Preview mania

On the way home today, I passed a new apartment complex that was "pre-leasing." I imagine that i something like pre-boarding on airplanes.

However, according to my dictionary, pre means previous to or before. Thus, pre-boarding would happen before boarding and pre-leaisng would be before leasing. Would it not be better usage to call it early leasing and early boarding?

Two things I learned viewing Madrid's museums

1. If Christianity, like Islam and much of Judaism, had proscribed human images, most of the walls of most of museums would have been bare, with no Nativity scenes, crucifixions, disciples, etc.

2. Women's breasts in the past were much smaller than those of today, if the statues and paintings are any indication. Even Reuben's women, albeit more fleshy than some others, were comparatively small-breasted.

Anti-Social Media

Unlike The Atlantic, I do not believe Facebook and other social media are making us more lonely. However, I strongly believe they are making us more rude.

Go to a meeting. Any meeting. The first thing everyone does (or mostly everyone) is put their phones on the table. Them, rather than listening to the presenter and paying attention, almost everyone is texting, checking email, posting to Facebook or simply just ignoring everyone else.

Go to a restaurant. Are people interacting with their lunch or dinner companions? Nope. They are, instead, focused on their phone or tablet.

I think it started with the telephone. At a store or dinner table, a ringing telephone trumped live people. Now, even silent iPhones trump everything else.

To use an old argument, at your hospital bed or your deathbed, will your phone be there? Or will it be your real friends and family?

What's the matter with proofreading?

Thanks to a generous gift from my daughter, I am now reading my escape fiction on a Kindle, rather than going to the library. While this is certainly more ecological, as I don't burn gas, and probably as frugal, as I rarely "buy"books, it is driving me crazy.

In the last books I read, there was a guilt-edged mirror and every fifth word was hy-phenated. It gets a little ob-noxious when e-very other word is hy-phenated and some-times the main characters' names are mis-spelled, too. Or two, to be even more in-correct.

I realize that nobody proofreads anymore, but -- really -- a fast run through spell-checker would have caught at least half of those hy-phens. I am as gilty (or my earrings are) as most of making typos, but really, now...

A tidal wave of surges

I snickered when I read the headline, "Santorum surges from behind" a few weeks ago. However, since then, I've read a tidal wave of surging headlines -- Gingrich surges in SC, Romney fights Gingrich's surge, etc.

OK, headline writers -- find a new verb/noun for surge. How about upswing, rush, groundswell? Rise, grow, escalate, leap? Or any of the others found in any thesaurus? It would take a little bit of thought, but isn't that what a free press should be about?

Ok, I was wrong...

I'll admit it now. While in college, I was an avid admirer of Ayn Rand. I devoured The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. I was a believer, certain that the builders and producers should rule over the parasites and users.

Of course, it being the 1960s, I also believed that the bomb should not be used, marched for civil rights against Ole Miss, attended the very first Vietnam teach-in at Rutgers, and was very present at anti-war rallies and the very first (and second and third...Etc.) Earth Days.

Then I grew up. Years later, I re-read Ayn Rand and discovered two important things: she was an absolutely terrible, horrible writer and her ideas did not make any sense at all in the real world.

If only some of our leaders and shakers had learned the same lesson as they grew up, too.

The Infantilization of "Gourmet" Food

Lobster mac and cheese. 5 napkin Burgers. Heavy burgers. Kobe Meatloaf. Pizza bistros. More pizza bistros. More burger joints. And more mac 'n' cheese.

That's what I am reading about in the restaurant and foodie columns. With the exception of chicken fingers and chicken nuggets, it all seems to read like a kids' menu, only with pricier ingredients and pricier prices.

Whatever happened to real food, the kind that demanded a knife, fork and teeth so you could chew it? Is it because people want to be younger -- and thus eat kiddy food? It can't be all about price, as some of these burger joints start around $12 and go upward rapidly.

Maybe it's the economy. During the "great" depression, people flocked to the movies to see happy-making, escape-from-reality films. Could this time it be all about back-to-childhood comfort foods?

Sure, it's fun to be ale to eat with your hands -- and that includes pizza for true believers -- pizza should never be eaten with a knife and fork -- take that, Donald Trump! But let's not take it too far.

Bring back adult food -- with more than one course, and real utensils and cloth napkins. And maybe candles. And a tablecloth. And wine. Not every day. But once in a while, and pass by the burgers and fries and pizza and mac 'n' cheese. Please. And not from food trucks.