The Observer's Blog

"I'm Lovin' It"

This is a political entry. I recently had a dazed layover at DFW after disembarking the red-eye from Honolulu, but I had enough of my wits about me to notice and capture on camera the piece of irony pictured to the left. The cup of Dr. Pepper I had with my "breakfast" was part of some promotion honoring the U.S. Armed Forces, which I think is a good thing. Only I'm not sure the cup designer should have simply stuck a picture of a soldier next to their latest slogan in a bunch of different languages.

Also, check out what Coulter and Carlson say about Canada. I think the hottest of the infobabes has gone too far this time.

Family Matters & Poll

Sometimes it takes a commercially driven holiday season to get you thinking about your family. No sooner did I arrive in town and head to the currently favored local bar than I found myself discussing the death of grandparents while slightly tipsy with an acquaintance I'd never talked to before. This got me to thinking about family (mostly parents and grandparents) in the back of my mind. I realized today during the Christmas gathering that I have turned out most like my in-town grandmother. This is no surprise, as she was the closest non-nuclear relative I had while growing up and I always admired her. Still, these days her quiet, but no-nonsense, demeanor seems to be at least a little in conflict with the louder more boisterous personality of the rest of the family. So now I'm using this closeness to my grandmother as an excuse to not feel bad that I'm not as jolly and rambunctious as the majority of the kin at family gatherings.

On the subject of families, I finally learned today what the cardinal numbering of cousins and times removed means through the aid of this chart. I whipped out my handy-dandy laptop to verify what exactly "sixth cousin" meant since my great uncle claimed that one of my cousins (his nephew I think) recently found out his wife was actually his sixth cousin. This doesn't bother me a bit, and it shouldn't bother you since it means your most recent common ancestor is seven generations back (as opposed to marrying your sister, which is only one generation separated). Still, I think most people would be squeamish about marrying someone that they know in advance is their sixth cousin. I personally wouldn't be, but I would do my best to bury the information so that no one found out. This leads to a poll:

Yes No
___ ___ Would you marry your sixth cousin?
If yes, at what number cousin does it become not okay to mix genes? ____

'S' Names

There were two students in the class I TAed this semester from East Glacier, Montana: Sierra Shawnee S****** and Shayna S. S******. Sierra has a twin, and there is yet another fourth S****** sister. Presumably all eight of their first and middle names start with the letter S, and it got me wondering if I could come up with eight great names for girls. So far I'm having a little trouble, and can only come up with Sara (which is sort of cheap) and Savannah (which I didn't actually come up with myself). I think by the fourth kid I'd be tempted to go with superhero names like Shera (should that be hyphenated?) or Seinfeld references, though Stella is dubious. Hey, Seinfeld . . .

When The Levee Breaks

Disaster has been averted, for now. Soon, I will run out of Daria re-runs on Noggin that I haven't seen. It's not really that grad school is stressful, but being trapped on a remote island with little or no social contact outside of the workplace is. The pressure valve that has allowed me to survive over the last month or so has been Daria.

Fortunately, I am about to undergo a complete decompression by going home for Christmas, where I will be able to hang out at home as well as make road trips into Texas. This vacation should delay the coming of the day when my mind will snap and I'll do something ridiculous like blow all my money on cereal and exotic beers (you may think that would be difficult, but I think I could manage it, especially with the prices at Safeway here).

So the question is, what will my habit be when I lose Daria? What self-gratifying act will I schedule my day around? Any nicotine user who happens to be reading this may have an idea where I'm going. Cigarettes seems like the perfect answer, and the only potential problem I see is that I've never smoked one. Oddly, I associate both positive and negative feelings with the smell and taste of smoke, but that's a subject for a whole other post. Alternative activities to becoming a smoker include: hockey, some form of activisim, Gamecube (which I will have next semester), a long-distance girlfriend that I talk to way too often on the phone. Okay, I guess I should stop before I get too ridiculous in listing implausibilties. Hockey is currently the most viable, but it has the disadvantage of not giving instant satisfaction when on the job like a tar stick would. At least crisis is months away and I have much time to consider my options.

Yes, But Closer to What?

I wasn't ready for it. I knew that deep down inside I was not ready. This wasn't going to be as simple as sitting through Maid In Manhattan, where I had the option of leaving if I felt like it. This was going to be intense, no leaving. Sure I could stop thinking about the movie when it was over if I wanted to, I could try that yes. But that wouldn't be honest. Plus I don't want Natalie Portman to think I'm a git; or maybe she'll think I'm a dork for thinking about the movie . . . hmmm. Anyway, I'm left with one nagging question to which I haven't been clever enough to figure out the answer: Closer? Closer to what? WHAT DOES THIS TITLE MEAN!

Approprately I have a similar question about the movie's bookend song 'Blewer's Daughter' by Damien Rice. I've had this song in my head for like a month. I'll be walking down the sidewalk and I'll just start singing to myself, "And so it is . . . " although I'm not exactly sure what IT is or how it is SO. Plus, being the American boor I am, I don't know what a blewer is, and since I'm temporarily a Hawaiian I'm too lazy to look it up. So all in all, I'm confused by this title as well.

Also to note, disappointed in a good way that "Caramel" which was so effectively used in this movie's preview was not played during the movie at all. And what was perhaps the best use EVER of "How Soon Is Now?" in a piece of media (except for that KSCL DJ who first played it while I was listening to the radio, causing me to spiral steeply into the music of Morrissey and then The Smiths). A song which is normally used in the most heinous of fashions.