~Friday~ I caught the 8:58 #11 Avent Ferry city bus to Carmichael Gym on campus, where I transferred to the Wolfline #7 Wolflink Shuttle to get to the Butler Communications Building, where I had a 9:30-10:45 meeting.
When I boarded the city bus, two girls sitting across from me were mid-conversation, in which the one talking was telling the one listening about a place to eat with which the one listening wasn’t familiar. The one talking repeated, “You’ve never been there???” Then she told her how cheap it was and began to describe what your choices of sides are with their combo, and in the category of recognizing cultural artifacts, as soon as she said, “And one of the choices of sides is a corn dog!” I instantly knew she was talking about Cook-Out®.
A little girl, and I mean a little girl, sat on her mother’s lap in front of me, and she had a purse on her arm, and it made me think about society’s messages about gender roles. I mean, really, a little girl so young she can’t talk, with a purse? Why?
She was uttering some yet unintelligible words, and it made me think of this fascinating, fascinating TED talk I just watched called “The Birth of a Word,” which is a 20-minute investment that I realize most people won’t make. But, just as a teaser, this is what it’s about:
| MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language — so he wired up his house with video cameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son’s life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch “gaaaa” slowly turn into “water.” Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we learn. |
Perhaps that little girl’s mutterings will eventually unfold into “purse,” or if society’s “capitalistic overlords” (Thanks, Scott!) get to her, it may even come out as “Prada.”
Today I found out that the little bit of money—just under $40,000—I left in my IBM pension plan when I left in September of 2008, isn’t growing and won’t ever grow. Two years of potential lost interest. Bastards.
Needless to say, I immediately fired off an e-mail to Nathan asking him to have a couple of options for what to do with it when we meet next week.
Waiting for the bus on the way home, I ran into Kevin, a flight attendant for American Airlines, who I’ve only pretty much ever seen in the bars, and at first we didn’t say hello to each other, as seeing each other there was totally out of context and we weren’t immediately sure each other was who we thought they were.
I got to The Borough at about 10:00 and took a seat at the bar next to Dougie (who’s rarely out, and whom I haven’t seen in quite a while), Keith (who lives above The Borough at The Dawson and is Tom’s partner), and Gene (a.k.a. Haywood).
Shortly after that, Joe and Phil arrived, and later Santiago and his new boyfriend, Tony. And still later, Santiago’s ex-partner, David, arrived along with Christina, a mutual friend of Santiago’s, David’s and mine from our days all working together at Broadreach Consulting some time in the mid-to-late 1990’s. How last century.
Later yet in the evening, Santiago, Tony, David, and Christina were heading over to Foundation (talk about a minimal website), and they coaxed me into joining them. Twist my arm a millimeter why don’t you. I’ve actually heard a lot about that bar, and all good, so I welcomed the chance to check it out with some folks.
In a rare event, I enjoyed a $9.00 bourbon drink, the Maple Old Fashioned, which was most delicious, but those of you who know me know I won’t be frequenting a place with drinks at those prices. They had a $18 bourbon drink there, too, and some other drink, which I don’t think was a bourbon drink, but which was $42.
The sound bite—from the short time we spent there—was, “Lick my carrot, but I’m warning you it tastes like an orange,” which was said about a very, very thin curl of a garnish in my drink that looked like a carrot to me, but was really an orange.