Category: Rev. Joe Dirt’s Ramblings

The unsolicited, unreasoned, uninformed, unapologetic opinions of Rev. Joe Dirt

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Adding a second language

I’m in the process of trying to learn/relearn Italian.  Many moons ago I lived in Italy for 3 years during my Jr. High years.  I was never fluent, but I spoke enough to not be cheated in the markets and play with the Italian kids.

I would like to revisit the country for an extended period, and go to places off of tourist road.  So that is my motivation for studying the language.

I asked an Indian friend of my mine who is bilingual about language.   He has been in the USA for 7 years, and of course, English is widely spoken in India.  I was wondering about whether he thought in English, dreamed in English, did he need to translate English to his native tongue, etc.  Below is his well thought out answer: Continue reading “Adding a second language”

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Ill wind blows in Information Technology.

I just read your post titled Ill wind blows in Information Technology.  Very thoughtful and well written.  I agree with almost all of it.

I agree H1B programs must be strictly enforced as per law.  No question about that. Any misuse or abuse of the program should be stopped.

In your summary, you have listed 5 points. I feel you may have missed one point – which is possibly as important, if not more: Continue reading “Ill wind blows in Information Technology.”

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Political anti-Darwinism???

It’s the birthday (February 16th) of historian and philosopher Henry Adams, (books by this author) born in Boston, Massachusetts (1838). His grandfather was John Quincy Adams, and his great-grandfather was John Adams. He hated public speaking, he had no interest in becoming a politician himself, but he did like writing about politics – mostly about how pathetic he thought American politics had become. He said, “The progress of evolution from President Washington to President Grant was alone evidence to upset Darwin.”

From Garrison’s Keillor’s “Writer’s Almanac”

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Ill wind blows in Information Technology

I sent the following letter to every presidential candidate at the beginning of the campaign…when there were about 100 of them.  I also sent it to each of my Senators and my Congressman.

Two of the campaigns sent me a letter solicting funds.  My Democratic Senator responded with a form letter letter.  My Republican Senator and Democratic Congressman ignored the letters. 

With the letter I attached an article from a prominent magazine.  I’m trying to find it on the Internet now.  The hardcopy I have is packed away.  The article detailed how H-1B was not in the best interest of the American worker.

In interest of full disclosure, Continue reading “Ill wind blows in Information Technology”

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Your Curmudgeon story, please

The following comment was posted to this site:

I can’t find a way to send a suggestion, so I’ll post here, since it seems to have the floor at the moment. (Teach me the right way!)

You are not legitimately a Curmudgeon until someone calls you one. You can’t (won’t) assume that title by yourself. We all know this.

But how about a topic where we tell the others who did the deed to each of us and under what circumstances?

Sounds like a wonderful topic for discussion.  Does anyone out there care to share their story of how they came to have the appellation of Curmudgeon?? Continue reading “Your Curmudgeon story, please”

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Let your kids play

Article in the Feb/March 2009 edition of Scientific American Mind reports that there is a correlation between lack of unstructured play time for kids and crime, “By age 23, more than one third of kids who had gone to play-free preschools had been arrested for a felony as compared with fewer than one tenth of play-oriented preschool alums.” Continue reading “Let your kids play”

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Memes, is there a self?

memeI just finished reading a book by Susan Blackmore, The Meme Machine. 

Meme may be an unfamiliar term to you so I will attempt to explain to the best of my limited ability.  All of us are familiar with DNA and genes; these can also be termed replicators.  It is how the blueprint of a species is passed down the generations.  Modifications/mutations of DNA are the backbone of evolution.

Memes were not first proposed by Ms. Blackmore, but she explores the concept deeply.  It is her contention that what separates Homo sapiens from other species is our ability to imitate.  Continue reading “Memes, is there a self?”

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3 Buck Chuck

My lady friend has a childhood friend that is an opera singer and lives mostly in Milan, Italy and spends some time in New York City. 

Recently for health reasons she was in St. Louis for an extended stay.  Her Maestro was flying from California to New York, and decided to stop in St. Louis to visit one of his sopranos and a friend.  My girlfriend opened her house to them and had a small dinner party with the Maestro cooking.

I had asked about one of the wines that was brought that I especially liked.  It turned out it was an inexpensive wine from one of the local Italian grocery stores.  The Maestro then told how he bought 3 Buck Chuck aka Charles Shaw wines from Trader Joes 3 cases at a time.  Continue reading “3 Buck Chuck”

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Papa Deo / Papa Day-o?

Back in the day when I was married, my wife “bedopted” a little girl, Lindsey, almost from birth.  We really did not have custody of her, but her mother had issues she was working through.  The child was in our home nearly as much as she was in her mother’s for several years.

We also had a cassette tape (remember those) of children’s songs by Raffi.  Lindsey loved Raffi and we would play it for her whenever we were in the car.  Me being who I am loved to sing along on the Banana Boat song, probably because I could bellow “day-o” at the top of my voice.  Lindsey began to call be Papa Deo.  Continue reading “Papa Deo / Papa Day-o?”