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January 08, 2007
Monday
Rainy-ass, bleak-as-fuck Philadelphia Monday. Thank god the Eagles won; otherwise, I fear, I'd have been stepping over bodies on the way down 7th Street. It was one of those dark, rainy winter mornings where waking up at 7:20 feels almost feels like waking up on a fishing boat out in the middle of the Atlantic, so intense was the precipitation beating down upon my leaky little house, so strong the wind.
1. If you haven't been paying attention, the Rehnquist-on-Placidyll revelations of the past week have been fascinating. Slate's Jack Shafer runs the story down and asks the real questions:
The 1986 medical report on Rehnquist described him as seriously "dependent" on Placidyl from 1977 to 1981. He often consumed three month's worth of the drug in one month before requesting more from Dr. Freeman H. Cary, the attending physician to Congress, who prescribed it. [...] The standard dose for adults is 500 milligrams, taken at bedtime. Rehnquist initially took 200 milligrams daily but by 1981 was taking 1,500 milligrams a day. Increasing dosage indicates drug dependency, the Johns Hopkins professor explained. [...] But am I unfair to link the reluctance of journalists to zoom in for a close-up on a dead person's warts to a general deference to authority or, in the case of Rehnquist, a class bias that predisposes them to look past his drug habit as purely a medical problem? I think not. Did the experience — being dazed on drugs, humiliated in the press, getting off Placidyl — contribute to his jurisprudence? How could it not have?
2. One of Andrew Sullivan's many fans sent him this must-see painting. $199 sounds about right...
3. And if you didn't catch this yesterday, do yourself a favor and check out this NY Times articles about Latin American parents and the wild names they pick out for their kids:
A glance through a phone book or the government’s voter registry reveals names like Taj-Mahal Sánchez, Elvis Presley Gomez Morillo, Darwin Lenin Jimenez, even Hitler Eufemio Mayora. Other Venezuelan first names, which roll off the tongue about as easily in Spanish as in English, include Yusmairobis, Nefertitis, Yaxilany, Riubalkis, Debraska, as well as Yesaidú and Juan Jondre — transliterations of “Yes, I do” and “One hundred.”
As a dude who's wanted to name his daughter "Philomena" since forever, I salute the mothers and fathers responsible for such courageous acts of naming - and the kids who embrace them.
Posted by caps at January 8, 2007 09:57 AM