Category: Random Thoughts & Idle Chatter
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I guess that is not a very nice thing to say in a birthday greeting, at least not if you still want people to remain interested in your enterprise. Every year on October 19th, the anniversary musings come with sweet as well as bitter sweet reckonings about the health of the blog. It is increasingly evident that we are now in a completely different…
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As a child growing up after India's partition, Kashmir to me was always a part of India. Only in middle school did I begin to realize that it was considered "disputed territory" by much of the world, the sentiment being especially fierce in neighboring Pakistan. The map of India that we studied in school showed Indian Kashmir as a larger territory than what was actually under Indian…
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Why do we watch food shows on TV? For a variety of reasons, as varied as the different offerings on the likes of The Food Network and The Learning Channel, analyzed to exhaustion by Akim Reinhardt on 3QD. I've come to the conclusion that I hate cooking, and would be entirely happy if I never…
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Jackson Pollock may have been a secret physicist, judging by a recent scientific analysis of his techniques and works. Or not. How many times do we do things without stopping to examine the underlying physical principles? I'm sure that many a cake may have been put together Amelia Bedelia-style, "A pinch of this, a toss…
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-I knew the CDC was the go-to place for information on dealing with epidemics, the latest outbreaks of measles, travel vaccination recommendations etc, but did you know that they offer instructions on how to deal with a Zombie Apocalypse ? -Not all planets need their stars, some may be Lonely Rangers, like these newly found…
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If you stick around long enough, interesting things happen on the blog. This is the second time we are announcing the news of a baby being born to one of the A.B. bloggers. A little girl was welcomed by our own Dean's family recently, exactly a week ago to be precise. Olivia Valero Rowan was born on March 27, 2011…
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A few weeks ago the 3 QD Arts & Literature contest for blog writings was announced here. I indicated then that a post from Accidental Blogger had been nominated. I am happy to report that the post has been selected as one of the nine finalists by the editors of 3 Quarks Daily. The eligible entries will be judged by author Laila Lalami to determine…
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Take this, you English-mangling, bumbling writers blending in your regional dialects, oddities of phrase and grammar in your writing. A pontificating pundit from The Hindu ('India's National Newspaper') laments the death of good English in Indian writing, and herself commits more than a few cardinal sins in the process.
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Animals entered my life very early. Since I was about four or five years old until I was a teenager, a parade of dogs and birds came through our home. I would become attached to every one of them and their death or disappearance invariably caused me grief. Even though all the family members were involved…
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During my recent trip to India, I was able to visit two art / history museums of interest. One was Tagore's ancestral home in the Jorasanko (Twin Bridges) area of Kolkata, the place of the poet's birth as well as his death. The other was the wonderful National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi which I had last seen many, many decades ago. A third equally…
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I have been meaning to write something substantial for my first post to Accidental Blogger, but my brain has been roasting at a pleasant 39°C (that’s 102°F for the Imperialists) for a large portion of the past week. It has simmered down to near normal now, and the pox are on the retreat. I was…