We went to Applebee’s last night for the first time since kidlet started eating Big People food. We were rather shocked that the “children’s menu” was printed in black on white paper, with no logo or anything to indicate it was an official Applebee’s menu. Just the words “Kid’s Menu,” a list of items and…
Author: Clio
Nuncation
Yesterday, somebody I know mused about the antonym of procrastinate. There isn’t a verb I’m aware of for doing something immediately or for doing something before it’s due. However, it’s possible to build one. Procrastinate comes from Latin. Pro- means toward or for. Cras means tomorrow, while crastinus is the possessive. -Ate is a standard plural…
Wisdom of the Dalai Lama
Overview: I have a German language “Wisdom of the Dalai Lama” page-a-day calendar. Each day, I plan to translate the German into English, and discuss. Juli 2: Wir sollten lernen, gelassen im Augenblick zu leben und uns von dem, was wir mögen oder ablehnen, nicht so sehr aus der Fassung bringen zu lassen. We should…
Wisdom of the Dalai Lama
Overview: I have a German language “Wisdom of the Dalai Lama” page-a-day calendar. Each day, I plan to translate the German into English, and discuss. Juli 1: Die Dinge sind, wie sie sind, und nicht, wie wir sie gerne hätten. Dies zu begreifen und zu akzeptieren ist der Schlüssel zum Glück. Things are as they…
Atlas Shrugged Chapter 11: The Man who Belonged on Earth
It’s not Rand’s fault that the title of this chapter evokes not one but two David Bowie references, both of which come well after Atlas Shrugged and probably neither of which is related. Regardless, though, for the time being when I think of Hank Rearden, my mind sings, “You’re face… to face… with the man…
There is no “try”
Do or do not, there is no try. — Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back Yoda’s absolutism aside, there’s a significant kernel of value in this perspective. I consider myself a liberal, and I was raised in the “Free to be you and me” post-hippie glow. Even so, one aspect of that mindset that I feel…
Atlas Shrugged Chapter 10: Wyatt’s Torch
One reason I wanted to post (if possible) after each chapter was that I figured it would keep me motivated to keep reading if there were evidence of my progress. Another reason is that it keeps me honest, so when I finish the book, I can’t pretend I had different opinions as I progressed than…
Atlas Shrugged Chapter 9: The Sacred and the Profane
I’m not sure if it’s my commitment to try to be more pleasant towards the book, or if this chapter was genuinely better than the previous one. Either way, it was a more positive experience. Chapter summary: Taking up where we left off in the last chapter, Dagny and Hank have an, um, discussion about…
Atlas Shrugged: Reassessment #1
Reflecting on the tenor of my summations of the last few chapters, it occurs to me that perhaps I have been less generous to Atlas Shrugged than I had originally intended to be. It is, after all, merely a book; perhaps Rand had meant it in the same way that Rearden had meant his metal,…
Atlas Shrugged Chapter 8: The John Galt Line
Egocentrism abounds. When the first page of a chapter is an entire dialog, as in, involving two people, and there’s no telephone involved but we only get one person’s words and the other person is identified solely as “the worker,” well, we shouldn’t expect much balance to the perspectives presented. Chapter summary: As the train…