7 June 2017

That be my wife. Dealing with me :-)

Photo courtesy: Natasha
The backstory is that this weekend Sharmila and I, after much postponement, finally sat down at our breakfast table to look at ticket prices for some trips for the girls. But moment we sat down, I noticed thru the corner of my eye that the elusive Goldfinch was at the bird feeder.

With great alacrity I jumped out of my seat to go get my camera. And with equal amount of alacrity, Natasha fished out her iPhone camera to capture the look on Sharmila’s face 🙂

7 June 2017

The meme cup brimmeth over…

In case you were wondering what all these memes are about (like you do not have anything better to do), I need to tell you about an ex-colleague of mine from DC area – Karen Hawk. Sharp as a whip and with a biting sense of humor that is guaranteed to bring the floor down, I got to know her – oh! about five or six years back.

Her daughter worked in our company already. And then one day, we hired her mother (Karen) to keep our office straightened out and above all keep me honest whenever I was in the DC office.

Next time I was in DC, I walked into our office and went straight to her cubicle. There was this elderly lady sitting at the desk – her work area extremely well organized. But what caught my eye was the poster that she had hung just behind her. It read “My Tiara is giving me a Headache”. I looked at it, I looked at her and then I burst out laughing. “I can work with you the rest of my life”, I remember telling her.

Unfortunately for me, I left that company. She still works there and keeps in touch with me. In these days of much circulated jokes, once in a while when she finds some new gems, she shoots them my way. This week, she sent me a few. And I promised her that I will convert them into memes and feature them on my blog.

So, here goes the next one… And thank you, Karen, for keeping me smiling!!! You indeed are one of my most memorable colleagues!!

Category: Humor | LEAVE A COMMENT
6 June 2017

How did that come around? – To get away “scot free”

I was reading a social discourse which talked about a certain category of folks getting away “scot free”. Which got me thinking about where could this phrase possible have come from. Of course, it means to “get away without penalty or unpunished” but how do you put a Scot in that?

Some amount of research showed that actually, this has nothing to do with the Scots. Apparently, “scot” refers to taxes. Specifically, 12th century England municipal taxes. And the Anglo Saxon word was “sceot”. But there were similar words at that time – Swedish “scatt”, Danish “scat”, Icelandic “scattur” – all meaning tax. In fact as recently as in 1921, the US Senate Committee on Finance hearings transcripts read “[The common laborer]He is scot free at 40 cents an hour”.

So “scot free” meant escaping without taxation. And all of us agree taxation is an unnecessary punishment 🙂

And that is how “scot free” came around to mean “get away without penalty”.

3 June 2017

Sometimes all you need is somebody to run with…

Still under the weather. Thought will go for a run and try to shake it off. Instead, within a few miles, the run started to shake me up. After some time the cramps were getting a little too painful to enjoy the run. Turned around and headed back to the starting point.

Just as I started the fourth mile, ran into Indrani. Turned around once again and joined her in her 5 mile run. Running with somebody else was distracting enough that I forgot about the pains. By the time we finished, I had completed six miles already.

And then went back to the trail by myself one last time to put in four more miles to make it a full ten miles.

It would be interesting to see how the body retaliates now 🙂

Category: Running | LEAVE A COMMENT
3 June 2017

From the bartender’s corner – South Side cocktail

Slightly under the weather and a little too tired with all the travel and a little spike in office activities. Sitting at home by myself, was wondering what cocktail to try. Wanted something with lime juice and sugar in it to keep energy up. Decided to try a South Side which is basically those two with gin and mint. Used the Fifty Pounds Gin. While I made it in a cocktail glass, there are other variations of this where you pour it over ice and top it off with club soda. Nice, refreshing drink. Even better suited during the daytime.