Wine & Song
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DAILY PHOTO: Rice Paddy & Mountain, Cao Bang
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PROMPT: Actually Kept?
Daily writing prompt
What’s a promise you made to yourself that you’ve actually kept?
I must say the “actually” in this prompt feels a bit accusatory and judgmental — as though, as a matter of practice, the answerer is generally unreliable. It also sounds like a question for someone with Dissociative Identity Disorder — otherwise who is making promises to whom? I am either one being or I contain multitudes, there being two seems at once too crowded and too lonely.
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Surrender
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DAILY PHOTO: New Orleans’ Skylines
PROMPT: Fictional Character
Daily writing prompt
If you could have dinner with any fictional character, who would it be?
I’d lean flawed but interesting — e.g. Sun Wu Kong, Artful Dodger, or Juliette (of the same-named Sade novel [not the Shakespearean one,]) but it is risky. The Monkey King might bash me, Artful Dodger might rob me, and who knows what Juliette might do. So maybe the Candide from the end of the book.
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DAILY PHOTO: A Conspicuous Absence
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PROMPT: Best Purchase
I can’t claim I’ve ever done as well as Peter Minuit (buying Manhattan for $24) or Thomas Jefferson (picking up the Louisiana Territory at $0.04 / acre,) or the USG (acquiring Alaska for $0.02 / acre.)
I once bought a nice stick (which still have,) but it was not a tremendous bargain.
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BOOK: “What If? 2” by Randall Monroe
What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall MunroeMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
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The Venn Diagram intersect of “hilarious” and “educational” tends to be sparsely occupied territory, but it’s where Randall Monroe lives. This sequel continues the approach set in the original volume, take a completely absurd question that can be answered with science and do just that with frequent interjections of sarcasm. Some examples of the questions addressed are: How many pigeons would it take to fly a person to the top of a skyscraper? Can all the world’s bananas fit in all the world’s churches? How much real dinosaur is in a plastic toy dinosaur? How many people worth of dead skin cells does a person consume and inhale over a lifetime?
The book uses many stick figure cartoons and other line drawings to both clarify the material and for the sake of humor. While it might seem like these questions could be answered hastily (as a dad might by saying, “You’re an idiot. Go away!”) most take several pages of elaboration because Monroe considers the many complexities of the question and of finding a scientific answer. There are sections throughout called “Short Answers” which include many a question so ridiculous or intuitive that being dismissive seems like the right approach.
If you’re interested in science but still find it goes down better with chortles and chuckles, I’d highly recommend this book.
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