In Which, After Nearly a Year's Hiatus, I Finally Proffer Certain Opinions
Abramoff, Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay, corruption, scandal, impeachment, Hastert, Scanlon, Alexander Strategy Group, Fitzgerald, plea bargain, House Republicans, fraud, conspiracy, tax evasion, Indian casinos, kickbacks, Ronnie Earle, Federal prosecutors, Plame, Wilson, terrorism, terrorists, perjury, wiretapping, warrants, Alito, Scalito, Bush: it is my habit, while pondering these and other keyword-worthy topics, to keep at hand a ready supply of toothpicks.
Why? Because I find that, as I grow older, I become increasingly intolerant of bits of food lodged between my teeth. The merest speck is sufficient to trigger feelings of slovenliness and a nagging discomfort. What in my youth might have been a mere distraction or annoyance has become, in middle-age, a subtle but unignorable torment. Is "unignorable" a word? Let us say that it is.
Someone will no doubt reply, "Surely you use toothpicks made of wood, since the plastic variety is unpleasant both aesthetically and tactilely. But does not then that suggest that the splintering-off of occasional splinters from the toothpick, and their entrapment between the teeth they are ostensibly to patrol, becomes a distinct possibility, thus setting in train a vicious cycle of self-perpetuating misery?"
It does. It is. And yet what is one to do, in this vale of tears? Note that I do not actually know what "vale" means, although I am of course familiar with its use--contrivedly, no doubt, and as an "Americanization" of an originally Italian surname--as the last name of Jerry Vale, the title of whose beloved hit single eludes me for the moment.
I shall have more to say about all of the above in the near future.
Why? Because I find that, as I grow older, I become increasingly intolerant of bits of food lodged between my teeth. The merest speck is sufficient to trigger feelings of slovenliness and a nagging discomfort. What in my youth might have been a mere distraction or annoyance has become, in middle-age, a subtle but unignorable torment. Is "unignorable" a word? Let us say that it is.
Someone will no doubt reply, "Surely you use toothpicks made of wood, since the plastic variety is unpleasant both aesthetically and tactilely. But does not then that suggest that the splintering-off of occasional splinters from the toothpick, and their entrapment between the teeth they are ostensibly to patrol, becomes a distinct possibility, thus setting in train a vicious cycle of self-perpetuating misery?"
It does. It is. And yet what is one to do, in this vale of tears? Note that I do not actually know what "vale" means, although I am of course familiar with its use--contrivedly, no doubt, and as an "Americanization" of an originally Italian surname--as the last name of Jerry Vale, the title of whose beloved hit single eludes me for the moment.
I shall have more to say about all of the above in the near future.
