Email: Teaching is learning [LJ]

I don't see how any teacher (supposedly in the profession of learning) does not want to learn something new.

Email: Stay feminine [EH]

Stay feminine. Only men who have their heads up their butts don't understand feminine things and want women to be just like them (ugh).

Email: Computer intelligence [LJ]

PC users tend to be more technical and Mac users more creative, so if you define technical as intelligent, PC users are right to promote themselves as the brainy ones. However, I prefer to see intelligence as the willingness to learn and to do what is effective and elegant, therefore PC users who don't like the Mac because they never bothered to learn something new (not to mention simpler) are actually nonadaptive, that is, intentionally ignorant (unintelligent and arrogant).

On the other hand, the truly intelligent person willingly learns the Mac and the PC and any other technology that seems interesting as well as effective and elegant.

Peeves: Phillips commercial

In a TV commercial for Phillips caplets (something about cramps), a librarian seizes her nethers as her book cart careens down a ramp and knocks over every freestanding bookrack (and, presumably, patron) in the library. The feigned perkiness of this commercial, paired with its mayhem played supposedly for humorous effect, is only two steps above (for example) a pilot who seizes his crotch, nearly piles his plane into an office tower and then grins while giving a thumbs-up as he narrowly averts the collision (only because the storyboard would preclude said schmaltzy delivery if mayhem did ensue in such a scene).

Peeves: Viagra commercials

To think that I shall never see
A Viagra commercial less obnoxious than a sackful of pus.

Email: Star Tribune Support

How DARE you require registration to read the nation's leading story, which could be freely accessed last night? Trying to make money off tragedy is an insult to the citizenry and to the ethical reputation you might have had.

Press: The 35W bridge disaster - buzz.mn

Reaction: The 35W Bridge Disaster - buzz.mn - James Lileks:

"I’ve driven across this bridge every few days for thirty years. There are bridges, and there are bridges; this one had the most magnificent view of downtown available, and it’s a miracle I never rear-ended anyone while gawking at the skyline, the old Stone Bridge, the Mississippi. You always felt proud to be here when you crossed that bridge, pleased to live in such a beautiful place. Didn’t matter if it was summer twilight or hard cold winter noon - Minneapolis always seemed to be standing at attention, posing for a formal portrait . We’ll have that view again – but it’ll take a generation before it’s no longer tinged with regret and remembrance."

Email: Matchmaking habit [EH]

Focus on what works and work on what is your focus. If you have practical matters to tend to, take care of business first. Online matching is not an escape so thinking it might be becomes an addictive cycle of (too shallow) hope and (inevitable) disappointment. A person has to be healthy and ready for a true-love relationship or the door will not open for you, it will keep hitting you in the face. A love relationship is not a remedy, it is a responsibility to be stood up for with action, not hoped for with inaction. Reach[ing] this point -- and still reaching higher -- [is how to prove oneself] acceptable to a [man or] woman of real substance.

Email: Matchmaking habit [EH]

Stop being so negative! It will shrivel you up. If you are in the wrong pond or on the wrong path, then try something different. Only insanity comes from doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for better results. You call [online matchmaking] a "habit" like it is an addictive cycle. Quit cold turkey!

Email: Love or infatuation [EH]

See, what amazes me is people in seminary having premarital sex -- and marrying someone who agrees to participate. It's more common than conservatives want to believe. And in such a culture, those are the ones who get married, not the ones who stay pure, waiting for a marriage that may never come.

I think it should not be possible to fall in love with someone until you meet in person, get to know each other, and participate in an ongoing dating relationship for at least a few months. I think any feelings before meeting -- esp. when emailing and talking by phone -- should properly be regarded as infatuation. The latter is about one's own needs; the former is about the other's needs.