Art

Earlier this month I visited the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. This is one of many masterpieces I observed. So...what do you think? Art? Or...a blue rectangle?

Green Bay Packer Snow Bowl game

I had the privilege of attending a playoff football game at Lambeau Field in January. Little did I know it would be Brett Favre's last victory in a Green Bay Packer uniform.
How did this marriage go bad? There has to be more to this story. Don't worry...Favre's tell all autobiography is sure to hit the shelves in 2012.

Sox Victory Parade

I was able to sneak away from work and grab some glimpses of the Red Sox victory parade. From my vantage point along Boylston St., I was able to take some great photos and video clips. The parade did not compare to the 2004 celebration, but it is always great to see the city coming together for a common cause.

This is not goodbye...

Greetings, Katzfanatics:

I have started my own blog, called Pax Arcana. I've been kicking the idea around some for a while, but posting here finally motivated me to get moving. Bookmark me at http://paxarcana.wordpress.com.

And don't forget to comment. They're the best part of any blog.

DW

With pleasure... and without fatigue

Check out this poster for a sausage maker in Auvergne, in central France. It's got everything I like: a pig, seppuku, and writing I can't comprehend (though the Google translator tells me it means, "Life is cool in Gitmo, seriously.").

On a serious note, it reminds me of The Omnivore's Dilemma, a fascinating book by Michael Pollan that I read on vacation a few weeks ago. One of the interesting arguments of the book confronts the claim by animal rights activists who say we should not slaughter animals because we have to consider the animal's best interest. While an individual animal's interest is certainly to survive, Pollan argues, the best interest of the species is to remain a food source for humans. How many cows would there be today if their meat made us sick? Not many.

Pollan does a much more thorough job of eliciting the argument that I have here, but it's an interesting point. My personal take on the matter can be summed up by a bumper sticker I saw years ago. It read:

"If we're not supposed to eat animals, why are they made out of meat?"

Stress

I rounded off my weekend with a Sunday evening round of golf. It was a beautiful day, the bills were paid, the fridge was full, and the garbage was out. Apparently I wasn't the only one with the idea, because the course was packed full, and there was a 30 minute wait to tee off.

It didn't matter much to me. I don't play golf for an adrenaline rush, and a hurried round of golf is rarely worth playing. Apparently the couple I played with don't share my feelings, however.

They were aspiring lawyers, just out of law school and mired neck deep in preparing for the Massachusetts Bar. By contrast, I had been out to the bar three nights in a row. The difference was astounding. They both were better golfers than I, but you wouldn't know it from the number of balls they bounced into the woods, or the frequency of mulligans they took (what does it mean for the future of the justice system when an aspiring lawyer repeatedly hits the same shot until he finds one he likes?).

These nice folks carried their stress out onto the golf course, and it showed in every swing, curse, and half-hearted putt. They complained about the pace of the game, the condition of the course, other golfers. They didn't seem to notice that the sun was setting on another beautiful summer's day, or that the game of golf is supposed to be fun...

Am I a "blogger" now?

Midway through a wedding this weekend, my friend Andy Katz asked me if I'd like to contribute to his blog. Since I was full of Heineken and wedding revelry I found it quite easy to say "yes". I am a shameless egomaniac, and I love seeing my words in print.

I don't know much about writing a blog. I do know that a typical protocol is to post lots of links to other bloggers whose style you intend to blatantly emulate. I learned this from Penelope Trunk, an excellent blogger and author who is charging to the forefront of redefining the American workplace. She can be a little too Machiavellian for my taste, but her columns are a nice diversion from work and I always learn something new from her ideas. Definitely worth checking out.

And if you're interested in reading about the social and economic challenges of "sustainability," check out Triple Pundit. There's way too much information for a layperson but it is nice to know that someone is thinking deeply about this stuff.

Finally, this guy seems pretty popular, and he's apparently quite good at what he does, though I can't figure out exactly what that is.

So that's it. I guess I'm a blogger now. I'm going to go take my sun pills and come back in a couple days with a post that isn't quite as boring...