Happy Other Day

I'm getting really tired with all of the xenophobia around my land, lately. Apparently, anybody whose skin is a little darker than average is a problem in the eyes of much of America. And too much of it is centered around my birthhday, 9-11. And as I'm sure I've previously mentioned, it's pissing me off.

So, I'm instituting a new holiday today (sorry for the lack of advanced warning). It's a xenophilists dream holiday. I call it "Other Day". Other Day is a day to get out and experience 'The Other'. Take it slow this year. We can ramp up more next year when we've got more time to prepare.

Some ideas to celebrate:
= Go out to a foreign restaurant (are you comfortable with your choice? pick something different, then. Go morrocan instead of mexican, or vietnamese instead of chinese!)

= Watch a foreign film, or a film about some demographic with with you are unfamiliar (competetive pigeon racers? brazilians? transvestites? hindus?).

= Say Hello to a stranger (with a skin tone different from yours... or with clothing that is unfamiliar... or with an accent you don't recognize).

= If there's an group you are appalled by, spend some time looking up and reading the websites supporting their side of the question.

= Attend an interfaith meeting.

= Visit a business in that part of town that 'your people' never visit.

But stretch for it. Push yourself a little. We've all got blindspots. We've all got people we don't trust. Let's try to wear down that discomfort with those who differ from us with a little more experience of that Other. It might be good for us all.

And next year (or next week, if you find you've caught the bug), we can push it a little further. Eventually, this country may be an even better place to live!

It's a trap!

I saw the truck at above left on the way in to work. I'm guessing that this is yet another instance of Life Imitating Art. Witness the old Farside cartoon at right. Either that, or aliens have vastly underestimated the intelligence of humans... well, at least that of around 30% of us.

Finally, another wonders...

Wondermark had a great cartoon today. It's about cavemen and crying babies. I've reproduced it here (click to read):

Since my daughter (TheGirl) was born, I have wondered a similar thing. More particularly, I've wondered how it is that mankind has survived this long when newborns are so very fragile and so very irritating. (Oh give me a break. Kids are great, but babies? They're fucking pains in the ass...) As infants, each of my kids has pushed me to within a hair of insanity. Certainly, caveman babies behaved similarly. And presumably, cavemen were even less restrained than I am. So why weren't all the babies killed back then?

All I can think of is that the real torture of screaming infants is staying there and dealing with them. Society insists that we not abandon our kids, even for a little while (say, long enough to get a good night's sleep). Maybe the cavemen just took off when they got crazy... headed out to the nearest proto-tavern, and ate fermented berries until the sun came up.

NO? OK, an alternte theroy... maybe babies were being dropped over cliffs, and that's the reason for the extreme population bottleneck that DNA analyses see signs of about 70,000 years ago. In this theory, we'd have to have been about to exterminate our species via infanticide when whatever is is that kept me from chucking the kids out into the wintry night developed for the first time in cavemen... and mankind blossomed.

[Ed. note - by "cavemen" I am referring to early humans, either anatomically modern, or nearly so. Yes, I know that the term technicaly refers to Neanderthals, and I know that there's no evidence surviving humans are related to Neanderthals. So give me a break, 'K?]

Platypus Superhero T-shirt

This t-shirt from Snorg Tees is so excellent that I want to make an animated superhero cartoon based on it. Can't you just imagine this group of animals - maybe they're in high school. These four (gator, beaver, snake and duck) all know each other, but kinda pretend they don't. You see, different kinds of animals don't really hang out together. It just isn't done.

But years ago when they were younger and living in the same neighborhood, they were friends. Back then, in their younger days, they encountered something (glowing meteorite, lost temple, radioactive human, whatever) that forever linked them and gave them the super powers when they unite. And gator and snake are all like, "Hey! Let's unite and fight crime!" But duck is like "Heh. I don't think so, you guys are reptiles. I'm not uniting with you." And gator is like "C'mon duck, don't be such a jerk. Don't you remember when we used to go swimming together? And how much fun we had?" And then snake gets sad because, he always had to sit on the bank while the rest of them went swimm-

Ummm... nevermind.

The Great Panjandrum himself

So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage-leaf to make an apple-pie; and at the same time a great she-bear, coming down the street, pops its head into the shop. What! no soap? So he died, and she very imprudently married the Barber: and there were present the Picninnies, and the Joblilies, and the Garyulies, and the great Panjandrum himselff, with the little round button at top; and they all fell to playing the game of catch-as-catch-can, till the gunpowder ran out at the heels of their boots.

A conundrum

Sometimes people wonder how I can be a vegetarian and work in the pharmaceutical industry. After all, pharmaceutical companies do testing on animals. Well, first of all, let me tell you - if the government didn't require animal testing in order to bring products to market, there'd be a lot less of it. But actually, I support animal testing of pharmaceutical products. The reason? - I'm a part of nature and, as such, I am willing to do what I need to in order to protect myself, my family, and my belongings.


Now, as a (relatively) rational part of nature, I recognize that I do not need to always destroy any bit of nature I encounter. The caterpillar munching a few leaves on a plant need not be destroyed. And the rabbits in my yard can be kept away from fragile plants with non-lethal means. But if a bear attacks me in the woods, I will fight back - and with lethal force, if I can muster it. Similarly, if I'm trapped for weeks in a log cabin provisioned only with Spam, I will eat it.


I see animal testing of products in the same light. Before I take a drug, I want its safety thoroughly tested. And before it can be tested on people, testing it on animals seems entirely appropriate. I'm certainly willing to let beagles (monkeys, rats, mice, etc.) bear the brunt of an unexpectedly toxic drug, rather than have humans bear it.


So, call me a pragmatic vegetarian (or, hell, call me a hypocrite if you must). I'm not going to make the critters of the world die so that I can get still fatter or have more fashionable clothing. But I'm also not going to let myself (or my loved ones) suffer or die when the death or discomfort of an animal could prevent it.

"I'm a driver. I'm a winner...

...things are gonna change, I can feel it. "

When I got home from grocery shopping last night, it was rather dark out. Which made the two vehicles with flashing lights sitting out front of my house even more visible and disconcerting. The vehicles were vans from my cable company - the kind they send out to fix your cable. Except there was no one walking around outside, and I can't for the life of me come up with an interior cable repair that would require two repairmen.


I was a bit unnerved, although this might have more to do with the rampant paranoia and madness running through the book-on-tape that I'm currently listening to in my van (A Scanner Darkly). As frequently happens when I read/listen to a well-written book in the first person, I absorb certain characterists of the main character. For instance, in highschool, when I read Flowers for Algernon, I began to lose my ability to read as Charlie's genius level intelligence faded. (It was a race to see if I could reach the end of the book before I became completely illiterate). Anyway, the point is, I was unnerved

Being unnerved, I went through the house, turning on lights and closing blinds. I know it won't stop a homicidal maniac but then I also know that a blanket can't stop a closet monster from eating me in my sleep, and I still sleep with a blanket over my head when I 'm spooked. Anyway. When I reached the front door, I opened it to check for packages (I wasn't expecting anything, but hey, you never know) and lit candles (I'd inadvertently left candles burning in the jack-o-lanterns on the front porch all the previous night. They were still burning when TheWife jogged my memory about them as I sat eating my breakfast cereal, and stupidity like that makes me a little OCD). So, anyway (geez, all these interuptions!). I opened the door, and there was a box! Not a little box, a largish box, about 1' x 2' x 3'.

It was an Filtrete Room Air Purifier. I assumed the it had been misdelivered, but no. There on the side was a shipping label with my name on it. Nothing else. Just that. I brought it inside and stared at it. This was clearly a part of the scheme being enacted by the "cable guys" still sitting out front. Once I got my fingerprints all over it, they'd rush in with badges and guns and bust me for possession of the 12 kilos of Substance-D inside. I stared at it some more, and as I stared, the Filtrete brand worked it's way through my brain. Hadn't I... There was a contest... I rushed downstairs and searched through my old emails.

There it was: first 500 peole to sign up for the Free Filtrete Filters Club would get a free Filtrete Room Air Purifier. Apparently, I'd won this $150 air purifier! I shot off an email, asking for the list of winners, and it just arrived. Yep, there I am, middle of the list. Weird. No email saying I'd won. No letter warning me to expect a package. Just a large box on my doorstep. Not the most professional way to run a contest, but who am I to complain? I just got a large gadget that does something that I don't really think needs doing. Something I'd never pay for, and can't see the use of. Oh well. They're just damn lucky I'm not a Boston cop, or we could've had an incident on our hands!