Stop reading this

With the Internet, “the promise is of infinite knowledge, but what’s delivered is infinite information, and the two are hardly the same…. Brain studies show that true learning is largely an unconscious process. If we’re inundated with data, our brains’ synthesizing functions are overwhelmed by the effort to keep up. And the original purpose – deeper knowledge of the subject – is lost….
I’m not wishing the Internet away. It has become so integral to my work – to my life – that I honestly can’t recall what I did without it…. [Yet] as alluring as we can find the perpetual pursuit of little thoughts, the net result may only be to prevent us from forming the big ones.”
– Peggy Orenstein
NY Times Magazine, October 25, 2009

Thinking back the pain: Dr. John Sarno

If you have chronic pain (back pain or otherwise) that the “established” medical profession can’t seem to fix, you might try the three steps below.  I and two others I know personally have been cured of chronic pain (foot, back and neck, respectively) by Dr. Sarno’s program.

1. Read this Wikipedia entry about Dr. Sarno.
2. Buy and read his first book.
3. Buy, watch and follow the instructions in his video (and stick with it.)

Good luck.  (Note:  I’m not a doctor, and I am in no way associated with Dr. Sarno and don’t make any money from sales of his books/video!  I had chronic foot pain for almost two years, saw many doctors, and was even told I might need foot surgery.  After two people (one a chiropractor!) referred me to Dr. Sarno’s book, the pain went away in about 3 months and has been gone now for over 6 years.)

Shipwaving

I don’t know who started it, but I love the fact that whenever people on a boat or ship pass you (especially when you yourself are on a separate boat or ship), you wave to each other. You sometimes see this phenomenon with people on those open-top tour buses as well. There you are standing on a city corner, stewing about something and waiting for the light to change, when a bright red, double-decker bus with no roof (or sometimes shaped like a duck) glides by, full of smiling faces and hands waving your way. Only the Scrooges resist waving back.

What’s odd is that this phenomenon simply doesn’t translate to other public arenas, even if it’s the exact same people involved. Sitting on a crowded city bus, my back to the window, facing the people sitting just a few feet away, I imagine that if I started smiling and waving, at least one of them would come over, punch me directly in the face, and ask me (rhetorically) what the hell was wrong with me.

People are strange when you’re a stranger, unless you’re on a boat, or a tour bus shaped like a duck.

Compliment Table

Was walking down Union Street last weekend when we were heckled by two young guys drinking beers outside a local bar.  But this was a different kind of heckling.  One of them genuinely complimented me on my fleece jacket (which bore the logo of Anchorsteam) and declared that he, too, loved Anchorsteam.

We looked closer and saw that a make-shift sign had been pinned to the table at which the two young gentlemen sat.  It read “Compliment Table.”  We smiled and said “Thank you!” and kept walking, only to hear them again, yelling out to the guy behind us, “Those are cool shoes, man!”  (They were, in fact, cool shoes.)

Every passerby seemed to grin, even if he didn’t want to.  Those guys were probably responsible for at least 100 smiles that day.  My compliments to the Compliment Table!

Tim Lee is funny

Saw Tim Lee live a couple weeks back.  He got his PhD (biology?), then proceeded directly into stand-up comedy.  Here’s a sample:

No job, no car, no dice

You know times are bad when the latest crazy car promotion is that you can return the car if you get laid off.

Honk if you’re…

Nice article on honking in Slate.  This excerpt is encouraging:  “In July, traffic police in Mumbai launched a “No Honking Movement” led by taxi drivers who took an oath not to toot.  Last year, Shanghai banned honking downtown, with the prohibition set to expand to the entire city.”

Honking is annoying and, it turns out, mostly useless.  Of the many suggestions for curbing this ill, raising the volume of the horn inside the car is a personal favorite.  I’m sure several people will take credit for this ingenius idea, but I first heard it from cuddly curmudgeon Todd Hartley, so kudos to him.

M&M Elementals

Thanks, teach

Seriously, thank you, to all of those teachers of my younger years.  I am sure I never said it back then.  Yours is among the noblest of professions. The public schools I attended were fine institutions, and you made them so by being good at your calling.

Thanks to you I can read Moby Dick or A Tale of Two Cities and actually love them; I can dust off my algebra to solve for two variables, or string a bit of poetry together to make my girl smile; I can muddle my way through remote towns in Chile (at least in the present tense); and create a colored-chalk drawing that my nephew, at least, can recognize as a pirate ship.

These are not necessarily marketable or monetizable skills (at least not at the level I practice them!)  But there is joy simply in doing them.  During a period of life when everything seems to be measured by its price tag, I am glad to be reminded of the simple pleasure of knowledge and the curiosity that begat it.

Thank you.

Davenport Ridge ‘82; TOR ‘84; SHS ‘88

Geeky library voyeurism

I recently picked up Master and Commander from the library.  Somewhere around page 100, when Captain Aubrey was just taking the Sophie out for its first sail, I discovered among the pages the last patron’s receipt for the items he/she checked out at the time.  I have to admit I was vaguely fascinated, as I was reading or had read 3 out of 4 of them (or maybe it was the late hour), and wondered if all 4 books were for the same person or if some were for other family members.  Here’s what they went for (and my 2 cents):

Ender’s Game (excellent)
Master and Commander (in process)
Cannery Row (a modern classic)
The Sunday Philosophy Club (no idea)