Average

    Obverse of yesterday's excuse, as exuberance and giddiness are impinging on my brain function instead of stress and anticipation. Apologies if again I've got nuthin'.
    One thing I noticed while waiting to vote I have noticed often before: if I am of average height, or a little under, how come I'm taller than practically everybody? Is this just a really short state? Do I only pay attention when I happen to be among people shorter than me? Could it be a pandemic of bad posture? Or am I levitating again?
    See? Nuthin'. I'll try harder tomorrow. Hell, I'll try harder today. A frustrating thing in my life right now is that I'm the host for a drinking and discussion group, and somehow in a metropolitan area supposedly composed of 600,000 people there just doesn't seem to be a single quiet restaurant with decent drinks and safe, convenient, free parking. Particularly you would think this in a college town. You would be mistaken.
    Of course, I may well have posted both these points already. After almost two years of this, I'm probably repeating myself a lot. Sometimes you feel like going back and checking the files and sometimes you don't.

Another approach

    Hey, it's Election Day and I'm more than a little frazzed owing mostly to anticipation and partly to getting up at 6 to go vote. So don't expect a lot. I've mentioned now and again about adding EV olive oil and honey to my assorted muffins or cookies. For some reason, I always seem to use two tablespoons of the former and four of the latter, and to avoid having to wait a week for the @#$#@ honey to vacate the measuring spoon, I added one T of olive oil followed by two of honey, then repeated.
    Today, I decided to vacate this approach and instead add approximately 1/2 a tablespoon of olive oil, one of honey, and repeat four times. It's embarrassing yet again to admit what an idiot I am. MAN did that work better! Granted, my approximating skills are pretty iffy, but then if I were going to get worried about precise amounts I probably would have started a long time ago. The honey drops right out of the spoon all four times, whereas before this usually only worked on the tablespoonful right after the one of oil. Sure makes cooking more fun!
    Last night's dreams again left little memory, you lucky ducks, but the memory I have is very funny. Seems I was running with mobsters. However, this was only online. Apparently, instead of having cool nicknames like Joe Bananas and Vincent the Chin they all had Twitter handles instead. Which leads me to wonder: do they? And do I really want to join Twitter just to find out?

Daylight saving

    My buddy Paul was most peeved about the end of Daylight Savings Time. He (and I, to a lesser extent) is/are annoyed about having the sun rise before it's time to get up. Nobody we know is going out to plow the north 40 at 6 a.m. and it seems an open question whether we really need dawn's early light quite so early. He remarked that it's actually more pleasant getting up in the morning when it's still dark and I noted that that might be because the sun isn't waking you up earlier than you had intended getting up. I recommended getting a sleep mask, though even mine is imperfect defense against a determined sunrise.
    We also hate it getting dark at 5. It was what made me crazy in England back in the day, though that was more like 4. I dunno, but the more I think about it, even though most studies I see suggest that Daylight Savings doesn't really save much or any energy, I still wouldn't mind too much if it were just converted to year-round. We could just call noon "noonish."
    And another thing! I'm fed up with the months with the names meaning Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth actually being the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth, dangit! Let's ship July and August to the end of the year. I'm pretty sure Caesar and Augustus won't mind. (More essential issues of the day.:P)

Crazy people on the Internet

    I've made assorted gags over the years about getting all my nutritional information from Crazy People on the Internet. Given my dietary restrictions, I don't think anyone has any reason not to believe me. However, lately I've been supplementing this information with material from less crazy people on the Internet, specifically the celiac researchers at the University of Chicago. They indicate that a litttle gluten now and then is unlikely to harm a celiac, that the only danger is constant or at least steady ingestion. They also note that cancer is only a rare outcome of celiac disease. I am starting to believe them, and starting to relax and breathe a little bit. Who wants to go out for pizza?
    Last night's dreams were odd, elaborate and an hour longer due to the end of daylight savings time. I don't recall details except that I was on a long train trip around the peninsula of America (either America was Florida-shaped or Chicago and San Francisco had moved to Florida; take your pick). I had to abandon the trip because I had left my smart phone at home and this was the part I liked: my smart phone was the size of a stick of gum! I can't wait for the day when this one comes true.
    The previous night's dream were more vivid and I still remember elements now. In this one, my dad's house, always large in my dreams, was truly colossal. Truly. There was a shopping mall on the second floor. I'm sure Dr. Freud would have a field day somehow, but I thought it was pretty cool.

Sugar Bear

    When I was teeny, Sugar Bear was a character on a Saturday morning cartoon show. The way I remember it is that this came first, then he became spokes-cartoon (OK, mascot) for a breakfast cereal. However, Wikipedia says that the characters on the cartoon show were all, or nearly all, mascots for various brands of Post cereals. Wiki doesn't mention it, but I'm pretty the FCC came down on the network and forbid having cartoon characters do both Saturday morning TV shows and commercials. Anyway, Sugar Bear (whom I had liked a LOT as a character on the show) was exiled to commercials only for a cereal that changed its name every couple of years (Sugar Crisp, Super Golden Crisp, etc.)
    If, like me, you cut back your TV watching during the '80s and '90s, you should probably read the Wiki entry. There was some pretty weird stuff going on on those commercials. I never knew that Sugar Bear had a sworn enemy. (Should have been Vinegar Weasel, but wasn't. You really should go look it up.)
    What got me, though, was a realization 45 years late that Sugar Bear was supposed to be Bing Crosby. That was in fact what sent me to Wiki in the first place. Only to see that he was supposed to be Dean Martin. I I I just couldn't believe it! The very idea! Nah, seriously, I can see it. Then again... maybe Dean Martin was trying to be Bing Crosby! Ever think of that Wikipedia?!

These third-person dreams

    I've been having a crop of extra-vivid dreams these last two nights which, you'll be relieved to hear, I don't remember particularly well. However, I do recall that at least one featured a complete absence of me, or rather didn't feature me. I've had those before, and mentioned it, but it's still odd and confusing. It's especially odd since I hardly ever watch movies or TV anymore, so it's a bit peculiar to have a dream that's like a movie. I wish I could remember it; maybe I was Batman!
    (Now I've gone and done it to myself. The subject line has stuck "New York, New York" in my head, ineradicably it seems. At least it's a good one.)

Height maybe?

    A long time ago, I was talking to my friend Lee about a study we'd heard about regarding female self-esteem. To give an idea how long ago this was, he had too toddler daughters then; now they are lovely young women, one starting college, the other finishing high school. The study indicated that girls scored similarly to boys on measures of self-esteem until about the age of 11, then their scores plummeted. The authors appeared to be mystified as to what might occur around that age that might be causing this. We more wondered what planet the authors might be from and felt that puberty was the obvious answer.
    However, it occurs to me that height might explain it equally well. Girls hit their adult height younger than boys do. Thus, there are a few years when most girls are taller than most boys of the same age. Maybe girls lose self-esteem by feeling gawky during the years when they are relatively tall, then the low self-esteem is reinforced when they are suddenly left behind by the fast-growing boys. I've seen other studies indicating that taller men are more successful and better paid than shorter men; perhaps this needs to be generalized to everybody. Just a thought.