An encounter at a Best Buy provides a revealing glimpse of the breakneck speed of change these days:
The clerk asked if he could help, and I said I was looking for a cheap virus-magnet laptop loaded with crapware. He asked me to repeat myself. He said the offerings on the showroom floor were scant, but I might try the website. He also said something interesting:
I don’t use a computer myself.
Oddly enough, because of the "misery loves company" effect, this makes me feel better:
How are you feeling today? Chances are, not that great...
Because this morning you woke up on what has come to be known as ‘Blue Monday’ - the day of the year on which most of us feel at our lowest ebb.
I've never been a big car nut -- I use them because I have to, then don't think about them except to curse them when they need repair -- but the new Corvette shore is purty. Bring me my shades and gold chains and tell the blondes to get ready.
Just what the world needs -- a nagging fork:
The fork contains a motion sensor, so it can figure out when it's being lifted to the mouth. If it senses that you're eating too fast, it warns with you with a vibration and a blinking light. The company believes that using the fork 60 to 75 times during meals lasting from 20 to 30 minutes is ideal.
[. . .]
Gee, do ya think? We are raising a generation of deluded narcissists:
A new analysis of the American Freshman Survey, which has accumulated data for the past 47 years from 9 million young adults, reveals that college students are more likely than ever to call themselves gifted and driven to succeed, even though their test scores and time spent studying are decreasing.
I don't know why I get a kick out of this little story, but I do:
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. - A World War II veteran from Indiana who served in France during the war has been reunited with his Army-issued duffel bag nearly seven decades after it went missing.
Technology just keeps bring us cooler and cooler toys:
I neglected to say anything on the passing of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, someone I admired very much. If I had posted last week, it probably would have been overly sympathetic, the view of a former soldier of another soldier who did it longer and much better. This, I think, is a more balanced and accurate look at the general. On his role in the Gulf War:
The linguists at Lake Superior State University join me in distaste for the "fiscal cliff" metaphor, but not because it's innacurate or misleading (my contention). They seem to dislike it merely because it's been so overused.
"Fiscal cliff" heads the 38th annual "List of Words to be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness" put out by Lake Superior State University in Michigan.
What First Familes Eat on Christmas. George Washington set a standard that's seldom been equalled:
