As a social scientist I am often asked whether there is anything in the American Constitution I would change. Yes. There is one. A grammatical error in the first sentence has bothered me for 230 years.
In order to form a more perfect union. More perfect? This is even worse than “one small step for man.” How about better union? Or go for gold and say perfect union?
That would be better.
Perfect, even.
It’s three months until Christmas Day, officially, but if you’ve been to Costco, Big Lots, or really any big retailer recently you know that the Christmas season is well upon us. Cue up the yule log and Charlie Brown because Christmastime is here. Yes, it’ll still hit 90 degrees a few more days this week, but that’s sort of beside the point, no?
Those who science tell us that today is the first day of Fall. Yes, Fall is on, so break out the sweaters and the yard waste bags and cue up the Charlie Brown Halloween special.
Most of all think football, like my hometown team playing a hometown game on Monday Night Football tonight. Redskins plus four and a half? That’s a lock.
Also, projected high temp tomorrow in D.C. is 93, so you probably don’t need the sweater.
Let the record show I have never appeared in blackface. Or brownface. Or greenface or purple, or any color but for the pasty white hue in which I was born.
Wait–is “sunburn” a color?
No?
I guess it’s been just white.
From the Twitter, apropos of nothing…
The phrase should be: “Eat your cake and still have it.” That would be a lot less confusing.
Oh, man. When your fourth starter throws a three-hit ball over seven innings you start to have dreams. Yeah, that was Anibal Sanchez on the mound for the Nats yesterday, blanking the first-place Braves as my hometown team moved to 16 games over .500 with 14 to play.
Wasn’t it nice to fly under the radar all summer?
Well, no more. My hopes have been raised officially. (And the longer we can not think about football in this town the better.)
Here we go again.
Some say when the 13th of the month falls on a Friday the day will be unlucky.
But let’s put this in perspective.
Each of our months has a 13th day. There is a one out of seven chance that the day falls on a Friday. That means, assuming you’ve made it this far, you’ve survived a number of these days already.
I’m 37 years old, or nearly 450 months. That’s more than 60 Friday the 13ths I’ve already survived.
So we should be good, right?
Of course, that’s probably what they want you to think.
Hmm.
Today, of course, is the anniversary of one of the worst days in American history. Hard to believe it’s been 18 years since September 11, 2001.
I work with 11 and 12-year-olds every day, and to them “September 11” might as well have been something that happened during the Civil War.
But we’ll take time today to remember, all of us, whether dates that begin with 19 sound like ancient history or whether dates that start with 2 still sound like some distant future.
We’ll remember those lost; we’ll remember the heroism; we’ll remember the sacrifice.
We’ll remember.
First, if you have not yet found the delightful British TV series The Great British Baking Show (also known as The Great British Bake Off) please do so. Then come back and read the rest of this post. I’ll wait.
Never mind the greatness of GBBS. How about Netflix going old school with the release of Season 10? (Perhaps you know it as Collection 7 in the U.S.) Dropping a new episode every Friday instead of letting us “binge” them all at once? What is this, the 20th century?
Actually, I love it. This is how TV is meant to be watched. Tune in next week for another exciting adventure!
Anyone under the age of 20 has no idea this is how “TV” should be consumed. They’ll learn.
Spoiler alert: the episodes air several days before in the U.K. before they drop here. Best advice: do what the rest of Europe is doing right now and cut yourself off from Britain.
Can’t risk that kind of 21st century knowledge when it comes to important things like TV baking competitions.
I’ve never gotten more interest in what I’ve put on Twitter than my post of a few days ago about gum and chocolate. Yes, gum and chocolate. You know that if you eat a piece of chocolate while chewing gum the gum disappears? Yeah, just straight up disappears. Some kind of chemical reaction that makes the gum just… wait for it… disappear.
Thirty-seven years old and I never knew this until the other day. (Apparently no one else knew this either–this revelation should be shouted from rooftops immediately!)
I discovered this little trick in one of my son’s kiddie science experiment books.
Amazing what they’re teaching five-year-olds these days.
Gum + Chocolate = Nothing.
Mind blown.