• Recycle Bin
One of my biggest pet peeves about blogs is how amnesiac they are; they place such a primacy on the latest post--indeed, in the case of the majority of blogs who fixate on political headlines or personal minutiae, the only value in what they post is how up-to-the-minute they are--that once a post slides down the screen and into the archives, it's effectively flushed out of existence.

As I write at left, this blog tries to avoid the "news cycle" mentality, and instead be more randomly and consistently curious and informative. That's why I string together certain categories of this blog (such as Places and History) with "Previous" tags. And that's why I'm starting this Recycle Bin feature--digging through my archives and finding something that's worth reading now as much as when it was written. I'm not saying this first entry is anything earth-shattering, I'm just trying to question the conventional wisdom that weblog writing must be inherently ephemeral, here one moment and gone the next, with no lasting weight. Ideas and observations are powerful not for their immediacy but for their historical resonance. (Now, to the minutiae...)

July 19, 2002
Seen in a Skokie courtroom this morning while waiting 19 hours (as it seemed) for a case I'm covering to come up: a court reporter scratching her ear. I must say, I've never thought about that before. What happens when you're clackety-clacking away while the judge or an attorney is droning on and then--uh oh--you're seized by the urge to cough or scratch your nose? It must be one of the great underrated human dramas; in fact, with my limited knowledge of court shows, I would guess this has never been addressed on prime time television. Maybe this is slightly overblowing it. I've posted this site before, but here 'tis again, promising, "Find a Court Reporter" [near you]. For what? Transcripts of a celebrity roast you're planning? Records of a tense first date? Is everything a for-hire service now?
http://www.courtreporters.com

• Etymology Today from M-W: tantalize \TAN-tuh-lyze\
: to tease or torment by or as if by presenting something desirable to the view but continually keeping it out of reach

Pity poor King Tantalus of Phrygia. The mythic monarch offended the ancient Greek gods. As punishment, he was plunged up to his chin in water in Hades, where he had to stand beneath overhanging boughs of a tree heavily laden with ripe, juicy fruit. But though he was always hungry and thirsty, Tantalus could neither drink the water nor eat the fruit. Anytime he reached for them, they would retreat from him. Our word "tantalize" is taken from the name of the eternally tormented king.

• Previous E.T.

Seen last week at G&M's Social Studies:
"Civilized ages inherit the human nature which was victorious in barbarous ages, and that nature is, in many respects, not at all suited to civilized circumstances."
Walter Bagehot

A corollary of sorts to the excerpts of Michael Pollan's "An Animal's Place" I posted last week:

To contemplate such questions from the vantage of a farm is to appreciate just how parochial and urban an ideology animals rights really is. It could thrive only in a world where people have lost contact with the natural world, where animals no longer pose a threat to us and human mastery of nature seems absolute.

I was reading the sequel to Politically Correct Bedtime Stories at, oddly enough, bedtime last night. The revised Little Mermaid, which has become, of course, "The Little Mer-Persun," includes this observation by a mer-persun who has just surfaced for the first time: "[She] told of how humans were obsessed with making machines that saved themselves labor, then spent lots of money in special clubs for the privilege of keeping their muscles toned."

And here's the PC account in "The City Mouse and the Suburban Mouse" of the suburban mouse being harassed by a homeless person: "As he stepped out of his car, he was asked for a monetary donation by someone supporting himself outside the reigning capitalist paradigm."

Interesting counterintuitive cover of Newsweek this week. I couldn't help but think, has the pressure ever been greater for two young people not to jump the gun than it is now for Chris Nicoletti and Amanda Wing, the two teen cover subjects? Imagine the scandal they'd have to endure if she ends up pregnant before they march down the aisle. It would be like Jared the Subway guy getting caught downing a bucket of wings at KFC.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/841604.asp

I loathe the WSJ editorial board for its reflexive rightism, and I suppose I should, for the sake of prizing critical thinking over straitjacketing ideology, equally loathe the NYT's Paul Krugman for his reflexive leftism. It's just that I agree with him more. Today he offers a more mathematical riposte to the WSJ-ers complaints that the poor don't pay enough taxes, which I scoffed at last week. As he summarizes the WSJ: "The government mustn't do anything good, because then people might not realize that government is bad. Understand?"
http://nytimes.com/2002/12/03/opinion/03KRUG.html

• Etymology Today from M-W: juxtapose \JUK-stuh-pohz\
: to place side by side

A back-formation is a word that has come about through the removal of a prefix or a suffix from a longer word. Etymologists think "juxtapose" is a back-formation that was created when people trimmed down the noun "juxtaposition." Historical evidence supports the idea: "juxtaposition" was showing up in English documents as early as 1654, but "juxtapose" didn't appear until 1851. "Juxtaposition" is itself thought to be a combination of Latin "juxta," meaning "near," and English "position."

• Previous E.T.

A sharp-witted friend with an ax to grind weighs in on my Keith Olbermann post from last week:
...2002_12_01_nbiermafile_archive.html#85381606

Sympathy for wide-waisted McDonald's litigants? Yes and no, says this letter writer to the NY Times:

Re "Don't Blame the Eater," by David Zinczenko (Op-Ed, Nov. 23):
There's plenty of fault to go around in explaining the problem of obese children.
Our society is one in which children are carpooled, no one walks and very few bicycle. We are overscheduled, so it is difficult to shop for and prepare healthy meals and snacks to bring along. Further, we are gluttons. One can find healthy foods in fast-food places; it is not required that one consume double orders of fries and milkshakes at every outing. What's needed is a little discipline, a little thought and a little physical exercise.
FRANCINE FLEISHMAN, Lido Beach, N.Y., Nov. 24, 2002

• Etymology Today from M-W: cordial \KOR-jul\
1 : tending to revive, cheer, or invigorate
2 a : sincerely or deeply felt *b : warmly and genially affable

"Cordial" has the same Latin root ("cor") as "concord" (meaning "harmony") and "discord" (meaning "conflict"). "Cor" means "heart," and each of these "cor" descendants has something to do with the heart, at least figuratively. "Concord," which comes from "con-" (meaning "together" or "with") plus "cor," suggests that one heart is with another. "Discord" combines the prefix "dis-" (meaning "apart") with "cor," and it implies that hearts are apart. And anything that is "cordial," be it a welcome, a hello, or an agreement, comes from the heart.

• E.T. bonus, also from M-W: origins of riot act, as in: "She read her the riot act."
Many people were displeased when George I became king of England in 1714, and his opponents were soon leading rebellions and protests against him. The British government, anxious to stop the protests, passed a law called the "Riot Act" which allowed public officials to break up gatherings of 12 or more people just by reading aloud a certain message. That message warned those who heard it that they could be arrested and imprisoned for years if they didn't immediately separate and go home. By 1819, "riot act" was also being used more generally for any stern warning or reprimand.

• Previous E.T.