Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Wisdom from the "Velvet President"

Speaking on Iran:

"What is possible and what I would repeatedly warn against is the policy of
compromise and the notion that if we don't provoke evil, it will just go away by
itself," Havel said. "On the contrary, that would just make it stronger."

--Vaclav Havel

The rest here.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

You are no Jedi

Buying a cup of coffee in Newark; there's a beggar next to me.

Beggar: would you buy me a soda, please?
Me: No!
Beggar: but I'm not a beggar though!
Me: whatever.
Beggar: I'm not! (Huffs away)
Coffee guy: effing beggars!

Friday, June 05, 2009

This is an Ex-Groundhog


So we have one - maybe two - groundhog(s) living on our property. We can't determine the exact number because, let's face it, groundhogs are fungible and we've never seen more than one at a time. Instead of shooting it, or calling animal control, my wife named him/them "Gilbert". My kid asks about Gilbert and points to "Gilbert's house" in the corner of the yard.

Yesterday, Gilbert appeared to be taking the dirt nap in the middle of our suburban street, most likely hit by a car or a stealth bomber or something. My kid said "Gilbert needs a band-aid". Sorry son, Gilbert's way past band-aids now.

This morning, Gilbert was gone. I'm fairly certain he wasn't the promised messiah of groundhogs, who just sprung up from his death like the Narnia Jesus-lion. And since animal control/the roads department wasn't available to clean him up last night, I'm wondering if the turkey vultures "cleaned him up" during the course of the night. Do they work that fast? Does anyone know?

In any case he's gone. Nature is cruel. Hopefully there was only one, and if there were two the other one will be freaked out enough to leave.

In Pace Requiescat, Gilbert.