Things not to be happy about:
- My dear friend B— moving to Italy this week.
- Ice storms.
- The zipper on my coat breaking…and we’re having ice storms.
- Joining Friendster, and having precisely two friends.
- Having to move…and then having to move again in six months.
- Not getting to talk to my sister on her birthday (happy birthday, Suzie!!), mostly due to my own incompetence.
- Everything else.
Things to be happy about:
Things of no importance either way:
NP: cEvin Key, Frozen Sky
Excerpt from “Departure”
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
It’s little I know what’s in my heart,
What’s in my mind it’s little I know,
But there’s that in me must up and start,
And it’s little I care where my feet go.
I’m getting restless; I don’t know where I want to be, but I no longer want to be here. If I end up going to law school, I fear it will be for no better reason than to provide myself a change of scenery. I have always been largely indifferent to my own fortune; I’m not terribly concerned with how I fare, so it might seem odd that I would fear making such a decision. I am also a professed fan of whimsy and caprice, so an insistence on having good reasons would be entirely out of place for me. The problem is that I have compelling reasons not to go. Acting without reason is caprice, but I am beginning to think that acting contrary to reason is folly, or perhaps even perversion. I have not the energy to secure my happiness, but I still don’t want to indulge the perversity of spirit that would attempt to achieve my own destruction. Unfortunately, the old imp of the perverse is alluring in its mischief, and difficult to resist. I wonder…where might I find myself in September?
NP: Stars, What the Snowman Learned About Love
I woke up yesterday to a wonderful story on NPR: a new study has been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine concerning one of the many benefits of caffeinated coffee. Evidently, drinking coffee regularly reduces the risk of developing type II diabetes by half. An article in the Arizona Central states, “the study’s co-author stressed that no one should conclude that coffee is a ‘magic bullet.’” Perhaps this study alone is not sufficient to conclude that coffee is the drink of the gods, but all the evidence taken together is quite compelling. A study in 2002 showed positive effects of coffee on memory in the elderly (Ryan, Hatfield, & Hofstetter, 2002, “Caffeine Reduces Time-of-Day Effects on Memory Performance in Older Adults,” Psychological Science, 13(1), 68-71). I’ve found references to several other studies showing that coffee reduces the risk of heart disease, colon cancer, and even impotence and pregnancy (though the “magic bullet” warning seems particularly appropriate here…).
A fig for tea-drinkers: I raise my cup to coffee!
NP: Wilco, She’s a Jar
