Flash or the time.
From life-threatening disease, to Quantum Theory, to geeky humor, to live "big beat a capella" music in one post. Is this a great blog or what?
This just in: Bush described succinctly and accurately
I got my latest copy of Newsweek, the 9/11 anniversary issue, and of course was moved all over again, which was the whole point of the exercise. However, the article I read with the greatest interest was A Date With History. Will we think of the Attacks as a Pearl Harbor, or will the memory fade? The format of the article is a roundtable discussion of several prominent historians, and of course, they started talking about W.
In the article, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., former special assistant to President Kennedy says:
...Bush has the great advantage of low expectations. He is not stupid. I think he’s rather effective politically, and he’s rather effective personally. But he’s devoid, as far as one can tell, of intellectual curiosity. FDR had a sense of history. As far as I can see, George Bush has no curiosity about history, no interest in the past and a limited interest in the future. He lives day to day.
This is the Leader of the Free World? The scary thing is, Schlesinger is right (I've read lots of his essays, I rarely disagree with him)... The pundits remained on this topic for a bit, and Alan Brinkley, a professor at Columbia University, said the following:
Bush is a very single-minded man, it seems to me, and that, I think, served him well in the immediate aftermath of September 11. It provided an aura of strength and certitude at a time when the public needed it. But over the longer term, this is a set of circumstances that’s going to require a lot of subtlety, a lot of ability to deal with complexity, and I just haven’t seen any evidence that this president, or, for that matter, this administration, has that capacity. So I think this could end up being a very unfortunate conjunction of person and moment.
Check out how Stephen Hawking explains Strange Stuff. Pretty interesting, if high level, explanations of lots of commonly used terms of which I had no idea of their real meaning. I love this one:
"Because matter and antimatter annihilate one another in a burst of electromagnetic radiation (energy in the form of particles called photons, visible light is a kind of electromagnetic radiation) the universe we see today is dominated by the extra matter that couldn’t find antimatter with which to annihilate."
Kind of makes us sound like the universe's flotsam, doesn't it?
Another reason to have no confidence in this administration....
As if we needed another reason, here's a story on MSNBC this morning depicting just how woeful the airport screening is.
And my favorite response from an obviously inept PR person for United Airlines:
Chris Nardella, a spokeswoman for United Airlines, told the newspaper: “That is a violation of federal law that you guys knowingly took those items on an airline.”
God help us all. The government sure isn't going to.
September is here, so when I sat down to watch a few episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO In Demand, I made it a point to also see if HBO's 9/11 special was available for viewing. It was. I'm glad I watched it. I don't think I could have tolerated it or any similar productions when they originally aired. I needed some time away from what happened that day. HBO's production was tasteful, pulling material from numerous news organizations and citizens who witnessed the events that day. I know (from an insider's perspective) that the media are about to bombard us with retrospectives and reflections of what happened. I can't predict how well those will serve the public. But I can say that HBO's spare, raw production has to be the most humble and honest depiction. Perhaps I'm just a company shill when I say that, but it's really the way I feel.
Thanks to Steve F., I saw this when it was excerpted in Harper's back in 1999. Now some kind soul has posted the answer to the question all of us seek when faced with a tough life decision: 
Jack's 
