SCATTERED THOUGHTS ON A VERY SLOW TUESDAY (D40)

Sometimes it is the small successes in life that really make you proud.  Today my success is not breaking my CLEANSE DIET.

The opening paragraphs of Ilf and Petrov's Golden Calf, which I've now started and abandoned twice, has been in my mind a lot lately while skillfully darting through traffic as a rabbit darts through the fields of their birth:

You have to be nice to pedestrians.
Pedestrians comprise the greater part of humanity. Moreover, its better part. Pedestrians created the world. They build cities, erected tall buildings, ladi out sewers and waterlines, paved the streets and lit them with electricity. THey spread civilization throughout the world, invented the printing press and gunpowder, flung bridges across rivers, deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs, introduced the safety razor, abolished the slave trade, and established that no less than 144 tasty, nutritious dishes can be made from soybeans.
And just when everything was ready, when our native planet had become relatively comfortable, the motorists appeared.
It should be noted that the automobile was also invted by pedestrians. But, somehow, the motorists quickly forgot about this...The roads became twice as wide, while the sidewalks shrunk to the size of a postage stamp.

You can read part of a draft volunteer translation here, but the new one published by Open Letter is really wonderful. I've been giggling to myself through every page, but it may just be the restrictive detox diet?

This deliciously cheesy video/song combo presents quite a dilemma: watch or dance? watch or dance?! Today I've decided on watch.

This summer photo of Ataturk is blocked by Sonic Wall as pornography. The shame!

Poll for the audience - how bad of an idea do you think it would be to create a meme which consisted of photoshopping pictures of Don Draper's face on famous Ataturk photos? Scale of 1-5, please, 1 being horrible and 2 being an absolute must.