Happy Pi Day and happy birthday to Albert Einstein. My column in Small Town Newspaper addresses these occasions, but the article isn't posted online, so please go read it at Open Salon. I'd be honored.
It's good to be a nice person--to say nice things, to do nice things, to write nice things--but I declare an end to the use of the word nice. Nice is what you say when you can't think of any other adjective. Someone shows you a picture of their back yard--that's nice. Someone tells you about their afternoon adventure--that's nice. Or someone describes their childhood in great detail and sometimes with painstaking effort--that's nice. It's a lazy word, and it's non-descriptive. Nice is like mashed potatoes with noodles and chicken gravy all in a big pile on one plate with some canned corn for garnish. Everything is the same color and texture and base substance--starch (this is a favorite Amish dish). Nice is like a partly cloudy day in April when outside feels like inside, and you can't tell a difference between the lighting and the temperature of your living room and the lighting and temperature of your front yard. Nice is a glass of lukewarm water. ...
Comments
Doh!
Mmmmm … Pi …
What a lovely and inspirational piece you have written. Regrettably we on the right hand side of the pond have anything up to 31 months of 12 days apiece in our calendar so we cannot join in your celebrations.