While Grown, Millionaire Men Cried after Losing a Schoolyard Game...

...dozens were killed in Gaza airstrikes and additionally an innocent boy was beaten by police.  These story threads are presented successively with complete unawareness and a lack of any perspective.

Photos of two people beaten Tuesday (David Luiz and Tariq Abu Khdeir), only one by life 

Brazilian soccer shirts, 98% off

Probably faked, but haha...

Like chocolate after Valentine's Day, tomorrow will be an opportune day to stock up on apparel for the Brazilian national team.  Germany male-raping your national team 7-1 will do that.

"You always buy just one tomato,"

...the check-out cashier said to me yesterday as I blushed tomato-red.  Yes, it's true.  I typically buy just one tomato.  One tomato is all I need.  I buy tomatoes only for myself, and I live close enough to the grocery store and eat them irregularly enough that I buy them as I need them and I always have fresh tomatoes on my counter.

I was more taken aback by being noticed.  I grocery shop typically twice a week, and I had myself recognized the cashier.  But I assumed from her perspective I was among the faceless mass of hundreds of produce-buyers she sees each week.  Yet among us all I was labeled as a tomato eccentric.  Walking home I thought to make salsa soon just for an excuse to buy multiple tomatoes at once.

But her one little comment ballooned into social paranoia: who else is noticing me?  Am I projecting other weird, OCD habits?  Robotic regimentation?

During college, I was a regular at Einstein Bagels and my usual order - and I remember it perfectly - was a toasted cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese and a blueberry strudel muffin.  We gave our names like Starbucks as our orders were prepared and pretty soon the manager Stephanie started calling out to me as I waited in line well before the counter, "raisin bagel with cream cheese, T.J.?"  The first time I could only think to call back, "am I that boring?!"  Even if she didn't say it, the cosmic answer was was probably "yes".  I started varying my order after that.

Yesterday's tomato incident might be the universe calling again.  Unfortunately, there are few true substitutes for tomatoes-on-the-vine.  Canned diced don't go well on sandwiches.

"I am lonely," said the Moon

Via Poorly Drawn Lines.

Now This Is Summer

Newspaper boys cool of in a New York City park fountain, April 1916.

Via National Geographic Found.

Fireworks Every Day but the Fourth

Boston's 4th of July fireworks over the Charles are cancelled tomorrow due to the approaching Hurricane Arthur and have instead been moved to tonight.  Next door, Somerville's fireworks always have been scheduled for tonight as well.  However, if they get rained out tonight they'd instead be moved to the 10th - a week later and still (inconveniently) a Thursday.  July 3rd is also Norwalk's traditional firework date.   This is because Norwalk is a cheap town, and does not like to pay holiday wages to its fireworks crew.  The decision was made several days ago to postpone Norwalk's fireworks to the 5th.  My only hope to see live fireworks tomorrow is triumphant yet reckless fans of the Brazil x Colombia World Cup match tomorrow afternoon.

White Noise, White Light

White Noise

When the low temperature at night is no lower than the 70s, I'm most certainly using an air conditioner & fan combo to keep cool and be able to sleep through morning.  My apartment is on the fourth floor, and collects much of the heat from the bottom three.  This situation is nice during the winters, when I only even open my radiators for the most frigid days, but more problematic during the muggier months.

A helpful side-effect of an AC in a small bedroom coupled with a fan at the head of the bed is all the white noise being generated.  That with the coolness greatly eases sleeping.  In early July last summer, I actually slept through a fire alarm and I completely didn't hear (perhaps with white noise, there can be too much of a good thing).  Only the next morning I found out about the minor basement apartment apartment fire when I walked out for work and saw some traumatized residents sitting on an ambulance's bumper.  If a fireman knocked on my door during the building evacuation, I slept through that, too.

White Light

Although I failed to hear any alarm over the sounds of the fan and air conditioner, I was awoken briefly that morning (4am or so) by the emergency response vehicles' flashing lights.  I recall that they seemed more yellow than red and having the annoyed thought that it was too early for the road construction crews to start working.  Then I just rolled over, put the extra pillow over my eyes, and seconds was sleeping again.

View from bed at 6:03am, July 1st, 2014

In my bedroom, sound is muffled but light is not.  Sunrise was at 5:10am today, and the blinds on my south-facing window are poor enough that the morning's rays woke me up at 5:36am and approximately this time every morning during the summer months, a good half-hour before the alarm I set.  Although I do have heavy curtains which do block-out the sun, unfortunately they also block my window air conditioner unit.  I'd much rather face the light than lack air conditioning.  Although it's possible to Macgyver to solution to my too-long curtains using an elaborate series of clothespins, I have to admit I increasingly enjoy my natural, sun-light alarm, being greeted by the dawn each day.