On IUC and other things.

Students at the Center have recently begun to associate the IUC program with cocaine use for the following reasons:

1. It destroys your soul.
2. It empties your wallet.
3. In spite of both these facts, you can't help wanting more.

--

In the last week, I've seen some rather strange personages in my daily rambles around the city.

1. A lanky, bedraggled and man clad only in a tattered, mud-splattered poncho (no shoes, no pants, no undergarments) wandering through the halls of the underground shopping plaza, The Diamond, in Yokohama station.  I wouldn't be surprised if he was an incarnation of the Buddha, although we are a little early for the next one to make his appearance.  I hope someone at least gave the guy some shoes, though.  It's cold.
2. A chic, statuesque elderly woman singing opera and pulling a small rolling suitcase behind her through Queen's Square in Minato Mirai.  I passed her on a ramp, and as I did, experienced a kind of strange opera Doppler Effect.  Not being an expert, I cannot say exactly what she was singing.  But she did have a lovely voice.
3. A salaryman with a face mask pulled down around his throat so he could smoke.  Dumbass.

--

The following quote, from a Nero Wolfe novel, has been with me the last week for reasons that I cannot go into at present (nothing to worry about, though):

Nothing is nonsense concerning the vagaries of human conduct.

--

Patrick Stewart is a tremendous and courageous man. I'm glad he was knighted this year, otherwise I'd have to give the Queen a severe talking to.