Wednesday, April 28, 2010

A Lovely New Computer at Work1

Here it is!  Wider screen.  Smaller CPU.  Keyboard with characters that haven't been rubbed off by years of toil. So happy.  Reduced to sentence frags.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

LED Wand Clock Update

OK, J.B. finally confessed to leaving the clock on my windowsill.  He discovered it during spring cleaning and thought it would be a good joke, since the the clock looks funny.  He couldn't find the cord.  Now he's moved it to Ranald's desk.

Metronome Update

It appears that the "metronome" is actually an LED Wand Clock.  On the right you see the LED wand waving back and forth.  What you do not see is the current time, which, during normal operation, would seem to float in the air.

It seems innocent enough.
Then why has nobody admitted to leaving it there?  One cannot help remembering Stephen Hawking's recent warning about aliens.  Wouldn't it be clever of them to plant their super-high-tech spying mid-control devices in our own pitiful gizmos and then to leave them here and there.  After all, these aliens don't neend to nuke us;  they have sneakier ways of conquering us.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Why a Metronome?

This morning I found this metronome on the windowsill next to my desk.  Nobody will confess to putting it there.  What am I supposed to do with it?  The culprit didn't leave the accompanying cord, so I can't plug it in.  Am I supposed to use it for some found-object type sculpture, or is this a slam on my sense of rhythm?

Floral Sleeplore?

Blooming lilac bushes reminded both Sue and JB of their Catholic school days.  The nuns would not allow them to bring lilacs into the classsroom because of their alleged soporific powers.  I'd never heard that.  In The Wizard of Oz it was the poppies that put you to sleep.
The Ad de Vries Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery says lilacs can symbolize youth, first love, spring (duh!), and mourning.  It's unlucky to bring them into the house, but there's nothing about them putting you to sleep.  Perhaps the nuns were using "put you to sleep" as a euphemism for "kill you," since they are bad luck, and one is particularly warned not to bring them into a hospital.
Please enjoy these safe flowers that will enhance your alertness!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

A Pair of Horns.









Pussycat sits on a chair
Implacably with acid stare.

Those who early loved in vain
Use the cat to try again,

And test their bruised omnipotence
Against the cat's austere defense.

__________________________

In the tub we soap our skin
And drowse and meditate within.

The mirror clouds, the vapors rise,
We view our toes with sad surprise:

The toes that mother kissed and counted,
The since neglected and unwanted.


Both these poems are from Poems in Places by Edward Newman Horn, New York: Zebulin Pr., 1963.  The second one reminds me that my yoga instructor wants us (her pupils) to work on moving each little toe independently from the others.  This is hard.  Each set of four little toes move like a harnessed team of horses.  When will they go wildly in different directions?  
The first poem does seem a bit cynical regarding cat ownership.  But I liked it, and it gave me an excuse to use cat clip-art.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Redcoat University?


Harvard does not observe Patriots' Day, which fact makes me wonder if they have secret Tory sympathies.

Monday, April 12, 2010

A Poem for Spring



The Dandelion
by Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931)

O dandelion, rich and haughty,
King of village flowers!
Each day is coronation time,
You have no humble hours.
I like to see you bring a troop
to beat the blue-grass spears,
To scorn the lawn-mower that would be
Like fate's triumphant shears,
Your yellow heads are cut away,
It seems your reign is o'er.
By noon you raise a sea of stars
More golden than before.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

This Recipe Rocks!

I am a mediocre cook, so when I come across a recipe that is both easy and delicious, I get very excited. This one is from 50 Thrifty Meals: A Green Guide to Living Better With Less by Ramona Hamblin.

Tuna and Tomato with Pasta

2 6oz. cans of solid light tuna in olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 28 oz. can of crushed or chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon of sugar
2 tablespoons of capers
1 lb. of tubular pasta
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Drain the oil from the tuna into a pan and saute the onion in oil until translucent, add tomatoes, sugar, and tuna, cook for 4-5 minutes. In the meantime cook the pasta. Toss pasta with tuna mixture in large bowl and sprinkle with capers and parsley.
[I used 3 cans of tuna packed in water and sauted the onion plus some garlic in canola oil.]