From Simplicity to Complexity and Back

While sorting through an old cardboard accordion file containing a mix of hoarded trash and treasure I found a yellowed and tattered copy of The Pueblo Chieftain (Pueblo Colorado) dated May 1, 1939 -- published only eighteen days before the date of my birth. On the front page, below the fold, I read:

So much for the opinion of a Chicago politician.

An ad in the same newspaper

How unbelievable is that? Huh?

I read in The Writer's Almnac that Amy Tan began her career by writing business manuals and speeches for executives. She felt pressured to write under an American-sounding pseudonym, so she chose May Brown -- she rearranged Amy to get May, and Brown is a synonym of Tan.

I found that seemingly innocuous little factoid to be of monumental interest. (Which probably reveals more about me than I intended)

At Language Log I read: John D. Muccigrosso wrote to point out something that's obvious in retrospect, namely that all those pages that say "This page intentionally left blank" are thereby not, in fact, left blank.

I found that to be amusing enough to read on, and did so for more more than an hour. Language Log's revelations fascinate me to no end, much more I'm sure than is probably healthy for me.

Speaking of amusing subjects, they literally abound on the Internet (or 'the web', or the 'blogosphere', or whatever)

For example:

There is a cute little strip published Monday, February 15, 2010 in Sheldon Comicsthat I enjoyed. Check it out. In case you missed that link, the actual URL is:

http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/100215.html

Strange how a phrase will sometimes announce itself within even a restless roving mind and mysteriously lodge itself therein. Such as:

. . . a hunger for sophistication . . .

The above is just a note for me to remember that I liked the blog in which I found the little sticky-mote phrase: http://betweenfactandfiction.blogspot.com/

I have recently been spending a lot of time reading and little time writing. And today's skeletal entry illustrates that fact, doesn't it?

Oh well . . .