Cats

I was going to let the cats stay outside today. Although the temperatures have only dropped 'a notch', so that it's around 95 degrees rather than around 100 degrees, it feels like the savagery of the summer heat is gone. However, the cats are so used to the summer routine that they eagerly came in. Since I want to have them inside as much as I can, I did not fight it.

Since I had Coco and Ash inside, I went out to pick up Sammy. I was going to leave him alone if he put up any resistance at all, but as it so happens, he scarcely even meowed when I picked him up.

I think the key is to leave more food out on the patio for them overnight. I had thought of this before, and I did leave more out last night, but stuck in my own habits, it was not a lot more. Tonight, they will have plenty. They are officially off starvation rations.

Burke

Mr. Norman is writing about Burke’s first political pamphlet, “Observations”, which was on the state of the nation.

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Burke demonstrates his ability to combine specific detail with Olympian generalization. Thus a discussion of imports from Jamaica and the malign effects of the Stamp Act yields the timeless Burkean insight that ‘politics ought to be adjusted, not to human reasonings, but to human nature; of which the reason is but a part, and by no means the greatest part’.

-- Jesse Norman, “Edmund Burke”

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The habits of custom and tradition are safer guides than pure rationalism.

Sugar: The Selena Gomez Concert

Sugar reviewed another Concert. Selena Gomez. A kind of kiddy show, even though this singer is slightly older than Miley. Sugar was not thrilled, but she still does a memorable job. Her main beat these days is sports, but she ought to give all of her writing life to music, save what she might feel moved to give about her personal life and musings.

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Watering

I wasn't going to water today, letting the laziness get the better of me, especially since the worst of the heatwave is behind us. But with the extra hours they have given us, it seemed a shame not to use some of the time. For my trouble, I almost messed up Pop's phones. I let the sprinkler hit his window. I purposely wanted to get the side of the house, to protect the foundation from cracking, but I forgot that even when Pop's windows are shut, Water leaks inside when you hit it directly.

I try to be productive and that's what happens. I am surprised that Pop does not raise much of a stink at all. The repair work was significant, as he set about drying up the interior, as he even used that hand-vacuum to help dry. I was just happy when the phone rang and I heard Pop talking on it. That meant there would be no bill for having someone come to fix it.

I can still feel like a little boy who spills his drink and is braced for a motherly whirlwind.

Family Life In the Internet Age

We have another of those scary tales about losing our lives to the Internet. I'm keeping an excerpt because it is told with some style and snap. The writer, Dwight Garner, is reviewing a few books on helping people to disconnect and stay real, with a focus on the family unit and the children.

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Near-Death Experiences

In a new study, Borjigin discovered that rats show an unexpected pattern of brain activity immediately after cardiac arrest. With neither breath nor heartbeats, these rodents were clinically dead but for at least 30 seconds, their brains showed several signals of conscious thought, and strong signals to boot. This suggests that our final journey into permanent unconsciousness may actually involve a brief state of heightened consciousness.

-- Ed Yong at National Geographic

The suggestion is that near-death experiences may be real, but they are not supernatural. I guess you can say that death is a pretty traumatic and exciting event, but we just do not usually get a chance to talk about it and share with others. This great show, your life flashing before your eyes, is all your own, kind of like a last meal.

Celebrities and Stuff

Gold medalists Tatyana Firova and Kseniya Ryzhova of Russia kiss on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Women’s 4×400 relay during Day Eight of the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships Moscow 2013 at Luzhniki Stadium on August 17. By Paul Gilham/Getty Images.

-- Sully's Dish

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