Brightrock

Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, spoke at Rice last night as part of their President’s Lecture Series.  I don’t go to these types of things as often as I should, but last night was a reminder about why I should.  I really regretted not having my little notebook with me to make a couple of notes - there were several points that he raised in both his prepared remarks and during the question and answer session that I wanted to look into afterwards.  I wish I could find the text of his prepared remarks somewhere, or better yet a transcript of last night including the Q&A session.  

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Like many people, I have a few quirky words that I use on a semi-regular basis.  One of them is “wembling,” as in “I’m wembling about whether to take that vacation,” meaning that I can’t quite make up my mind.  So, one of my word-smith friends pulled out the dictionary last night and disputed whether or not “wemble” is a word.  It wasn’t in his dictionary (never a copy of the OED when you need one, is there?), but I argued that he just didn’t have a big enough dictionary.

Sadly, it appears that I may have been wrong - I couldn’t find “wemble” in any of the freely-available online dictionaries, although it looks to me as though “wemble” may simply be a variation or corruption of ”wamble“ : to move unsteadily or with a weaving or rolling motion.  That sounds close enough to my meaning when I use wemble, and I was able to find at least one less-reputable source for my usage, so I’m not the only person who uses “wemble” in this wondrous growing language of ours. 

I really want a subscription to the OED for times like this!  I’m curious as to whether or not it recognizes “wemble” as a word or as a variant on “wamble.”  I’m *very close* to spending the $30/month for the OED online subscription.  Maybe the next time I’m feeling flush I’ll start a subscription. 

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Mike Hon has a post about a cool way to protect your data in the event that somebody steals your laptop. A little risky unless you really know what you’re doing, but I could see this being appropriate in some situations. 

m i k e h o n . c o m » This PowerBook will autodestruct in sixty seconds…

William F. Buckley had an interesting take on free speech in the context of both the recent cartoons controversy and the arrest of David Irving in Austria. His conclusion:

Austria is wrong, of course. Though one can still believe in the free press and take discreet pleasure that, when it is violated, things can happen to the David Irvings of this world.
from Taking discreet pleasure in justice, even if it's wrong

Restrictions on "hate speech" have always made me uneasy. I recognize the power of words - if words didn't have power, free speech wouldn't be so important. But it seems to me that the best response to hate speech is ridicule and rebuttal, not jail time.

I'm a big believer in the free marketplace of ideas - let every idea get out there so that we can identify the good ones and get rid of the bad ones. I know that the process doesn't always work, but it seems like a better approach than any others that have been proposed.

I cannot deny that I share Buckley's sense of "discreet pleasure" at somebody like Irving getting slapped down, but the process that is being used in Austria should disturb everyone who takes the principle of free expression seriously. While thinking about this topic, I stumbled across a quotation that seems appropriate:

"The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish."
–Robert Jackson

 

So, I have to say that Bump isn’t real happy with his temporary roommate, Bruce (my parent’s miniature pinscher, shown in the foreground of this phone snapshot).  Fortunately, the dog seems a little bit afraid of the cat, so the risk of damage to beast or home seems minimal.