Random Thinking

In the NY Times on Sunday, there was an article about something strange going on in the Greek system at Depauw University. The Delta Zeta sorority on campus had become known as the sorority of the geeky girls and as “socially awkward.” So the big honchos back at Delta Zeta central decided to do something about it… 23 members of DePauw University’s Delta Zeta sorority were kicked out because they were “insufficiently committed.” That’s sugar-coated talk for meaning they were “fat”, “not white” or “ugly.” They got rid of all the girls who were overweight, black, or foreign. That left 12 girls out of the original 23 but 6 of those 12 resigned immediately on principle.

In the late 1960’s, the Delta Zeta at Depauw tried to keep black women out of their sorority. As last as 1982, they were still trying to keep blacks out of the sorority. But this signaled a turn around for them. After that incident they slowly changed to be more accepting of the girl geeks on campus. Delta Zeta is become the HQ for brainy women and disabled women. Sex appeal became a much less important factor in membership, (although I think all of these young ladies are very pretty).

So Delta Zeta has been stripped of most of its members and has become virtually irrelevant at Depauw. Fifty-five Depauw college professors have signed a petition condemning the changes. DePauw’s president, Robert G. Bottoms, issued a two-page letter of reprimand to the sorority. In an interview in his office, Dr. Bottoms said he had been stunned by the sorority’s insensitivity.

The Depauw, the campus newspaper, has some great info.

Technorati Tags: stupid things people do, sorority, Depauw, Delta Zeta

A friend of mine sent these to me and they were so accurate that I had to blog them. Thanks Officer Joe!

*You know someone who went to Chaminade.*
*Jones Beach Theater is the best place in the world to see a concert.*
*You don’t go to Manhattan, you go to “the City”.*
*Billy Joel said it best, “Either you date a rich girl from the North Shore, or a cool girl from the South Shore.”*
*What’s the big deal about the Hamptons?*
*If you’re not from Long Island or NYC, you’re not really from New York.*
*You know the Belt Parkway sucks!*
*You never ever want to “change at Jamaica”.*
*You never realize you have an accent until you leave.*
*You know where at least one strip club is.*
*You curse. A lot.*
*The geese are everywhere!*
*Either your parents or your grandparents lived in the city.*
*You can correctly pronounce places like Hauppauge, Commack, Islip, Islandia, and Massapequa.*
*At some point in your life you or someone you know has owned an animal that came from North Shore Animal League.*
*Before you’re legal you drive around your town with your friends, and that’s the most exciting part of your evening.*
*You or someone you know went to college upstate.*
*No word ends in an -ER, just an -AH.*
*You feel like you know Howard Stern.*
*When you’re away from Long Island you love it, and when you’re there you want to move somewhere else.*
*The beach is fun during the day, but is the most magical place in the world at night.*
*You know the exact point at which Queens turns into Nassau simply on intuition.*
*No matter what you do, you end up at the diner.*
*High school sports aren’t that important like in other states.*
*You’ve never been to Times Square on New Year’s Eve.*
*Each one of your diverse friends mercilessly makes fun of his own background.*
*You love that salty smell of the ocean.*
*No, you don’t want mustard on that burger!*
*You can’t stand pizza or bagels from any place outside of Long Island or the “city”.*
*You don’t associate Fire Island with gay men.*
*You watched a game show and wondered, “Why are these people so happy that they won a trip to New York?”*
*You know that parts of the Godfather were filmed on Long Island.*
*At some point in your life, you’ve gone clamming.*
*You have or someone you know has fallen asleep on the LIRR and ended up in one of these places; Babylon, Port Jefferson, Port Washington or Hicksville.*
*You’ve missed the 2:42 AM “Drunk Train” out of Penn station and had the dreaded wait until 5:30.*
*You think Islip MacArthur airport is cute and you enjoy watching it grow up.*
*Your parents used to take you to Carvel when you were a kid*
*You know the location of 6 malls and a dozen McDonald’s and 36 7-11’s.*
*You grew up thinking Chinese food was a basic food group.*
*Your elementary school promoted dodge ball as the top gym activity.*
*You know at least one NYC cop.*

Technorati Tags: memes, Long Island

Touching Evil 1 Boxed Set (DVD)
Starring: Robson Green and Nicola Walker
Story:
DVD Features:

Touching Evil is the story of Detective Inspector Dave Creegan (Robson Green) who returns to the Organized and Serial Crime (OSC) Unit after recovering from a bullet wound to the head. Creegan’s injury as changed him in unpredictable ways but his boss wants him back because he is a genius at getting into the mind of serial killers. Creegan and his partner, D.I. Susan Taylor (Nicola Walker), investigate the most serious crimes in England including a serial killer of children. The show was originally broadcast on British television in 1997 and was more recently shown in the US on PBS’s program, Mystery. USA Network produced their own short-lived version of the show in 2004. Beth and I liked it very much and I blogged about it at the time.

The show is much less violent and more thoughtful than we are used to on American television. It is also very stylish in its way. Using dark sets and odd lighting it creates a strange and uncomfortable mood. Robson Green is excellent in the lead roll. He has intense blue eyes and rugged good looks and makes himself completely believable as the detective who can concentrate on his job while his personal life crumbles. Creegan is a loner forced to work with a partner who can’t trust him. The other members of the OSC aren’t sure if the Creegan is as sane as the man they once knew.

The first episode deals with Creegan’s return to OSC and his investigation of several young boys who have been kidnapped and left in an airtight room to suffocate. The kidnapper has left a broadcast camera so he can watch them die. Creegan and Taylor have to crack the case before it is too late. The second episode deals with a serial killer of hospital patients and realistically deals with Creegan’s own demons of having come back from the dead in the ER the night he was shot in the head. The two episodes are excellent and the script and the acting are perfect. The two episodes move along well but also concentrate on developing believable characters.

The third episode was a big disappointment. An attempt to bring cyber-space into a story line, it suffers from being written in 1997 by writers who don’t quite understand cyberspace. The killer is completely unbelievable as computer whiz or as a psychological manipulator of teenagers. For example, the police arrive at the college where they suspect the criminals are and demand that all students be given user id and passwords to get into the computer system. Amazingly, the very next day every student has a new computer id. Even the reason for the initial police investigation isn’t quite believable as the crime that has been committed is horse mutilation. The character of the killer is completely undeveloped and we never get a chance to discover who he is or why exactly he is committing these crimes. I found this the weakest of the stories.

Throughout the episodes there are dark scenes designed to provide a mood. To some extent this works but sometimes (especially in the last episode) it interferes with the story by being so “in your face”. For example, the offices where the detectives work are always dark. I find it hard to believe that someone could read a file or do some paperwork in these offices. An interview room will be a large dark room with a small reflective table in the middle. A single spotlight will shine onto the table and provide reflecting light onto the faces of those around the table. This might be good for cool looking cinematography but it isn’t really believable. Another scene in the offices has red light shining through a window onto the face of one of the detectives while the office itself is lit only by one small spotlight. Dust is floating everywhere so light is always tempered by what looks like dust or smoke. This episode feels very badly overstaged.

But that is only one clinker out of three and the others discs are most certainly worth the price of admission.The DVD’s themselves are of good quality but have no special features. There is no commentary or interviews. The episodes appear on the DVD exactly as they appeared on the Mystery TV program so each 2 hour episode is broken into two 1 hour programs. This means that at the end of the first hour there are closing credits and then opening credits of Mystery followed by Diana Rigg’s introduction which in some cases gives more of the episode away than I would have liked. It would have been much better if they had been edited so that it was possible to watch the episodes without the break.

Technorati Tags: DVD review, Touching Evil, Robson Green

I bring him up to bed at night and we sing together for a little while and then he goes through the list of people that he loves. He signs, “I love nana”, “I love mommy”, “I love pop-pop”, “I love the girl (Beth)”, and “I love daddy.” He melts my heart. He lies down and smiles up at me with his sleepy eyes. I rub his back and he quietly drifts off to sleep. But I don’t leave his room. I sit on the edge of his bed and stare at his face. I kiss each of his little fingers including that crooked little pinkie. All I can feel is love for my little guy. For almost 10 years I have lived with Mikey and in those 10 years I have learned to accept him as he is and not as I wish he was. He has Down syndrome and autism and you could make a long list of the things he can’t do and likely will never be able to do but I have no interest in that list. Of course I want him to learn and grow as a person but that is no different than what any parent wants for their child. What I want most for Mikey is to be loved and to be happy. And Mikey is loved and Mikey is happy.

It is standard practice to test pregnant women over 35 to determine if they are carrying a child with Down syndrome. It is also standard practice for babies with Down syndrome to be aborted when the diagnosis is determined. With the recent recommendation that all pregnant women be tested to see if they are carrying a child with Down syndrome we can expect that even more children with Down syndrome will be aborted. This is eugenics and it is wrong. A child should not be aborted because they aren’t “good enough” or because they can’t have the kind of life their parents were hoping for. Yes, having a disabled child will change your life but change can be a good thing. Having Mikey as my son has been one of the best things that ever happened to me.

Technorati Tags: abortion, down syndrome, love

Surgeon Spasoje Radulovic was removing the appendix from a patient in a Belgrade hospital when his colleague Dragan Vukanic came into the operating theater. Dr. Vukanic said something to Dr. Radulovic, slapped him in the face, and walked out. What could any surgeon do in this case? His manhood had been attacked in front of his staff! The patient can’t possibly come first in a situation like that, can he? So Dr. Radulovic ran out after Dr. Vukanic and started throwing punches. The end result included bruises, a split lip, loose teeth and a fractured finger, although it wasn’t clear which doctor received which injuries.

Thankfully for the patient, the attending assistant doctor was able to finish the operation. No report on what Dr. Vukanic said that started the fight but it must have been good!

Technorati Tags: stupid things people do, fighting surgeons, Spasoje Radulovic, Dragan Vukanic

I was over at Amazon and I happened to check my review of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius to see how it was doing as far as votes go. So the word from Amazon was:

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

The first thing this made me think of was the Trident commercial. You know the one, “4 out 5 dentists recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum.” What exactly did the fifth dentist recommend? Gargling with Coca-Cola? Chewing on Brillo pads? Brushing once a month with a lollipop? There was a comedy routine about that fifth dentist but I can’t remember who did it and Google wasn’t much help.

But I did find some interesting trivia during my search that had nothing to do with dentists. Did you ever look at your favorite frozen flavored ice treat? It might say on it, quiescently frozen. Do you know what that means? I had no idea until tonight. Quiescent, of course, means “in a restful state”. And that is what makes a Popsicle. The liquid product is poured into a mold and frozen. Unlike ice cream which is stirred during the freezing process to inject air into the product, it is allowed to sit quietly until frozen. Thus quiescently frozen.

By the way, in reality, the fifth dentist recommended no gum chewing for his patients. Reality sometimes isn’t as funny as comedy.

Technorati Tags: dentist, Trident, Popsicles

Senator Bernie Sanders had the people in his office actually look at the president’s proposed budget. As you have probably heard, GWB wants to do away with the estate tax. So who does this help and who does it hurt in Bush’s budget?

If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune, would be about $32.7 billion over the next ten years. The proposed reductions to Medicaid over the same time frame? $28 billion. The savings to the heirs to the Mars candy corporation (infamous for child labor abuses) fortune would be $11.7 billion. Bush plans to cut $3.4 billion from the Veteran’s Administration. The family of former Exxon/Mobil CEO Lee Raymond would receive about $164 million in tax breaks which Bush will fund by eliminating the Commodity Supplemental Food Program which sends a bag of groceries each month to poor seniors. Taking money from the poor, the disabled, our soldiers, and our seniors in order to give billions of dollars to his wealthy friends is the way George W. Bush runs the country.

None of this is in the news for the simple reason that Britney Spears shaved her head.

Technorati Tags: George W. Bush, Stupid Conservatives, Britney Spears, estate tax

One of my fellow Long Islanders died, apparently of natural causes, a year ago while watching TV and no one noticed. Vincenzo Ricardo, a 70-year old resident of Hampton Bays, was found dead in front of his TV set this past Thursday. Mr. Ricardo’s mummified body was discovered after police came to investigate a water main break caused by the cold in the unheated house. The last time anyone had heard from Mr. Ricardo was December of 2005 which would fit in with the expiration dates on milk and eggs found in the refrigerator.

Neighbors said they thought Mr. Ricardo went to a long term care facility. There was no explanation as to why his electricity was not turned off or why the mail man didn’t notice that the mail was piling up. Most importantly, there was no word as to what station the TV was tuned to.

I have to admit that passing away while watching TV is not the worst way to go but I would hope that if I died it would take less than a year for someone to miss me.

Technorati Tags: television, death, lousy neighbors

“We are the government and we are here to help”. Although the message may be hard to understand sometimes. SafeNow.org wants to help the government help you so they have provided explanations for the many safety pictures the government produces. Here’s one:

If you hear the Backstreet Boys, Michael Bolton or Yanni on the radio, cower in the corner or run like hell.

Here’s the rest – http://homeland.gov.safenow.org/

Technorati Tags: humor, homeland security

How did I miss this? A year ago one of my favorite sites, Google Sightseeing, posted a thank you to me and I didn’t even notice! I had sent in the location of the Shoreham Nuclear power plant on Long Island and they published it in a nuclear power megapost. I only recently noticed it when I did a search for Long Island on the site.

Technorati Tags: Google Sightseeing, Shoreham, narcissism