Random Thursday

It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these, so bear with me while I get my bearings. (This Content Free™ stuff is harder than it looks.)

• What a difference a month makes. A few weeks ago, West Texas was in the midst of a drought of epic proportions, with widespread burn bans and chronic wildfire threats. Today, we’re ahead of average on rainfall totals, and the countryside looks as green as a County Kerry hillside. (Work with me here, OK?) And, it’s raining again this morning.
• But focusing solely on the positives violates a basic tenet of journalism, and we’re all about journalistic integrity here at the Gazette, so let me remind you that all of this rainfall will inevitably lead to a proliferation of mosquitoes, followed closely by devastating outbreaks of black mold and swine flu, which in turn will initiate a societal death spiral ultimately resulting in human cannibalism and a morbid fascination with Scientology. But, don’t the raindrops make a pleasing sound pattering against the window glass?
• I spent a couple of hours in a dentist’s office yesterday afternoon, and it occurred to me that someone needs to write a book on waiting room etiquette. At the very least, all medical waiting rooms with an area of less than, say, 2,000 square feet should have prominently posted signs prohibiting the crunching of huge mouthfuls of ice, thereby generating noises closely resembling the calving of icebergs from an Alaskan glacier. When said crunching is combined with frequent heavy sighs and groans, co-inhabitors of the waiting room will be entirely forgiven when they succumb to the urge to administer frequent and vigorous slaps upside the sighing, crunching party.
• Nonetheless, I thought I showed great forbearance in not giving into such primal urges. Instead, I just twittered about the guy. Making fun of someone in their presence via web-based social media is the New Revenge.
• Speaking of Twitter, I’m growing quite tired of those who try it and either don’t like it or don’t understand it (although it appears that the latter gives rise to the former, with few exceptions), quit it, and then issue statements of contempt for the service in general, and those who do find it useful. Frankly, most of their arguments seem to be equivalent to condemning the use of hammers because they’re useless for mowing lawns. If you don’t know how to use a tool, it doesn’t make much sense to denigrate either the tool or those who are skilled in its use.
• Another thing I’m getting tired of is publishing posts before they’re finished. This one is a good example of