Thursday, June 24, 2010

Meanderings 62-Just a few

Knife Edge Trail on Katahdin (more to come on this trip later, when Pastor sends me the pictures he took...since I forgot my camera). NOTE: We did not make it to the Knife Edge, since the rain, wind, and cold kept us down....

We did, however, hike in to the remote Chimney pond, which is shown below, from the summit of Katahdin. Does that make sense? Even Chimney pond is still at an elevation of about 3100 feet!

1. Why are most tarps blue? There has to be a reason for this.

2. Consider "dental floss." At this point, do we really need the "dental" in front of floss? If they took the dental part off, would people be confused that it was perhaps a different type of floss? ARE there different types of floss? Besides the kind women from NJ wear under their jeans, I mean.

3. Next time you read a book, look at all the useless pages leading up to the first line of the actual story. I just read THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy, and there were SIX pages (that is right...six) of blank white space with nothing but some combination of "The Road" or "The Road: By Cormac McCarthy" or, simply, nothing at all. I am totally being honest about this. THE ROAD is a best seller....so let us just say there are two million copies in print. Two million times six equals a LOT of freakin dead trees. And the funny thing is that most of the people who read these artsy fartsy books are the liberal hippies who dont want you to cut a tree down to heat your house.

4. ALSO, look at the page at the beginning of a book that has all the publishing information, the Library of Congress number, etc. Usually, at the bottom of the page, there's a number sequence that looks like this:
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

What the hell is with that??

5. It seems that famous black people with handicaps come in pairs, and I think this is kind of interesting--a sort of "what are the odds of that" kind of thing. I've mentioned before about Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder--two blind black piano and songwriter virtuosos who were themselves contemporaries of each other. But also consider Gary Coleman and Emmanuel Lewis: How coincidental that two young black midget actors would both hit it big at the same time with shows like "Different Strokes" and "Webster." I wonder which one came first...let's say it was Different Strokes. I wonder if the eventual think-tank creators of Webster panicked, saying "Oh my gosh...we need to find a black midget show too if we want to compete with ABC!!" Good times

6. Winslow, Waterville, and Fairfied police are really cracking down on enforcing the Maine seat belt law, which means you can get pulled over and summonsed if you are driving without a seat belt. ABSOLUTE CRAP!! This is so twisted on so many levels. Look, I am all for public safety and people taking care of themselves, but if I choose to not wear a seat belt in the privacy of my own car, then that is MY right and my right alone. The most obvious joke with this policy is that, in Maine, motorcyclists dont have to wear helmets. But I find it embarrassing that we live in a country where it is perfectly legal for irresponsible and morally depraved mothers to walk into abortion clinics and kill a baby....but the police are going to give me a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt. Naturally, I have a solution to this problem: Let everyone do whatever they want. Hopefully, people will be smart enough to wear a seat belt anyway, All cars come equipped with a sensor that records if a person is wearing a seat belt or not (we have the technology). If, after a car accident, the sensor shows no seatbelt was worn, this person automatically is disqualified from being able to use health insurance to pay for their injuries. Simple. Fair. Equitable.

4 comments:

Sally Piles said...

I like #6. I totally agree. It's stupid that we're required to wear seat belts (not that I WOULDN'T wear one, mind you...) but motorcyclists don't have to wear helments. What's the difference?

Also, have you seen the stories in the newspaper about how some motorcyclists (and notice I said SOME) are saying that extra loud bikes should be allowed on the roads because it's a safety issue - the louder the bike, the more aware other people will be and the less accidents there will be. What bull! Is there any evidence of this? I HATE loud motorcycles. And they always seem to go by the house just as Callum is napping...

Sally Piles said...

Oh yeah, and I think you should try to summit Katahdin again this summer. I'll wait at the bottom for you, relaxing by Roaring Brook with my book and a glass of iced tea.

But I'll join you on the hike next year!

ortiz said...

Good blog!!! No food involved????

M.I.L. said...

I love and totally agree with you on #6. So many of our individual freedoms are taken away. Also, as far as motorcycles go, it's very unfair that they can be as loud as they want because it's a safety issue. If your car's exhaust is even 1/4 as loud, you get a ticket and told to get it fixed right away. Maybe I should tell the police it's a safety issue for cars. The louder the sound, the more it alerts the deer, moose so they don't total my car or me if I should hit one and the small animals so they stay clear and eliminates a lot of road kill. Just saying.

There is embroidery floss and it's a little thicker than dental floss.