Forgiveness

A good marriage - an enduring marriage - requires forgiveness. From your wife. You will do stupid things, say stupid things, forget non-stupid things because you are a man and your picture is next to the word stupid in the dictionary.

Truth or Lies

I've wondered how it is that people fall for lies, believe in lies, defend the lie, deny any facts that out the lie, happily embrace a new rationale for the lie in those rare circumstances when the original theory of the lie is disproven by observable, ineluctable fact. I'll admit, it's become more of a rhetorical question than a field of study at this point. After all, what is the truth?

Brain Tumors

I worked my entire post-food service life in offices. My first such gig was working as a clerk in the registrar's office of a non-fictional New England college or university. There was a woman who worked there I found to be completely and utterly detestable.

Endings

They say everything ends badly (or else it wouldn't end).

They also say all good things come to an end.

Ergo, all good things end badly.

Or is it that bad things never end?

More importantly, who are they and why do they keep saying these things?

Side Effects Include...

I'm fascinated by the side effects of pharmaceuticals. I've noted in the past that if "coma or death" aren't mentioned, they're just not trying hard enough. (I want to help you so badly I'm willing to kill you to do it!) I'm not even sure what they're treating; psoriatic skin conditions, diabetes, heart conditions, depression? Given the downside (to coma or death), I have to think it isn't male pattern baldness. Erectile dysfunction? Would you risk death just to - wait, what am I saying? Of course you would.

I heard a new one last night: Unusual urges.

The Big Lie

Naming is powerful. It imputes meaning. Something to be taken with serious consideration. That's rarely the case, of course. Branding. Marketing. The Big Lie. It makes it feel shiny and new like a luxury automobile carrying more cameras and compute power than the Apollo 11 lunar lander, or a pasta maker that's also a juicer, or an ointment that makes you look like you're fourteen years old again. Do those side-by-side photos really look different to you? 

When did people become so resistant to facts? 

Like… Always? I see you, Galileo.

Chargebacks and Returns

As a pre-teen in Sunday School, I never got the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Maybe because I was the good son. "What the hell, Dad?!?! You know Eric is a loser!" Well, I didn't say that out loud, of course, because saying "What the heck, Dad?!?!?" really wouldn't have carried the same weight.

I truly was the good son.