Random Thoughts Anew

[sinenomine]

My office is along a hallway that leads to some classrooms, so I get to hear the sounds of students walking by at regular intervals. I'm struck by how many of them drag their feet. I'm now wondering why they do that (other than the old joke that their legs are too long)...

[apl68]

My office is along a hallway that leads to some classrooms, so I get to hear the sounds of students walking by at regular intervals. I'm struck by how many of them drag their feet. I'm now wondering why they do that (other than the old joke that their legs are too long)...

My guess would be that many of the students you hear passing by are either very tired or very lacking in enthusiasm for where they are about to go next.

[Wahoo Redux]

I'm struck by how many of them drag their feet. I'm now wondering why they do that

Zombies.

[Larimar]

I'm struck by how many of them drag their feet. I'm now wondering why they do that

Zombies.

Watch out if you hear them moaning, "Phoooooooones! Phoooooooones!"

[apl68]

I've seen camper trailers--which are quite a common sight around our town--with evocative brand names like "Nomad" and "Adventurer."  So why is there a model, an example of which stays parked a few blocks from here, called "Avenger?"  It's a travel trailer, not a weapons system. 

[sinenomine]

Why is it that people driving fog-colored cars are the ones most likely not to turn on their lights in fog??

[apl68]

Another locally-owned trailer bears the brand name "Momentum."  Given its size and three slide-outs, it seems quite well-named.  Once you get it going, it must be a challenge to stop!

[ciao_yall]

Another locally-owned trailer bears the brand name "Momentum."  Given its size and three slide-outs, it seems quite well-named.  Once you get it going, it must be a challenge to stop!

Wait... people name their trailers? Like boats?

My late named her boat "Done Shoppin'"

[ciao_yall]

Another locally-owned trailer bears the brand name "Momentum."  Given its size and three slide-outs, it seems quite well-named.  Once you get it going, it must be a challenge to stop!

Wait... people name their trailers? Like boats?

My late aunt named her boat "Done Shoppin'"

[apl68]

Another locally-owned trailer bears the brand name "Momentum."  Given its size and three slide-outs, it seems quite well-named.  Once you get it going, it must be a challenge to stop!

Wait... people name their trailers? Like boats?

My late named her boat "Done Shoppin'"

No, these are the brand and model names of the trailers.  I've never personally known any owner to name their trailer, but I understand it happens.  John Steinbeck named his trailer "Rocinante."

[apl68]

I feel kind of guilty that my first thought, on seeing a reference to "university spokesman Ira Thor," was to wonder whether he had a sister named Ima.

[ciao_yall]

I feel kind of guilty that my first thought, on seeing a reference to "university spokesman Ira Thor," was to wonder whether he had a sister named Ima.

Or Yora?

I have a friend named Hyla, and whenever I mention her name my husband says "and her sister Lola..."

[apl68]

Last week I somehow ran across the old legend that the Greek dramatist Sophocles was killed when an eagle, dropping a turtle in hopes of cracking it open to eat it, accidentally cracked Sophocles' noggin instead.  He had recently decided to stay out under the open sky after an oracle had warned him that he would be killed by a falling house.  Somebody recalled that a turtle's shell is technically a kind of house....  Just to add insult to injury, there was speculation that the eagle might have mistaken Sophocles' bald head for a rock.

Anyway, only a day or two later, I read in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's daily "News of the Past" feature that in April 1924 somebody saw a chicken hawk in distress.  A terrapin had grabbed its foot and hung onto it so that it couldn't take off.  Maybe the terrapin had heard about the turtle-dropping eagles and was seeking revenge?  Well, classical education was more widespread in the 1920s.

[Wahoo Redux]

Van Halen lyrics for "Hang'em high."

Somewhere, he lost it in a turn
Now trouble seems to fit him like a glove
First come, first served, he's serving it back
He travels light, without a pack, without love
He comes from nowhere an' he turns on his own
Late for the hanging, yes he's headed for the moon
An' hang 'em high
Leather 'cross his thighs
Blasting out the night, his cap hides his eyes
One eye on the road, price upon his head
One ear to the ground, he's listening to the dead
He comes from nowhere an' he turns on his own
Late for the hanging, yes he's headed for the moon
An' hang 'em high
Blind to himself, an' he's laughing up his scheme
Looking back in anger, the city is relieved
Vision of light, child of the night passing by
Blind to himself, he's laughing up his scheme
Looking back in anger, the city is relieved
A vision of light, child of the night passing by
Leather 'cross his thigh
Blasting out the night, his cap hides his eyes
One eye on the road, price upon his head
One ear to the ground, he's listening to the dead
He comes from nowhere, an' he turns on his own
Late for the hanging, yes he's headed for the moon
An' hang 'em high

[AmLitHist]

Farmers here should be well into planting corn by May 1, with some of them nearly done by that date most years.  Not this year, though:  some had started plowing and disking a couple of weeks ago, but even those fields have been beaten as flat as a table since last Friday, with lots of pretty deep standing water.

You can take the girl out of the country. . . . I guess ALHS and I will always mark the passage of time by what's happening on the farms. By the way, there is a huge crop of calves this year at a farm on the road to our oldest kid's house! I love how cute they are, with just their ears poking above the pasture grass; ALHS always reminds me that they're a lot of money on the hoof.