Desultor

Robotwisdom makes this interesting point:

Now, I pronounce that it would be unreasonable to expect all, or even most, of these Schiavo hits to mention bulimia — most of them have to do with legal and political wrangling and the course of her dying, and the cause of her condition doesn’t really directly enter into these things too much.

You’ve been caveated. Let’s make a fun comparison!

If this were science, we could easily compute an ætiology relevance coefficient, or “matter factor” for each of these cases. To educate while I obfuscate, I list each by their name’s meaning.

I wonder what today’s heavy rain turning into sleet did to the forsythia I saw in full bloom on Oxford Street yesterday? Or at least, I think it was a forsythia.

It’s pretty cool and audacious to have your flowers this early. They’re especially striking, too: they must be some fancy garden variety. The four petals are long and curled — almost confetti-like — and the sepals are a very bright red.

I wonder why they like to flower so early? I certainly haven’t seen any flying bugs yet this year, and wouldn’t expect such a fancy-looking flower to be wind-pollinated. Most forsythia species are originally Asian, so my best guess is there must be some Asian bug who does the job.