Cat Fancy

Image by Harshad Sharma via Flickr

I had one of those wonderfully random conversations during tea break today.  Somehow, one of my coworkers got onto the topic of how much she hates cats.  For oh so many reasons including: their tendency to slink around your feet, brush you with their tails, and how they'll quietly sneak up on you (like a little furry, evil serial killer).  Not to mention the "fact" that the minute their loving humans breathe their last breath, the little carnivores immediately start munching on their owner's meaty parts. 

This was said in such a tone of horrified distaste and atavistic terror that the cat lovers at the table passed right by insult and dissolved into hysterical laughter.

But the best visual came when she recounted a recent news story she'd seen in which an American woman (it's always an American in these stories) was filmed breast feeding her cat!  EWWWWW!

All I can say is, she has a lot of trust in our maturity if she doesn't expect months of teasing and taking the piss to come out of this.  You can only give people so much material before they have to use it against you :-)

Close Call

I love living in the center of town because of how close I am to all my haunts. For example, it only takes me 5 minutes to walk from my apartment to my gym. I take the same route every time.

Luckily, this happened 90 minutes before I would have been taking my familiar evening trek.



Otherwise, that would have been me under that building and not just a car that looks eerily like mine.

I guess the moral of this story is don't attach heavy scaffolding to the shell of dilapidated buildings with inadequate bracing. Or, maybe, don't park next to buildings under renovation? Or even, make life more interesting and vary your route sometimes!

Balance, Rhetoric and Talking about Race in America

Always a sensitive issue, it can be hard sometimes to find a relatively fair analysis of what happened at Harvard and the fall-out in the media.  Luckily, Hal Crowther who writes for the Independent Weekly newspaper in Chapel Hill, NC, is pretty good at just that kind of thing. 

Lessons from the Henry Louis Gates case: Black, white and shades of gray

Why The NHS Isn't An Evil Socialist Hellhole

Luckily, I'm protected by distance here in Ireland from the at times vicious nature of the debate in the U.S. over proposed health reform. Public option? Non-profit co-op? Small business decimated by unrealistic coverage rules? Public option equals socialism? All these and more have been argued over, screamed about, and prompted threats ad nauseum.

The British NHS, as an example of a health care system that covers everyone, has been particularly vilified as a horrible example of what Obama is trying to turn the U.S. into. Now, I myself have not been altogether happy with the vagaries of a public health system, as I've experienced it here in Ireland, but that's not to say I don't think the U.S. system needs a drastic overhaul and that a public option is probably just the injection that sick system needs. That or something that makes a real effort to cover the 46 million Americans who have no health coverage now at all.

Today's New York Times article describing an American expat's experience with both health systems was particularly enlightening for me about this issue - "Health Care in Britain: Expat Goes for a Checkup".

Just My Luck

I finally got in to see my new "female doctor" on Monday, after waiting for five months for an appointment. No, don't turn away! You're wrong, this is NOT another whiney post about the ups and downs of the medical system here in Ireland. It's a whiney post about the ridiculousness of my life.

What do I find when I get in there? My doctor is gorgeous, young (about my age), SINGLE (at least no ring), and has a beautiful British accent.

The perfect man turns out to be my GYN. Why does the universe hate me?!

Speaking of Sci-Fi

Check out this very funny post from NPR's pop culture blog Monkey See - Five Ways Movie Governments Could Respond More Effectively To Alien Invasions.

I think they are all good guidelines that I hope our governments will pay close attention to. Last thing we need is for them to act as stupidly when the real thing comes a-knockin' as they always seem to do in the movies!

Future Affect

Just watched the final episode of The Dollhouse. Well done, but sad. Sad and pessimistic.

I'm a longstanding lover of scifi, so it's no real surprise coming face to face with the world ending themes that seem to dominate so much of the genre. But, I still get bummed by it. Especially As brought to life on TV.

Image via Wikipedia

Remember Star Trek? Now Gene Roddenbury knew how to meld a good story with an optimistic worldview. Where's the G.R. for this new generation?