Absquatulate

Helen Keller video (!)

Harry and Louise must die | Salon Life

Aug. 4, 2009 | Next year we'll spend $17 billion in Medicare dollars on an oxymoron: preventing inevitable death. So forget for a moment the plans coming out of Washington. Curing healthcare is not a question of Obama's blue pill or Obama's red pill. The answer may be no pill at all.

via www.salon.com

As a culture we are woefully unprepared for the end of life. We celebrate and cherish the beginning, but too often the end is stuffed full of drugs and plastic and alone. People are so removed from the mechanism that runs healthcare and cost of health care that they only perceive what it does for them, not how it truly works. Every day panels decide who receives what services. This is not new, it's been happening for decades. It's only when it is out in the open do people revolt. It's only when a failed vice president candidate construes "end of life counseling" as "death panels". This is astounding.

The fact of the matter is we are born, we live, and we die. Those are three things we can count on, everything else is up to chance (and maybe a little planning). We can manage birth and living, but the dying we, as a culture, cannot abide. To allow MDs to bill an insurance company for "end of life planning" makes as much sense as billing for preventative care such as dental cleanings and pap smears. It'll reduce costs in the long run, the wishes of the ill are known and upheld, and there is less angst and arguing with the next of kin to do as Granny wishes and they can focus on saying goodbye, not holding on to one last great hope that she will be saved. In the end, none and all of us are.

A Collective of nouns

• a melancholy of goths
• an obstacle of fringe spectators
• a maglite of technicians
• a squee of fangirls
• a hemmingway of half-dozen words
• a guffaw of comedians
• a tweak of twitterers
• a scrum of developers
• a choke of stranglers
• a tantrum of 2 year olds

Tee, I love this.

Barney Frank goes toe to toe at health care town hall - CNN.com

via www.cnn.com

Godwin's Law enters meatspace. Unbelievable.

Frobnosticate » Winners write history

I generally avoid politics on the Frob. However, it would be remiss to fail to observe the passing of Robert Novak. Not someone I'll miss, I'm afraid to say. His obituary will no doubt read "conservative columnist" rather than the more appropriate "traitor," and that's because the winners write history. However, exposing the identity of covert domestic intelligence operatives, endangering their lives and the nation's security, is treason during peacetime, and high treason during a time of war, which it was. (Still is, right? Who can tell anymore, actually?) In most of the world, high treason is punishable by death. But the powerful and connected rarely suffer the consequences of their actions, and it's no different here. Novak could run a guy over in his Corvette and speed down the street with the guy sprawled across his hood, until a bicyclist made him stop, and get a $50 fine. If you or I did that, we'd be in jail for years, and if we had exposed Valerie Plame, we'd be deep in a hole in a federal prison, forgotten about. He had the right friends. Most of us aren't so fortunate.

via frobnosticate.com

What he said.

Ridley Scott, DiCaprio travel to Brave New World | Entertainment | Reuters

Both are producing the Universal project, which DiCaprio would tentatively star in and Scott direct. The studio has brought on "Apocalypto" scribe Farhad Safinia to write the script; he's expected to be working shortly.

via www.reuters.com

Um, okay. This could be good, but the potential for suck is astounding. How will they deal with the ending though? Heaven forbid they change it to be "palatable"... I'm nervous about this. This isn't the kind of book that would make a good movie (or, at least, a good Hollywood movie. I say give it to the New Zelanders! : )

You Pay for Expertise

trail runners, originally uploaded by absquatulate.

Despite the last few days of posting awesome things you find online, there come times when you need to try things on. For example, trail runners.

I've been running a short 1 mile loop that is 2/3 trail, 1/3 paved. I brought out the old Sauconys to see how they would do, and by the end of a run my arches felt like spring loaded traps; one wrong twitch and it would be charlie horse HELL.

I went to Western Village Sports in Northampton and because they had great advice and talked me through a bunch of different options, I felt okay paying the nearly full retail price for these. The gentleman there spent over 20 minutes with me suggesting shoes and socks and even orthotics. And when it comes to things like your knees and ankles it pays to spend the time and money to learn what's right for you.

This is the problem with online shopping for things like running shoes. I suppose once you know what works it's easier to just buy another pair of the same shoes, but every once in a while it's worth it to pay the extra bucks to get good advice.

More Pretty Things

I've been generally aware of Queen Bee Designs for about a year now. I've seen some wallets and various posts on blogs to think to myself, "Oh yea, those are cool" and continue on my way.  But the always excellent Not Martha was showing off her latest find: a fabulous satchel in gray with gorgeous, bright pink peonies that could brighten up the dreariest of days.  So for fun I kicked on over to Queen Bee's site to see what else they had.

BIKE PANNIERS?

And not only smartly made bike panniers (cutouts for heels, shoulder strap), but bike panniers that are adorable to boot?  If I could commute to my job, I would invest in a pair of these in a heartbeat!  Thanks Megan for bringing these to my attention!

15 feet below

15 feet below, originally uploaded by Daniel Laskowski.

Oh. My. Goodness. How could one resist a place like this? Eat dinner under the sea? Yes please!

Fantasty Shopping

Oh, let's get this started off right, shall we? I think this will be a series of posts of things that I've recently discovered and have been lusting after. First off: Frye.

Just look at these! This fabulous gray that will go with anything, a lug sole to kick some butt, and buckles! I have a pair of Harness 12R, and I love them and I know the leather will be delicious and buttery. Alas, the price ($328!!!) puts this squarely out of my price range.

Secondly, let's oggle for a moment the mid-century beauty that abounds at Room&Board, specifically this 2-drawer cocktail table in all it's gorgeous, 1955 inspired glory: And that's not the half of it. The entire site is filled with furniture that could have come straight out of "The Incredibles". It's what I've always wished CB2 and DWR would be, but never quite got to. I love that is has drawers and so I could store magazines and tv remotes and cocktail napkins right where you need them and not on top where they always end up.

More beautiful things as I come across them.