Wednesday, September 24, 2003

All the girl babies were like... I had two irrational fears as a kid.  One of them, as I've already discussed, was unwound cassette tapes.  The other was fire.  I was an immense pyrophobe. One day in first or second grade, our teacher showed our class a video about electrical safety.  Already, I was skeptical.  Sure enough, there was a scene where they demonstrated the danger of a kid sticking a fork in a toaster during a dark scene.  I was about to die, so I thought.  I went up to the teacher and meekly asked if I could be excused from watching the rest of the video.  Then I sat in the hall for the duration until regular class resumed.  A few years later, in fifth or sixth grade, I was sharing a bus seat with one of the more well-renowned bullies/troublemakers in the school.  (My bus route also served the small mining town of Alfordsville, so I was fairly used to sharing a bus with a few malcontents over the years.)  Anyway, on this day, our troublemaker was up to some new and advanced chivalry.  He had a cigarette lighter, and apparently sensing my fear of it, decided to open it and hold the flame out in front of me.  Sheer terror.  I went stiff as a board and pled for God to take me into heaven if my life indeed was to end at this moment.  I don't remember what became of that incident.  Apparently he tired of my zombie state and went on to some other diversion.  And, much like my fear of cassette tape, my fear of fire has gradually decreased over the years to a much more rational state.  8:17:49 PM    comment [] Given the topic, excuse my indulgence of Londonesque journalism The United States Grand Prix is this weekend in Indianapolis, and for the first time since 2000 when the USGP returned, both the Driver's and Constructor's championships are still under contention in the pentultimate round of the F1 season.  In the driver's standings, Michael Schumacher of Ferrari bidding for his record-extending sixth world driving championship holds a slim 3-point lead over Juan Pablo Montoya of Williams, with McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen hanging on only 7 points behind, but likely in need of both top drivers to DNF at least one of the final two races to have a chance to win.  Williams is hanging on to a slim 141-137 lead over Ferrari in the constructor's race, and will have its second driver Ralf Schumacher back after missing the Italian Grand Prix with an injury.  In addition to the official website, coverage can be found at the official F1 site, which boasts an excellent live timing and commentary feature, as well as motorsport.com's F1 section, which has all the official team press releases in addition to other news items.  At the BBC, Renault's Jarno Trulli describes a lap around the Indianapolis circuit.  5:40:07 PM    comment [] Bent Evidently, the only people with an unspoiled, blank-slate opinion on Radiohead these days are 5th graders.  So where do you go for a fresh opinion on the band?  Well, somebody went to fifth-graders.  Sounds like a good idea to me.  (link from Buzzgrinder. ) 11:34:32 AM    comment []

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