notes

Change

Two days ago I bought lunch at a cafe in the mall. Lunch cost $7.07. I gave the cashier $10.10. She gave me back $3.03.

Without a doubt, that was the most satisfying exchange of money I've experienced in my whole life. My brain went apeshit at the symmetry of it. The chunky unrelatedness of the numbers 3, 7, and 10 almost tasted better than the sandwich I bought.

Ask Palinode

Thanks to you suckers ardent supporters, Ask Palinode is going swimmingly well. There's currently a backlog of about six questions, so if you're wondering about the status of your question, rest assured that I will get to it. In order to maintain a decent turnaround time and the standard variety of postings that you're used to, I may have to sacrifice some of the inventiveness/churlishness that I've been lucky enough to provide so far. I'm currently working on a way to get around this that doesn't cut into the tiny sliver of personal life that I'm afforded every day. 'Nonlaziness' is the best solution I've hit on to date.

Headlines

The Globe and Mail's contribution to the Dawson College shooting is a giant above-the-fold headline "Carnage and Courage". That pretty much sums up the temper of the times, doesn't it? Over the last five years we've acquired an appetite for blood and heroism. Is that what we've learned from September 11th? A medieval mindset with a revisioning of monsters and knights roaming our urban spaces? It's like we're living in a Terry Gilliam film.