Teachers, nurses, medics, firemen and cops should all be paid more. We all should, of course, except maybe people like real estate developers and stock brokers and attorneys, although I have recently met some brilliant and funny lawyers who surprised me by being interesting and simply very good people. So attorneys shall be judged on a case-by-case basis, while stock brokers are still scheduled to be set out on a large iceberg and real estate developers, well, I won’t go into that.

But, in my worthless opinion, graphic designers are the coolest of the cool, on the whole. At least if they are good. There are, of course, wretched exceptions to any rule, like for instance an old roommate who, last I heard, broke out of a boring graphic design existence designing coupons for a retail chain and now designs signs for a hospital. Otherwise, though, graphic designers are cool.

That would actually be what I would study if I were a young guy again. I used to think being a carpenter would be the coolest job, because I love the smell of cut lumber and I love hammering nails and building things. But I have an unfortunate tendency to maim myself with power tools.

Who do you think is cool?

If you win a gold medal, you are a hero. If a building falls on you, or you pull someone out of a burning car or a river swollen by torrential rains, you are a hero, even if you are just doing your job.

But I’m thinking about other heroes who every day, at great danger or cost to themselves, care for someone else. People who give a shit when they don’t really have to, people who care when they would have a good excuse to do less.

Being a good parent is hard for anyone. I have two daughters, so I know this. How anyone can be a single parent and not fucking die is beyond my comprehension. So single parents are my personal heroes. I stayed home with a baby while my wife worked. There is nothing more soul-killing than that. The lack of sleep alone kills you, yet I had a devoted wife doing more than her share. I got so tired I almost (accidentally) burned down the house. I got so depressed and confused I could barely function around other adults.

Now my kids are bigger with other concerns. Helping them with school, loving them and supporting them takes a huge amount of energy, even for me, and my wife does more of that than I do. Yet there are single parents who not only keep their kids fed and clothed, they manage to raise them into actual human beings.

Someone who manages to do this alone is heroic. There should be parking spaces reserved everywhere for single parents; they should have a special lane reserved for them on the freeway, and they should be exempt from income and sales taxes. Among other perks.

Are you a single parent? You are my hero, if you manage that.

Michele and I were discussing the vagaries of pinging weblogs.com this afternoon (my time).

Propagandhist: do you use MT to ping?
Propagandhist: I do it by hand. MT never works for me.

[Note that this was not a one sided conversation. Michele just had all the funny lines]

Have you pinged today?

The background: grocery shopping with Alpha and Gamma at the poshest local supermarket. Gamma insists on pudding, which she clutches to her chest the rest of the time in case we change our minds. We go through the checkout with an incredibly full shopping cart. Lots of cat food, lots of stuff for the weekend, etc.

The realization: upon loading groceries and Gamma into roomy Fiat Doblo in the parking lot, I realize Gamma still has her pudding container clutched tightly in her hands. Check receipt: no pudding listed.

The question: should we have taken a second pudding for her big sister Beta, too?

Gamma: “Let’s go look at the cows.”
Miguel: “Okay.”
Gamma: “Put me on your shoulders so I can see in the window.”
Miguel: “Sure.”
Gamma: “Look, one cow is peeing and the other one is drinking it! Hah!”
Miguel: “She’s just tasting it.”
Gamma: “What are those next door?”
Miguel: “About a hundred white turkeys.”
100 White Turkeys: [stare out the window at Miguel and Gamma with dumb fascination]
Miguel: [to turkeys] “Gobble gobble gobble.”
100 White Turkeys: [in unison] “GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE!!!!!”

The real Blogger’s Manifesto.

Well, the results are in for the first Annual Feral Living Feral Valentine’s Limerick Contest. It was a very close decision, and a hotly-contested contest. Every winner receives a beautiful hi-gloss Miggie statuette.

And the winners are:

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