Day: March 22, 2010

Offgassing?

Today was about as typical a Monday as they come. And there isn’t a whole lot to write about it because of that.

Even my “Forgotten English” desk calendar isn’t much help. Today’s entry is all about euphemisms for intestinal gas, starting with “wamble” — “pronounced wammle and meaning “to move with wind, as the intestines” — and ending with a short history of the vapours:

At that time, fretful women of the upper classes treated and avoided those psychosomatic conditions by donning heavy petticoats and underwear to help disguise and absorb their bodies’ offgassing.

You know it’s desperate times when the blog turns to the farting women of the 18th century for content.

I’m a little nervous about my trip to San Jose on Wednesday and a little unsure how I’m going to spend my off-time, including my birthday, while I’m there. Plans to meet up with some friends local to California ultimately fell through, so I’ll be on own most of the time. My father reminded me this evening that I have in fact been to San Jose once before; when I was younger, we visited the Winchester Mystery House, which I remember, if not in great detail. I’m a little disappointed the house closes at five every day that I’m there, meaning I won’t get a chance to take a cab over and visit.

Anyway, that was Monday.

Monday various

  • I think John Scalzi has it right about this health care bill that passed in the House yesterday:

    As such there was no real political or moral philosophy to the GOP’s action, it was all short-term tactics, i.e., take an idea a majority of people like (health care reform), lie about its particulars long enough and in a dramatic enough fashion to lower the popularity of the idea, and then bellow in angry tones about how the president and the Democrats are ignoring the will of the people. Then publicly align the party with the loudest and most ignorant segment of your supporters, who are in part loud because you’ve encouraged them to scream, and ignorant because you and your allies in the media have been feeding them bad information. Whip it all up until health care becomes the single most important issue for both political parties — an all-in, must win, absolutely cannot lose issue.

  • Meanwhile, Poppy Z. Brite has some harsh things to say about David Simon’s new HBO show Treme. The title of her post should tell you exactly how she feels about their filming in her hometown of New Orleans. It raises some interesting questions — namely, are some wounds too raw to be fictionalized, much less re-enacted for television in the same place? And what, if anything, is Treme‘s responsibility to the neighborhoods in which it films? Is it meeting that responsibility, just by bringing jobs and revenue to the city? (After all, you can’t please everyone, no more how sensitive your approach.) Can Simon, as an outsider to the city, even hope to do the tragedy that was Katrina justice? Frankly, you couldn’t stop me from watching this show, and I think if it’s handled with even half the depth and honesty as The Wire, it could terrific and emotional television.

  • Paul Di Filippo has the line-up for the ultimate Beatles-reunion band. This is either a terrfic or terrible idea, I’m not sure which.

  • Oh great, a book of inspirational quotes from Sarah Palin. I can’t fucking wait. [via]

  • And finally, I’ve mostly avoided all these Chatroulette videos (and the site itself), but Ben Folds’ live-show use of it was surprisingly awesome [via]: