Accidental Blogger
A general interest blog
Category: Educational, Cultural & Social Matters
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All professions have their own jargon. While on the job, soldiers, sailors, tinkers and tailors may speak a lingo that only those in the trade can decipher easily. Aviators, lawyers, sports casters, weathermen, needle workers, vintners, librarians and chefs have their own vocabulary. Some insider language can be mind numbingly unintelligible to those not interested…
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As I said on Amitava Kumar’s blog, as long as they know who is who in the picture, it is good enough for the family album.
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The nation’s most influential evangelical leader Rev Ted Haggard has stepped down from his pulpit pending internal investigation of his alleged three year old paid sexual relationship with a gay male escort. Mike Jones, the male escort who spoke with radio and TV stations about his relationship with Haggard, said that he knew him as…
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Just in time for Halloween, Ellen Goodman to whom I often turn for her common sensical take on political and cultural matters, has weighed in on the issue of women (in this case specifically, teenage girls) and "choice" of their apparel. As usual, I agree with Goodman – which is to say, this time we…
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I frequently exchange e-mail messages with my co-bloggers. While most of them remain private conversations, occasionally the content of the exchange is so funny or informative or both that I request the author to publish it as a blog post or a comment. A few days ago, I sent co-blogger Dean C. Rowan who is…
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I am a bit "blogged" out. So here is a quick summary of some interesting items in the news. Benchmarks: George Bush’s garage must be overflowing with useless campaign signs which were discarded after the abysmal failure of each presidential plan. To date, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Mushroom Cloud, Mission Accomplished, A Free and Democratic…
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As I write, the US Census Bureau’s Population Clock is ticking towards the 300 million mark. The last time the figure hit a 100 million landmark was in 1967 when the population was 200 million. In one category the situation today is more similar to 1915 (when the population reached the 100 million count) than it…
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What makes you happy? A fulfilling job? Plenty of money? An interesting love life? Friends, family, leisure time? How about clean water piped into your home? An uninterrupted and dependable power supply? Access to education and medical care? A decent and efficient police force? Do they contribute to your sense of contentment and well being?…
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The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Dr. Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh and his pioneering lending institution, Grameen Bank (Village Bank) which makes available tiny amounts of money as credit to poor Bangladeshis, most of them women, to pay off high interest debts to loan sharks and start small businesses. The program started…
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So asks Razib of Gene Expression. (Razib has recently become my go to guy for shedding light on religious, cultural and anthropological esoterica. He knows "everything"! But he hadn’t figured out that I am a woman.) Like Razib, I say an emphatic "no." Race is an immutable characteristic you are born with over which you…
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Compared to the average person grown up in the west, it was perfectly commonplace for me in India to see men and women dressed in myriad different styles of attires and headgears. In that colorful parade of people donning widely varying garments of traditional and western fashion, there were also veiled women, most of them…
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Unlike in my youth, when I used to be a trivia fiend (sports, movies, current affairs), the annual Nobel prize awards, like the Oscars, are of only fleeting interest to me now. I read the news of the prestigious prize eagerly enough, try to make connections between the recipients and their works and then soon…
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Overzealous parents, concerned about the corruption of their young children, often do not distinguish between art, literature and sleaze. Libraries therefore have to contend with repeated attempts at banning books. Targets include perennial favorites such as The Catcher In The Rye and sometimes even Shakespeare and Harry Potter. For some particularly nervous prudes, legitimate and…
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Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, who a few years ago had lamented that we could have avoided "all these problems" if Senator Strom Thurmond, a segregationist candidate, had been elected president of the United States, is now baffled by the Shia- Sunni conflict in Iraq. " President Bush barely mentioned the war in Iraq when…
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(Click to enlarge. Via Amitava Kumar) The culture of a nation is driven to a large extent by its leadership. If politicians can invoke divisive and offensive religious and cultural code words to buy elections, why can’t businessmen do the same to sell merchandise? Businesses sometimes get into trouble for provocative ad campaigns which take…
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