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I’m so gonna put a secret passageway behind my bookshelf…

…assuming these guys will equip it with a wheelchair ramp.

Add comment February 28th, 2006

What famous people (living) do you wish you could meet?

We’ve already talked about the famous people we have met.

What famous people who are still living would you want to meet?

For me it’s easy:

Neil Armstrong (It actually amazes me that the first human to walk on another heavenly body is still alive and living in almost total obscurity.)

Harper Lee ‚Äì the author of my favorite book/movie: To Kill a Mockingbird.

The first President George Bush. (My favorite president from my lifetime.)

My favorite living author Martin Cruz Smith.

And J.K. Rowling.

(I realized something funny while making this list. I have no interest in meeting someone because they are famous. Almost everyone on my list is someone I want to thank.)

10 comments February 26th, 2006

What famous people have you met?

I’ve been out drinking with the guys from Hootie and the Blowfish.

Had a bull session with John Irving, buy cialis illness author of the The World According to Garp.

Ridden in a limo with June Allyson (she was dropping me off before going to a tribute for Jimmy Stewart).

Was at a TV commercial shoot with Jon Favreau of Swingers fame.

And scared the heck out of Minnie Driver while crossing the street in the rain in Dublin.

How ’bout you?

15 comments February 23rd, 2006

Flowers for Algernon

The famous short story Flowers for Algernon is about Charlie, discount cialis ambulance a young man with an IQ of 68 who becomes a genius after an experimental operation.

At the height of his powers, site Charlie realizes that the effect is only temporary. And soon his mental state declines again to the level of a child.

In my 20s, I was proud of myself for recognizing that the story is a metaphor for how knowledge drove Adam from Eden.

I was in my late 30s before I realized that Flowers for Algernon is really the story of all of us.

We begin as children…

…achieve the full flowering of our talents as adults…

…and then have it slowly slip away until we’re no more than children again.

You know, I’ve really started to hate that story.

1 comment February 18th, 2006

A note on my blogroll

I use my blogroll as my personal reading list. Because of that, generic viagra online I’m quick to put people on and quick to pull them off.

If you end up off, treat it’s not an insult.

My reading habits may have changed, or you may not have posted in quite a while.

Of course, if you take me off yours…

5 comments February 14th, 2006

The world’s worst golfer

Even before the chair, cialis sales healing I was the world’s worst golfer.

True story:

I was lining up to hit the ball when a golf cart stopped on the path next to me.

“Hey there, clinic ” the friendly driver said. “Do you realize that’s the women’s tee you’re about to hit from?”

“Yes,” I said between clenched teeth. “Do you realize this is my second shot?”

1 comment February 10th, 2006

Strange idea for a book

I always wanted to write a book from the first-person perspective…

…where the main character was killed in the first chapter…

…and the rest of the book was filled with blank white pages.

But I could never decide if it was thought-provoking…or just really, cialis sale salve really stupid.

6 comments February 7th, 2006

This I Believe

I believe I’ll never get a chance to do “This I Believe“ on NPR.

So, cialis usa treat I believe I’ll just go ahead and do it right here.

I believe in free speech, cialis generic patient free will, shop and free thinking. I believe everything else must be paid for.

I believe in self-reliance. I believe in lending a hand. And I believe there is no contradiction between the two.

I believe in rear wheel drive, manual transmissions, and convertable tops.

I believe the Kiltie in Oconomowoc, WI has the best frozen custard anywhere.

I believe I’ve found the love of my life.

I believe in dogs from the animal shelter.

I believe Nick Cave was right when he sang ” people just ain’t no good.”

I believe its more important to love someone than it is to be loved.

I believe in Macintosh computers.

I believe in wood-burning fireplaces.

I believe in the right to keep and bear arms.

I believe it’s not butter*.

I believe in action movies.

I believe 90% of everything is BS. And the other 10% is questionable.

I believe in TIVO.

I believe fetuses are human beings.

I believe I saw a ghost.

I believe in Door County.

I believe a good education is the key.

I believe I’m done…

…for now.

What I can’t believe is that anyone took the time to read this whole thing.

* Stolen from Patty Larkin’s song Don’t.

2 comments February 5th, 2006

Let he who does not live in a glass house cast the first stone.

I’d barely recovered from my last religious wrestling match with Rick Esenberg of Shark and Shepherd when he decided to endorse this anti-atheist diatribe by Dale Reich.

I wonder if someone has been slipping something into the holy water at these guys’ churches?

That’s the only thing I can think of that might have inspired such parochial pablum.

For the record, viagra usa stuff I’m not an atheist.

I’m an agnostic.

But I think that still qualifies me to debunk Dale.

Dale challenges atheists to “…embrace the world as you say it is: a purely physical and random place where goodness and evil don’t really exist…”

First news flash: Christians don’t own good and evil. Look up good or evil on Dictionary.com and you’ll notice the entries don’t mention God, there Jesus, patient or Satan once.

Just because I don’t believe in the guy with the pitchfork and the horns doesn’t mean I can’t believe in good and evil.

Dale goes on the to say, “What I meant to say is that God is the basis for good and evil, and once you reject him and his rules, you’re left with nothing but self-serving and self-preservation.”

Or you’re left with the opportunity to determine your own purpose in life rather than finding your life’s meaning in a book that sits on the exact same library shelf as:

The Koran
Bullfinch’s Mythology
The Vedas
The Book of Mormen
And Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard.

(Be careful which one you pick up, by the way. I’d hate for you to get confused about which is Gospel and which is garbage.)

Then Dale asserts, “For them, life should be merely an exercise in seeking personal pleasure, procreating and then dying.”

Thank you for the suggestions, Dale, but I think I’ll do my own thing if you don’t mind.

The whole problem here is that Dale would find life meaningless and immoral without Jesus, so he can’t fathom how the 4.5 BILLION people on Earth who are not Christians can handle it.

(That’s right Dale 77% of the people on the planet do NOT believe in Jesus and they somehow manage to make it through their day.)

Rick is much less contentious than Dale manages to sound, so the only thing I want to point out to him is the danger of tossing out a statement like:

“My sense is that the abandonment of some source of transcendent value tends to result in utilitarianism and utilitarianism tends to result in slaughter.”

I’m sorry, but I’d be willing to bet that religious fanaticism has led to far more slaughter than utilitarianism could ever dream of.

Just off the top of my head I can name:

the Spanish Inquisition
The Crusades
the Salem Witch Trials
Oliver Cromwell
The Troubles in Ireland
Today’s Islamic terrorists
And most cases of “ethnic cleansing“ (including the Holocaust) which are usually at least partially based on religious differences.

No offense guys, but before you decide to devalue everyone who doesn’t share your exact view of the Universe, you might want to reread Jesus’s advice about throwing stones.

For the record, I applaud (and envy) anyone with a settled belief structure. But just because I respect your beliefs, doesn’t mean I’m going to give you a free shot at me because you don’t respect mine.

8 comments February 2nd, 2006