Mints are a great way of getting rid of the smell of a 3 year old suffering from gastro-intestinal distress that a brisk cycle through a gale followed by a shower just won’t shift. At least I hope they are.
Shouldn’t there be a word for the type of smell that is no longer present, but somehow seems trapped in your nasal cavity? I bet there’s a word for it in German. A long word, with a v in it.
Next Wednesday, May 17th, is the Ride Of Silence, an annual event to remember those who have died while cycling during the last year. Selling our house has made forwarding planning tricky, but if it’s possible I’ll be there and I hope to see some of you there too.
I’m lucky; I haven’t had a traffic accident, though I’ve fallen in the road and heard the unnerving screech of a car’s brakes as it struggled to stop before rolling over me. Instead I’ll be riding for Pia Sass, who was grievously hurt but thankfully not killed when an elderly motorist ran over her while she was out training for a marathon. I don’t know Pia, but she was a member of my rowing club and I taught her sister to row last year, so it’s been interesting to follow her story.
I was very surprised to read that my native country is still paying my adoptive country (or should that be foster country, as I’m heading back?) for the loans we received after World War II. It would be easy to complain that we should have been let off the loan early, or even that it should have been a gift, but there are a couple of reasons why I don’t subscribe to such a viewpoint.
The first is that these loans are frequently made between nations, and anything that damped the expectation of their being repaid would also tend to reduce the chances of their being granted, to everyone’s detriment.
The second is that we still owe the US billions from World War I that we’re not paying off, so to complain would seem petty.
Great quote from the guy refusing to let a creationist theme park go ahead in Florida:
“Scripture also says ‘Render unto Caesar what Caesar demands.’ And right now, Caesar demands a building permit,” County Commission Chairman Mike Whitehead said.
(HT: Pharyngula)
I mentioned zefrank’s vidcast thingy before, but an entry from Friday has been running through my head all weekend, so I thought I should show you what counts as funny in my world. The whole thing is good, but the song near the beginning is just beautifully done.