Tuesday, October 05, 2010

A victim

While performing my morning round, I saw the corpse of a black cat in the street. I walked to it and bent to pick it up. A Prius hit me.

I didn't fall down. The driver had hit me with the side of his car while performing the left turn from Keokuk onto Washington. My forehead is slightly abraded and he left his filth on my left hand.

All the traffic stopped and drivers stared. The driver of the Prius pulled over and got out of his car. He stood there, staring at me, his mobile phone blinking in his ear. "Are you all right? Are you all right?"

I walked back to the house, crying. I thought the dead cat was Stumpy. Then I came upon Stumpy in the back, staring at me. I went inside, still crying. "He could have killed me!"

I got a paper bag and a pair of small plastic bags. Gloving my hands with the latter, I returned to the corner, waited until no cars were near, then went and collected the eviscerated cat.

I left the corpse in front of the house. Petaluma's Animal Control will collect it.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Being an American


I need to look at pictures like this to remind myself how odd I am by American standards. Americans think it's fine to carry loaded firearms around, to have them in a purse, a belt holster, a briefcase while eating a burger and drinking a Pepsi at the local restaurant or bar. I do not like guns and I think it's a sign of degeneracy to carry one for any reason but law enforcement. And many cops should have their weapons confiscated.

When I lived in Beijing in 1993, an adult student asked me in all seriousness, "If you go to the supermarket, and you and another customer have a disagreement, do you think it's okay to use a gun to settle the argument?" The answer I'd give today is that the American Supreme Court does not think it's okay to settle the argument by shooting my interlocutor, but it does think it's okay to show that person my gun and announce that it's loaded.

Lolita



On the bus late last night a woman was reading the edition shown above.

Here is a nice blog entry about the variety of covers:
http://greaterthanorequalto.net/blog/2009/08/lolita-covers/