Saturday, July 21, 2012

People Talk

People talk. We all do it. It isn’t however until you hear of them talking about you that the smarting topic purchases any particular weight. Talking about you behind your back adds all the more kindling to the ignition. How an aspirate loves an audience! Lord it over the down-trodden fellow!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Axiomatic Living

There is opportunity for scientific discovery in everything. An examination of even the most mundane features of our daily lives provides, in the hands of the skilled analyst, no end of provender for consideration. To ourselves we are frequently less than complicated. And yet the records would suggest otherwise, elevating what might seem to be merely empirical data on everyday occurrences to the construct of a systematic enterprise based upon knowledge about the very universe. That is, there is (1) an objective reality which is (2) governed by natural laws that are (3) discoverable through observation (and perhaps some experimentation).

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Sans Enfants

Even given the extended concept of the modern family to include same-sex spouses and, in the vernacular at least, just about any other kind of mutually meaningful association, there nonetheless remains an indiscriminate but noticeable dividing line between two classes of persons in a relationship; viz., those with children and those without children. Once again children have proven themselves to be the great social leveler inasmuch as they foster no distinction between the classification or characterization of the parents who raise them. Essentially, parents of any stripe are still parents. The differentiation is quite simply between couples who have children and couples who do not.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Construction Zone Dining

At six o’clock in the evening we stood like two anxious dogs upon the edge of the River, peering into the mist and grey light to determine whether indeed the approaching small craft was that of our hosts, Debbie and Mike, from the Village of Appleton, come to collect us for dinner with them at their home. The motor of the boat puttered languidly. They came more sharply into view as the boat’s bow was seemingly magnetized to our shoreline stance. “Ahoy!”, went up the corporate welcome on both sides, and the metal craft slid with a grind onto the beach and out jumped Mike and Debbie both cleverly sporting open plastic shoes to accommodate the water upon their feet. Then followed embraces and the first of many groans about the disappointing weather which for the last hour had turned from cloudy to on-and-off drizzle, threatening to dampen our planned outing. Nonetheless we in unison proclaimed our advantage over such niggling details and proceeded to career ourselves into the small craft in preparation for departure, supplemented by less than nautical burbles about balance, size and position.