Stepping out of the terminal at O’Hare last evening was a shock. Intellectually I knew winter still rules Chicago, but really I had to feel it. I had on a coat, but not the parka I usually would have been wearing in such conditions. Three inches of snow had fallen earlier and the temperature was 18°F/about -8°C.
I am still disoriented by looking out windows at snow instead of San Diego’s sunny sky.
Compare the above with the view from GANNET Central on Tuesday.
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When I reached the condo, Carol had been home from work long enough to prepare libations and I had a Martinus.
An email from Dave, for which I thank him, explains.
Centurion walks in to a bar. “I’ll have a cold Martinus”.
Bartender replies, “ You mean, a Martini?”
Centurion, “If I had wanted a double, I would have asked for one”.
If you go back to the early days of this journal, you will find that we once invented a variation, the tuliptini.
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From THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY:
fiddle: an instrument to tickle human ears by friction of a horse’s tail on the entrails of a cat.
fork: an instrument used chiefly for the purpose of putting dead animals into the mouth.
friendless: having no favors to bestow. Destitute of fortune. Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense.
funeral: a pageant whereby we attest our respect for the dead by enriching the undertaker, and strengthen our grief by an expenditure that deepens our groans and doubles our tears.
future: that period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.
