Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Prada is my life

When one types Prado into iTunes for a query (you know, as in, maybe they have a podcast of one of their art tours, like a lot of places do nowadays) you are asked if you didn’t really mean prada.

Jeesh.

The interview with James Jacobs on Loquitur brought March-April full circle. Not surprisingly, the experts on the subject are saying what we thought would be said. On the one side, a crime is a crime, plus there’s the issues of identity politics (which I wouldn’t want to concentrate too much on, but if this were seriously being debated beyond just a few events, you know that’s where a lot of people would be going: people often prefer the tangent to the core, unfortunately), while on the other side, it’s all about the harms. What it isn’t is the idea that you can’t know what’s in the mind of the offender, because, well, that’s not true. If someone burns a cross on your lawn, I would suggest it’s rather easy to know what is in that person’s mind (if anything). And intent informs plenty of other crimes, and their punishments, so why wouldn’t intent inform hate crimes? But after Districts this weekend, and Dreaded States next month, the subject will be gone till the next time it hits the docket. Too bad, in a way. I like this topic because it does allow us to talk about so many things, most of them fascinating. Oh, well. The next thing to think about will be the CatNats topic. That’s always a scorcher… Anyhow, I continue to applaud Loquitur, and hope they can keep up the good work on future subjects.

Last night we began Caveman and made it up to, but not including, Plato. (Did I really mean prada?). So I guess it’ll take three sessions altogether. We should get at least up to the Modern next time, and then Mo and Po after that. Part 1 takes so long because it sets the stage for the thesis of the evolution of narrative (narrative→narration→narrator), but once we start hitting the examples, things travel apace. Me, I just like looking at the cover picture of O’C coming out of Magritte’s pipe. I’ve always felt that, if old Rene had actually known O’C, he would have put him in that picture himself, because it’s just so perfect. No one else could come out of that pipe so well.

Following my misadventures in calendaring, yesterday I ordered new Filofax pages (Filofax was Gandalf’s horse in Lord of the Rings) (and yeah, I know I stole that joke from The New Yorker, but who’s counting). My problem is that I have 5 calendar sources at work and 4 (at least) at home, and few of them communicate with each other. If I could hook a work and office calendar together, that would help, but they don’t allow us iCal on our office machines (don’t ask) and there’s no connection of Lotus Notes with anything else worth having, so while no man is an island, every one of man’s calendars is an island if he has my Day Job. Since I like carrying a notebook (I’ve been moleskinning lately), going back to the Filofax is no hardship. Maybe paper is the solution. I certainly hope so. Alternately I’ll get an iPhone, but I’m waiting for 3g (only because that’s what all the technical people complain about, as if I really know the difference) and maybe a better price and more memory, or then again I’m still sparring with my Touch technolust. One thing about the Filofax calendar: ten bucks and you’re done. Let’s see Steve Jobs match that!

And the next person who changes their Districts registration will be drawn and quartered. Twice. By Joe Vaughan. That oughta make ‘em think long and hard before sending me yet another email. I have a request in to Rippin’ to officially change our name from New York State to New York Spalpeens. I’ll keep you posted on how that works out.

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