scotch whisky - water of life

I wanted to investigate the history of my favorite potable from Scotland, and chanced upon this:

Scotland's great Renaissance king, James IV (1488-1513) was fond of 'ardent spirits'. When the king visited Dundee in 1506, the treasury accounts record a payment to the local barber for a supply of aqua vitae for the king's pleasure. The reference to the barber is not surprising. In 1505, the Guild of Surgeon Barbers in Edinburgh was granted a monopoly over the manufacture of aqua vitae - a fact that reflects the spirits perceived medicinal properties as well as the medicinal talents of the barbers.

In all sobriety, I fully vouch for the medicinal properties of a good Scotch, but I would love to meet a barber that can serve as haircutter, shrink, doctor and bartender!

waiting for christ

Sam Harris, in his book, Letter to a Christian Nation, writes:

It is, therefore, not an exaggeration to say that if the city of New York were suddenly replaced by a ball of fire, some significant percentage of the American population would see a silver-lining in the subsequent mushroom cloud, as it would suggest to them that the best thing that is ever going to happen was about to happen: the return of Christ . . .Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government actually believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this, purely on the basis of religious dogma, should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency.

Shocking but true!

why we need to laugh

Simply because, we need to assert ourselves that life is not a black hole that will permit no light of humor to go through. And also, as Kurt Vonnegut says 'Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward'.

Which brings up my favorite imponderable, do animals laugh? My feeling is, they do in their own little cute ways, without any of those loud guffaws or bodily tremors, and we probably are their biggest jokes!

I can imagine my dog, upon seeing me in front of my monitor, laughing to herself and thinking 'This guy has no life - he thinks the internet is THE universe'. :-)