Monday, August 25, 2003 :::
 
Greetings, one and all. A Mind That Suits is ensconced in the old stomping grounds, but powering on the old office PC revealed that it is indeed possible for a computer to get infected while it is off. At the beginning of one summer, the computer assistant was turning off all the PC's in one lab. When asked why, he said it was because it "reduces the chance of infection." Reduces, not eliminates. A Mind That Suits has been chastened, and will pull the internet wire out of the wall next time. Until that is fixed, he is still in Mac landl, so no links.

But we are at the beginning of another semester, when freshmen provide amusement to all. One excited lad was standing outside his classroom saying "hi" to all who were passing by, out of the sheer joy to have reached this next stage in life. Good luck to him.

Last year, a nervous youngster asked A Mind That Suits where a certain building was, and then scampered off like a jack rabbit, obviously late.So late he had forgot to put on underwear, which none of us would have known if he had not also insisted on wearing those silly, silly oversized gym shorts. Which proceeded to slip down. So he began college a little behind. Fortunately, the elastic was tight enough to prevent the ultimate humiliation, but if the building had been 100 feet further, the world might have seen a naked teenager tripping over his own pants.

Mothers don't want to know about these moments. But to a teacher, they make teaching seem---really, really urgent, actually. 'Read your schedule, set your alarm early enough to actually get dressed."

A Mind That Suits used to teach students from an Eastern European country where hygiene was well, different. To him fell the task of pulling the guys aside and telling them about why the girls from Latin America were sitting far, far away from them, Latin Americans doing anything, anything, to avoid giving off or having to smell other bodies. Another memorable moment in teaching.


In the "sic transit gloria mundi" category, we draw our readers' attention to SFO, the San Francisco International Airport. Driven by, one presumes, public subventions for the needs of United Airlines, the airport was under construction for what seemed like millenia. It is now a truly striking circular edifice. You drive in under the international concourse, which is behind a majestic entrance. Only United is no longer so majestic, nor are any other airlines not named Southwest. On the domestic side, one entire concourse was closed, and on the one where A Mind That Suits was waiting, the traffic was so slight that one of those people with the orange flashlights that guide planes into their docking sites was actually sitting on the tarmac soaking up the sun.

August air travel. Kids. Lots and lots of kids going too and from Europe and other continents. Kids have no money, but they only fly in July and August, making those the most expensive months to travel. Law of supply and demand, driven by the sizable grants that support the kids. An interesting example of economic laws at work.

John McCain has returned from Iraq determined to get more money and to send more troops. Sen. McCain can be incredibly annoying, but in this case, that is a good thing. The Democratic Party has positioned itself as the party waiting for people to suffer some more in Iraq so they can benefit from it politically, and far too many conservative writers have positioned themselves as flacks for Donald Rumsfeld's ill-considered planning. Neither is facing the issue squarely.

There was an excellent op-ed in the Washington Post Outlook section this Sunday by someone who had worked on the economic reforms in Eastern Europe. We have now a lot of experience in such work, he pointed out, but we have no such experience in nation building. He might have pointed out that the Admininstration made no use whatsoever of our experience in Eastern Europe, having no plan in place for the banking systems or the currency until long after they were needed. Nonetheless, his piece was well worth reading. (Available for the public at www.washingtonpost.com)

And we continue our inexcusable abandonment of Karbala even though the Blugarians taking our place have only half as many troops and have no intention of trying to solve poltiical problems, their commander being properly concerned about the safety of his troops. The Wall Street Journal has a disturbing report this morning on our need to clear out unexploded cluster bomblets in, yes, Karbala, a job unfinished as we leave. Guaranteed to really improve our standing among the longsuffering people there.

A Mind That Suits wishes Senator McCain all the luck in the world, because this time he actually is on the side of the angels, instead of merely being convinced he is.

Have a good day.









::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 10:52 AM


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What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.