Best of the Transparent Hummingbird
i am trying very hard to explain to some of the kids (read: law students) why this grand plan of theirs, which they so proudly and enthusiastically announced to me, of going to boston in LATE december from new york, by road, is the silliest idea ever:
i have pointed out to them that in december boston’s sunset is at about half past four, hat the average daily temperature is going to be close to zero and the average low is -6 deg Celsius. that all the universities will be closed for winter break so forget about observing the bustling campus life. that if you’re lucky it will simply snow a lot (and it will snow; it snows 20 days on average every december) but that if you’re unlucky you will be there right when a snowstorm hits. that snowstorms while hard to predict are not infrequent occurrences in the northeast. that when that happens you will have no means of getting out of the city once you find flights grounded and trains cancelled and know your connecting flight to singapore is taking off without you, 300km away in new york. that travel along the northeast corridor is hellish enough normally without them making a madcap drive south in the snow. and, when it emerged that one of them was going there with a hankering for deep dish pizza, that deep dish pizza (while available in boston) is a dish characteristic of chicago, not new england. this kept them quiet for a bit.
nevertheless kids being kids i am sure they will go, and having said my piece i now give them only this photo (by vaughn) since, if you can’t dissuade them from derring-do, you might as well be encouraging. the message seems appropriate.
excuse me i am scrupulous to a fault when it comes to handing over money to the taxman. there was one year my tax refund from the IRS came to exactly 44cents. which was hardly even worth the first class postage (then being 42cents) they spent to notify me.