Marriage License Hijinx

We attended Norma's niece's wedding this weekend. This afternoon, the preacher handed them the duplicate of the license that the county had given him. With it was a receipt for the fee, and another little slip of paper entitled, "Now you have your marriage licence ... what to do next."

It was generally agreed in the group that if the couple didn't know what to do next, it was time for somebody to have a long talk with them.

Whither the Environmentalists?

While I was enjoying the fireworks last Wednesday, I noticed how much smoke was in the air. It occured to me that the people of Wamego probably produced more air pollution in the first few days of July than they do during the entire remainder of the year. Perhaps not quite that much, but certainly there was a lot of it. Multiply that by cities and towns all over the country, and our pollution/particulate footprint for those few days was enormous.

Where were the environmentalists who are usually crying on TV about how dangerous humans are to the planet? Where was Al Gore -- watching fireworks somewhere?

Geographically challenged

Some people are geography-wise, some are other-wise.

On the radio this morning, the announcer was talking about the upcoming tour of the band Genesis. He announced that the tour will start in England, then continue in Canada. After that, he said, they "will move on to North America."

The Midnight Sun

It's one thing to know a fact. Sometimes, it's quite different to experience it.

Matt has just returned from Canada. He told a story about the first morning up there. He woke up to bright sunshine from outside. Looking over, he saw his friend Clifford sitting up on his sleeping bag with a confused look on his face. Clifford was staring at his watch. When Matt asked what was wrong, Clifford said something must be wrong with his watch, since it was indicating barely 5:00am, and it was light outside. As Matt and Clifford talked about it, one of the other guys on the trip (who had been up there on past trips) piped up and said, "Hey, guys! You're in Canada! It gets light early up here. Go back to sleep!"

I remember Vicki (a friend who lives in Anchorage) talking about playing ball games well into the late hours during the summer, since the sun doesn't go down until late. It makes sense, and I know how it happens, but it's still a jolt to really LOOK at the numbers. So, here are some sunrise/sunset times from yesterday, June 21:

Anchorage: Sunrise - 4:22am. Sunset - 11:43pm. That means that (if it's fairly clear) it won't get dark until well after midnight! But hold on, it gets more interesting ...

Fairbanks: Sunrise - 2:59am. Sunset - 12:48am. That's having the sun above the horizon for 21 hours and 49 minutes every day!

The real shocker was looking up the numbers for Barrow: Sunrise: None. Sunset: None. Daylight: 24 hours, 00 minutes. And, tacked onto the bottom of the climate report in a most matter-of-fact manner was this little note: "The next sunset is August 3rd."

(Just for the record, all times are from the National Weather Service's daily climate reports.)

Is "Bill Me Later" Safer Than Credit?

A little note appears on the sidebar of page 26 of Money magazine's July 2007 issue.

Apparently some websites have started offering a "Bill Me Later" option for those who don't want to put their credit card info online. The problem is that unless you read the fine print, you may not know that you're actually applying for a revolving line of credit when you select this option. This line of credit has an interest rate of 19.99% and late fees of up to $39.

To top it all off, less than 1% of ID theft cases begin with online transactions. Credit cards are also protected from fraud. But 8% of ID theft cases begin with stolen paper mail!

Asking for "Bill Me Later" really doesn't protect a thing, and could cost you big bucks.

"Let's be careful out there."

Stupidest Bumper Stickers

Here are my nominations for the stupidest bumper stickers, along with my comments.

"You cannot simultaneously prepare for war and prevent it." Actually, any country which values it's freedoms MUST simultaneously prepare for war while working diligently to prevent it.

"If you can't trust me with a choice, how can you trust me with a child?" I'm sorry, but if your choice would be to destroy that child (born or unborn), we (as a society) cannot trust you with either the choice or the child, I'm afraid.

I'm sure there will be more. Stay tuned.

Gesundheit!

Am I the only person who objects to the practice of saying "Gesundheit!" or "Bless You!" when someone sneezes?

This common response to a sneeze is rooted in superstition. At one time, people believed that life was escaping through the nose, the soul was thrown out of the body during the sneeze and was susceptible to capture by Satan, or perhaps that the body was trying to cast off a demon in a sneeze. These ideas are patently absurd, and yet the blessing to ward off such events is still repeated.

Of the two, however, "Gesundheit" is marginally acceptable, since it translates more or less as "to your good health". Wishing someone who suffers from a cold or allergies "good health" is a pleasant thing to do, and I guess it doesn't matter that it's done in German.

But saying "Bless You!" after someone sneezes is just silly. Stop it!