These Times

Random thoughts for a day in January

Kirk Ericson | Jan 02, 20250

I was 7 or 8 when I first heard a person use the word “decapitate.” I asked what it meant, and the person said it means to have one’s head cut off. I was disturbed, because I didn’t know that level of barbarity could exist in this world. Once I absorbed that news, I wondered why the word “cap” was in “decapitate.” Maybe it was a way to say you’d lose your ability to wear a cap? But why not “dehatitate?” It seemed that all caps were hats, but not all hats were caps ... At that moment, if someone had asked me what I was thinking, I likely would have said, “Uh, nothing.”

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Some people believe Jesus is returning soon. Imagine packing for that trip.

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One way to endure an annoying person is to realize it’s worse being an annoying person than it is to being around an annoying person. Mark your blessings.

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The three strikes rule was introduced to baseball in 1863, according to ESPN.com. I bet there’s been at least one criminal in the history of U.S. crime who thought, while contemplating an especially long prison term after her or his third serious felony, “I wish baseball had four strikes.” And perhaps a victim of a criminal’s third strike has thought, “I wish baseball had two strikes.” It seems an odd way to exercise criminal justice — applying a rule of baseball to jurisprudence.

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A friend recently introduced me to some slang: “Niblings.” It’s like “siblings,” but refers to one’s nieces and nephews.

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Robots don’t have bad days, but they also don’t have good days.

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I recently received a cooking pan from a friend, and it quickly became my favorite cooking pan. I never thought I’d ever, ever, ever turn into the type of person who would have a favorite cooking pan. Life is unpredictable.

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The definition of earning “good money” should depend on whether you like your job. If you like your work, you’re making good money, regardless of what you’re being paid. If you hate your job and you’re making $1 million, you’re making bad money.

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I like Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, mostly because you never have to struggle to remember what day of the week it is.

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Watching YouTube is like eating potato chips. You can’t be satisfied with just one.

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Some dogs out on walks act as though they’re taking their owners on walks. They’re the dogs walking as far ahead of their owners as possible, constantly looking back, urging the person at the end of the leash to keep up because it’ll be good for them.

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Being around our local salmon-carcass-filled creeks this fall might have made one wonder whether a scale exists to measure odor, much as there are scales for sight, sound and taste. There is. It’s called the Odor Intensity Referencing Scale. It runs from 0 (no perceptible smell) to 4 (intense smell.) But I couldn’t find a scale that ranks odors from pleasant to putrid. If such a scale exits, I’d give rotting salmon a 4-plus, then affix a Mr. Yuk sticker to the immediate right of the plus sign.

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Many humans get extremely attached to items that once belonged to someone else, especially a loved one who has died. A father’s watch is a good example. I’ve never felt such an attachment. I have a compass that belonged to my father, but I never take it out and think, “Oh, this belonged to my father.” To me, it’s just an item that was temporarily owned my father. Nothing more. But my dead father is present to me in many other ways beyond the objects he owned — in what he said, in what he did and in what he is.