Category Archives: News

“Excuse me, Mr. – I’m just trying to catch my breath.”

— Andrea Mitchell reacting to Friess’ comment

Friess’ web site apparently no longer exists, but he’s now apologized for an “aspirin joke” that “bombed.”  My parents actually remember that “joke” – from years ago!  Friess neglected to mention the number 1 birth control for men: a zipper.

“You know, back in my days, they’d use Bayer aspirin for contraceptives.  The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.”

— Millionaire Wyoming investor Foster Friess – who’s bankrolling Rick Santorum’s presidential run – discussing birth control on Andrea Mitchell Reports, the same day hearings were held in Washington

Wrong!  I remember a girl in high school saying if she visited a foreign country, she’d expect the locals to speak English.  That was in the early 1980’s, but I find things haven’t changed much.  Some Americans seem to possess a certain degree of arrogance when it comes to linguistics; they feel everyone around the world should speak English.  It doesn’t help that former Harvard professor Lawrence Summers opines in a recent New York Times essay that foreign language instruction in the U.S. is moot.  Polyglots must love to make fun of us!  English may have become an international standard, but Americans are isolating themselves if they think their own culture is so superior they can afford to be monolingual.

A tasseled wobbegong shark makes a meal of a brownbanded bamboo shark along Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

For some reason, I keep thinking of politics when I look at this picture.  These allergies meds must be getting to me.

Like Germany, Russia is the birthplace of many literary giants: Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Abramov, Leo Tolstoy and, more recently, Boris Akunin and Maria Arbatova.  Last month Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced a list of 100 Russian books “that every Russian school leaver will be required to read.”  In a 4,500-word editorial published by Russia’s Nezavismaya Gazeta newspaper, Putin notes that, “in the 1920’s, some leading universities in the United States advocated something referred to as the Western Canon,” a collection of books that academics considered to be the most influential in shaping Western culture.  Proclaiming that Russia has “always been described as a ‘reading nation,’” Putin proposes taking a survey of the country’s “most influential cultural figures” and compiling their works into a single collection for all future schoolchildren.  It’s an ambitious project and a unique one; given Russia’s history of censorship under the Soviet regime.  It would be nice to see a similar project here in the U.S.  But, I know religious and social politics would probably undermine the endeavor, even before it gets started.

Chekhov

It’s always all about the money.

A University of Texas – Austin student grabs a pair of condom roses handed out by the Texas Freedom Network to promote safe sex education on Guadalupe Street in Austin, Monday afternoon, the 13^th.  She didn’t want to end up miserable and angry like Katherine Eyberg – especially on Valentine’s Day.

Photo courtesy: Shila Farahani | Daily Texan Staff