Daily Office: Tuesday
Morning
¶ Suddenly, It’s Summer: The window unit in the blue room, necessary because the HVAC service is always sluggish there, is keeping the room with the most books cool and dry, which is good for them and good for me, too. But I’m sitting in the living room, with the balcony door open, keeping comfortable with a Vornado fan.
¶ Heather Does Not Have Two Mommies: RomanHans slays me with his parody of political correctness. Part I, Part II. We must all pester our favorite booksellers for the other titles in Roman’s “Heather” series, thus creating demand, and, perhaps, the books.
Noon
¶ Crackdown in Dujiangyan: A demonstration by grieving parents, protesting the shoddy construction that killed their children in classrooms, was more or less peaceably broken up by a swarm of intimidating policemen. Edward Wong reports.
¶ Under Construction: Ha ha ha, that’s what most of the pages say at the Web site of New York Crane and Equipment.
Night
¶ Clinch: You’ve got to love the headline: no Dewey Beats Truman! this time!
¶ Prima la musica: Listening to Mr Mozart (as Florence Foster Jenkins appropriatingly called him, making him one of us), K 516. Music one has known better (much better) than the back of one’s hand for over forty years. And tonight it sounds as though I’d never heard it before. The amazing Mr Mozart.
Oremus…
Morning, cont’d
§ SuddenlyConstruction. I do hate the noise that a window unit makes — it’s especially obnoxious out on the balcony — but I can live with it. What I can’t live with is stuffiness. When I feel that the air in a room is absolutely still, I break out in a burning sweat, regardless of the temperature.
§ Heather. Roman has me guffawing in the fourth paragraph.
Danitra is Heather’s best friend. One of Danitra’s dads is an empowerment facilitator. The other is an aura consultant. Danitra doesn’t know what they do at work, except they don’t need briefcases. Before Danitra was born her daddies met and fell in love, and after seventeen years spent discussing caring and support, handling acceptance, and negotiating intimacy, they had a commitment
Empowerment Facilitator Meets Aura Consultant! What a smack-down!
Noon, cont’d
§ Crackdown. There’s really nothing say about this story, beyond “duly noted.” No one has any idea where these protests are going, or what the consequences for systemically corrupt local cadres of the Communist Party, if any, will be. If I knew my chaos theory better, then I’d be able to express in a word or two the extreme volatility of Chinese state changes. Unusually stable, and capable of absorbing tremendous insults to its organization, Chinese society occasionally dissolves into near-complete anarchy. Perhaps my metaphor ought to come from geology, which teaches that a lot of small quakes cause much less damage in the aggregate than a single big one. China’s earthquakes tend to be big ones.
§ Under. The type face and the text don’t quite get along. The former suggests an outlet for Earl Grey & Equipment, while as for the text:
Our commitment is to provide you the customer the options critical to
specific job tasks in a demanding market place. Whether it is steel
erection, rigging, heavy construction, pour in place, or that tough one,
our skilled support staff in sales, operations and service are dedicated to
completing your job requirements with the right equipment at the right
time.
I’ll take two tough ones, with everything.
Night, cont’d
§ Clinch. As someone with only one concern, I have a hard time getting excited this evening. By my very rough estimate, it will take until the year 2035 for the right-wing tinge of the Federal judiciary to begin to wash out, if a Democrat wins the White House in November. Here’s hoping that capitalism survives the Brylcreemed jurisprudence of the neo-McKinleyites!
§ Prima. Is anyone else thinking of signing up for the One Day University thingy at Times Center? Kathleen not only insists that I go but tells me that I can take a friend. Ah, if only.