Truthiness

Test your religious knowledge and see how you measure up. According to this article, atheists and agnostics know more about religion than folks that regularly attend worship services. The quiz is about religion in general.

I missed 2 questions. I never cease to be amazed at Americans' general cluelessness. The religion poll is just one small example. Most US-born Americans would not pass a citizenship test if they had to take one. We have no problem revising history to suit our purposes. We might not know how to define exactly what we believe, but we believe it strongly.

That's why Colbert is so good at what he does, and so funny. I can't wait for his march/rally in DC next month.

A pound of flesh

A girl loaned me her boobs once. It was one of the greatest acts of kindness I have experienced. It happened 11 years ago but I still think about it from time to time. I was competing in my 2nd and last pageant (*hallelujah*). The dress we all had to wear looked like a heavy duty black trash bag that someone had cleverly fashioned into an evening gown and festooned with sparkly sequins. Again, the dress wasn't our choice. Leading up to the pageant, I met a girl who decided to take me under her wing. She gave me makeup and hair advice. She didn't try to sabotage me, counteracting the old beauty queen stereotype.

At the time, I was feeling ok, but I was working a part-time job and in the middle of finals and AP exams, and had lost weight since my last dress fitting. And when I got dressed and began to despair that the dress was falling off my over-stressed, thinner-than-before-frame, she simply presented me with a small box containing an extra pair of chicken cutlets (trade secret, but now not so secret), and all was well. Not only did the dress fit better, but I was given an extra boost of confidence to boot.

It reminds me of my friend's flip-flop story. Sharing is something so simple and so universally kind and human.

Pet peeve

Why are we supposed to put two spaces after each sentence? Does anyone do that? It is standard in government writing, but why? It's so obsolete. With the advent of word processing (i.e., no more typewriters and their monospaced typefaces), the practice has been rendered obsolete. I learned this in 5th grade. Why hasn't everyone else learned this? Every person I've met in DC has looked at me like a crazy person when I've told them that

it isn't necessary. But the double spacing is a waste of time, and a waste of space. It's so frustrating! I feel like a crazy person. At least my husband agrees with me.

http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/typespacing/a/onetwospaces.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_spacing

Photo credit: Jeremy Meyer