February 17, 2017

2017.02.17
The Atlantic had a small piece on Bolivia's cebritas, or traffic zebras... they figured the drivers there would respond more to goofy mockery than to punishment, and so various folks (often people being given a second change) put on the zebra outfits and go to the crosswalks.

(Reminds me of how long it took me to realize Douglas Adams saying Man "goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing" was about traffic safety and not a surrealist absurdity, or perhaps a slice of life scene on Eastern African plains)
my favorite thing i've learned in college is that way back in ancient china there was this poet/philosopher guy who wrote this whole pretentious poem about how enlightened he was that was like "the eight winds cannot move me" blahblahblah and he was really proud of it so he sent it to his friend who lived across the lake and then his friend sends it back and just writes "FART" (or the ancient Chinese equivalent) on it and he was SO MAD he travels across the lake to chew his friend out and when he gets there his friend says "wow. the eight winds cannot move you, but one fart sends you across the lake"
lieutenantriza

Retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward declining Trump's offer to be national security adviser saying it was a "sh*t sandwich" reminded me of a quote I posted 12/31/2000, literally the second day of my blog:
"Life is a sh*t sandwich. But if you've got enough bread, you can't taste the sh*t."