Without Comment

1) On the way to work today, I was behind a car that had its rear-end festooned with bumper stickers. That’s often a fun peek into a narcissist’s psyche. This little red Toyota had a variety of easily readable expressions, among them: Impeach Bush! Iran has no WMD either! Support our Troops: Bring Them Home! There was also a Darwin fish. And there were many more. I got the picture, and I’m sure you get the picture. Again, this is without comment—you have no idea, for example, whether I agree or disagree with, say, “Support our Troops: Bring Them Home!” There were, however, two circular purple stickers that I couldn’t make out. Leaning forward in my seat, I inched as close as possible to the rear bumper. Given my military style haircut, the driver might have gotten nervous that I was trying to be intimidating were it not for the fact that I drive an orange Honda Element rather that a black F250 pickup. Finally I made out the purple stickers: they were astrological charts! Interestingly, this made the driver less complex and less interesting.

2) I certainly am guilty of assuming that, more or less, everyone is interested in the same things that interest me. How could they not be? As a corollary, surely everyone is acutely aware of all the controversies that, on a daily basis, attract my attention. Well, the perfect refutation for this assumption showed up today in our local newspaper, the Nashua Telegraph. In an article entitled Nashua picked as charter school site (registration required) we read:

NASHUA – The city will soon be home to a new charter school focused on science and math, with classes expected to begin in the fall.

Organizers of The Academy for Science and Design, a school for middle- and high-school aged students, say they have chosen Nashua as the location for the school. (emphasis added)

If the decision makers, at any point in the process, had any familiarity with the circles I travel, there is no way that name would have survived.