Sunday, May 24, 2009

Questions


I've been pondering some big questions . . .


Who thought up those dumb graduation caps? And why are we still making grads wear them?
Why is “Pomp and Circumstance” played at graduation ceremonies? And why do I get teary every time I hear it?
Why would anyone want to live in Dallas?



Why is the water on the gulf coast beaches of Louisiana BROWN?

Why do people build their houses where a hurricane will destroy them?


This picture shows Holly Beach, Louisiana before and after Rita.



And here are some houses that have been rebuilt on Holly Beach.



Why does my husband take pictures of dead animals?



How can people eat crawdads? Eeeeeeew!


Why is it taking FOREVER for the repair/remodel people to finish my house?



Why is 98% of my snail mail junk or bills? (Actually, I think I know the answer to that one. It’s because all the people I really want to hear from now communicate with me via email—except my sister, who refuses to enter the internet age. Come to think of it, she seldom sends me anything by snail mail, either. Fortunately, she does like to use the telephone.)



Why is it that when I’m itching to get back onto the internet after several days away, my high speed connection disintegrates into a crawl?


And why did I wait two days to call the cable company, when it only took a few minutes of guidance for me to return the speed to its usual fine performance?


Do you have any answers for me?

(Dr. Lobo, I know you always have DETAILED answers. Please give my other readers a week to respond before you explain everything to us. Okay, Sweetheart? Love you!)



14 comments:

drlobojo said...

I love you too dear.

drlobojo said...

"Why does my husband take pictures of dead animals?"

Just think of it as stilled life.

drlobojo said...

"How can people eat crawdads?"

Just think of them as land lobsters.

drlobojo said...

"Who thought up those dumb graduation caps? And why are we still making grads wear them?"

Short answer: Oxford and Cambridge

Long answer: "In 1893, an Intercollegiate Commission made up of representatives from leading institutions was created, to establish an acceptable system of academic dress. The Commission met at Columbia College (now Columbia University) in 1895 and adopted a code of academic regalia, which prescribed the cut and style and materials of the gowns, as well as determined the colors which were to represent the different fields of learning. In 1932 the American Council on Education (ACE) authorized the appointment of a committee "to determine whether revision and completion of the academic code adopted by the conference of the colleges and universities in 1895 is desirable at this time, and, if so, to draft a revised code and present a plan for submitting the code to the consideration of the institutional members of the Council." The committee reviewed the situation and approved a code for academic costumes that has been in effect since that year. A Committee on Academic Costumes and Ceremonies, appointed by the American Council on Education in 1959, again reviewed the academic dress code and made several changes.[29] In the U.S., academic dress is now rarely worn outside commencement ceremonies or other academic rituals such as encaenia."

drlobojo said...

"Why is “Pomp and Circumstance” played at graduation ceremonies?"

"The Pomp and Circumstance Marches (full title "Pomp and Circumstance Military Marches"), Op. 39 are a series of marches for orchestra composed by Sir Edward Elgar."

"In the United States, the trio section Land of Hope and Glory of March No. 1 is sometimes known simply as "Pomp and Circumstance" or as "The Graduation Song", and is played as the processional tune at virtually all high school and college graduation ceremonies.[5] It was first played at such a ceremony on 28 June 1905, at Yale University, where the Professor of Music Samuel Sanford had invited his friend Elgar to attend commencement and receive an honorary Doctorate of Music. Elgar accepted, and Sanford made certain he was the star of the proceedings, engaging the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the College Choir, the Glee Club, the music faculty members, and New York musicians to perform two parts from Elgar's oratorio The Light of Life and, as the graduates and officials marched out, Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1. Elgar repaid the compliment by dedicating the Introduction and Allegro to Sanford later that year.[6] The tune soon became de rigueur at American graduations, but then as a processional at the opening of the ceremony, instead of the original recessional by Yale.[7][8] The song is also well known as the famous entrance theme of Professional Wrestler Randy "Macho Man" Savage.

"And why do I get teary every time I hear it?"

You're an old softy?

drlobojo said...

"Why is the water on the gulf coast beaches of Louisiana BROWN?"

Mississippi river silt and western tidal flows.

drlobojo said...

"Why do people build their houses where a hurricane will destroy them?"

No imagination and/or cussedness.

drlobojo said...

"Why would anyone want to live in Dallas?"

Some answers are know only to God.

drlobojo said...

"Why is it taking FOREVER for the repair/remodel people to finish my house?"

They are waiting for the bribe.

drlobojo said...

"Why is it that when I’m itching to get back onto the internet after several days away, my high speed connection disintegrates into a crawl?"

Cause your son unplugged his wyfi device and loosened the cable connector.

"And why did I wait two days to call the cable company, when it only took a few minutes of guidance for me to return the speed to its usual fine performance?"

You are flawed.

drlobojo said...

"Dr. Lobo, I know you always have DETAILED answers. Please give my other readers a week to respond before you explain everything to us. Okay, Sweetheart?"

No

Linda said...

Having lived in Texas for 22 years (near both Dallas and Houston) and hating the traffic, slurping (and loving) crawfish bisque, and experiencing 4 terrifying hours of the "dirty" side (is there a clean side?) of Rita--75 miles inland--I have no answers for you.

But these experiences did make me appreciate and adore Oklahoma in a way that growing up here never could. We moved back one month after Rita, and I love this place with all my heart. I'll take my chances with tornadoes over hurricanes any day of the year. :))

Linda said...

Oh, and I forgot the part that will make you go "ewwwwwwww". I swam in the brown waters off the coast of Texas.

We were told the water is brown because of "silt" and "tides". OK, don't other coastlines (with clear water) have the same things?

drlobojo said...

Well Linda replying on behalf of or instead of bookwoman silt particles range between 1⁄256 and 1⁄16 mm and is often called rock dust or glacial flour. The silt in the water along the Texas coast is also mainly due to the outflow of the Mississippi River and is composed mainly of glacial flour eroded out of the drainage basins of the Missouri/Mississippi Rivers both of which drain mainly areas covered with continental glaciers during the pleistocene. One way to look at it would be to think of the suspended silt in those Texas waters as being sent down there from Canada by ice and water over a very long time.

This kind of answer is what bookwoman was trying to prevent me from giving to her "rhetorical(?)" questions.