The Writer's Poke

Anna died. Why do we care? What did she ever do to make us care? Every death is tragic, I suppose, but when the famous die, are their deaths any more tragic than anyone else's?

I've been using Netflix since 2003, and the service is great. Every so often, I ask my friends and colleagues if they use it, and over the years, only a handful have indicated that they have. If you like movies, this is one of the best ways I know to keep up with everything that gets released on DVD. Keeping track of all the new releases can feel like a full-time job, and it's easy to let that movie you were meaning to watch on DVD slip though to the dark pit of your memory. Anyway, if you don't watch that many movies, Netflix still has a plan that would fit your needs. At one point, I was on the eight movies out at a time plan, and that was a lot. Right now I'm at four out at a time, and that's about right for me. If any of you are Netflix members, I'd love to add you to my Friends list. Just let me know. :)

How absurd is this? I heard on the radio this week that politicians in the Cities are interested in banning replica guns. They can, after all, be used to "intimidate" people. Real guns, on the other hand, are just fine I guess. I did some more digging, and apparently these toy guns do fire bullets, just plastic little pellets -- non-lethal. So, we're banning non-lethal "toys" and allowing the lethal weapons to remain legal? I wish I was a stand-up comic, because here would be the place for the punch line. http://www.startribune.com/462/story/975995.html

I have worn a size 12 shoe since high school. No matter how snug the shoe was, if I liked it, and if it was a size 12, that's what I bought. Then, about a year ago, I had my first experience with gout. Boy is that painful. Even then, it never dawned on me that moving up in shoe size might be a good idea. Last week I went to a shoe store that still uses salespeople -- ones that still measure your feet. And I learned sometime. In length, my foot is indeed a 12. But other parts of my foot measure out to 13. The salesperson said I might be binding my feet. That image stuck with me, and I decided to buy a size 13 as a test. So far, so good. I'm now in the process of throwing out all of my "snug" size 12's. Don't ever get too attached to a number.