If you were given that cosmic rewind button, how far back would you go? Would you really be able to stop after yesterday, or last week? Or would you keep going until you didn’t have thumbs to push the button with?
How many stupid musings can one man fit in an away message?
— Sagert Sheets
Ryan notes: “I bet in France, instead of cottage cheese, they call it Château de Fromage.” That means (with apologies to Emily Lauren) approximately “Castle of the Cheese.”
I love this.
Today is the day that prospective students tour the dorms at St. Thomas; so, we have done our best to get the building ready for all the visitors: taking shoes out of the hall, removing trash, cleaning up rooms for tours. The whole idea is for Cretin to put its best foot forward to those who might be living here some time soon.
Dan, never an RA to “half-a” something, went all-out and purchased an air freshener for his floor. Now, this may have been to bring the floor smell up to an average above-toxic-dump olfactory level, though it may have been to edge out other floors in attracting prospective residents (Hey, we’re second floors - fewer stairs and less odor!). That said, Dan plugged in a Glade™ PlugIns™ Scented Oil Fan, loaded it up with Rainshower™ scent (I’m not kidding about the registered trademark signs, check out the Glade website), set the thing on high (maybe they don’t call it “high” … maybe just “mega fresh” or “holy cow! it’s fresh!”), and went about his business. Two hours later, up here on fifth floor, I left my room to go to dinner and immediately smelled a fresh rainforest scent in nostrils. Could it be? Yes, the air freshening power permeated three floors up Cretin Hall, down the hallway to my room at the corner of the building.
Nothing but the finest for second floor.
From a Robert Frost poem called Birches.
Just as I am waxing philosophical about the past, one of youth’s role models goes and dies. Nothing tells you you are getting older like people from your generation dying. But I say this with tongue in cheek - I do not really put the “facing aging” thing in front of a life lost. I do not know what exactly Kirby Puckett did in his later life (there were some scandals), nor do I care all that much. I do, however, remember being a little kid, new to sports (unlike many boys my age), suddenly finding a touchstone to talk with people about: “He climbed that plexiglass!” I, of course, refer to the unbelievable (and now classic) footage of Puckett chasing down a fly ball and leaping to a seemingly impossbile height to snatch the dang thing out of the air. Wikipedia (personally, I welcome our new referential overloads):
The World Series which followed is considered by many to be the most exciting ever. Both the Twins and their opponent, the Atlanta Braves, had finished last in their respective divisions in the year before winning their league pennant, something that had never been done before. Going into Game 6, the Twins trailed three games to two and had to win to stay alive. Puckett helped to hold off a late Atlanta rally with a leaping catch off the outfield wall that stole a sure double by Ron Gant. The game went into extra innings, and in the first at-bat of the bottom of the 11th, Puckett hit a dramatic walk-off home run off Charlie Leibrandt to keep his team alive. This dramatic game has been widely remembered as the high point in Puckett’s career.
Dan: kirby puckett died
Alex: what the
Alex: garbage
Alex: i’m going back to get him
Alex: the role models from our youth can’t die
Dan: i agree
Dan: to all of the above
We will miss you, Kirby Puckett. Your spirit will live on in future role models and history-makers.
Ok, I need to catch up my Harry Potter franchise consumption. I do like the books, for a variety of reasons. (1) Well written. (2) Fun. (3) Provide a cultural touchstone with essentially every child on earth and 75% of college students and some crotchety old people. (4) I like fantasy novels, always will; they are the trashy romance of my book lists. I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately, and reading those books takes me back to high school summers, when I am 98% sure I did not actually have any cares in the world. Seriously. No cares. Anyhow, I think I am caught up on the books (am I? I may not have read the latest slime green one … and I say that with respect to Mary GrandPre), but I do need to see at least two of the movies.
Additionally, Bleed American (I call it by the old title) by Jimmy Eat World is very nearly a perfect album. While I listened to all the old songs on it scattered about before, I finally listened to the songs in their album order and was blown away. Amazing - perfect summer cruising, Friday getting ready, or Monday pick me up album - can’t say that for many musical compliations.
I was going to say something else here. I think it might be that I will be researching chemistry and observing dentistry this summer. The blog will be pretty much saturated with dentistry for … possibly the rest of its existence. If all goes well. Fingers (toes!) are crossed; immature as that may be.
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