Thursday, December 15, 2005

Snow Day

I left work early today because of a snowstorm (or at least, what DC whelps consider to be a snowstorm). I then immediately collapsed into a 5 hour long nap. Apparently, the Library of Congress, while absolutely amazing, was also more tiring than I suspected.

A few slightly-less-than-serious blog notes.

First: Can someone explain to me this ad, because I think I'm missing something. At the Bethesda Metro station, there was a billboard that said something like the following:
Need an MRI? You don't need a car! Bethesda MRI is only four blocks away!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but MRIs are for major knee injuries, correct? So how many people, exactly, would plan to walk the four blocks? Convienant for hale and hearty persons, perhaps, but isn't the type of injury that necessitates an MRI the same type that would make a 4 block walk rather difficult?

Second: I love how Michael Crowley characterizes ANWR regarding Republicans' latest efforts to resurrect the beast:
CQ also reports, by the way, that ANWR oil drilling, recently stripped from Congress's budget by House moderates, is back and stalking the countryside again like the unstoppable undead monster that it is.

Hmm...where have I heard rhetoric like this before? When life gives you Lemon...
[L]ike some ghoul in a late-night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad after being repeatedly killed and buried, Lemon stalks our Establishment Clause jurisprudence once again, frightening the little children and school attorneys of Center Moriches Union Free School District. Its most recent burial, only last Term, was, to be sure, not fully six feet under...Over the years, however, no fewer than five of the currently sitting Justices have, in their own opinions, personally driven pencils through the creature's heart (the author of today's opinion repeatedly), and a sixth has joined an opinion doing so.
[...]
Such a docile and useful monster is worth keeping around, at least in a somnolent state; one never knows when one might need him. [Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches Sch. Dist, 508 U.S. 384, 398-99 (Scalia, J., dissenting) (1993)]

Ah...nothing like Zombie politics.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

MRIs are used for lots of different things - brain scans, shoulder damage, not all of which require walking.

The lemon test - why, what fun! I always think Shaun of the Dead when I read that passage - and the USSC, why, they're ready for any sort of zombie attack.

David Schraub said...

Clearly, I've been watching too much ESPN...

Pooh said...

Let me put it this way - there might be no issue in American politics with a higher noise-to-signal ratio than ANWR. How much oil is there? Who knows. How many Caribou are there? Who knows. Who's ever been up there? Not me, and I've lived in this state for 2/3 of my life...But let's put it this way, it's not some Arctic Yellowstone.

And what do Alaskans think about ANWR? Well mostly we don't, but we'll vote for it because the oil companies pay us to.

Anonymous said...

There is no such thing as too much ESPN. Too much Dick Vitale, yes, too much ESPN, no.

PS - Where are you working now? The law firm still?

Randomscrub said...

Yeah, MRIs are a general soft-tissue diagnostic imaging tool. It's the best tool out there for checking for torn ligaments, which would explain your ESPN connection with knee injuries. Besides, speaking as one who has torn two knee ligaments, it's actually not that hard to crutch a few blocks.