Here and There

At age 53. Way too young, I don’t care what his political bent.

Visiting Trinity United (Obama’s church) Rev. Michael Pfleger, on mocking Hillary Clinton in a recent sermon:

“These words are inconsistent with Senator Obama’s life and message, and I am deeply sorry if they offended Senator Clinton or anyone else who saw them.” (itals mine)

This is pro-forma the kind of bullshit apology public figures always issue. It’s what Hillary said when she inappropriately brought up the RFK assassination.

If they offended. Clearly they did offend, and in both cases, a large number of people. Not just Clinton, in Pfleger’s case, and not just the Kennedy family, in Clinton’s.

Look, I’m all about forgiveness, and I know we’re all fallible. I’m the biggest fuckup among you all. But when I apologize (and yes, I’m being self-righteous here. Deal), when I sincerely mean it, I try to make my language reflect that. These soft, cover-your-ass apologies make matters worse, methinks. Perhaps they betray the fact that the speaker meant the offending the term in the first place.

We can all use them, especially those of us who foolishly believed, however briefly, that Hillary Clinton would concede to logic:

Thx: Jenna

A cool demonstration of a very realistic android, and an academic type talking about humans’ reaction to it version a more mechanical looking robot. There’s talk of mirror neurons in here, so I’m excited.

Thx: Sullivan

Though today is a good day, and I don’t totally feel like I need it:

I couldn’t have listed or said it better myself. No, really, the writing is really quite good.

A few tidbits I picked up yesterday:

* Finished an article in the August 20, 2007, issue of The New Yorker about Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism. The author, someone with the condition, describes its symptoms, which include “early precocity, a great ability to maintain masses of information, a lack of ability to mix with groups in age-appropriate ways, ignorance of or indifference to social norms, high intelligence, and difficulty with transitions, married to a preternatural ability to concentrate on the minutia of the task at hand.” Wow.

I read the article, well, because I try to read as much of the magazine as I have time for, but also on the specific recommendation of a coworker, who suggested another coworker had the condition. Ha!

* Late one night at work recently, I approached a third coworker for some small talk before the end of the shift. He’s an avid wikipeder, and had up on his monitor the “Platypus” entry. “Did you know they can sting with their tails?” he asked me. Apparently, these aquatic mammals have a venomous spur in their hind feet that can hurt people pretty badly. I remember a few years ago when I watch Sir David Attenborough’s Life on Earth series.

* Talked last night with my parents, who just returned from their first trip to Alaska. They saw Mt. McKinley, commonly known to be the highest point in all of North America, at 20,320 feet above sea level. What I learned is that to most Alaskans, the mountain is known simply as “Denali.” As in the SUV. As in the national park. Good to know.

Not sure I could ever a) send 1,200 texts a day, nor b) get fired because of it.

That said, it wouldn’t be beyond me to enter a contest like our poor, poor Leszek. A bus driver trying to win his own car. Poetic, indeed.

A friend who works at a bookstore in Seattle sent me the following story today:

“last night I locked a tiny person in the bookstore. he must have been curled up in the corner somewhere. just wanted to caution those of you who lock up your places of work — it’s not always enough to holler loudly and assume everyone is off the premises. a tiny person may be sleeping off a bender, and not hear you! and it’s really a drag when your boss calls you at midnight because you locked a tiny person in the store.”

Hours later, this response, from another friend, thought not directly related, followed:

“is there an epidemic? i can’t say that he was tiny, but last week i locked one of my plumbers in the office.”

Ah, life …

I respectfully disagree with a new study that reportedly shows that first-born children tend to be smarter than their younger siblings.