h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

She thinks that this is an indication of how much she loved him and misses him. She's also turned him into a saint. Pity she wasn't a bit nicer to him when he was alive.

The way I see it, his death is all about her. Lord knows his final illness was more about her than him. She craves attention and figures this perpetual 'grief' is the way to get it.

I'm never sure if this kind of thing is a way to avoid confronting real pain, or just an expression of a personality that turns every event into an ego trip.

Hard to say. If it is the former, she needs to realize that she has put herself into a position of leading a diminished life. It's not like any of it is going to make him less dead. It just makes her less alive.

Yes, and it dishonours the one who died.

That's how I feel about it, too. For example, he absolutely loved Christmas, really went all out for it. His birthday was December 4th. The way we always celebrated it was to go get the Christmas tree and put it up. It was a special day. Now she refuses to decorate for Christmas. She "can't bear it anymore because Dad loved it so much." Well, duh! All then more reason to celebrate Christmas. If a soul does exsist and if it is possible for our loved ones to observe what we're doing, then he's want to come home for Christmas.

The fact that he died in the early hours of Dec. 26 doesn't help her mood. Then my husband died the week before Christmas. She was very close to him, too. It's a hard time for her.

Yeah, that's hard.

But wouldn't it be better to find a new way to celebrate, and honour the loved ones in that way?

I'm allergic to these anniversaries. If you keep dwelling on days, sometimes you just freight your memories so badly, you can't remember the good times. Maybe that's just me, but I'd rather remember the good and funny things my relatives did.

Agreed. Find a new way to celebrate those days if the old way is no longer possible. But mainly, enjoy being alive. Laughing about the good times is sure better than crying over the sad ones. Or crying over the good times because they're gone.

Wednesday, November 3.

"I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution."

-Ulysses S. Grant, Inagural Address, March 4, 1869

What in the world was he on about?

In 1869, I would guess it was reconstruction.

I've just read that inaugural address. That is the best one I've ever seen. No 'vision thingy', just practicality. Cool fella, Grant, and stubborn as a mule.

http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres33.html

What I love is Bartleby's take on Inauguration Day:

'He refused to ride in the carriage to the Capitol with President Johnson, who then decided not to attend the ceremony.'

Elektra's comment was, 'How junior high of them.'

Actually, it was better than the previous Inauguration Day, a short time before Lincoln was shot. Lincoln wasn't speaking to Johnson after that one, because the Vice President showed up drunk.

Johnson was a real piece of work.

Grant was an interesting man. You have to sympathize with any man who has taken on the responsibilities of that office. To take them on in such troubling times was especially admirable. I wish people would give Obama some credit for taking over a failing economy when he knew he'd get nothing but grief from it all.

Amen. Credit to the memory of General Grant, and best wishes to the current officeholder in a changed legislative environment.

At least we live in interesting times.

That is a Chinese curse.

My brother-in-law, a schoolteacher, is complaining again. He's sending around Jay Leno videos.

Try this one on for size (go ahead and laugh, Brits: Americans apparently think we got our independence from King Giorgos of Greece, in 1922):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkQ6XgXeNuY

Note that Leno can't find an American who knows basic history facts until he gets somebody OUR age, Hypatia.

Now, what would General Grant have said about that?

Great link, Dmitri.

Thursday, November 4.

"No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish."

-John Ruskin

Although many have similar attention spans...

Saturday, November 6.

"The proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country is to reside some time in a foreign one."

-William Shenstone