Sunday, January 11, 2004

Now click your heels together and say...

Okay, so it's long past January 1st, and I have no good excuses. Maybe it's because everyone I know blogs now, so it's sort of lost its charm for me. But deep in my heart I know blogging is like The Postal Service's Give Up: I don't care that everyone loves it. I love it too.

Of course I can't think about anything without finding the urge to blog about it. So here are a few things that have been on my mind:

Can the Democrats please get their act together? Dean (though charismatic as hell and strong on domestic policy) is immature and emotional; Clark (though he is a whipsmart foreign policy maven) needs to stop contradicting himself; and Kerry (though he looks like he jumped out of Mount Rushmore) impresses me but just won't get the nomination. A friend recently pointed out that Clark and Dean would make an excellent Pres/VP team, but that's a little out of my hands. (I'll do what I can.) And whoever gets the nomination, please read this and memorize it.
Cults, which I thought faded away for the most part in the early nineties, are apparently still alive and kicking. How do I know? I was strolling down St. Mark's Place with my girlfriend when we were accosted (fine, approached) by a friendly young man with a magazine in his hand that he was itching to sell. He had nothing but wonderful things to say about the farm where he lived with other impressionable idealists to make art and just be [crazy]. A look into the magazine (which I got for free, thank you very much) shows that the Zendik cult members have their own religion, social theory, and guru. I know this all sounds fun and fruity -- like heaven for hippies -- I'm not the only one who thinks it's a cult. I know some people think they're harmless, but a glance at some of the Zendik folks reveals that (a) most of them have/had serious drug problems and (b) they all wear those creepy "Z" necklaces. You decide. (But tell your parents not to come crying to me when they've lost you to the Zendiks forever.)
Nobody ever wants to be responsible for that crying baby on the plane, so parents are always eager to try anything that might reduce their baby's tears. In a thoroughly fascinating Science Times article Judith Berck explains how teaching a baby simple signing can do just that (and more). Babies as young as eight months can communicate their needs through signing, instead of waiting for speech skills to develop (usually at 16-18 months). It makes sense: mimicking hand motions is much simpler than duplicating precise sounds. Additionally, children who were taught signing as babies tend to have increased vocabularies and higher IQs, as well as stronger bonds with their parents. If my parents had signed with me, I'd probably be so done with med school by now.

That's all for now. Consider this hiatus officially over.

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