Archive for the ‘Homo sapiens’ Category

Mee-yow!

Posted by Ron Coleman on January 9, 2008

Katherine Coble decries the phenomenon of “the en vogue idea of having your own pet Gay Man®”:

Having a gay male friend to be funny with you and boost your self-esteem is sort of like having a Jewish friend to balance your checkbook or a black friend to play basketball with.

Oh, gosh, don’t mention the checkbook part to my wife. She’ll think she married out. Actually, I’d have the gay guy do the checking, the black guy provide the one-liners, and, of course, the (other) Jewish guy to play basketball with. Because he can’t jump any higher than I can.

And, no, I don’t know any gay Jewish black men. Almost, but not quite.

Posted in Homo sapiens, Jocularity | 1 Comment »

The captive word

Posted by Ron Coleman on December 18, 2007

Not everything that is thought should be said, not everything that is said should be written, and not everything that is written should be published.

This is credited to Rabbi Israel Salanter.

The blog, the BlackBerry, the email are all vacuums, begging for content. Yet so often there is far more utility in shutting up; perhaps this is why Rabbi Shimon Ben Gamliel says in the Mishna, “All my days I grew up among sages, and I have found nothing greater for a person than silence” (Ethics of the Fathers, 1:17).

Is there a greater test, especially in our time, for the verbally facile, the spiritually agitated, the spirit seeking connection?

UPDATE: Turns out I used a version of that quote before.

Posted in Faith and Works, Homo sapiens, O Mores! | 7 Comments »

To sleep, perchance to dream

Posted by Ron Coleman on December 7, 2007

But if dreams came true, oh, wouldn’t that be nice

This lyric always bounces around my head. Of course it would be nice if some dreams came true; and some do. But if they all did, then there would be nothing really to dream about, would there? That wouldn’t be nice.

And besides, some of the most pleasant dreams would be nightmares in real life.

Posted in Homo sapiens | 4 Comments »

A lawyer who had everything

Posted by Ron Coleman on December 4, 2007

Crikey. My age, exactly, too.

At least this time I didn’t know him.

Posted in Homo sapiens | Leave a Comment »

Passing before you

Posted by Ron Coleman on November 16, 2007

WebMD:

When you go to sleep tonight, your brain may be busy making memories of what you did today — and it will do it in quick spurts, as if your day was being replayed in fast-forward.University of Arizona researchers report that the brain’s medial prefrontal cortex appears to replay daytime activities during sleep six to seven times faster than real time.

Somehow that sounds right — almost as if I can perceive that’s what’s happening when I (eventually) go to sleep.

Posted in Homo sapiens, Scientificus | 2 Comments »