[lit-ideas] Re: Twitter/ A Ripping Tip
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 15:13:14 -0700
On Apr 30, 2007, at 11:58 AM, Robert Paul wrote:
Not much to do around Portland right now.
Well today, perhaps. But yesterday evening, by contrast...
Today involved some follow up. The local postmaster called to confirm
that he had asked all the mail carriers if they could remember the
package that the post office tracked to their mail sorting room and
which then, somehow went AWOL. And, goodness, none of them could. So
that was his investigation into the loss duly completed. I asked what
my next remedy was. He said he'd send me some forms to fill out in
triplicate.
"To what purpose?"
"They might decide to reimburse you."
I filled out the forms, looked for information about where to send
them. The forms said that a stamped, self-addressed envelope was
"enclosed." In reality there was none. Today I finally took the forms
to the post office, lined up, handed them over.
"And what will happen to them?"
"I'll see the right person gets them."
"And then what will happen? Should I expect a call?"
He looked embarrassed.
"Actually, usually nothing happens. They do an investigation and if
they determine that the package is lost, they do nothing."
I guess the lesson is, always buy the insurance.
Then, at least, you get to fill out different forms!
On Saturday daughter number one returned from a final scouting trip to
Smith. She thoroughly enjoyed the visit, but was a little wide-eyed.
She attended a Queer Studies class and wanted to know from us what two
kinds of sex were. I wish I could recall the terms. My wife looked at
me--art school habitue--I looked at her--gynecologist; neither of us
had a clue. Maybe if I remember I'll get the terms and then ask a
student in my thesis class, one who is something of an expert on Queer
Theory.
Yesterday evening's dinner guests at our friends' house were people
they know from Aspen, Colorado. We, of course, talked about Hunter
Thomson. It became clear that these two guests were not immediately
pro-H. T. What did they do for a living? The woman was a hair cutter
who made house calls. She was very happy to say that she once made a
$150 tip on a $100 haircut and full body wax. A ripping tip, I suppose
you'd call it.
He, by contrast, had spent his life figuring out what shape best suits
pieces of nuclear material in a bomb--should they be round, oblong,
bunny-shaped or what? He was able to reveal, without compromising our
security, that at Los Alamos the lumps were round.
He did clear one thing up. When people talk of "tactical" nuclear
weapons what they mean, in the western world at least, is weapons made
of nuclear material that decays comparatively quickly.
No, dullness is not in residence at this corner.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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