short takes

[cellio]

I have a theory about meetings at my company. For any meeting that does not involve food or take place in a room with too few chairs, assume the offset from the scheduled meeting time is is 2 minutes plus 1 minute per attendee (in the late direction, of course). This actually seems to track with my previous few companies, too.

Cheat out, an essay that siderea wrote about one particular SCA group, has a lot of application in other groups, SCA and non-.

This explanation of "shabbos goy" made me giggle in places but is basically right (link via almeda).

A while ago I wrote about the contrast in attitudes between two (I thought) 80-something women in my congregation. Last Shabbat I learned two surprising things: the one with the great outlook on life, who seems young (despite having lost her husband of 65 years not long ago), just turned 93 -- and the cranky shrew for whom nothing is ever good enough, who seems "old", is only in her mid-70s. What a difference attitude makes!

Comments

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed it. Every so often, I run smack against the fact that being curious about other cultures is not always the norm. (I've had to explain Ramadan and the Feast of Epiphany, too. Oy! My head.)

[cellio]

Every so often, I run smack against the fact that being curious about other cultures is not always the norm.

I hear you! Lots of people seem to believe that you only need to know the things that are relevant to you. What a sad way to live -- yeah, maybe that's all I need to know, but the world is a big place and I'd like to know more about it!

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I was talking with someone about all the places I want to travel to, and they said (more or less) "Why bother? There's plenty of interesting stuff here in the US". Eia.