Thursday, March 6, 2014

Evanston: shock; Martinus; 'F'




        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.