On memorials
For some reason I feel we need to start making jokes about this day. That way we can begin to turn it away from something that was done to us and turn it to something we own. Just to clarify: I do not wish to suggest that I want all our decisions as a nation to be filtered through this day - quite the opposite - but instead I want for it to become a piece of our history rather than a piece of sensationalized crap. Like July 4, or November 11, and so on. It should be a day for respect and remembrance (and maybe a day off from work), not a day for paranoia, stress, hate, xenophobia, or any of the other bullshit that the TeeVee, Radio, Intarbus, &c. are helping us feed ourselves with.
Yesterday Erin thought I was making a joke about it. I crushed one of those big Arizona cans (you know, the 23.5 oz for 99 cents ones?). Sometimes when I do that the can goes flying away because it's very important that the path of the heel is directly downward to ensure that the top is directly squished onto the bottom due to the added height. When I crushed this can, I managed to keep the top and bottom within 4 horizontal inches from each other - not quite one on top of the other, but close. I said, "Almost as good as a skyscraper." Because, you see, skyscrapers are built with a certain amount of sway tolerance (generally about a foot or more) to account for wind and things. (Probably on the West Coast they're built with even more sway.)
Yesterday Erin thought I was making a joke about it. I crushed one of those big Arizona cans (you know, the 23.5 oz for 99 cents ones?). Sometimes when I do that the can goes flying away because it's very important that the path of the heel is directly downward to ensure that the top is directly squished onto the bottom due to the added height. When I crushed this can, I managed to keep the top and bottom within 4 horizontal inches from each other - not quite one on top of the other, but close. I said, "Almost as good as a skyscraper." Because, you see, skyscrapers are built with a certain amount of sway tolerance (generally about a foot or more) to account for wind and things. (Probably on the West Coast they're built with even more sway.)