Random Notes from a Crank

This weekend, our dog Darby was innocently doing one of the activities she really enjoys doing, which is running like a dog on amphetamines all around the backyard, and she jumped over the short semicircular wall we have around the perimeter of the back patio, landing on the hard surface, and a tremendous yelping and whining ensued as she skidded out down toward the chain link fence. After a call to the on-call vet because something obviously happened and she no longer would put weight on back left leg, I was told to take a wait-and-see approach while giving her baby aspirin. The injury didn't get much better over the weekend, so I took her to vet this morning to get it checked out. She's got the dog version of torn ACL. Because of the vet's schedule, she couldn't get in for surgery until Monday. Goodbye federal tax return, but the worst part, obviously, is Darby's pain and the long recovery ahead. Not good.

On a nostalgic whim I purchased the album, circa 1993, God Shuffled His Feet by the Crash Test Dummies. It was cheaper to buy the album than downloading it.

I'm sure many of you remember the hit "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm," and I always enjoyed the band's interesting lyrics. Mrs. Nasty hates them because of the lead singer's voice and told me as much this afternoon. But here are snippets from each song on the album for my and possibly your enjoyment:

• "But God said nothing/ So someone asked him, 'I beg your pardon:/ I'm not quite clear about what you just spoke--/Was that a parable, or a very subtle joke?'" from "God Shuffled His Feet"
•  "Times when the day is like a play by Sartre/ When it seems a bookburning's in perfect order--" from "Afternoons and Coffeespoons"
• "They shook and lurched all over the church floor./ He couldn't quite explain it./ They'd always just gone there." from "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm"
• "Your thumb and forefinger supposed to show you're not a wild beast./ You can hear their noises at night time./ They don't have to keep a certain bedtime." from "In the Days of the Caveman"
• "Sometimes I suffer from distractions like/ Why does God cause things like tornadoes and train wrecks?" from "Swimming In Your Ocean"
• "Well take my fingers, what do fingers really mean to me?/ You can easily look them up in the dictionary./ They call them digits, or technically they're known as the 'phalanges." from "Here I Stand Before Me"
• "Running into you like this without warning/ Is like catching a sniff of tequila in the morning." from "I Think I'll Disappear Now"
• "How does a duck know what direction south is?/ And how to tell his wife from all the other ducks?" from "How Does a Duck Know?"
• "What if the artists ran the TV?/ All the ads would be for fine scotch whiskey:/ Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, the whole single malt family." from "When I Go Out with Artists"
• "She could not control them, they kept her up nights./ I know what you're thinking. I haven't been drinking." from "The Psychic"
• "The maidens had other plans for the two knights./ They'd give them potions/ And make them see dreams and lights." from "Two Knights and Maidens"

In the April issue of The Atlantic, there's an article about Ben Bernanke that's worth a read: "The Villain."