Humor

Clear Sighted Cuts

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Instapundit asks:

BUDGET CUTS THAT BARELY SCRATCH THE SURFACE are not “Draconian.” Did Draco even cut budgets? I think his interest lay elsewhere. And do the people calling these cuts “Draconian” have any idea who he was?

Etymology is a hobby of mine but I realized I didn’t know the derivation of “Draconian.” That hole in my knowledge was easily corrected by the Online Etymology Dictionary which says that “Draconian” derives from:

1876 (earlier Draconic, implied from 1640s), from Draco, Greek statesman who laid down a code of laws for Athens 621 B.C.E. that mandated death as punishment for minor crimes. His name seems to mean lit. “sharp-sighted” (see dragon)

… and “dragon” itself derives from:

early 13c., from O.Fr. dragon, from L. draconem (nom. draco) “huge serpent, dragon,” from Gk. drakon (gen. drakontos) “serpent, giant seafish,” apparently from drak-, strong aorist stem of derkesthai “to see clearly,” from PIE *derk- “to see.” Perhaps the lit. sense is “the one with the (deadly) glance.” The young are dragonets (14c.). Obsolete drake “dragon” is an older borrowing of the same word. Used in the Bible to translate Heb. tannin “a great sea-monster,” and tan, a desert mammal now believed to be the jackal.

… so, “draconian” spending cuts are “clear sighted” cuts.

Sounds good to me. Who would have guessed the Democrats thought so highly of the wisdom of cutting government spending? I guess the Democrats’ ever-so-superior intellects led them to use a classical allusion that confused us lesser mortals.

Snowpocalypse

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A bit tongue in cheek but over at LITGM we have a bit of a live-blog of Snowpocalypse 2011 (can you copyright that the way Pat Riley supposedly did “three-peat”?) as it hits Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. Gary in Indiana just yawns I guess they have been hit by a ton of storms already this year and Dan in Madison is used to bone-chilling weather but the fact that the college is closed means that it is a “designated drinking day” (can I patent that?) for students.

Here in Chicago it was pretty much a Snowpocalypse and your intrepid reporter went out for a beer at a local tavern and saw “Thunder Snow” for the first time. Catch it here.

Wants and Needs

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When I was growing up a friend of mine had parents who were very aware of architecture and design. They lived in a Walter Burley Griffin house and had a swivel chair that I was always fascinated by with a matching ottoman.

Of course it is an Eames Chair and ottoman by Herman Miller. These chairs are typically around $4000 each and never really go on sale.

I recently did sit and swivel for a bit in one at Room and Board. It is a very comfortable and cool chair.

But alas this is clearly a WANT and not a NEED. I recently spent less than $100 for a leather office chair at Office Depot that works fine; it replaces a hideous one that I had bought for about $40 maybe 10 years ago. The Eames chair and ottoman would also take up a lot of space in our condo which works against it, as well.

I admire the fact that Herman Miller is able to sell this chair for such a high price and avoid discounting. I even started looking a bit on ebay but it wasn’t much cheaper there although it is very interesting that they sell chairs back to the 1970s and can cite the official number from the manufacturer as reference.

Maybe someday…

One for Boyd and the Boyz

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[ cross-posted from Zenpundit ]


Hmmm, Leftists or Fire Ants?

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Comments from a post on NJ Governor Christie buying air time to lure Illinois businesses to NJ.

Margaret Price: Governor Perry has been doing this to California businesses, which are pouring into Texas faster than the illegals from Mexico. And we’ve got better weather than New Jersey.
 
mochalite: I agree that Texas has a better business climate, but overall climate? It’s HOT there most of the time and you have fire ants!
 
sclemens: I’d choose fire ants over blood-sucking liberals any day of the week. Fire ants show their true colors all the time and don’t try to convince you they are stinging you for your own good.
 
Will the last one out of California please turn out the compact fluorescent light.

Yep, you always know where you stand with fire ants. It might be their one virtue.