Short one tonight. I just spent a grueling two hours with a bathroom upgrades salesman.

One of the lessons I’ll have to learn as a homeowner is never to say yes when a salesperson comes around and says, “Hey, we’ll just send a guy around to give you a quick estimate; tell you about our sale prices. No pressure.”

It ends up as 120 minutes of close interaction (with visual aids) in which a poor working stiff brings out all his hyperbole and powers of persuasion, talking in the “when” mode while I’m keeping to the “if” mode.

In the end I told him I never make such decisions on the same day, as a matter of policy. He then called his boss and asked him if they could offer me the job at parts plus labor only, just because they want to list an address where they’ve done a job in this area on an advertising card. I still said no, and the estimate price jumped back up a couple thousand.

I think it would have been great to do, and I’m convinced the product is well worth the cost. But I don’t have the money, and I ended feeling guilty I’d wasted his time.

He went off disappointed.

But I guess he’d be more disappointed if I ordered the work and couldn’t pay for it.

With Google Earth, you can zoom very close to the masterpieces in the Prado Museum in Madrid. (via Very Short List)

Cold and snow (actually snow and cold, reading left to right) returned today. But although the temperature never topped 25°, most of the snow disappeared anyway. Go Sun!

Yesterday was a weird day. I missed not one but two appointments—my mind was obviously poorly seated in its housing. And my post on foods I don’t like—which was, frankly, a desperation post, composed because I couldn’t think of a good idea—garnered a fair number of comments and got linked both by Hunter Baker and the Thinklings.

Which shows that you just never know. And you may quote me on that.

So, on the principle that if something works you should beat it to death, I shall follow up with a post on Things I Don’t Like At All, But That Are Extremely Popular.

1. Sports. I don’t wonder why other people like sports. I have one semi-sport (live steel) that I enjoy myself, so I can comprehend the fact that other people find sports engaging and life-enhancing. I just can’t share the experience. Sports, for me, have always been merely a way to exhibit my inferiority in a good, strong, public light. Continue reading 10 more anathemas →

Libraries Get Some Relief From Stimulus Package. Several billion dollars appears to be available for state education programs, and potentially state libraries, in the new economic stimulus law. I don’t suppose money for schools and libraries is unacceptable in a law targeting the general economy, but the headline struck me the wrong way. Liberals seem to believe all government programs righteous and should not be restricted, even by natural limitations like not enough money to go around. The Chattanooga libraries, for example, are struggling, and I’d like to see them get the resources and leadership they need, but I don’t want the Feds to overtax the successful people in our country to funnel money into my city. The libraries should be supported by the community and the state.

He says we’re in hard times, but he’s hopeful for us “because I believe the coming years are going to reveal some pernicious weeds in our culture for what they are.”

Andrew Klavan talks about reality finding its way out in the liberal film on Richard Nixson. Of course, he says, “This is still a Hollywood film, after all. Nixon gets no credit for helping to expose Communist infiltration in American government, or for stopping the spread of Communism in Asia through his hard line war policies. The left takes no responsibility for the millions of murders brought about by the coming of ‘peace.’ And, of course, we hear that the slaughter-happy Khmer Rouge was a creation of American policy: that comforting old leftist nursery story that no evil exists except when we make it—so if we’re very, very good, the bad men won’t hurt us.”

But there aren’t any bad men. Don’t we all know that? There are only misunderstood men. Like the Buffalo, New York, man who worked to improve the perception of Muslims in America. He is accused of beheading his wife. I’m sure there’s a misunderstanding.

I need to stop reading the news.