September 15th 2010
September 12th 2010
I learned something this morning.
Our church choir is tiny — four women. We have a soprano, an alto, a tenor, and a tenor/baritone (me).
I have some small talent as a singer, no training, and even less confidence. My main contribution is to be able to hit a B below low C and to add some volume to the song. I do fine in a group if someone will teach me my part, since I can’t sight read music.
Today was Kick-Off Sunday, and the choir served only to lead an old favorite, “Down by the Riverside,” with the congregation singing along. Typically, we wear robes and hold a music folder, but this was very informal, so we decided to just wear our regular clothes. And we knew the song so well that two of us decided not to even bring our music folders up there with us.
And thus it was that I found myself standing in front of the congregation, singing, with no robe, no folder, no barrier, no shield, between me and all those people. Suddenly I didn’t know what to do with my hands, I didn’t know where to look, I couldn’t even decide whether I was supposed to smile.
I have an uncomfortable premonition that this may trigger those naked-in-public dreams.
September 9th 2010
From The Kiplinger Letter dated September 3, 2010:
Keep your eyes on regulators, not lawmakers.
Rulemakers will be the real agents of change over the next two years of the Obama administration.
Congress and Obama won’t agree on much….
That gives more power to rulewriters.
And they’re ready to use it, in spades. Obama’s lieutenants will move in a host of areas to implement his priorities. Congress can’t stop them, and lobbyists will have influence only on the margins.
Chilling.
September 6th 2010
Yesterday I made a trip to the bookstore, then headed for their coffee shop to sit and read for a while.
One of my purchases was a collection of short essays, and I wanted to check the copyright date on one of them. At the bottom of the page with all that sort of information is this:
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z329.48-1984.
The Libertarian in me balked, and I was going to come home and rant loundly herein. But a cursory check indicates that the ANSI is a member organization that “coordinates the development of U.S. voluntary national standards in both the private and public sectors.”
Oh. Okay.
Now I am just left to marvel that there are people, somewhere, who are paid to spend time being concerned with the Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.
September 3rd 2010
There is a lovely new building here in town where I attend a committee meeting once a month. All the facilities are first rate, including the ladies’ room.
The dividers and doors of the stalls in the ladies’ room are shiny black metal, inside and out. Which means that anyone in there has a full frontal view of herself sitting on the toilet.
I would prefer they had spared me that.