Category: *heh*

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Is It Wrong of Me. . .

. . .to be entertained by the pathetic behavior of some folks who have chosen The Way of Self-Enstupiation?

Sample: those folks who (apparently) cannot distinguish between accuracy in labeling, name-calling (which is actually, IMO, quite often appropriate when justifiably ridiculing someone who has drawn a target on their own back), and ad hominem fallacy. Those who lump these categories together indiscriminately rarely do so because of innate stupidity and laziness; no, it is usually because of hard-earned, willful stupidity and laziness that they do so.

Such folks may get one, two or three strikes from me, but quite soon my patience runs out and I begin giving them their due: guffaws and raucous ridicule, just about the only sort of criticism that can reach the self-enstupiated. Is such effective in ameliorating their behavior? No, not usually, but it does usually result in reactions that are just as stupid and intellectually lazy as the behavior that spurred the ridicule, and that’s amusing. Gives me more to mock.

Is that wrong? If so, I DGARA. It’s entertaining, and that’s about the best that can come from interactions with the self-enstupiated.

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Almost? See Inigo Montoya

Had to chuckle when I read (identity withheld to protect the guilty from embarrassment) a recent reference to John Moses Browning’s Colt 1911 that read, “It’s an engineering masterpiece with a design that’s endured almost 100 years.” Almost? Browning began work on the specifics of the design around 1890, and the pistol was in Army field trials between 1907 and 1911, when it was adopted for use. That’s not “almost 100 years” but MORE THAN 100 years, no matter when one chooses its start date.

Should I blame common core math for the writer’s faux pas?

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Nota Bene

Sometimes, when I say “I DGARA” (and I have been known to do so), it’s not because I’m stingy; it’s because I really do not have a rat’s patootie to give.

Thatisall.

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“Just the Facts, Ma’am”

I like J.A. Jance books for light reading, mostly as “palate cleansers.” *heh* The J.P. Beaumont books rank a wee tad higher on the “mystery” end of the scale of her books, while the “Arizona books” (centered around two different female protagonists) are slightly less appealing to me, not because of the central characters, but just because they offer less for me to solve before the characters do.

Still, Jance is a competent writer, and her stories read easily–just the thing for light palate cleansers. They’re also–thankfully!–pretty well line- and content edited, so my own copies don’t get marked up a lot. 😉

And then there are the little things, like a minor character (in a putative “mystery-cozy thriller, if there is such a genre *heh*) recruited to do security work named. . . Joe Friday. Oh. Funny, J.A. Real funny. *heh* I wanted him to walk up to the client and say, “Just the facts, Ma’am.”

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I Should Have Content Editing Privileges

When Roger Simon wrote, “We don’t need elegant words, Republican John Kerry’s slavering all over us with diplospeak” in a recent column, I thought to meself, “Self, that would read much better with ‘dildospeak’ than ‘diplospeak.'”

Thatisall.

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Occasionally. . .

*sigh* Every now and then, I find myself reading five or so books at once. This is one of those times. (Plus a new Bible reading plan I’d not tried before.) I know how it happens. Books that are just barely well-written and interesting enough to continue reading, but not well-written and interesting enough to read straight through are the usual culprits. Every now and then, a book I need to put down and think about, or just absorb, for a while before continuing makes my reading list as well.

Now? One hardcopy book. A book on my “non-fiction Kindle” and another on my “fiction Kindle” plus three more in different instances of Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader. Between the six, they hold my attention. *sigh*

And then there’s that new Bible reading program. Ten chapters/day, each from a different book with specific instructions to just read them straight through without stopping to think on the text. Tried that. Can’t. So, I generally read half the day’s readings and then go do other things, while the chapters I’ve read percolate. Then, at the end of the day, I finish the readings.

In between, my daily work/chores/activities and. . . the other books.

I prefer keeping it to just one book at a time, but sometimes. . . nope. Not happening.