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All of the above

Seventh Grader: Mrs. Lund, which is better, Dinosaurs or PeeWee Herman?
Mrs. Lund: That depends. At riding bicycles or tearing apart prey?
Seventh grader #2: All around. You have to pick.
Mrs. Lund: not emotionally equipped to deal with this choice.

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Call me crazy…

I got the H1N1 shot today. DePaul had vaccines available for at-risk individuals, and since my right lung is a whoopee cushion and my left lung is a broken toy accordion, I qualify as at-risk.

I stopped by today, and outside the doors of the fitness center stood two men with clipboards. One man asked me if I was getting the vaccine today.
“Yes.”
“Do you mind if I talk to you a minute about your decision?”
I figured he was taking a poll. On a university campus, there are always people taking polls or surveys for one class or another. I’m sympathetic because I would hate to have a task where I have to talk to strangers for any period of time. So, I said sure. Talk to me.

“Why did you decide to get this vaccine today?”
I explained my reasons, and that in my opinion, the dangers I face if I get a respiratory infection are greater than the risk of complications from the flu vaccine.

Ooh, wrong answer. Didn’t I find it curious that usually, pregnant women and the elderly are advised against receiving the vaccine, but this year they are encouraged? (Actually, my memory is that usually, elderly people are allowed priority for all flu shots.)

Why, he asked me, would we throw away 40,000 years of medical wisdom just because drug companies and a corrupt government want to convince us to buy more vaccines? (Actually, anything that medical science did 40,000 years ago is NOT something I want done to me now. Please, no trepannations. I like my demons just fine.)

He went on to ask me, very sincerely, how I could be so willing to take a vaccine when Bobby Kennedy has proven that vaccines cause autism? And by the time he got to the London Train bombings being a government conspiracy, and how the same people who perpetrated the myth of 9/11 are the people who got Barack Obama elected, I knew one thing for sure:

Getting the H1N1 vaccine is the sanest choice I have ever made.

But, if you want to read more crazy, check out www.theflucase.com (which can double as a Halloween scare. Because it’s further proof that there’s more cuckoo out in the world than you’d find in a Swiss clock factory.)

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The worst thing we could do to children is lie.

-Maurice Sendak

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Elegant Truths

This is so beautiful it almost makes me cry. I do feel lucky to live in this time, a time when someone can make an autotuned music video tribute to a science TV show from decades ago and have it zip through the wormholes of the internet to appear on screens across this world, this seashore of the cosmos. I hope our time gets to see some great teachers like Mr. Sagan.

J. Boswell\’s \”Glorious Dawn - Carl Sagan ft. Stephen Hawking\”

{Also, this is the first I realized how much of his show Cosmos is like an R&B video.  So many sincere gazes across the ocean.  So many dandelion seeds blowing in the wind. Makes me wonder if de-tuning R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet would conversely yield great insight into the magnitude of the galaxy-verse.}

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this morning

I woke up with a very distinct feeling.

The feeling was that I needed to go upstairs to ask someone something about Steve, but I knew they wouldn’t give me any information because I do not know Steve’s serial number.

And as Steve was dressing, I almost asked him, hey, what’s your serial number?  It’s important for me to know.

Then I remembered that Steve is not a plasma TV, nor is he a new garbage disposal.  Steve is a person and does not have a serial number. Or so he wants us to believe.

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tzatziki tuesday

Tuesday 9/1 is Free Gyros Day
Bless those fine folks at Kronos.

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Either it is Air Show weekend, or we are all going to die.

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Today the Fullerton El station smelled like Blue Cheese.  I hope this is a new feature, to help people identify what station they’re at using a variety of cheese smells.

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Two

Two years. Still hilarious. To each other, anyway.

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interchangeable meats

The question is: Who is the Henry Ford of the gyro?
The New York Times