Puzzled
Sunday, 28 February 2010
Bilingual country, our northern neighbor. Yet. National anthem, as I heard it: English only.
Musings
Bluebird* of happiness?
Saturday, 27 February 2010
The whole time I’ve been around Athens, restaurants have come and gone. Some have managed to have long tenures. Since its doors opened in 1975, the Bluebird survived at least two locations and probably more major reorganizations than that—last time I ate there, the menu was about half Indian food, a migration from its long-time Southern hippy style.
Now, the café seems defunct forever. Somehow its space is emptied, but not completely, so that a signature painting is still hanging on the wall opposite the door.
* My ignorance: our North American bluebirds are true thrushes.
Scribbles
Friday, 26 February 2010
These aren’t my scribbles, but you get the idea, I hope….*
I spent way too much time today reading up on collective action, which is probably a highly snoozy concept to anybody reading this. The idea is that one plus one is more than two, more or less, when it comes to groups of people working (more or less) together.
2009 Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom got into this topic, but looked at a different aspect than I’m interested in…. Then again, if you are working from archaeological data, as I am, the whole thing is rather different from the get-go.
* BTW, this whiteboard is in the room where I wrote my comps, now a nice high-tech conference room. I still got tense being in there….
Hot spot
Thursday, 25 February 2010
On this bright, sunny, yet windy-chilly day, we headed to Athens to return a too-long borrowed book (oops!).
I had forgotten that way back in June 2009, the Georgia Theatre suffered the ravages of fahr (deliberate misspelling**). Too, too bad.
And now the façade stands, a bright face to building-less architecture.*
As I recall, the last event I attended here was Lucinda Williams—fine music that night!
* Click here if you want to donate to the rebuilding fund.
** Channeling Kayak Woman….
Sunny and not-as-warm-as-it-looked
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
I just put this together—the info was right under my nose: best man at my mother’s first cousin’s wedding was Thomas Lanier Williams*.
And you know I’m not a name-dropper.
Of course, probably to a lot of folks, TW is not much of a name to drop….
* You may recognize his nickname, Tennessee.
Periwinkle as index for spring
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
I judge my day pretty darned unremarkable. Dredging….
Ummm.
Here’s a photo from this day in 2007, three years ago. This spring is running later—no periwinkle (Vinca minor) in bloom yet—that I’ve noticed….
Would you park here?
Monday, 22 February 2010
I’m rather surprised this car is parked atop this sign.* Then, again, maybe the owner is angling for an insurance claim….
* Can you read it? It says “undermined” in the box, and uphill and downhill of the box are question marks!
Day to remember
Sunday, 21 February 2010
First day of the year nice enough to sit in the sun and read—in the back yard!
Meanwhile, this guy (technically a grotesque, or a chimera) keeps the squirrels away….
Nuts about…
Saturday, 20 February 2010
Earlier today we discussed whether the neighborhood squirrel count had decreased lately. Data from our library walk suggests…about the same.
Random phrases
Friday, 19 February 2010
The narcissi are shooting up….
• Saw this on the register, when checking out with assorted vegetables, enough I hope will get us through the weekend: loose radishes.
Personally, I didn’t know they were socialized AT ALL!
• Heard this on Science Friday this afternoon (female voice, not sure who): journalism is event-driven and science is a process.
That distinction is worth pondering. Conflating events and process is a major logical error. And this conflation is all around us, even from people who should know better.
Apologies if you thought I was going to connect radishes and event/process….