Library of Congress Ceiling

Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three lefts do make a right. When we were cycling to dinner for Anne’s birthday, we observed a little traffic mishap, nothing serious really; actually it was more in the humorous vein. We were patiently waiting for the light at Lindell, in the right lane of Euclid. Another cyclist crossed in the cross-walk, on the left-hand side of the intersection, while at the red. There wasn’t any traffic coming then, except that when he had almost made it to the other side of the street, a car that had been waiting to turn right on the red honked at him. As soon as the cyclist had crossed, the driver pulled out, only to cutoff another driver, who had just arrived, speeding westbound on Lindell. That driver then honk voraciously at the first. Now that cyclist shouldn’t have crossed, but I’m not one to talk, because I have done the same thing numerous times, just maybe with a little bit more panache than that other cyclist.

The next day, I was leaving the grocery store and a van was idling in the road that runs along the front of the store. He was obviously waiting for someone, but he was also blocking the lane in front of the store. Another van comes up behind the first and because the first one is blocking the lane, the second guy begins honking at the first guy. After a little while, he gives up and then just pulls around him, since there never was any oncoming traffic. He pulls forward just one row and parks. I cross the street and also notice the woman who the first van had been waiting for, get in that vehicle. I also notice that the second van, the honking van has one of those blue multi-religious symbols bumper stickers that spell out the word ‘coexist’.

This week, I had to present my work. I have been doing a study that has been taking longer than my management had wanted. It was a trade study, but instead of actually discussing the study itself, I’ll use as an analogy that old Miller Lite ad slogan, “Great Taste…Less Filling!” Let’s just say that I was being asked to make the beer even less filling, without doing too much damage to the already “great” taste of Miller Lite. Present was the big boss and his little boss. I’ll cut to the chase; I presented a solution that made the beer even greater tasting and even more less-filling, a win-win. The big boss thanked me for a job well done. Then the little boss gripes about how long it took. The big boss said he wasn’t intending to mention that and he once again thanked me.