3 Nov 98 
 
To say I am garrulous by nature would perhaps be an understatement.  I 
wonder if it is a good thing for long distance companies start wrangling 
over you.  Anyway, I'm playing the long distance game.  Unfortunately, one 
of the spoils of that game, free ice cream, spoiled in my fridge -- 
evidently the freezer was cold enough to produce ice (or at least keep it 
from melting) but not cold enough to keep ice cream solid.  Dammit. 
 
Let's see what old stories I have in my grabbag. 
 
Story from Stuart: On the day John Glenn blasted off in the shuttle, from 
about an hour before launch and a half hour after, they were getting no 
phone calls in the Promotions department at American Airlines... which is 
mainly patronized by the AActive americans... aka old folks.  Cute, huh. 
 
Story from Harold Bloom, Shakespearian scholar:  Christopher Marlowe, 
scary playwright of the Elizabethan Era, was "terminated with extreme 
prejudice... he knew too much".  And you thought literature was boring. 
 
Let's see, story from some guy who gave a talk a while ago: Insect wings 
are fundamentally different than bird's wings... intended for the very 
small, Hummingbird wing motion is very similar... Art history project for 
people who want to notice what figures are given swan/bird wings (e.g. 
cherubs) and which are given insect wings (e.g. teeny weeny fairies). 
 
If I've told that story before, that's just the life of meep.  You should 
be used to it by now. 
 
(Oh yeah, the state should get out of the business of consecrating 
marriages.  It should be there just to uphold contracts.  Dammit) 
 
On Saturday, aka Halloween, I went to the Met museum of art and then over 
to the Natural History museum -- they were having some cute activities for 
kids starting at 3 and I got there at 2.  Anyway, I decided to do my usual 
lap of the "Vertebrate Evolution" ("Dinosaur") floor -- got passed by two 
guys dressed as Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat.  Saw a 
little Wild Discovery exhibit with real-live exotic animals -- a weird 
hare-looking thing, a black panther cub, a hedgehog, and an alligator, I 
think.  Then I escaped from the Mammal section to the "Orientation Room" 
and instead of Meryl Streep narrating a big cladistics diagram there was 
Wallace & Grommit, bigger than life.  So I watched a couple free vids. 
 
All Saints Day on Sunday -- got to dress up in a robe for the first time 
and my scarf got incensed when ther censer was left in the preparation 
rooms...  I really have to start avoiding noon masses. 
 
And it seems my main theme in life is "getting my money's worth" 
especially for stuff I didn't pay for... Reusing is the name of the game 
-- a loaf of stale bread is now crouton, I've got ripe banana cubes (with 
chocloate shavings) in the freezer, been cutting out all the christmas 
related pics from all the catalogs I get so I can make it into wrapping 
paper... boy, life is odd. 
 
And I'm going to be practicing sight-reading with songs like "Nestor, the 
floppy eared Donkey" 
 
So now you know.