Not Quite In The Swing, But Trying

Clearly, I've been otherwise occupied.

In times like these, I've resorted to posting interesting articles from the NYTimes Sunday Magazine, like this one here, which is sad and fascinating.

Other times, I'd offer an interesting observation, like the one where in the inpatient VA nurses' office there is a clock on the wall with a note taped just below it that reads "This clock is always three minutes behind", which leads me to wonder, why didn't someone change it rather than writing a note about it, and if you are going to have a clock wrong on purpose, why wouldn't it be running ahead. I disagree with the concept that setting clocks wrong can trick you into being on time, but even if you do believe in that concept, setting the clock behind will really not help very much. And if there is a sign telling you it's behind, then, uhm, why?

And then at other times, I'd tell you what I've been busy doing. Like reading White Racism by this guy, who is clearly an uber-intellectual with a lot of time on his hands. No disservice intended: the book is brilliant. But it's ridiculously dense, tracing a "psychohistory" from the oedipal roots of Christianity (pushing away the harsh, punitive father in favor of a desexualized, safer son and a virginal, approving mother) to the cultural anality of the Middle Ages (money as excrement) to the development of unconscious pervasive racism in the West (including both slavery and abolitionists as different defensive reactions to the cultural anal fixation). The guy's got brains and this book is mind-blowing. Both in context of information and depressive substance.

And then I'd tell you about the 43 other things I'm doing, except you all have similar stories and that would be boring.

And finally, if Comedy Central ever posts the clip, and they have not yet done so, I will direct Felicity Taint's and your attention to the Ed Helms five-minute riff on "getting the taint out of Washington" in response to a comment from a congressman on the Abromoff deal. If they ever post it, it's a classic. If you read this in time, turn on the reruns of last night's show (they rerun them early evening the next night, which is today).