Books, repairmen and caricatures...

Bea says that the art of reading is slowly dying, that it’s an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce every day.

From: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

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We were at the cottage over the weekend, waiting for the phone repair guy to come by on Saturday. Sometime between 8:00 am and 7:00 pm we were told. He came noonish, so that was cool. Still this is the earliest a repairman or delivery person has ever showed up. I’m always hearing stories of people who wait all day for the guy to show up. My question is: since they never ever arrive before noon, who the hell is the person they visit at 8:00 am? Do these elusive clients exist? Is it all a conspiracy to make us believe they actually begin work before noon? Is this maybe the job I’ve been looking for all my life?

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I don’t know what to think about the “caricature riots” in the Middle East and Asia. Now, I understand it’s blasphemy to depict the prophet, but isn’t the reaction just a tad overdone? It is blasphemy for Muslims, but does that make it is it blasphemy for non-Muslims too? I hardly see how it can apply if you don’t believe in Islam. Insensitive, sure, but blasphemy? I understand voicing your concern over these drawings, but to burn embassies over it… well, I try to see their point of view, but I’m not quite managing. I suppose some more fanatical elements are using this to inflame public opinion, but are people (and I’m not talking Muslims per se, but rather just people generally) so stupid as to just burn places down because they are told they should? OK, how dumb a question is that. Obviously people are dumb enough. There are examples galore all through human history.

There is no intelligent life on this planet, beam me up Scottie.