Random Stuff XXXIII

[6_bleen_7]

(Thanks to jillbertini for reminding me of two of the following snippets. Here, I expand on comments I made in her journal.)

An Assesment:

When you read the exclamation, "What an ass!", is your first reaction to interpret it as an insult or a compliment? It probably says something about your personality, or at least about your age

Comments

[samwibatt]

Keith Knight has (or at least had) another comic called "The K Chronicles", which you would probably like. It was the same sort of stuff, but multi-panel.

Weird about the Canadian ATMs. In England, continental Yurp, and Thailand, the ATMs were all very much like those in the U.S.

[ruthling]

Keith Knight still has both comics, and both have an LJ feed to the recent ones. All good stuff.

[6_bleen_7]

Thanks for the info! I'll check 'em out.

[6_bleen_7]

I've never seen an ATM like it since; the uniquely Canadian thing about it was the "Chequing." In all my travels abroad, only once has a foreign ATM accepted my card-at the York train station in England. It grudgingly divested itself of an 'undred quid after it failed to find even the slightest error in my money-request protocol.

It brought to mind that weird animation, "This Is Not Dave's Planet," wherein those guys travel uncounted leagues within the subterranean planet to find an ATM. "Hope I've got money! [deet de-deet deet] All right!"

[margareta87]

Ok, so you went all the way to Banff and you DIDN'T stop in Drumheller to see the Burgess Shale? What kind of a geek are you, anyway?

I still stuggle with "chequing." I always remember that it has a "q," but never whether there is also an extra "e" after the "u." This matters, because we now have a joint "chequing" account with the co-owners of our house in Vancouver, so whenever I write to them about money matters I spend about 5 minutes pondering over the correct spelling before I decide that "chequeing" looks even more silly than "chequing."

Oh, and if you think the Canadian border guards are easy-going, you should check (cheque?) out folk singer David Rovics' latest blog entry of his experiences trying to get into Canada.

[6_bleen_7]

Wow, that's too bad; I thought the Canadians were better about standing up to BushCo. On the other hand, Rovics is clearly a dangerous character, with that guitar and those leaflets and all.

One reason I laughed so hard about chequing was that I realized, on some level, that there was no way to form the equivalent of the American checking that didn't look horribly awkward.

[6_bleen_7]

I'd never heard the expression "taste like ass" before your famous description of, what? Fake chicken patties? I forget. But from the context you clearly meant it as an insult; and although I, unlike yourself, cannot claim to be an authority on the gustatory properties of ass, I will therefore take it as one.

Someday, someone will cultivate a 'shroom that doesn't taste like last year's mold.

[6_bleen_7]

What we generally think of as taste is mostly smell. Hold your nose while eating and you have a rough time telling an apple from an onion. That said, the flavor of ass, I expect, depends heavily on how it's prepared.

[shinyobject]

Is it mere coincidence that the musical term meaning "very" is assai?

Though our usage of "ass" as in "your ass is grass" isn't related, it is kinda hilarious that Italian "assai" comes from vulgar Latin's "ad satis" or "to satisfaction"

Your Dr. Pepper is big-to-satisfaction. Mmmmmmm.

[6_bleen_7]

Cool-I wasn't aware of that.

[6_bleen_7]

On the Burke-Gilman I used to yell at bicyclists who were yapping on the phone while riding. Listening to music is definitely dangerous for the rider-hearing engines of vehicles approaching from behind, for example, is essential to safe bicycling-but in my opinion is not quite as unsafe to other cyclists and pedestrians, who tend not to make much noise (with the notable exception of signaling to pass on the Trail).

I'm surprised you don't turn the phone off when you go riding. I hate ringing phones when I'm not in a position to answer. Come to think of it, I hate ringing phones in any circumstance.

[6_bleen_7]

I see; but you could check for messages at your stops whether you had the phone on or not (leaving it on would tell you whether you had a message or not, so you'd save having to check).

The really nasty part around Kenmore was the bit from the start of that long gradual curve where you ride over a little bridge just before crossing a street at a traffic light, all the way to Tracy Owen Station. Even two years ago there were some serious wrist-busters in there. I would say, though, that the half mile or so just north of University Village, where the trail splits and goes under a bridge, was just as nasty.