QOTD: "It is one thing to praise discipline and another to submit to it." - Cervantes
Reading: Phyllis Rose (editor), The Norton Book of Women's Live
Listening to: The Chenille Sisters
Decluttering accomplishments: went through most of the travel receipts, organized my collection of ViewMaster reels, got through assorted papers
Don't faint - it isn't a Sunday and I am actually writing. I always intend to update during the week and somehow never seem to get around to it. But I'm in my usual long weekend state of having screwed up my sleep schedule and I have a bunch of things I've been saving up, so here goes.
The best news story of the week was the report that the documents found in Kabul, describing an Al Qa'eda nuclear capability, turned out to have been copied from The Journal of Irreproducible Results. That's good for a laugh, but it isn't simply a matter of the terrorists not having either scientific background or a sense of humor. It may be obvious to a native speaker of English that something is a spoof, but humor rarely translates well.
For several weeks now (the note to myself was on the 21 October page of my planner), I've planned to write about the posse comitatus act. For those who are unfamiliar with it, the term literally translates to "power of the county" and is a U.S. law that was enacted in 1878 to keep the military from being used for civilian law enforcement. It explicitly does not apply to the National Guard or to the Coast Guard. Given current events, there are some people who want to do away with it altogether. I can't quite decide how I feel about that. I understand the point about it being hard to draw the line between criminal acts and acts of war, but I'm concerned about the differences in oversight between civilian and military law enforcement. It seems that there are safer ways to improve cooperation between agencies. For what it's worth, I am not completely opposed to the use of military tribunals to try terrorists, but I think it's an approach that should be used with caution and under limited circumstances.
My last current events related note has to do with White House press secretary Ari Fleisher. I have a minor crush on him, simply for the reason that it's nice to see a nerdy Jewish guy on television so much. My mother would point out that he's about my age and single, no less. On the other hand, he's a Republican, so maybe Mom wouldn't quite approve.
As for what I've been doing, it's mostly the usual rounds of errand running. I had really grand plans for accomplishment today, but managed to leave the house without the receipt for my dry cleaning or any of the needlework I want to get framed. Fortunately, the car is self-contained, so I was able to take it in for new tires. The dry cleaning may wait until Monday since they're closer to work than to home. Unless I do a Volksmarch somewhere south of here tomorrow.
I also succumbed to an odd impulse and bought lipstick and lip liner the other day. I rarely wear any makeup, but it bugged me to not even own a lipstick. Once upon a time, around junior high or so, I had more makeup than any other girl I knew - a natural result of having a mother who sold Avon. (Mom would never step outside her house without at least lipstick and eyebrow pencil.) I've also gone through odd phases of odd makeup, like turquoise and plum lip gloss circa 1986. But most of the time, I can't be bothered. Anyway, it was surprisingly hard to find the right color, since the only color I consider acceptable for lipstick is a classic red. It might have helped had I correctly remembered which company makes the color in question. I'm still not convinced I bought exactly what I intended because I still think that it was supposed to be a Revlon (not a Cover Girl) color, but it's good enough. Now, all I need is somewhere to go where I won't feel silly wearing it.
I've also come up with tentative vacation plans for next year. I need to plan fairly far in advance in order to have any hope of using frequent flyer miles. One of the plans involves going to Papua New Guinea. In addition to the Mount Hagen Cultural Festival, I'm interested in tours to learn about the culture of the Huli wigmen. They apparently grow their hair when young and then cut it off and make it into elaborate wigs, making them the only culture I know of where straight men are into competitive hairdressing. Hmm, maybe the photos of them (and various tribal masks) was the real reason behind my lipstick urge.
Copyright 2001 Miriam H. Nadel