Semi-Daily Journal

I see your child has the makings of a fine blogger!

May I suggest a blog name?

How about "Fisking Dad"

What is the sound of one hand slapping?

Did I help the American economy by buying a Ford Focus instead of an Acura Integra? I assume that you purchased the Integra because it best suited your needs at the price you were willing to pay. That's the best argument. I bought the Focus to help the American economy. That's the second best argument.

Your son has not yet learned that he is responsible for his own good time, which I will refer to as happiness but not in the Solonian definition. His argument that happiness is not in the definition of school is valid but not to the point. Happiness is part of the definition of your son.

Good one, P M Lawrence. I'll have to remember that one.

You don't use public transport/the school bus?

And you complain about others' private vehicles?

LowLife wrote: "Did I help the American economy by buying a Ford Focus instead of an Acura Integra?"

It's not that easy anymore. Would you help the American economy by buying a Volvo? Volvo's owned by Ford, after all, even if the car is made in Sweden.

Would you help the American economy by buying a foreign car that's manufactured in America?

Jeez, I hope the Ten-Year-Old hasn't been reading my blog lately. We agree about school. I suppose there's little point in telling him that school does get to be fun, but only in another eight years or so when they stop making him go.

Hm, what would you call a school where you had a good time..?

Well, college obviously :)

I don't get it: why is "tasting good" part of the definition of Caesar salad?

Ok, after reviewing my post there, I figured I should probably note that I went to a dry campus, and that by certain people's standards I would be considered straightedged.

I thought college was great because food was available on a regular schedule; was living with friends who could converse at a reasonably high intellectual level; and was able to pursue areas of study that INTERESTED me, instead of the areas that were the building blocks allowing me to study what I wanted to study.

>>You don't use public transport/the school bus?<<

We don't *have* a school bus. This is California. Prop 13, remember.

Forgive my lifelong New Yorker ignorance of California living.

The schools don't offer transportation even as an added cost option?

No private enterprise has sprung up to meet the demand?

Aren't there poor folks who don't have enough cars/time to shuttle their kids to school, and who qualify for some kind of transport aid?

Is there no public transit in your town?

Speaking of prop 13, and given the fact that you've publicly announced your April 15th tax burden, can you share with us what your property tax is? :)

No school bus? Omigod.

It's not that easy anymore. Would you help the American economy by buying a Volvo? Volvo's owned by Ford, after all, even if the car is made in Sweden

Does this argue against an existance theorem for a second best argument and can I buy a foreign car before my "buy American" father dies?

>Does this argue against an existance theorem for a second best argument

Yes.

>and can I buy a foreign car before my "buy American" father dies?

No.

whenever you blog about your kids, i read it and think they must be ridiculously smart, salingeresque even :D but what they really are, and this just came to me, is "preternatural!" like when i was ten, the most important thing in the world to me was getting home in time to watch the transformers, allegorical philosophy being just a bit beyond my grasp :D cheers!

No school bus is bad enough, but at least the school is still open. In his latest column for the NYTimes, Bob Herbert reports on a public school in Oregon that is lopping off 17 days from its academic calendar due to serious (i.e., crisis mode) budgetary problems (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/01/opinion/01HERB.html)

*sigh* I drive a 1974 Superbeetle. It is the size of a hamster on skates. Here in the rural south I am tormented/threatened by yahoos that drive Ram 6000, Chevy Likearocks, and Nissan Pathtohells trucks. These drivers believe every word of every ad ever shown about their trucks and drive as though anyone driving anything smaller than an Abrams tank is an enemy combatant. The only solace I have is that they get .3 miles to the gallon and paid 40k for the privilage.

OK, so let's do this in order...

1) In regards to the question: "What would you call a white duck that is black?"

First off, the use of rhetoric by a 10-year old is a very dangerous sign. You could end up paying for grad school if this is allowed to continue. But more importantly, think about the following sentence:

a) That white duck is black.

This is not likely to be interpreted by as a blatant contradiction by most speakers of English. Most people, if asked to explain, will say suggest that we are talking about a duck that is *normally* white, but, due to some special condition or circumstance, is now black. A linguist would agree, and probably point out some of the finer points of NP construction etc. that are at work here, to boot. Now, just because it isn't a blatant contradiction doesn't make it ineffective as a rhetorical device.

Where the parent lost the argument here was in granting the premise that school is where you have a bad time, so that a school where you had a good time would have a special name. Once you do that, the "white duck" rhetorical question is devastating on its face.

2) Caesar salad does taste good by its nature. I mean, we're talking about a hyper crispy vegetable that you can slather in fat sauce without it getting soggy or wilted.

3) The way we chose to solve the "traffic jam at school" situation was to buy a house so close by that we could walk everybody there in the morning. Now, our neighborhood is very nice, but wasn't considered the height of style until very recently, when people saw us and others walk past the log jam of cars, have the crossing guard make THEM stop while WE crossed, and then see one of us on our way back while they were still jockying for position... Yes, housing prices are *smartly* up in our neighborhood these days. :-)