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Riots in Paris

So I’m gearing up to go to the dermatologist. What is it about drastic symptoms getting on their best behavior and clearing up the week you go to the doctor? After weeks of refusing to go to the doctor despite legitimate symptoms, I finally make an appointment, only to have the symptoms practically disappear and make me look like some kind of hypochondriac.

Oh well, while I’m there I can at least ask some fun questions I’ve been kicking around. Is there a such thing as athlete’s foot for fingers? How realistic is the popular sitcom ER? Do doctors really change gloves between each patient—or do dermatologists even use them? Have they ever considered the aid of duct tape in wart removal procedures?

News
To get serious for a minute, did you know France is having major civil unrest? They’ve been having riots at night, and arson is now added to the mix. I don’t know what rock I’ve been hiding under, but this is a huge problem. It seems that two teens were electrocuted while hiding in a power facility, thinking the police were chasing them. In protest, Parisian youth have been rioting in the streets each night. As the unrest enters its second week, French authorities believe the worst is over.

Free-For-All Friday

Spelling Queen
It feels like a good time to laugh at myself. This is easily done by reviewing a few of my more notorious spellings. For the sake of your amusement and my need for humility, I share some of my infamous episodes:

#1 – Title of a post from last week: “Harrier Miers…” I don’t know if she’s hairy, but… I assure you this was not my way of joining the conservative attack on Counsel Miers. In fact, hurl fake popcorn my way, but the cowgirl in me was kind of hoping she’d hang in there. You know, let the fur fly, watch the rodeo, and hope in the end that we’d have another woman on the bench if nothing else.

#2 – I served as Editorial Assistant for a literary journal while in graduate school. So when e-mailing libraries to inquire about the status of their subscription, I would always sign the email: Lee Ann Alexander, Editorial Assistant. All this was well and good except that our campus webmail left a lot to be desired. Perhaps it was a character limit. Perhaps it was some Computer Science major’s idea of a joke. But after sending a very important email to a well respected library, my trademark signature was…how do you say… cut short. Probably not a good idea for me to spell out the exact signature, but just imagine the abbreviated version of “Assistant.” Yeah. That will work wonders for your humility.

So I’ve corrected Harriet’s name, and I’m going to refrain from spelling new guy’s name because that’s just a disaster waiting to happen.

Headlines I Checked out Today
Sue me, but I shunned the heavy headlines today and looked for lighter news:

A victim of a prank who found himself glued to a toilet seat at Home Depot is suing.

A former NHL coach admits he’s illiterate.

A weekly Catholic magazine included an ad with a partially nude woman and is catching flack.

There’s a new online dating service especially for farmers.

A California driver used a kickboxing dummy to fake his way into the carpool lane on the interstate and got caught.

Duct Tape Saves the Day!
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3087228/

Racial Profiling and Spumoni

Racial Profiling
Muslims detained at a football game after congregating to conduct one of their five required daily prayer sessions feel they are victims of racial profiling. The FBI’s side of the story is that they gathered near an intake air duct on a night that President Bush was present.

I know racial profiling is bad, but…. If the situation were reversed, anthrax had been dumped into that duct, and the lives of thousands of people had been compromised, we would all be outraged that our law enforcement hadn’t investigated the activity in such a vulnerable area, regardless of who the people were. I know racial profiling isn’t good, but…. I'd rather we take the “better safe than sorry” approach. Then again, I am not exactly someone who has to worry about falling into a racial profile unless terrorists suddenly assume the role of white, duct tape-wielding Apostolics.

Other
What is this world coming to? Last night I “made groceries” (as Cajuns would describe a trip to the grocery store). I had a craving for a special frozen treat I haven’t had in a while: spumoni. Please tell me you’ve heard of this dairy delight. It’s half pistachio / half chocolate ice cream, and the combo is delicious—trust me. But I can’t find it! This is the second grocery I’ve been to, and nothing! Agh! And don’t even suggest mint chocolate chip. It’s not the same.

Speaking of groceries, what do you do when you spill something in the store. Let’s just say—hypothetically speaking—that you’re trying to smell some lotion and accidentally squirt it up your nose and on the floor a little bit. Do you try to clean it up or maybe let someone know? Just asking. No reason.

This Temporary Life

Fragility of Life
A good friend lost her mother this week. In visiting with her, I’m reminded of how frail the cord is that connects mortality to eternity.

I reflect today on this short stretch of time we are granted on terra firma. When you realize that we only have a finite number of breaths allotted in our semi-temporary stint here, it toys with your perspective, much how I would imagine staring at unbroken highway in the southwest would.

Does our generation understand the temporariness of this life? I don’t think I do. And furthermore, I don’t think I appreciate the concept of eternity. Could it be that I’m so comfortable in this life that I have no reason to ponder the afterlife? My grandparents’ generation (after growing up in the depression and serving in the war to end all wars) longed for heaven, as recorded in the many hymns of that time period on the subject. Other than MercyMe’s I Can Only Imagine, can you really think of any songs written lately that talk about heaven? (Over the weekend I heard a remix of I’ll Fly Away by Jars of Clay, and I hope we start to see more appreciation for hymns like this if not some new songs on the topic.) But the point is, I’m wondering today if we are detached enough from our home in this world to long for our real home?

A Little Good News
Amid everything else, life goes on. It rained last night for the first time in about 30 days. So if we can get a little more in November, the farmers will make it, and maybe hay won’t be impossible to find in the winter. And despite the low water, the sac-a-lait are turning on in the Atchafalaya Spillway if you know where to look. And the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals says that post-Katrina raw oysters are safe to eat after all.

If we are tied to this world temporarily, it’s at least nice to look for the bright spots, right?