Quotes: Easy reading is damned hard writing. (Hawthorne)

"Easy reading is damned hard writing." -- Nathaniel Hawthorne

Email: Walking the new territory [CW]

You have accomplished and contributed a great deal and you are ready and entitled to hold such responsibility. It's just an outgrowth of your faithfulness in previous things. I know it seems like a big step because it looks, well, BIG, but once you begin walking in the territory, I think you'll find it largely familiar too.

Trivia: I am Palm OS

Which OS are You?

Words: dodgy [MW]

Pronunciation: dä-jE
Function: adjective
1 chiefly British : EVASIVE, TRICKY
2 chiefly British : not sound, stable, or reliable : SHAKY
3 British : requiring skill or care in handling; also : CHANCY, RISKY

Musings: Gesundheit! vs. Wow!

I work with a feminine person who occasionally sneezes loudly. Rather than say something sympathetic like "God bless you," I find my typical response is "Wow!" What can I say? Women express emotional support by empathy; men express it by being impressed.

Press: Who's buying cell phone records online? Cops - MSNBC

"A congressional panel investigating the fraudulent acquisition and sale of mobile phone records by Internet Web firms has collected evidence that indicates law enforcement officials at the local, state and federal levels use the Internet-based services as an investigative short-cut, MSNBC.com has learned. At least one Web-based data seller has told Congress that the FBI is a client.

The phone records are generally acquired by the resellers through fraudulent means and would not be admissible in court as evidence, but they are still helpful as an investigative tool, say officials familiar with the investigation.

The alleged use of the customer records by law enforcement officials could raise legal and ethical questions, as it would circumvent due process and years of established laws protecting consumers from random eavesdropping on electronic communications."

(Once again, we have George Bush to thank for the methodical unraveling of the fabric of privacy rights and the rule of law, which his administration seems to mistake for the rule of lawmakers.)

Web: 10 signs your date’s a keeper

(in MSN Dating & Personals - 10 signs your date’s a keeper, the author of Even God Is Single So Stop Giving Me A Hard Time says what I've been saying all along: Compatibility cannot be based on outer charm but inner character.)

"7. Have you witnessed your date doing small acts of kindness (leaving a very big tip for no apparent reason, helping someone with his or her shopping bags)?

8. Does this person donate time, money and energy to good causes/charity?"

Words: git, get [MW]

Pronunciation: git
Function: noun
Etymology: variant of get, term of abuse, from get
British : a foolish or worthless person

Pronunciation: get
Function: noun
1 a : something begotten: (1) : OFFSPRING (2) : the entire progeny of a male animal b : LINEAGE
2 : a return of a difficult shot in a game (as tennis)

Email: No reprisals hypothetically [A]

If I had a wide-open, cart-blanche, no-reprisals opportunity to do whatever I wanted? Wow. I'd hop a flight to have breakfast in Paris and lunch at the Louvre, but you said "tonight," so I hope I would have someone near and dear to wine and dine and dance with at the finest place in town. I have no interest in doing anything illegal or harmful or disrespectful in any way. (No reprisals doesn't mean I wouldn't know in my own heart what I had done, and one premise of my life has always been to be the man I feel I was made to be no matter what circumstances surround me.)