Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October, 2014

Working feverishly

Fever is an elevation in body temperature that typically causes the fevered to slow down.  Accompanied by body aches or general malaise.  So the expression 'working feverishly' is an oxymoron given  it describes someone working in a rushed manner to get lot done in short time.  So either you work or you have fever - not both. Also it begs the question - another curious expression - why someone would want to work feverishly when they could just work? Given the fever and it's consequences would you want someone to do your work in a feverish manner?  It might just give you the fever. As an aside the expression to describe someone with fever is to say - he or she has temperature.  I think that is silly.  It is like saying he has blood.  Duh.. Without temperature he would NOT be. Forget about working..

On being Proud

I get the feeling that people have lost the ability to distinguish between what they feel and what they say to express said feelings. Creates headlines from silly to outright dangerous. Most recently a large Fortune 100 CEO declared to the world media that 'he is proud to be gay'.  Now to paraphrase Seinfeld- while there is nothing wrong with that- it does beg the question of how someone can be proud of a natural accident?  Accident in two parts - that he 'is' and that he is 'gay'. Proud is sometimes defined as - feeling deep pleasure or satisfaction as a result of one's own achievements, qualities.  Being gay is - as one can surmise neither an achievement nor a quality.  It is an accident of nature as much as being straight is.  Nothing of it - that would be straight forward thinking.  Which if you are so inclined could under circumstances make you feel gay or happy. Another confusion that goes into such declarations is around the idea of coming '

Who is Mary?

As the readership might recall a recent blog chronicled the death of Mary who swallowed a pencil. I am about to expose who Mary was. Remember the nursery rhyme - Mary had a little lamb? Exactly.  Mary is the same - one and only.  Now here is the reasoning behind the claim. First of all if Mary had a little lamb why emphasize little?  Lamb is a little sheep.   Hence we can do without the emphasis on little.  Mary had a lamb.  That is enough information. Next the rhyme says - Her fleece was white as snow,  and everywhere that Mary went,  the lamb was sure to go. Stupid lamb I must say.  Never follow anyone esp today's world to everywhere unless you know them that well.  Given I have not seen any lambs in the workplace or even in the neighborhoods I frequent I must say Mary had to have been a sheep herself. That would explain her ability to chew on grass and swallow a pencil not knowing what it was that she had just consumed.  Guts ripped no glory! 

I watch what I eat

This cliche of 'watch what you eat' has been beat to death in health conscious locales such as Northern California.  Of course it is a good idea to watch what you eat otherwise you end up like Mary. She did not see what she was eating and she swallowed a pencil.  It was 2B since she was gabbing with her friends and not watching what she ate. She swallowed it intact with the eraser and ferrule.  The lead however broke in the process and the coroner ruled lead poisoning as cause of death.  Actually that to me was debatable because technically there is no lead in the pencil but graphite. Softest known form of carbon which makes a pencil write.  But it was proved wrong by the ME who indicated lead as the root cause.  Now the sharpened end had a point so maybe that did her in.  Tore her gut out as she swallowed the implement whole. Moral - Even a good eraser cannot undo a stupid act.

How we got here

Have been watching a fascinating documentary on how our modern life with its tools and conveniences originated in very unlikely situations. People today mostly do not know these true inventors and thinkers that drive modern life. Here are some notables that may or may not be known to scores of people who benefit from their guts  and voice of dissent. Doctors John Snow and John  L. Leal independently in the UK and later in the USA respectively le d to the understanding of how to keep water clean so we do not die of cholera - Snow's secret was to map the cause of water pollution to locations where people were dying from the disease,  while Leal's was to discover that chlorine in water could kill most bacterium - indirectly helping promote other secrets like Victoria's.  The bikini and skimpier undergarment trend became possible because it was now possible to provide clean water for people to use for drinking or fill swimming pools where gals could show off their bodies

Cost of entrepreneurship

Last night I attended a guest lecture on the subject of disruptive technology and entrepreneurship.  Lecture was free but it was used as a pitch by the University that hosted it to attract new customers. The speaker was somewhat respectable fellow who happened to hail from India and spoke eloquently.   One of the key message was around how the professors in this university were ranked among the very best money can buy. Cost of the MBA program mere $110,000 and oh we also buy some dinner if you have late class.  So now the math is simple-  is learning to be entrepreneurial worth the cost of entry? That is assuming you end up being one.   What of those that do not?  or the ones that are not successful at being the entrepreneur?  Is that being a pessimist before even being handed the glass. What I found strange is that people will bet big money on the glimmer of hope that they might just make a entrepreneurial debut and hit it big.  The university pitch I remember also included a

Things I won't tell you

There is a spate of news articles conveying everything from what Farmers will not tell you to what Billionaires will not tell me to what the Government will not tell us to what McDonald's will not... To keep up with the Joneses or Donald's (Mc or otherwise) in a manner of speaking, here are top five things I will not tell you - the readership. 1.  This I will not tell you 2.  This I will not tell you 3.  This I will not tell you 4.  This I will not tell you 5.  This I will not tell you You may wonder if the top 5 are really the top 5 - but again - This I will not tell you.

The Fit

My clothes don't.  The girth is the root cause that the trunk is expanding beyond the band. Other exampels of fit when I got thinking include... Conniption Fit Hissy Fit Honda Fit Good Fit Bad Fit Mamla Fit ...

What's with these Czar's?

I had forgotten my elementary school history and the term 'Tsar' or 'Czar' until the American government rekindled old memories.  My soporific (both him and his listenees)  history teacher used to blab on and on about Russian rulers with bizzare titles like the Czar and Czarinas and I never quite caught on as to what was going on over there. Obama recently appointed one.  A czar.  For Ebola.  Imagine that.  Ebola Czar.  Deadly?  I think so. Origin of the word 'Czar' comes from the name of the great military general Julius Ceasar.  Before Jesus there was Julius.  As titles go folks that could dominate other folks were given this title.  Russian monarchs adopted a variant of it and called their commanders Tsars. The ladies that made it to the throne were Tsaristas aka Czarinas.  (Not sure if an Indian actress somehow got mixed up in these cults and came to be known as Zareena Wahab - although her last name suggests some alliance with the House of Saud in Ara

Names I would like to see in circulation

People have stopped naming their kids with unusual names found in Indian mythology and history.  Here are top suggestions male or female with potential role based alignment: Esp if there can be bibber fever and Tom can cruise then- Ghatotkacha - the name might suit a future baseball or football player Rakumai - might suit a rock climber or a skilled bar tenderress? Vibhishan - might be an actor in horror flicks Vitthal - could be someone selling vitamin drinks Yudhishthir - could be a race car driver Gyanoba - could be a exotic health drink seller Dwarkanath - same as above Narad - could work at NORAD or some such outfit Birbal - could be a beer connoisseur Bheem - could work in construction Jagdamba - could be a doctor for autistic kids or nut jobs Draupadi aka Panchali - could be a marathon runner

Modi's Maidan Visit

That's right.  Maidan.  As in field or a park.  Modi set out from India on his maiden voyage to visit the US on a US invitation after providing him the much denied Visa. A 'Water under the bridge' (where does all this water go is for another blog as is discussion on which bridges are particularly amenable for this type of activity) event was reported before said Visa was granted. Coming back to the subject at hand  - PM Modi's maiden visit to America included visiting maidans like Central Park.  Also on the agenda was Madison Square garden (which is not a garden or a maidan rather a large arena which may or may not be square - math was not America's strong suit) and some other gardens including Rose Garden which happens to be next to the Oval office at the White House that contains a black President. Madison Sq Gardens fondly referred to as MSG is where everyone wants to be seen in when visiting America but when it comes to eating food they do not want any MSG i

Breached?

This question can be asked by a doctor to a woman about to deliver a baby Or A whale watcher to the Beluga that keeps teasing the crowd Or A credit card customer to their bank inquiring about how safe their personal information is

Hacker checker

This would be the new job title for people being hired at Americas airports.  Our nation it would appear faces two grave challenges both of which happen to have a similar mode of attack.  Aka the Virus. In the first instance the threat of being hacked is grave - it now appears that two out of every one American has been hacked I.e.their identity has been stolen multiple times by hack attacks from entities native and foreign.  One of the mechanisms used to  inflict financial pain is using a man made virus (by so called computer hackers)  that could enter sensitive system vaults at any major financial institution and extract personal information cleaning out your bank account. In the second instance the hacking is in the form of physical heaving caused by strains of different viruses like Ebola and Entero that entered the human body.  This can literally take you to the grave. Reminds me if a Bruce Lee film called ' Enter the Dragon'. Entero and Ebola virus outbreaks have le

Buckets and Runs

Sounds like a diarrhea epidemic.  Far from it.  Running has been the quintessential way of garnering money for charitable causes in the USof A for decades.  'Run for a cause' or as we more recently discovered 'dump a bucket of something over your head' and somehow extract people's money have been making more and more headlines. Ever since someone dreamt up the idea that we can ask people to pay for participating in an exercise (literally and whatever) involving a running race, charities all over the country have piled on.  The more people that join the more money is raised for a cause tagged to the mission statement by the race organizers. Notice how the act of running got tied to an organizer and that in turn got tied to some branding that ties into a charity that you may or may not recognize. Okay so as far as raising money for a cause I get it.  But what I never got was the idea to tie that event to a race and also get some corporate visibility while at it.

Modi in the English dictionary

New strategies that the Indian PM lays out will be termed 'modis operandii'..actually that would be latin but who's checking Any multi year plans that he updates or edits will be labeled as 'Modified' with the pronunciation being key to align with gujju way of saying it Clean India campaign photo will be titled ' Modicum of success' Finally made in India will get rebranded as Modindia.

Faith and Fashion

People can be fanatics about their faith.  They can also be fanatical about fashion.  Simply put some think their 'faith in fashion' makes them fashionably faithful.  That is a mouthful. Here is a sampling of what I mean - Do Sardarjis (practioner of Sikhism) ever develop a bald spot?  I have not actually encountered one.  Now that is a classic example of the faith driving their fashion preference.  That of having to wear a pointed hat all the time.  This time to their advantage.  I mean because the faith advises to constantly wear a hat you never know what is hiding underneath.  Like someone said only when the tide goes out can you see who was swimming naked.  No chance of that for these faithful.  So they can live long with the others thinking that they are blessed with a luxuriant mop that does not fade. Yoga Pant-vasion - this new invasion of the spandex like leggings that has American women (some men) hopping (sometimes as part of the yogic routine) with brand names t