Around Here

The human mind’s capacity for accommodating nonsense, quite comfortably, and complete with supporting moonshine, is an awesome thing. Take the adage “The exception that proves the rule.” What? How can an exception to a rule prove it? Ask your average friend or relative that question and the response you’re likely to get is a bemused look. “Well, because the exception would, you know... prove the rule. Don’t you see? It's the exception that proves the rule.” Or the equally lame "Every rule has an exception" as if that proves something. If an axiom as plainly suspect as this gets a pass, is it any wonder that more complex cognitive muddles and scams stalk the land? I mentioned this to my friend Bob Bush once, many years ago. (Bob was chairman of the psychology department at Columbia). He told me that the phrase had always bothered him too. So much so that he'd looked into it. Turns out “proves” in the saying is an old English usage that meant “tests.” So, in its origin...

T hanks, I think. Do my other photographs look like cell phone shots? Just raggin' on ya, homey. I have nine cameras, so, yeah. Some of those that I thought at the time I Had To Have, I didn't, even for my money gigs. My regular companion is a point-and-shoot super zoom. Ever wish you could have back, just once, all the money you've wasted? Though what, existentially speaking, is wasted, really? An old sage and Sinophile I once knew said that Chinese men believe that each of us have a fixed number of orgasms in life, so it's best not to waste any. Wait... what? A Zen moment. No, peace in the Middle East doesn't look likely in the foreseeable future. A fellow passenger on a freighter that I took to Europe years ago remarked that the one thing he regretted was the discovery of oil on the Arabian peninsula. I didn't know what he was talking about then, this was decades ago, but it was a prescient observation. The sooner the West can develop alternative energy, and...