It's Amazing How Tasteless An Intelligent Man Can Be.

And it nearly always makes me nearly die laughing.

An Episcopalian minister friend who is an assistant to a Bishop was describing an office worker's diffculty in moving. She's very petite, but very determined and savvy and had a good deal of heavy furniture to move. When she had to unload things, she sent someone to hire some, as he put it, "little brown men"-- Peruvians from an immigrant section of town-- and thereafter he referred to them as "her little brown men" who got the job done in under an hour for very little money. Just the way he told the story you could tell he was having a good time with being so un-PC.

Last night I was drifitng slowly off to sleep while Rich was asking me mildly silly questions about an upcoming dinner with a Muslim we'd met. I told him I need to find some halal chicken. "So what makes it halal?" he mused. I didn't really want to answer as I was much more interested in falling asleep, so I just said, "I don't know....they mumble prayers over it and ask it forgiveness for having to kill it ..." Rich thought about that a moment and then said, "And what does the chicken say? Does it yell Allahu Akhbar! before they chop off its head?"

I laughed so hard I woke up and had a difficult time getting to sleep after that.

I did finally get to sleep and dreamed about the Space Shuttle being launched in the middle of the city, and being frightened of the launch flame, trying to get far enough away in time. It seemd odd to me that they should place observer seats right under the exhaust cones, and then warn people to get away in just enough time to avoid being vaporised. And I wondered about the effect on surrounding buildings. Note to NASA: This will need a harder sell.