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“Anyone who knows me as well as you do,” I say to my son, “knows that one thing I really hate is when I put something in one place and somebody moves it to a different place, so the next time I need that thing I can’t find it. Which brings me to the topic of the DVD remote . . .”

“I put it to the left of the TV,” he says.

“Are you sure you didn’t put it behind the TV where no one would be likely to find it?”

“Did you find it?” he asks.

“No — Mom found it, and when I asked her where she found it she pointed behind the TV.”

“Hmmm . . . I would say it was to the left of the TV.”

“Let me ask you this: Why did you move it at all?”

“It was in my chair.”

“That’s not ‘your chair.’ You don’t have a chair.”

Over the course of each academic term, he asks undergraduate and graduate business students three questions:

1. A year out of this program what do you expect your job will be?
2. What kind of job contributes the most to general well-being?
3. Practicality aside, if you could be doing anything 10 years from now, what would it be?

What’s striking is that there is almost no overlap among the students’ answers to these questions. . . .

The question then becomes: Why are students studying so hard and paying so much to reach objectives that are neither what they dream of nor what they think of as especially responsible?

— The Importance of Doing Meaningful Work – Forbes.com

I’m not wearing green today — because I’m a dog. Don’t try to pinch me or I’ll bite you.

— Lightning

• The soul of man is a far country, which cannot be approached or explored. — Heraclitus #

• RT @margaretcho: Remember gomer pyle was a good cook and had a beautiful singing voice? I'm a lot like him. #

Software professionals need to behave more like doctors and less like waiters. Stop taking orders and start helping.

— Jeff Patton

This is how to say “step away from the bone”: GRRRRRRRR!

OK, enough academics! Here’s a cartoon I really like:

— Lightning

• How to Stay Stressed http://goo.gl/RW1D #

Originally uploaded by amberlabelledvm

• C. L. Max Nikias Named 11th President of USC: http://bit.ly/9qgs5c #

Already with thee! tender is the night . . .
. . . But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

— John Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale’”

Under no circumstances will hockey practice ever be cancelled. Ever. Even on days when school is cancelled, practice is still on. A game may be cancelled due to inclement weather because of travel concerns for the visiting team, but it would have to rain razor blades and bocce balls to cancel hockey practice at your local rink. It’s good karma to respect the game.

— John Buccigross, ESPN.com

Pig-in-a-poke is an idiom that refers to a confidence trick originating in the Late Middle Ages, when meat was scarce but cats were not.

The scheme entailed the sale of a suckling pig in a poke (bag). The wriggling bag would actually contain a cat (not particularly prized as a source of meat) that was sold to the victim in an unopened bag.

A common colloquial expression in the English language, to buy a pig in a poke is to make a risky purchase without inspecting the item beforehand. The phrase can also be applied to accepting an idea or plan without a full understanding of its basis.

— Wikipedia

If you’re not seeing the video here, you can go to YouTube and hear Nancy Pelosi say, “But we have to pass the [health care] bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

• RT @eddiepepitone: Zagat's guide: best mental institution is Creedmore. Their chicken a la king will drive you nuts-great game room as well. #

• RT @Aimee_B_Loved: Katherine Bigelow really needs to end her speech with "SUCK IT, JAMES CAMERON!" #
• RT @letwits: CBSNews
  "Hollywood Sees a Bright Future in 3D"
  Sure they do. They can remake everything all over again. #

You’re my worst case scenario for my career in 12 yrs: a pious, unlikable blowhard who lives alone.

— Bill Simmons on Keith Olbermann

There are two kinds of people in the world — those with loaded guns and those who dig.

Let others spend the weekend catching up on Oscar nominees. We (re-)watched Sergio Leone fill the screen with boots, eyes and fingers in this classic Western.

Although Netflix listed it as the 161-min version, the DVD they sent was actually the full-length (175-min) Italian version, so that makes 14 minutes of action I was seeing for the first time!

By the way, did you know that Eli Wallach is still alive at age 94?!

(well, it might be that people see so many movies
that when they finally see one not
so bad as the others, they think it’s
great. an Academy Award means that you don’t stink
quite as much as your cousin.)

— Charles Bukowski, “in and out of the dark”

There are 10 nominees now for Best Picture?! I had no idea.

The best movie of the year was Up. The other nine I didn’t see. If any of them were better than Up, then why didn’t I see them? Answer that one for me.