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January 3, 2007

1.3.07

Today's word is optimist

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Jim: A Simple Letter

Dear Cousin Lester:

Things have been pretty busy. Ma lost a leg tripping over that stump between here and the outhouse. So I whittled her a wooden one using that same stump. Finally, a good reason to pull it up!

A skunk sprayed Sissy last week. She smells awful but keeps the skeeters away.

Both cows stopped giving milk so we lost that income. Great steaks, though.

Now it’s been raining and the radio says most of these farms are going to flood.

But that’s okay. I’ve been meaning to learn how to swim anyway.

Take care,

Your Cousin Cletus

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Jeff R.: Epimetheus and his Brother

It was a paradox of the early 21st century that pundits who were the most optimistic about the power of technology to solve problems facing mankind were simultaneously the most pessimistic about the geopolitical future. The explaination is simple: for much of mankind, the chief problem was 'How can I kill a large number of my neighbors on the cheap?'

Of course, as usual, these predictions were both too expansive and too narrow as Earth began the violent transition from the age of thermonuclear missiles, network computing, and heart transplants to that of implant bombs, quantum cryptopods, and tailored genomes...

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