Fever, Germs, Pee

Late last week I had a fever. My body temperature topped out at 101 degrees Fahrenheit. It was weird. I haven't experienced such a thing in over a decade. I had to stay at home and watch Dragontails.

I am back to normal now, although my voice is a bit husky.

Here's a respectable answer to a question that I had about germs.

Oh yeah, and yesterday I yelled at a kid for peeing in front of me on 40th Street.

Before MacGyver

Remember Ivan Dixon from Hogan's Heroes?

When I was a kid, I thought he was cool. He was like the precursor to MacGyver or something.

When I grew up, I saw Nothing But a Man and came to appreciate Dixon even more.

A Room Full of Loo Loos

Last night, I sat down to watch Newshour and eat a frozen entree. I've been watching this program since I was in elementary school, so in spite of the horrors they sometimes report, I usually find it comforting. Last night was one of the exceptions.

Last night, Judy Woodruff interviewed a bunch of regular citizens about the Iraq war, and whoa Nelly! it was the worst buzz kill I've had in weeks.

Believe it or not, I often avoid stuff such as letters to the editor, feedback booths, call in shows, etc. I knew this Newshour segment was going to be was going to be especially bad the moment I saw some of the faces on the panel. So I surfed over to the "weird" public tv station, channel 35 (the station that broadcasts programs such as In Bed with Butch and Mississippi Public Broadcasting's I Eat Weeds and Trees), and tried to watch the French language news. When I could take no more Frenchness, I surfed back to Newshour, hoping that the town hall style segment was over. Big mistake. This time, I couldn't turn away. Watching the news in a foreign language with no subtitles was almost easier to comprehend than listening to some of the people in this panel.

I wish I could thank Newshour for knocking me out of my comfort zone and exposing me to different points of view, but I'm afraid it just made me want to slink back into the spelt bread enclave.

A Valuable Perspective

From Obama's speech in Philadelphia today.

. . .Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all. . . .

I can no more disown [Reverend Wright] than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

The Fiber One Store Manager

This weekend, MJP and I discussed our fascination with the Store Manager character in The Fiber One cereal commercial. Not since that Ancient Chinese Secret ad have I been so intrigued.

The Store Manager carries himself like a diplomat. The timbre of his voice is in the same league with James Earl Jones and Patrick Stewart. He makes the line "Twigs no, delicious yes" sound like wisdom for the ages.

Why is a man with such gravitas managing a grocery store? My mind reels with possible back stories.

I want to verify the name of the actor who plays this mysterious manager, but it's taking too long. I haven't found his name, but I did find a racist comment about him. What is more perplexing is that a few sites say it's Frederick Koehler, the kid who played Chip on Kate and Allie. I doubt it. I want to see this charismatic actor in more appropriate roles.

And what about the guy who plays the clueless customer? Isn't that Bob Stephenson, who played the frog prince in Friends With Money?

I guess it all boils down to the fact that actors, like everyone else I know, need to get paid.

My Flower Show Photos

Here's a random sample of my best efforts at indoor nature photography from the Philadelphia Flower Show.

www.flickr.com

Stinks Like Teen Spirit

New, from the state that introduced the Clean Indoor Air Act back in the seventies (a law that sent piteous flocks of shivering office workers out into subzero weather to get their nicotine fixes), the anti-stink act for high school students.

I survived Bonnie Bell lipsmackers. I survived Tickle. I survived Love's Baby Soft. I overcame a massive Giorgio cloud during one year at a snooty prep school, college dorm incense, and weedy waves of Aveda products. But today's fragrance crazes seem almost unbearable. I've worked with some truly pimpy smelling work study students recently. If it's not a boy drenched in Axe, its a girl dowsed in some fruity bathroom cleaner-like body spray. I'd rather smell second hand smoke than that nast.

Just as the phrase Big Tobacco became shorthand for the cigarette lobby, I predict the phrase Big Stink will become the nickname of the Personal Care Products Council in Washington.

"We really don't think it's a good idea to legislate personal hygiene," sez John Hurson, Head of Government Affairs, Personal Care Products Council in the AP news.

Perhaps. I have little regard for the pitches of snake oil salesmen who push Axe and the like on an uninformed teen public. Still, crabby as I am, I don't want to deprive a young person of her right to smell pretty, even if she doesn't know what that means, and so winds up making herself smell like the Paris Metro in July.

Hopefully, education will make legislation unnecessary. Perhaps health and biology teachers, who must have a lot of time to fill because of that abstinence education thing, can help kids understand how perfume can make them reek.

Stand Back

I am so moody today. I can't wait for it to end.

Good News from Texas

There is hope.

They Weren't Kidding

I finally saw There Will Be Blood this weekend. Yep, there was blood, but not excessive amounts. There was also Daniel Day Lewis, who deserves all the praise he got, and there was great landscape photography.

I thought the film was one of the most moving things I've seen in a long time. I didn't care for Magnolia and I thought Punch Drunk Love was okay, but There Will Be Blood seems to fulfill the promise of Boogie Nights. Some people will say it is over the top, some people might find it cryptic, but if you want to see something honest, thought provoking, and stirring, see TWBB on the big screen. It's worth it.

I think it's better than No Country for Old Men. That's right.

Tea and Biscuits

“People rarely find time to sit down anymore with their family and friends, to invite people over, to prepare the tea and biscuits.” -- Jayant Agarwalla, Scrabulous Codeveloper in a NYT article.