The Cosmos Resolves Everything - But It's Not Breakfast!
It's an early day or a late night - depending on how you look at it. Let's put it this way, I'm up working, with washed face and brushed teeth, but I won't pop a slice of breakfast bread into the toaster for another two or three hours.
It's all Luky's fault. He's so disturbed by the last couple of week's worth of national distress - war, economy, gas prices, Katrina, bureaucratic ineptitude, empty Supreme Court bench seats, Judiciary hearings - he can't sleep. Well, I suppose the real problem is that we have hardwood floors so Luky's insomnia tends to prompt pacing, which tends to induce a loft-wide nail-clicking sound.
"These are claws," Luky protests any time I innocuously interpret his predatory equipment.
Fine, but his hypersensitivity is ridiculous. He spent an hour pacing our 40-foot foyer last Tuesday morning (a week ago yesterday) when we returned from our mid-morning walk. That was the first time - in recent memory - we'd passed a flag (BellSouth corporate) flying at half-mast. I explained that we'd lost our Supreme Court Chief Justice, William Rehnquist. Luky didn't know Bill personally, and I'm not sure they would have had that much in common, from what I can tell; but regardless, it was just another wallop in a series of hard national blows.
The one thing that will always bring him out of a funk like that is the Science Channel (it's a wondrously educational cable channel, but a pretty frustrating website - http://www.discovery.com/ - Luky says the navigation is terrible, the design is complicated, duplicative and too "busy," and he says the pop-ups are so plentiful and intrusive that this site ought to be linked by all pop-up blocker software promoters because it will likely sell any visitor on the service). In case you haven't gathered prior, Luky can get really picky and pointed in his criticisms sometimes.
Anyway, as I've reported before, BookTV is Luky's favorite programming on C-Span2, but that's only on weekends. The Science Channel is everyday - and what's more, Wednesday's are astronomy/cosmology day (sort of). The Science Channel tends to break days of the week down by scientific programming themes (e.g., different days for Earth sciences; oceanography; paleontology, and so on).
It turns out that Wednesdays are cosmology. Luky loves that, and he's especially excited about two weeks from now (Tuesday, 9-27-2005) when the Science Channel will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Carl Sagan's enthralling and groundbreaking PBS series, "Cosmos," by broadcasting an enhanced version of all episodes (on successive Tuesday evenings). Luky says it's a tribute to the original vision and quality of work by Sagan and his team that so much of the 13 episodes still retain so much of their value and import, especially in fields like astronomy and cosmology where technology has had such dramatic effect and enabled so much new information and learning.
Okay, "Mr. Predator" is clicking his oh-so frightening claws on the floor and offering his deep guttural harrumph - that's his own, original statement, and in this context it means something like, "I've been waiting patiently for breakfast, but it's almost 4:30 and your leg is starting to look tasty."
I'd better log out and fill a kibble bowl . . . while I can still walk! Right? He'll appreciate that observation - I might be in charge of foodservice, but it's clear I understand the power balance in this house!?!
It's all Luky's fault. He's so disturbed by the last couple of week's worth of national distress - war, economy, gas prices, Katrina, bureaucratic ineptitude, empty Supreme Court bench seats, Judiciary hearings - he can't sleep. Well, I suppose the real problem is that we have hardwood floors so Luky's insomnia tends to prompt pacing, which tends to induce a loft-wide nail-clicking sound.
"These are claws," Luky protests any time I innocuously interpret his predatory equipment.
Fine, but his hypersensitivity is ridiculous. He spent an hour pacing our 40-foot foyer last Tuesday morning (a week ago yesterday) when we returned from our mid-morning walk. That was the first time - in recent memory - we'd passed a flag (BellSouth corporate) flying at half-mast. I explained that we'd lost our Supreme Court Chief Justice, William Rehnquist. Luky didn't know Bill personally, and I'm not sure they would have had that much in common, from what I can tell; but regardless, it was just another wallop in a series of hard national blows.
The one thing that will always bring him out of a funk like that is the Science Channel (it's a wondrously educational cable channel, but a pretty frustrating website - http://www.discovery.com/ - Luky says the navigation is terrible, the design is complicated, duplicative and too "busy," and he says the pop-ups are so plentiful and intrusive that this site ought to be linked by all pop-up blocker software promoters because it will likely sell any visitor on the service). In case you haven't gathered prior, Luky can get really picky and pointed in his criticisms sometimes.
Anyway, as I've reported before, BookTV is Luky's favorite programming on C-Span2, but that's only on weekends. The Science Channel is everyday - and what's more, Wednesday's are astronomy/cosmology day (sort of). The Science Channel tends to break days of the week down by scientific programming themes (e.g., different days for Earth sciences; oceanography; paleontology, and so on).
It turns out that Wednesdays are cosmology. Luky loves that, and he's especially excited about two weeks from now (Tuesday, 9-27-2005) when the Science Channel will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Carl Sagan's enthralling and groundbreaking PBS series, "Cosmos," by broadcasting an enhanced version of all episodes (on successive Tuesday evenings). Luky says it's a tribute to the original vision and quality of work by Sagan and his team that so much of the 13 episodes still retain so much of their value and import, especially in fields like astronomy and cosmology where technology has had such dramatic effect and enabled so much new information and learning.
Okay, "Mr. Predator" is clicking his oh-so frightening claws on the floor and offering his deep guttural harrumph - that's his own, original statement, and in this context it means something like, "I've been waiting patiently for breakfast, but it's almost 4:30 and your leg is starting to look tasty."
I'd better log out and fill a kibble bowl . . . while I can still walk! Right? He'll appreciate that observation - I might be in charge of foodservice, but it's clear I understand the power balance in this house!?!
posted by RAM at 4:32 AM
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