I've Got JUST The Thing To Help You . . .

Herr D made this for me on heromachine.com. I didn't
even get it at first. --Hairy Deewon                                

What do you do when your intentions are misunderstood? The above picture, "Just An Enthusiastic Trim," is a great example of how hum- women have looked at me from time to time.

Courier & Jives

Herr D designed this one on heromachine.com. He did well, even
if there are one too many nostrils to look real.--Hairy Deewon      

Along the aphorism line, I figured something out. That saying 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' means check inside its belly for people coming to kill you. The Trojan War must have been fascinating to watch. I missed seeing it by at least [time period redacted]

Time reference.

What? Oh.

Distraction?

Uh, no, I'm just distracted, Shelob. I may have verified that at least one engineering firm IS developing models of reverse wave machines. Those of you who have been viewing since May 6th, (I think) know I posted about the surprising lack of that technology on the market. I guess the D-I-Y-ers might beat them to market (or the local inventors.) I guess I'm surprised it's apparently taking such a long time.

Correct. "You Been Mooned" posted early May. Net traffic suggests engineering firm on task earlier than May.

So it IS obvious then. At least somebody is 'working on the problem,' eh?

Have A Bash

Herr D designed this on heromachine.com.

With the 4rth of July having passed, I have to point out something interesting. I'm all for abbreviations and understood shortenings of language, but there is a misleading phrase in common use.

"Proud to be an American."

How many Americans earned their citizenship exactly? You can be proud of your ancestors becoming Americans, you can be proud you passed a citizenship test, and you can be proud of fellow Americans, and you can even be proud that you served American interests in the military or government.

So, you're grateful, or glad to be an American. "Pride goes before a fall,"  people. You don't want your nation to fall. You want naps, belches, and the rare blunder, which are 'falls' from great accomplishment.

Anyhow, I celebrated my independence from all ancestral obligations--

Independence Day is about formation of America, revolution from former 'parent' nation, not ancestors.

Oh, I knew that! And I celebrated the 4rth in style. Some few of you may have noticed my absence.

You blogged on 7/4/14. You took off 7/5/14.

. . . okay, I didn't know that. Thanx, Shelob. All right, I dove a little deeper with my equipment, checking out some neat coral textures and getting some great anemone tickles. I DID see fireworks, though. At least some others got the day wrong, too.

Question.

Right. Sometimes I'm really glad AND proud I programmed you. Reminders are very useful things, if occasionally irritating. What ELSE would you all be glad to be independent of most? I'm free enough for now, even being unable to move to different epochs.

Falsisms

I didn't contact Herr D before he had to sleep--so
I did this one. "Joe" is throwing his old ball over
the sun. See below for explanation.-Hairy Deewon

Shelob pointed out to me something I should spend a little time on. Certain aphorisms need to be revised, revoked, or redone instead of being reused and recycled. For example, there's this saying:

"There's nothing new under the sun."

This saying has irrefutably been wrong ONCE. I have to give it good odds that it's wrong often, if not usually. How am I so sure? WE ARE NOT UNDER THE SUN. We orbit around it.

Therefore, as new understandings and new discoveries are things, we have outdated that aphorism by understanding more about the sun not actually being 'above' us. I would love to be provided with more examples

Two-Toned Too Trite For Truisms

Herr D said this is a recreation of an old clipping
he saw recently. He's looking for a source, but he
can't seem to find it. Pretty funny--Hairy Deewon.
 

I looked at some semi-modern neuroscience source material and found myself feeling sympathetic. NO WONDER YOU WE HUMANS HAVE DUALITY AND BINARY OVERSIMPLIFICATION PROBLEMS. There's only two hemispheres in a human brain. Specialized lobes are there, sure; but it looks like all of humanity has reason to be of two minds about everything. Holistic versus sequential? GET OUT OF TOWN! How does the average squidling child manage to understand an ordinary Wenn diagram before the age of two?

Most do not.

Really?  . . . gosh. How old IS the average human beginning to understand a Wenn diagram, Shelob?

Evidence culled in last seven seconds from developmental-oriented websites suggests, but does not explicitly state, that some children begin understanding Wenn - style logic at age three or four. Frequently taught after reading skills (5-6.)

But Shelob, that's too late for [best translation: critical windows] to happen.

Yes. Reason why cognitive dissonance therapy has inherent ethical difficulties at root of forestalled development. Also why aphorism "the world isn't just black and white" makes sense in common usage. 

Oh, yeah, I was wondering about that. Well. We can't restructure the human brain. That's unethical. But we can help with aphorisms. OKAY! Today's question is not how you deal with unfairly polarized issues--it is:

What's your favorite aphorism? I don't have a favorite. I have a least favorite: No chupa, no schtupa. (Yiddish)

Sing And Dance Around Again

Herr D explained to me that I was wrong about
castanets. Apparently they are NOT illegal fish-
ing equipment. All I know is that the passage I
read said that 'the audience was mesmeriized by
her work with the castanets as she had her way
with them.' Pic by Herr D on heromachine.-H.D.

So, I was going to do another bit about marine ecology and over-fishing, but the scandalous practice I discovered turned out to be a misunderstanding. I'm left with entertainment. What's your favorite musical instrument? For me, I'd have to say that no instruments sound better than vocalists, so I'll include them. Have any of you ever really listened to a whale sing? Forget the vocal talent, I don't have the memory to sing a song that long.

Can We NOT Take It Higher?

Herr D made this for me on heromachine.com.
He said this is one is free for all to use--just credit him.

I've been trying to understand the nuances of becoming an elected official. It seems very complicated. Get popular, promise people things, bad mouth any opponents and their plans in an unfair fashion, and get people to give you money so you can do all this on television. Apparently most of the time an elected official has to raise more money to get INTO office than he'll make FROM the office. That sounds a bit sketchy. On top of that, you have to claim to belong to one group of people while trying to make both largest opposing groups want you for the job.

Question.

Oh, yes, thanks, Shelob. Does it seem to any of you that Democrats and Republicans are alike in too many of the wrong ways and different in too many of the wrong ways? I know from -- from history that politcal parties used to be different than they are today. One of them was originally called the other, for example. Maybe it's time to prop up this balanciing act in a different way? This system WAS designed for peaceful change . . .