CSotD: Whimpers and bangs
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This is the way the blog begins, not with a bang but a whimper.
I was diagnosed with diabetes a year or so ago, though I've now lost enough weight that, if I'd been here then, I wouldn't have been diagnosed, but it's like being pregnant: There's no going back and I have to exercise the same caution. I'm not insulin dependent, just will-power dependent, which is fine.
But it has meant learning more about nutrition, which is where the current arc in Adam@Home comes into play: He's got a juicer, a device I've long heard praised as the Big Cure for Everything. But even if it's not all that, it turns out there are more immediate disappointments involved.
In terms of how a person with diabetes processes sugar, there is a difference between fructose and glucose and it's important. But there is still the basic sugar-is-sugar issue, and a glass of juice is pretty caloric. In terms of weight control, you'd do better to have a Pepsi than an equal-sized glass of fruit juice.
And juicing takes out the skin and pulp together with a lot of healthy stuff that should be most of the point of consuming fruit and veggies in the first place.
As the students of More Science High would say, "Eat it! Eat it raw!"
Which is fine with me because I have neither a dishwasher nor a garbage disposal, which means I have absolutely no desire to acquire a juicer.
As for Adam's secret ingrediant, those high-octane calories are definitely off my list, which is a real shame.
I miss Jim Beam more than I miss either Ben or Jerry.
And here's something I never seem to miss
Edison Lee doing a little crowd-sourcing among his loyal listener(s).
I have actually done some on-air fundraising for a PBS station, but that was back when PBS had programming you couldn't find anywhere else. Which they still do, but the reason is that nobody else is running the same half-dozen 30-year-old British comedies over and over and over again.
I watched the two-part Frontline about the NFL and concussions last night, and there is important stuff on PBS, but it's almost like they're ashamed of it. If you are looking through the listings and you see that your PBS station is featuring a rock concert or a really good movie, you can pretty well bet that they're going to interrupt it every 15 minutes for a five-minute infomercial.
I'm not 100 percent clear on the current morale level at public TV, but if you start by assuming that people won't watch the stuff you normally put on the air, I think you've pretty well conceded the war before the battle.
They're also running "inspirational, get hold of your life" programs that I suspect are what we on the commercial side used to call "barters." It was like an infomercial, but instead of them buying the time, you ran the program for free in exchange for a cut of the snake oil sales.
Or maybe they're just infomercials, but, whatever they are, they're crap, and if I worked at a PBS station, I'd be checking out the lifeboats and keeping my resume updated.
By contrast, NPR seems fairly healthy and is still fundraising around their actual programming, with the annoyance level largely dependant on the station. And the apparent fact that they check my travel calendar to make sure fundraising happens when I'm going to be in the car for several hours.
My old hometown station, North Country Public Radio, and my current station, New Hampshire Public Radio, take the approach of "please help us keep doing this," which is okay. It's a necessary evil, like when the whole family has to go rake leaves and pick up fallen sticks in the yard and the sooner we pitch in and get it done, the sooner it's over.
But I was, for several years, in thrall to a station that still thinks fundraising means five minute segments of endlessly repeating that they need the money and giving you their phone number again and again and again. If you could shut them up by donating, it would be worth cutting the check, but they're going to do Pledge Week regardless of whether you, personally, pitch in or not.
Which brings us to Edison and his drum. NHPR is currently looking to meet a challenge-grant goal that would allow them to cut a day from their fall pledge drive. I hope they make it, though I already gave this year and am now tapped out.
No pun intended, but, then again, I'm not gonna go back and delete it, either.
Ending with a Bang
The GoComics blog has a fun reflection on the early days of Peanuts and of gun gags and gunplay in general, with a plethora of old Peanuts strips on the topic.
"Guns" was a huge game when I was a kid and given how many of us grew up to be pacifists or at least think we were, I'd say it would be hard to show a correlation between playing with guns and murdering presidents or joining the Symbionese Liberation Army.
Charles Schulz was a wise man, and I've always thought the game was a lot more about social hierarchies than about firearms. I've also felt for a long time that shouting "Got you!" and "Missed me!" and seeing who prevailed was a lot less brutal than the drawing-room variations that involve slitting throats but raising your pinkie as you wield the knife.
Patty and Violet being expert at the latter games.
When we had kids, we didn't ban guns because, as often noted, the kids would then make guns out of something else.
And the fascination seemed to increase with bans: When the boys were little, I often heard their young friends come into the house and ask, "Do you got guns?" and my boys would sigh and admit that they did, with an air that plainly suggested, "But couldn't we play soccer instead?"
Kids still play guns, but the cowboy has faded as a national icon.
Well, among those who are designated as "little boys" by age rather than by attitude, as Kal points out:
Scenes we'd like to see: Obama offers to give the GOP their desired year's delay in mandated health coverage, in exchange for his desired background checks for all gun sales. It's called "negotiation"!
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