2012 — 17 December: Monday
Yesterday evening's spot of boredom-aversion therapy1 was Tim Burton's quirkily enjoyable "Dark Shadows". Revisiting, I gather, the setting of a long-running late 1960s American daytime soap-operatic TV show I'd never even heard of.
This morning's healthy blast of (hopefully shower-dodging) fresh air will have to be preceded by some vegetative slicing and dicing if I'm to enjoy a hot lump of tasty nutrition this evening. But there's always time for another cuppa first, don't you find? It is, after all, only 07:25 and still quite twilighty out there.
The power of...
... a couple of awkwardly-positioned commas, heh? Or missing out the words "in it" from immediately after the word "people", perhaps? So simple to fix, too. Even an averagely-competent Supreme Court should be capable, rather than remaining culpable. But what do I know? I'm just a bearded, sandals-wearing, wishy-washy type who thinks aggressive naked apes should be constrained from killing fellow members of their species.
The precise language of the Second Amendment reads:
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
The often fierce debate over the Second Amendment has centered on whether it was intended to protect the rights of all Americans to own guns, or only those who are members of state militia groups.
Perhaps the Benighted Kingdom could help? After all, I gather we host a thriving trade in the manufacture and export of the loathsome things.
Encyclopedia Paranoiaca
Meanwhile, those amiable chaps (Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf) who used to provide material for National Lampoon are still (as it were) at it. Source and snippet:
Also, meditation. I'd always seen it as a wonderful, welcome form of relaxation. Apparently, it can also come with "disturbing indications of detrimental psychiatric effects" — including the very anxiety it was meant to avoid in the first place. Who knew. I was intrigued, too, by an entry that read "memory loss. See: candlelight dinners; water filters." That one, I'll leave for you to explore further.
Time for brekkie. Where are those blueberries?
6.5 miles on foot...
... and another 50 or so in the car and here I am, back from Froxfield's altogether too muddy lanes in what's left of a chilly but sunny day and now ravenously tucking into my tuna sandwich which I'd managed to tote all the way round uneaten. We've agreed to remove this walk from our list of "suitable after rain" routes as bits of it were a mite too soggy. Even the brambles were also much in hazardous evidence as we tried to skirt the deeper quagmires. (Lovely word.)
Another little dollop...
... of video goodness was stuffed into the milk receptacle:
Christa and I watched this Spike Lee film together shortly after I bought it in April 2007, and when I recently re-watched it, I decided it was one of the titles 'worth' upgrading to Blu-ray.
Not only...
... did I miss this recent 'xkcd' but the "pop-up" answer2 to the question is even better.
Mike lent me two Blu-rays for tonight's entertainment. I watched — and quite enjoyed — Christopher Nolan's 'final' part of his "Batman" trilogy, but have had to sideline Jonathan Levine's "50/50" until my need for a cancer comedy is slightly greater. Meanwhile, I managed (with only 15 minutes searching) to unearth both my slender 1978 books of "study notes" (Methuen and Brodie's) on Heller's ineffable Catch-22 which was my trusty weekend travelling companion.
I've literally worn out two paperback copies since 1968, and keep a hardback safely upstairs in the books warehouse "just in case". (Actually, I never stay anywhere3 away from home without a book, and generally go looking for more if there's a bookshop in the vicinity.)