May 21st 2012 07:56 am Speed of light

Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
This retro cartoon is about as far back as the digital archives go, which happens to be May of 1994. It’s an early take on a theme which I would revisit several times in the future, “too much stuff.” Personally, I seem to have more stuff than ever, my fascination with the subject notwithstanding.

Of course, one of the transformational qualities of digitalization is the ability to make corrections quickly and easily. Take the second line of dialog in the third panel for example, where Janis speaks the words “want to go?” Obviously, I miscalculated, and the printed words are off-center badly. In the old days, before personal computers, I would have had two choices: get out some white tape and cover the error and reprint it, or let it slide. Today, “cut and paste” make such corrections simple. In fact, I’d have corrected this cartoon before posting it, but then we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J

62 Responses to “Speed of light”

  1. phil in Missoula, MT on 21 May 2012 at 8:06 am #

    Everyone should move at least across town every 10 years to unburden themselves of ‘stuff’. My father-in-law was not just a hoarder, but a pack rat too. Living through the depression years, he not only kept every coffee can they emptied and every nail or screw he could salvage, but when he did go to the dump, he’d bring stuff back that looked like it could be useful. Talk about recycling…bailing wire, steamer trunks, an old saddle, a corn husker, a beehive hair drier…. stuff.

    When we cleaned out their 4-car garage, we filled up a 12 yard dumpster and then there was room for 2 cars. Two garage sales and another dumpster later we finally got it cleaned out.

  2. billinbossier on 21 May 2012 at 8:31 am #

    I didn’t notice it was off center until you mentioned, and in fact, it doesn’t look that bad anyway. I’m glad you left it like it was drawn originally.

  3. Carole in Wesley Chapel on 21 May 2012 at 8:31 am #

    I have a rule. I hate clutter. If we don’t have a place to put it away we can’t get it, unless we eliminate something else. Over the ten years we have lived in our “new” and much bigger house, we have added cabinets in almost every room to hold the stuff. I don’t think I am a hoarder, though. I have no trouble getting rid of something I have not used in a while to make room for the new thing I absolutely need. I have also noticed that as I get older and can afford more things, I no longer want some of the stuff I used to covet. If I have lived without it this long, I guess I don’t really need it. But I still am the first to admit, we have too much stuff.

  4. Neal in Bahstawn on 21 May 2012 at 8:35 am #

    Having been a corporate gypsy for 35 years, we traveled light and had an amazingly un-cluttered basement to show for it. The 13 years we’ve been in our current home blows away the old records, and there’s more ‘stuff’ (much of it gardening related).

    Now, though, we’re contemplating a ‘downsizing’ from our 4000 square foot home to something a bit more conducive to long-term living for a couple with one good knee between them. Can we get rid of the ‘stuff’? In a heartbeat. Though not the gardening-related items, of course. Or the wine. Or my old vinyl records. Or the 92 houseplants. Or the…..

  5. hc on 21 May 2012 at 8:42 am #

    Yes Carole – the older we get, the less stuff we need! My husband (6 months older than I am) hasn’t quite got this concept yet … but I’m working on it.
    I proofread (medical journals mostly) for many years, and don’t seem to be able to get away from this task….I’ve just finished a huge volunteer job, and another quite large project for above mentioned hubby – and adherence to style, widows, centering text etc have been a major hang up of mine forever – so JJ, I hear you!

  6. emeritus Minnesota biologist on 21 May 2012 at 8:51 am #

    Jimmy: See what happens when you don’t post on Friday, leaving us to our own devices for 72 hr.? Strange group we are. But I was happy to learn the intricacies of smootmetrics.

    Others: a rhizome is not a root, it’s an underground stem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizome .
    There are also stolons and other neat stuff. Botany lends itself to precise definitions; maybe if I’d realized that early on I’d have gone into botany rather than vert zo, though I didn’t recognize my own fascination with words until later.

    You may think that if it’s underground, why not call it a root? Because roots and stems are defined by the different arrangements of their vascular tissues [xylem and phloem]. It really gets lovely [some of you might prefer ugly] when we consider “fruits”. A sunflower seed is not a seed, it’s a dry fruit called an achene, with a seed inside it. A strawberry is either a multiple or aggregate fruit [I forget which], and each of those gritty things on its surface is not a seed, it’s a small achene. We’ve had the discussion about fruits vs. vegetables before. “Vegetable” [other than couch potato] is purely a culinary term. “Fruit” is both culinary and botanical: rhubarb is a culinary fruit [a daughter in law made me one of wife's sterling rhubarb pies this weekend] but a botanical leaf stalk. A tomato is a culinary veggie, but a botanical fruit, specifically a berry.

    I’ll go quietly.

  7. Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 21 May 2012 at 9:17 am #

    The biggest item of clutter for me is books. I have books I read twenty years ago and still can bear to part with them. I have several book shelves that are overflowing and spewing books onto the floor around them. And don’t get me stared about college text books- I still think I might someday need to look up a passage in my American History text.

  8. Mindy on 21 May 2012 at 9:33 am #

    eMb, the rhizome may or may not be a root, but it’s underground, shoots pop up off the ugly darned thing, and a professor at VPI told me it’s a root. So, in Virginia, it’s a root. :)

  9. Boise Ed on 21 May 2012 at 9:44 am #

    eMb: Thank you for that clear but amusing lecture. I’m happy to have learned something today.

    Blinky: My wife complains about the size of my personal library, but every now and then I DO refer to something there. And since there’s no way of knowing WHICH of the older books I will want to consult, how would I know which to discard? (And a couple of times, SHE’s even borrowed one.)

  10. Galliglo in Ohio on 21 May 2012 at 9:53 am #

    At one time, I hoarded books. I felt toward books as one would money. I think it was a form of security. A few years ago, I went on a massive housecleaning binge and got rid of lots of books. But I WAS selective. I kept my English and accounting texts… Biblical reference books… favorite authors… a few more… and then some more…

  11. sandcastler on 21 May 2012 at 10:41 am #

    I too understand the love and connection we can have for our books. Have had to reduce for each move, only to add a new once in the new home.
    If this link does not land me in moderation i know some will appreciate it. When I first mentioned it to my wife I got the evil eye. It is a great collection of individual photos bookshevles.
    http://bookshelfporn.com/

  12. sandcastler on 21 May 2012 at 10:42 am #

    Wow! Porn is not a forbidden word.

  13. Robin in Fl on 21 May 2012 at 10:57 am #

    Like Neal in Bahstawn, we’ve moved a lot, since I was in the military. I learned to let go when i transitioned to the reserve, married a “furiner”, and moved to Europe on my own dime. Moved into his 2-story house which looked big until I realized it was about 900 sq feet, total! Went back on active duty and kept thinking, DC will be next, so we didn’t buy stuff (but like most here, we have books, and books and books!)

    Now I’m back in my hometown helping look after my mother who is a packrat with aspirations to be a hoarder. helps me think long and hard before acquiring anything else!

  14. Mindy on 21 May 2012 at 11:31 am #

    Porn?

    We never ever not even once have thrown away a book [with a few exceptions] and we rarely give them away. Some authors are re-read on an almost annual basis [Catch-22 used to be in that category] and quite a few are used for research. Others just sit there patiently waiting to be once again picked up and caressed and devoured. Books are treasures as well as maps to the routes and periods in life. You can tell a lot about a person by the books he/she has read compared to what he/she is reading now.

    Porn?

  15. sandcastler on 21 May 2012 at 11:37 am #

    Can also tell alot about the person by how big their pile of yet to be read books is at the moment.

  16. Dennis Ewing on 21 May 2012 at 11:44 am #

    Wow, I have 3 bookcases full that I haven’t got to read yet and yet My wife and I hit every Half Price Books any time we go an a trip and buy more. I covet books and am a frequent flier on Amazon, What does that say about me? Other than I’m nuts of course.

  17. Tom (somewhere in Georgia) on 21 May 2012 at 11:46 am #

    We have been trying to trim down our stuff and every once in while, we make progress. I decided that 30 t-shirts were about 20 too many. So I donated 20 t-s. Have since added about 3 more. We also had too many books- that won’t be re-read and discovered Amazon textbook purchase plan. The good news is: we “recylcled” dozens of books. The bad news: Amazon didn’t pay a lot for these books. (Sold a $75 textbook for $19) The good news: we bought a Kindle with the money. The bad news: I like paper better than digital but I am adjusting. We are moving in June and had a huge yard sale in order to buy new furniture for the new place. Don’t worry- I won’t do the good news/bad news thing again.

  18. Jerry in Fl on 21 May 2012 at 11:47 am #

    Everybody posting at the same time and apparently I have exceeded my quota. I was saying that I will have to show that link to my wife who claims that we don’t have any more room for books. Dennis Yost and the Classics Four-”Spooky”, never mind.

  19. Dan in SWMo on 21 May 2012 at 11:56 am #

    EMB’s discourse reminds me of one of my bugaboos. Every so often, the old saw, “a tomato isn’t a vegetable—it’s a fruit” gets echoed by people that have never really thought it out. A tomato is just as much a vegetable as a bell pepper or a zucchini, and each of them is as much a fruit as a tomato. It all depends on how you are defining each term, and it is ridiculous to single out the tomato for quibbling. Thank you, EMB, for making the proper distinction between culinary and botanical definitions. Incidentally, in chutneys, the tomato could be said to be treated as a fruit; compare mango chutney. (Alternatively, maybe the mango is being treated as a vegetable??)

  20. Bob, near Mark on 21 May 2012 at 12:07 pm #

    I’m making some tomatoberry sauce for dinner tonight.

    I think I’ll try making some tomatoberry turnovers. :)

  21. Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 21 May 2012 at 12:09 pm #

    Speaking of mangoes- I’ve always thought of them as a pulpy tropical fruit. My mother-in-law says that in her hometown in the Pennsylvania coal country, mangoes are what we call bell peppers.

  22. Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 21 May 2012 at 12:11 pm #

    Bob, near Mark-

    Tomatoberry turnovers? We call them calzones!

  23. Dave in MA on 21 May 2012 at 12:12 pm #

    Books. I read lots of them. I keep very few. I have my Douglas Adams collection. I have my biblical reference books and religious commentaries. The rest? Well, somewhere there’s a box or two of college texts that are worthless at this stage of my life and too outdated to be worth much to anyone else. I may find ways to recycle those real soon.

    But vinyl records? No, no, no, you can NOT dispose of or discard them! I may have multiple copies of some, but there’s a really good and valid reason for that. When they stop revising history by remixing things before putting them on CD, or using alternate mixes they think you won’t notice, then I may decide it’s ok to get rid of the vinyl, but only if it’s not something with high enough fidelity to surpass the CD.

    And I’m NOT trying to start an argument about vinyl vs CD. U.S. releases of rock and roll music from the 70s onward were on cheaper and cheaper quality vinyl until brand new releases fresh out of the shrink wrap had so much surface noise it wasn’t funny (Mercury / Polydor were the worst) and generally around 1980 the U.S. labels also stopped trying to hide hiss in their releases to the point where original vinyl issues of things from the 50s and 60s sounded good and the re-releases from the 1970s were horrible (MCA was known for low quality hissy vinyl reissues of non-hissy original releases). So most of the vinyl from that period of time does NOT sound better than CDs. Jazz? Classical? Those may well be the exceptions because the dynamics of the performance demanded higher quality vinyl. Not sure about the blues based stuff, but think it’s much more in keeping with the rock and roll in terms of degrading sound quality of releases.

    However, I can not bring myself to listen to an iPod or other MP3 player as the MP3s (and AACs and MP4s) have too much high end distortion and hurt my ears. My kids notice that stuff too, but to them it’s not distracting, just like to my ears the static bursts of AM and FM radio interference were simply a way of life.

    As for kindles, I’ve tried reading electronic texts in the past. I read things online and learned I did better with a printout on green bar tractor feed paper. I read things on Palm Pilots and learned that it just didn’t hold my attention like a nice book did. I read things on a kindle and decided it just wasn’t for me. I don’t feel like I’m reading a book. I feel like I’m reading words that have no connection to those before them or those coming after them. Odd that….. but that’s my experience with them.

    And for those ultra rare records, multiple copies increase their value by decreasing the number of obtainable copies on the market. Of course, value is meaningless if you never intend to sell them, but I ignore that fact and keep going. :)

  24. Dave in MA on 21 May 2012 at 12:16 pm #

    Oh, and while we’re on the topic of audio distortion vs audio static/interference, I am FAR more tolerable of snow in a video picture than I am in the artifacts of a digital video picture. I guess it’s a matter of what I grew up with and got used to. :)

  25. Dave in MA on 21 May 2012 at 12:18 pm #

    As for chutneys, well, as far as I’m concerned, the tomato is being used as a poison. I’m allergic to tomatoes. :)

  26. John in Virginia on 21 May 2012 at 12:30 pm #

    Toe-may-toe v. toe-mah-toe. Vinyl v. reel-to-reel v. 8-track v. CD. 8mm v. 35mm v. VHS v. DVD v. Blue Ray. I forgot po-tay-toe v. po-tha-toe. Now. What is porn and what isn’t? Some day down the road ask Mindy about the first XXX-rated movie she went to. Just don’t tell her that I suggested you do so.

  27. Dave in MA on 21 May 2012 at 12:43 pm #

    Hmmm, could John in Virginia know something about Mindy the rest of us don’t? Doesn’t Mindy make reference of “John” once in a while? Hmmmm. Hmmmm. Hmmmm. Hmmmm.

    I have several reel to reel decks (working), an 8-track player and recorder (working), cassette deck (working), plus 8mm and Super 8 movie film transfer equipment for frame accurate film transfers.

    Have many video formats, not just VHS/DVD/Blu-ray. Again, all for transfer work.

    While Tomatos may be poison, Potatoes are the nectar of the Gods, second only to bacon! :)

  28. Dave in MA on 21 May 2012 at 12:44 pm #

    And I believe I should have said Tomatoes, not Tomatos. :)

  29. Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 21 May 2012 at 12:54 pm #

    For years, I have sent my wife emails with the simple subject line: A&J and she knew that Jimmy was looking in our windows again. A while back I saw a Sally Forth strip where her husband referenced Jeff Lynn of the Electric Light Orchestra. I have always been a big ELO fan, even thought they may not have been as popular as other groups.

    I sent today’s strip to my wife and she said “well you have another cartoonist peaking in our windows!” as the strip had Sally’s husband discuss the ELO songs that he was going to play at his Memorial Day BBQ. I love it when cartoons hit home for you, especially the ones that other people are probably scratching their heads trying to figure out. Jimmy has done a few like that, but it often makes me think and I love the strip even more because of it.

  30. Bob, near Mark on 21 May 2012 at 1:49 pm #

    Blinky the Wonder Wombat,
    In my case, they have to be low-calzones!

  31. Jerry in Fl on 21 May 2012 at 2:02 pm #

    Don’t forget that thousand dollar Betamax machine and I don’t believe that anyone mentioned the video disc or quadrasound stereo and whatever happened to tthe mini cd’s that were going to change our lives. These days I have no idea what the following are or at least the diference: mp3, ipad, ipod, smart phone, G3,4,0r 5, bluetooth, android, blackberry. It bugs me when someone beside me in public says something and when I turn I realize that they are having a discussion with no one. At least it was funny when Jimmy Stewart talked to Harvey. And who is this Ted that everyone is texting. “I text Ted this and that.” Don’t any of you have to work?

  32. sandcastler on 21 May 2012 at 2:15 pm #

    Jerry in FL, do you mean to say that this is not work? Keeping up with this room is no easier than hurding cats in a blizzard across a swampy wasteland during a California wildfire. And then there is Mindy and John with their rooted rhizomes that is always a tale for another day. Then when Jimmy takes a long weekend off (well deserved too) we get all smooty. Just staying up in here is a full time job!

  33. Jerry in Fl on 21 May 2012 at 2:20 pm #

    Hooray! Someone understands why I sometimes am forced to work at this hot keyboard until 3am. I can’t seem to get my wife to understand.

  34. Charlotte in NH on 21 May 2012 at 3:12 pm #

    Books — can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em. I empathise with many of the posters here. Pathetic attempts to downsize and discard have not gotten me very far. Taking a good look at the Freshman History textbook, two heavy volumes from 1950; I liked the class and the professor and the books. Will I ever REALLY look at them again? Then I saw a table lamp that is too low for good lighting and I put the books under it to make it higher. Added an even older Geography book of my husband’s, and now all the problems are solved.

  35. Ghost Rider 6 on 21 May 2012 at 3:17 pm #

    Wars and major natural disasters are effective agents for residential de-cluttering, but I wouldn’t exactly recommend either.

    The number of my current yet-to-be-read books is seven, but since they are e-books, I’m not sure how you would measure that “pile.” If anyone is interested, I’m now reading “Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s Doomed Quest To Clean Up Sin-Loving New York” by Richard Zacks…quite an eye-opener for anyone who thinks that vice is a recent arrival on the stage of American society. And speaking of porn (someone was, weren’t they?), much of what was considered indecent or even pornographic in the Mauve Decade is what you’d see on television today as soon as you turned it on. And that would just be the commercial announcements.

    “Mindy” and “xxx-rated” are two things of which I would not ordinarily think at the same time. Or would I?

  36. Mary in Ohio on 21 May 2012 at 3:49 pm #

    JJ mentioned how he could digitally correct the strip now – and the age of digitalization now makes keeping things easier. Too late for me – ebooks, DVDs, and, instead of thousands of negatives and slides, a safe-deposit size box full of SD cards, none as big as a matchbook, holding hundreds of pictures each. Tsk.

  37. Mindy on 21 May 2012 at 3:56 pm #

    Mindy and xxx-rated? I think I should have taken the time to scroll down and read more slowly…Should I…dare I…ask, Ghost?

    I can’t handle those dastardly E-Books. Have to have paper, real paper, and to heck with conservation! [They do, after all, use a lesser grade of paper for most books, no?] Charlotte, I’ve used similar ideas to yours, lifting a radio higher where the antenna worked better. Aren’t we inventive? And men think we’re helpless! Plus I have one of my Dad’s geography books…copyrighted 1923. Things have changed. Plus an old AAA Atlas from 1952. Or was that an AA Atlas? Hush!

  38. emeritus Minnesota biologist on 21 May 2012 at 4:07 pm #

    Dan in SWMo:

    “A tomato is just as much a vegetable as a bell pepper or a zucchini, and each of them is as much a fruit as a tomato.” Lovely. Thank you. If I were still teaching freshman biology [for money, that is], I would quote you in lecture, with proper attribution of course. That was another subject I taught, expository writing for biology majors and occasional other interested students. Strunk and White + journals’ “Instructions for contributors” and such. I still get “Thank You” emails and such for that latter course.

  39. emeritus Minnesota biologist on 21 May 2012 at 4:09 pm #

    “Duplicate comment detected; it looks as if you’ve already said that.” I did, but it didn’t post and didn’t say I was in moderation. Let’s try again.

    Dan in SWMo:

    “A tomato is just as much a vegetable as a bell pepper or a zucchini, and each of them is as much a fruit as a tomato.” Lovely. Thank you. If I were still teaching freshman biology [for money, that is], I would quote you in lecture, with proper attribution of course. That was another subject I taught, expository writing for biology majors and occasional other interested students. Strunk and White + journals’ “Instructions for contributors” and such. I still get “Thank You” emails and such for that latter course.

  40. Mark in TTown on 21 May 2012 at 4:37 pm #

    I used to have lots of books, vinyl lp’s, comics and a nice wargame collection. Now I have one box of books, no lp’s, no comics and 3 wargames. Amazing what a failed marriage, two foreclosures and a bankruptcy will do for removing clutter from your life. Including all that nasty money that once cluttered up your bank account!

  41. Mark in Boston on 21 May 2012 at 4:48 pm #

    The tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit, according to the Supreme Court (the same body that gave us President G. W. Bush). See Nix vs. Hedden, 1893. It made a difference because imported vegetables were taxed and imported fruits were not.
    It can’t be both, because it can’t be taxed and not taxed.

  42. Ghost Rider 6 on 21 May 2012 at 5:18 pm #

    You could ask, Mindy. But a gentleman never tells.

    One thing to be said of e-books: they will survive the odd war or natural disaster…within reason.

    So, from reading recent posts, you guys think Jimmy actually reads our typed scribblings? I always kind of figured he had a copyboy or some other minion read them and give him a synopsis.

  43. Mark in TTown on 21 May 2012 at 5:29 pm #

    In reference to the tomatoes, fruit or vegetable, controversy. Have any of you ever read a short story titled “Pigs is pigs”? Shows what happens when you follow rules but don’t understand why some differences are important.

  44. Galliglo in Ohio on 21 May 2012 at 5:34 pm #

    Jimmy – you GOTTA respond to Ghost Rider 6! We know you read them… don’t you? Quickly I’m sure, but…..

  45. Ghost Rider 6 on 21 May 2012 at 6:11 pm #

    Good luck with that, Gal. Now he’ll probably deny even having any minions.

  46. sandcastler on 21 May 2012 at 6:33 pm #

    GR6, we know he employed a couple minions during the book shipment operation. He never mentioned if these were temporary or regular hire minions.

  47. Mindy on 21 May 2012 at 7:52 pm #

    I thought we were Jimmy’s minions. At least that’s how the ad read in my local newspaper. :)

  48. Mindy on 21 May 2012 at 8:02 pm #

    I was right!

    Minion: [noun]
    1. A servile follower or subordinate of a person in power.
    2. A favored or highly regarded person.

    I meant #2. :) ~

  49. Jerry in Fl on 21 May 2012 at 8:29 pm #

    EMB, you can say that again! Minions-didn’t we already go over how to catch those? No, wait, I’m sorry. A minion is that little green onion that I love, or is that a scallawag? Seriously for a second-I was told that I had an aortic aneurysm and would need a stent put in soon or I might drop dead. I got a call today from the doc. After further review the call is reversed, no aneurysm, no surgery, but I will die, someday, just not right now. All in all, a good day.

  50. Robin in Fl on 21 May 2012 at 8:53 pm #

    Jerry

    Good news, even if it had to follow a startlingly bad/wrong diagnosis.

  51. Mark in TTown on 21 May 2012 at 8:54 pm #

    Jerry in Fl, glad to hear the call was reversed!
    Isn’t a minion a finely chopped onion? And a scallawag is anyone from the opposite political party who is running for office, right?

  52. Jerry in Fl on 21 May 2012 at 9:09 pm #

    Mark, that’s not the expression that I use. I understand that Cheny spared no expense and got the very best heart available, a lawyer’s heart, never used.

  53. David in Austin on 21 May 2012 at 10:08 pm #

    All this discussion of books, and no mention of Fahrenheit 451? I could never be a book-legger, I couldn’t chose just one or two to memorize.

    My wife suffers through my book collecting–but unlike some others, I always waited for the paperback version. That left me more money for buying books and left more space on the shelves. Most of my shelves are triple-stacked now, so I have to frequently rotate stock to see what I haven’t read recently. I hate to loan a book, because that frequently gets interpreted as a gift. I want it back, because I will reread it several times. My criteria for reading include the font size and thickness of the book… few of those 100-page novelettes make it into the list. My preferences include lengths like Michner’s “Centennial”, or Clancy’s “Red Storm Rising”.

    I have enjoyed my Sony E-Reader for the past several years. It allows me to store hundreds of books at once, keeping them readily (pun intended) available. Besides the modern stuff, I can carry all of Kipling, all of Dickens, all of Twain, O’Henry, etc. and reread at my leisure. Project Gutenberg is a wonderful thing! For fans of science fiction or fantasy try Baen publishing’s Webscription.net. With the E-Reader, I have branched out to reading smaller works, though they are still often part of a collection.

    I was able to infect both my daughters with the bug. My older daughter managed to somehow slip about 50 or so of my books away with her to college and eventually to married life. I started checking her luggage after her freshman year. : ) She still has my 30-year old copy of “The Hobbit” and all three volumes of “The Lord of the Rings.”

  54. Judy in Conroe on 21 May 2012 at 10:48 pm #

    I resisted an e-reader for quite a long while, but was finally seduced when my daughter started having kids and I was recruited to come stay with her for about a month after each delivery (her husband has a job that takes him out of town a lot). She doesn’t have many books, and the e-reader holds so many more than the suitcase, plus you can even check them out from the local digital library.

    It took me awhile to get adjusted to the difference between paper and electronic. I finally realized I must read in larger “chunks” than fit on the hand held (which was smaller than a paperback) and adjusted the default size of the print down a little bit so more words fit on the “page”. Before that I was feeling really disconnected, as though the words just didn’t fit together into complete thoughts. Over a period of time I adjusted, and now I am comfortable with either format.

    Each has its own plusses, though. Paper books deal better with the steam they encounter while I am reading in a nice warm bath. Electronic books (at least the brand I own) are backlit so I can read in the dark (a real bonus for my husband, as I like to read in bed and now I don’t keep him awake).

  55. Ghost Rider 6 on 21 May 2012 at 11:11 pm #

    Jerry, we all know you’re too ornery to die anytime soon.

    It’s been said that living well is the best revenge. So too would be outliving that doctor.

  56. sideburns on 22 May 2012 at 1:25 am #

    Mindy, now that you’ve investigated what a minion is, you might want to find out if we constitute a minyan or not.

  57. CW in 617 on 22 May 2012 at 1:54 am #

    The most interesting (note I don’t say “favorite”) volume I have on my shelves is also the largest in volume: A 1912 Funk & Wagnalls. It’s eight inches thick and weighs around ten pounds. Sometimes I encounter archaic terms that are in this tome, but not in the online OED. Instead of hyperlinks, there are extensive cross-references.

    To demonstrate how weird I can be, I sometimes read this for fun.

    Before online dictionaries, or online anything, became popular, friends would “call” me by “dialing” on a “phone” to ask me to look up words found in old books.

    One surprise was finding the music to the national anthem of Montenegro.

  58. Jerry in Fl on 22 May 2012 at 2:25 am #

    Ornery? Me? Heavens to Murgatroid! I even know some of the “opposition” party who like me for reasons I don’t comphrehend, unless it’s because Mark Harmon is constantly being asked if he’s me and my amazing good taste in music. Oh yeah, my humility of course. I write the very best song titles too, for example-I’m getting up early tonight. Obviously not the case.

  59. Jerry in Fl on 22 May 2012 at 2:38 am #

    Ghost-When they take my picture acepting that multimillion dollar lotto check, I’ll be saying take a look, you know who you are. In all modesty, I got my revenge a long time ago. I don’t argue. If I need to convince you it will happen.

  60. Dave in MA on 22 May 2012 at 6:28 am #

    Ghost Rider 6 said, “One thing to be said of e-books: they will survive the odd war or natural disaster…within reason.”

    Just remember that they can control what your machine allows you to keep. They can edit the book after you’ve downloaded it and push the changes to your reader. Once they no longer have a license to sell the electronic edition of the book (or music) they can refuse to allow it to remain on your device. Remember how big brother eliminated people, by removing all references to them in past materials. Well, when past materials are just electronic impulses stored on a device, they can be altered so much easier.

    No, I’m not paranoid. Why do you ask?

    As for the reversed diagnosis, if they are saying they got the initial one wrong, how do you know they aren’t wrong about that?

    As for old phrases in old books, I had to be informed what the college widow was when watching Horse Feathers. :)

  61. Mark in TTown on 22 May 2012 at 6:47 am #

    Dave in MA, you are right about the drawback to the e-readers. When you purchase a book in hardcopy form, you really own it. When you buy the electronic version, all you really do is pay for a temporary license to read it. The vendor can change or delete it at their whim. If I want a book temporarily, I will go to a library.
    CW in 617, I’m with you. I read for fun and enjoyment and there is always the reward of finding things you never knew about. That makes Wikipedia dangerous, because they have embedded links to other articles. I start out reading one thing, look at my watch, and find out I have spent way too much time just following leads from one story to the next.

  62. Dan in SWMo on 22 May 2012 at 1:45 pm #

    Re.: the Supreme Court decision on the status of the tomato. They decided (correctly) that for the purposes of commerce, the culinary sense was the correct one to use rather than the botanical one. No-one disputed that the other examples I gave were vegetables for the purposes of commerce.