Althouse: At the Shrunken Snowman Tavern...

March 1, 2010

At the Shrunken Snowman Tavern...

... shun shrinkage. Be as expansive as you like. Swell!

16 comments:

traditionalguy said...: Like Plushenko ripping off his body suit, and what do you get, another day closer to spring, shrunken and wet; 3/1/10, 6:32 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Now Althouse is distorting space and time?; 3/1/10, 6:46 PM
HKatz said...: I'll shun shrinkage and see the snowy field as a large pockmarked snowman's face. The trees make a good hairline. And it's fun to think of walking across the face of an enormous snowman that allows you to do so with benign patience.; 3/1/10, 7:11 PM
Elliott A said...: Do you remember what dirt looks like up there?; 3/1/10, 7:23 PM
Sarah from VA said...: On Sundays, I do a little music time with the youngsters in my church, and there's this song we sing about snowmen. The original song talks about a snowman melting in the sun -- it starts out tall, tall, tall and shrinks to small, small, small -- but the children LOVE to sing it backwards and have the snowman GROW in the sun.

The only time they prefer to sing it forwards is when I willingly direct them to go ahead and sing it backwards. Little contrarians.; 3/1/10, 7:27 PM
Sorin said...: She may be folding space. Althouse, have you been drinking "Spiced" wine?; 3/1/10, 7:27 PM
ricpic said...: O sweet spontaneous earth
how often have the doting fingers
of prurient philosophers
pinched and poked thee,
has the naughty thumb of science
prodded thy beauty,
how often have religions taken thee
upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and buffeting thee
that thou mightest conceive gods
(but true to the incomparable
couch of death thy rhythmic lover
thou answerest them only with
spring)

e. e. cummings

Why this poem? As far as I'm concerned March 1 is the first day of spring no matter what the weather's doing. My apologies to e.e. who sprinkled his words all over the page. I don't have the computer savvy to replicate that. But the poem is so perfect I figured it was okay to regularize the word placement on the page...'kay e.e.?; 3/1/10, 7:29 PM
Unknown said...: Notice the snowbarmaid has taken her fifty and left him lying there.

Elliott A said...

Do you remember what dirt looks like up there?

Hell, we don't remember what it looks like down here.

PS Word Verification is silly enough, Ann, but that audio thing has got to go.; 3/1/10, 8:03 PM
KCFleming said...: If cold enough and time, shrinkage affects all snowmen.; 3/1/10, 8:09 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "but that audio thing has got to go"

What? The WV for the visually handicapped?; 3/1/10, 8:35 PM
David said...: Let's talk about colons. And health care.

Obama's physical exam report says he had a "virtual colonoscopy." This is a colon exam done by a scan, which is considerably less invasive than an optical colon exam. Unlike an optical exam, the virtual exam does not require sedation. The virtual procedure also reduces the risk of patient injury through perforation of the colon.

The virtual exam takes less time, and apparently is as reliable as the optical exam for all but very small polyps. Most authorities believe that such small polyps are not ever malignant.

What is so interesting about this procedure?

It's interesting that President Obama can get this procedure, while you and I can not. Medicare deems the procedure "experimental" and does not reimburse, and private insurers follow this lead.

You can bet Obamacare won't pay for it. You can also bet that Obama will continue to get the procedure (and perhaps so do our Congress Critters--I think they have the same plan.)

Maybe Obama paid for this out of pocket, in order to put himself on the same level as the rest of the people. Do you think so?; 3/1/10, 8:42 PM
KCFleming said...: Time and tide wait for snowman; 3/1/10, 8:45 PM
Triangle Man said...: David,
Interesting. Another interesting aspect of the virtual colonoscopy is that the "prep" is the same as the regular kind. This seems to be the reason that people are no more likely to get a virtual scope than the regular kind.; 3/1/10, 9:00 PM
ricpic said...: Prep ain't that bad. Just take a novel with you when you run for the throne.; 3/1/10, 9:30 PM
KCFleming said...: "Just take a novel with you when you run for the throne."

A River Runs Through It?; 3/1/10, 10:10 PM
Unknown said...: Ann Althouse said...

"but that audio thing has got to go"

What? The WV for the visually handicapped?

Is that what it's supposed to be? For some reason, the regular goofy word didn't appear, but the audio thing did. If you've never heard it, listen and see what you think.

Intermingled with a lot of mumbling is a sequence of numbers. Apparently, some people at blogger think visual and hearing handicaps are mutually exclusive. Oy gevalt!!

Ann, I know you don't set up these controls, but you might pass along the idea to the powers what are that this is one of those things where something simpler might be better.; 3/1/10, 10:13 PM