Brown Motion

Mother is the necessity of invention some have observed while some might say necessity is the mother of invention. Regardless of who is certain dynamics cause inventions to literally take shape to suit the dynamic shape.  I refer to my own growing girth and its ongoing management.  Not the silly bodily exercise routine to attempt to curtail what cannot be under the circumstances. I observed a gent at a buffet recently waddling back and forth from the spread with suspenders on.  His girth seemed jolly well accomodated in ths garment attached to said suspenders. Now that is indeed a fascinating invention if there was one.  Instead of running around finding trousers with the right waist and worrying if that recent performance at the Mughlai place would jeopardize the ability of the waist band to fit I could go few sizes large and simply hang the tubes on these suspenders. I also observed that they allowed the wearer to do something other than texting with his digi...

The act of being in motion.  As in wind, when its blowing.  Or to boast (your own musical instrument as it were). Or to expel air.  As in blowing a whistle. This last use of the verb blow is what I want to ponder on.  These days 'whistleblowers' are coming out of the woodwork, airports, companies and agencies and what not.  One such blower has taken residence inside a Russian airport because after blowing said whistle about the security apparatus of this country, now finds himself unable to blow (or be in motion).   Or so we are led to believe by those that are still able to blow their trumpets (or news horns). Other form of whistle blowers when growing up were literally that, in the form of a traffic cop.  They had a whistle in their mouth to make themselves heard above the traffic din.  Their job was to manage the traffic whilst managing to operate the blowing instrument that was strung around their neck.  Fprrrrr Fp...

As I munched on a fresh Jalepeno bagel with Almond/Honey cream cheese this morning for breakfast I got to thinking how my own nutrition intake profile (yes I just coined new jargon to add to the cloud) and that of countless migrants to the US has changed with time. What I was enjoying was a wonderful opera of taste in my mouth but I was not quite paying any attention to the calorifus horriblus aspect of this meal.  I suspect there is a downside to downing rich gooey stuff to kick off the day?  If living (dead weight has odd connotation so let us stay away for now) mass measurements were taken and I do have a record for the last 20 or so years then substantial increases have been evident.  Contributing factors were improving living standards and a propensity for travel and love of food. The calorie mix and volume ratcheted upward during an age when ideally you want to start monitoring your intake or else you lose control on the exhaust. But oh well - give...

No this is not a race (human or automotive) inspired blog but about the more mundane subject of doing laundry.  This doing is part of every household who deigns to maintain a rinsed lifestyle. To me its an interesting study of how cleaning a piece of cloth has come to symbolize globalization and mission impossible all in one. Let me explain - pick a ready to wear garment of any color or fabric or dimension (and these days they also come in XXXL with Extra Tall - as a species we are growing or what?) and you will find that if you did not know the names of any of the third world countries you can easily master that in minutes.  Just by walking down a clothes aisle at a department store and reading out the 'Hecho En' (or Made in) tag on the inside of the collar.. or in some strange cases along the inside right seam. First I find it weird that the tag is only available in English or Spanish and not in other languages too - for example Afrikaans or Hindi or Peshtu o...

What is the root of our woes?  Many a philosopher and thinker has pondered this obvious yet somewhat rhetorical question and posited a few thoughts.  Some think that it is the constant struggle to chase material goods, more wealth, more art, more boats or whatever one thinks is going to get their oar going.  Turns out if you have no idea if the boat is tied or not that oar may be worthless.  Not being able to row gets a row going.  People get irate and find excuses then try to point fingers and so on. The great diamond head aka yours truly thinks that woes are an offshoot of having expectations.  It is natural for humans to have expectations just as we breathe air and drink water.  It is innate.  It is not learned.   To expect is to expect to be disappointed.   Not everything can be controlled because we as a species are an unreliable lot.  Therefore a lot unreliable. That said the Swiss do know how to run trains...

Would the opposite be unpuzzled?  Here is what puzzles me - I have an issue with complete being the opposite of incomplete.  When achievers can look forward to be over or under why is there no such thing as overcomplete? After all you can certainly overdo something?  Yet there is no sign of underdoing anything?  Beginning to understand where I am going?  Don't look there is no overstand either. There is an understudy I understand.  More study (not overstudy) is required to get onboard this art of estimating whether there is an over or under.  Simply can't get over it is an understatement. In some context over is complete or vice versa.  So let me go complete this again.  Some folk might after all state - I am completely over him.

Sometimes you have to spend next to nothing to get the most joy.  We are all fans of bird watching and this past month invested in a $5 bird feeder bottle. Driving a bird to drink is easy when you have an open bar.  All it took was simple syrup - no alcohol - to get the hummers in the hood to start showing up.  Previously these amazing creatures had visited us and we were able to enjoy them sporadically when garden flowers bloomed. Quote from wiki - Like bees, hummingbirds are able to assess the amount of sugar in the nectar they eat; they reject flower types that produce nectar that is less than 10% sugar and prefer those whose sugar content is higher. Now the word is out about a new bar and with the heat leading to water loss the beverage is only getting stronger and the crowds are a coming!  If the science is to be believed these dudes and dudettes apparently are visiting from Canada. Enjoy! The first pic is a female Anna's Hummingbird .. The ne...

So what makes a place popular to the point that it is synonymously used in daily jargon to convey a food product?  Of course I speak of the way Europeans have marketed their edible (debatable sometimes if you are not a fan of purposely consuming fungii and mold) wares to the consumers. Cheeses from parts of the Med (Italy, France et al) are sold in western markets (and now perhaps in the Orient although I have not encountered them yet) with an implied genteel connotation.  Available in upscale groceries (and regular ones but with a lower price point and from suspect manufacturers) these smelly (usually foul) concoctions are doled out at premium price. Fancy meals are simply a series of towns producing soft cheeses and gassy alcohols along with generic colors to add interest.   Perhaps the chesse also contributes to eventual gassiness but that is for 'another time'.  So a typical high class luncheon might read like - Starters - Platter of Camembert wit...

People use curious expressions.  Call them off the wall?  Like doing things 'on the fly'.  If you really think about it a fly is such a small organism that doing things on it is well nigh impossible.  Unless you are its mate in which case its a matter of priorities. Of all the things you would do like take a trip to Prague, or eat an ostrich burger, or go sky diving off of Victoria Falls why would you do them on the fly? You would sit on a plane to go to Prague I think, and on a bench to eat the burger and go on top of a mount to jump off - where is the fly?  The first and last example is off taking flight but does not have to involve a fly. You could do anything on a whim because whims are categorically that - allowing for someone to do things on them.   You could even fly on a whim for that matter. Its a matter of perspective on what may or may not be whimsical but flying in a contraption designed for said purpose is not an off the wall idea....