What happens when an American travels to Poland, falls in love and marries a Polish woman?

For one thing, he inherits a Polish mother-in-law.

Oftentimes here at Ocean, you get to read about Poland as it is described to you by a Pole living in the States. How are things for an American living in Poland? Read the absolutely delightful observations of one such person here.

And note that in this post he describes the burning of gingersnaps by his mother-in-law, who seemed unaware of the fact that you can actually quite easily halt the burning process in a microwave once something starts spitting fire and smoke (for example: unplug the darn thing). Given that I have been twice this year alone accused of burning things for guests, I’d like to suggest that it appears to be in my Polish genes to set fire to food (unintentionally, of course).

[Thanks to my sister for the link.]

Where is the sex?? Where are the dead animals??

An emailer thought the philosophers’ quiz I linked to earlier today was tame and he wrote to tell me that any hopes of finding questions about weird sex or dead animals were soon squelched, since both topics were sorely missing from the 19 ho hum boring little Qs.

I went back and searched for the quiz that I remembered finding yesterday and indeed he is right. How many dang blasted philosophers’ magazine morality quizzes are there online anyway? Turns out more than one.

If you have the guts and the stamina, you can find the one with the, errrr, potentially offensive Qs here. It’s Saturday, it’s dreary outside, what, you have something better to do?

WERN is not getting any pledges out of me this year

…You’re just too dismal over there in Public Radio land. I gave you another chance this afternoon. I am dragging here today and I expect help from friends like you. Some pal you turn out to be. I, too, think Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet is lovely, but understand: I was in no mood for the Death of Juliet scene – a tear jerker even without the haunting melody, so why did you pick exactly that segment to play today at noon? Something chipper and bold like the Dance with the Mandolins would have worked, but no, you went for the drama.

Well you’re on your own now. I can’t deal with your perpetual grief music. And no, it did not help to run errands to the strains of Verdi’s Othello. [Yes indeed, I’m in the car, it’s 1 pm, and there it is: “Venga la morte! E mi colga nell’estasi Di quest’amplesso…” Let death come! Let it take me in the ecstasy of this embrace…]

WERN delivers

Don’t think that I didn’t appreciate the music selection on Public Radio this morning. Especially Chopin’s Sonata no. 2, third movement (“the Funeral March”). It really was just The Thing for the long drive from the airport home.

Snapshots without a camera, and a philosopher's perspective

I often think people have an intersting view of Madisonians. No, more: I think we have a skewed impression of ourselves. They think, we think we have it all figured out. The Madison way is the decent, the tolerant, the correct, the just way. We are a town of high principles.

Occasionally, street scenes can stump us though. Yesterday, on the median strip at University Ave and Shorewood Blvd, a man sat down and played in the snow. Oh, he tried to get up, but his shopping bag seemed to get the better of him, so he opted to stay put and toss snow around in the air. Some people slowed their cars down, thinking – he needs help, doesn’t he? But what kind of help? The choices were limited (thankfully?), because there is no place to stop at that particular intersection. That’s okay, we all have cell phones and so we can unburden our conscience and call someone else to provide assistance.

Or, take Basset Street (downtown). Driving there yesterday was a challenge as the street was littered with beer bottles. Maybe someone just missed the garbage can and threw their year’s supply too far to the right. Nonetheless, I have had five flat tires in the last two weeks (no kidding). Clean it up, people!—I thought. Or, should have I pulled over and picked them up myself maybe?

I could go on with these vignettes from my day, but posts need to be short, so I’ll let it go with those two little moments from one short drive downtown.

Now, over at bernalchemist, the author speculates about the implications of the BBC quiz on reasoning and gender from an earlier Ocean post. If you’re having issues with that little test, try the Philosophers’ Magazine quiz on morality here. It’ll take ten minutes and the graphing of the outcomes is a bit odd, but the analysis, especially comparing your score with the average, is provocative.

So much talk of morality these days! Go ahead and answer the questions [warning: if you’re going to be grossed out about matters of weird sex, or dead animals, or both, don’t bother. Oh, I know, that statement merely tantalized 90% of Ocean readers. I’m only providing a disclaimer for the 10% who think this to be a gentle kind of blog.] and let me know what you think. Madisoninans – don’t cheat! There are no “right” answers!