1. The good thing about watching an "important football game" in which you secretly believe that both teams are over-rated is that you will usually be proven right on one or both counts.
2. The news from southeast Asia remains sobering and stark, but I cannot help but feel that amid all the horrible heart-break and stunning sad news, individuals can make a tremendous difference--for good as well as for ill.
3. The time to make an optometrist appointment is when you don't even have the pretense of using the "reading" portion of the glasses anymore.
4. Over two weeks with this cough. I suppose I must see a doctor about medicine and causes and effects soon. I hope it is not some kind of walking pneumonia or something, although that is a catchy phrase.
5. Remind me not to invite Amber Frey to any open houses for congenial intellectuals that I host.
6. I wish I were riding in a Triumph Spitfire with the top down on a foggy, warm May night.
7. Today everyone in the line at the restaurant got the "All You Can Eat" ribs special, other than me.
8. I'm puzzled by people who rank Jane Austen as only a minor author.
9. I have had an inordinate amount of fun with a dollar store hand-held video game which plays only the game of "Texas Hold 'Em", which, if you ask me, is a far better past-time than actual gambling involving thousands of dollars at a time. One of the imaginary robot players is a wild 'un, raising bets prodigiously, and then folding when the bluff fails to work.
10. I am focusing on a chess opening repertoire based on the Philidor, the Old Indian, and the Old Indian Attack. Its virtues? Similar pawn patterns, a modest beginning, and a wonderful, cramped slithery look to the formations. The disadvantages? Trying not to be the clever python who got squeezed to death by the rat.