Thursday, May 15, 2008
Golf?! GOLF??!!!?!?!@*!#
I almost posted about this yesterday when I first heard what Bush said about golf, but I was too flabbergasted to get it into words. Leave it to Olbermann to do the job for me. This is an impressive rant, to say the least. I'll let him speak for himself.
Also, btw, kudos to MSNBC for encouraging people to embed their video in their blogs, as opposed to suing people for doing the same. Someone, somewhere, got his/her head out of his/her ass about that kind of thing and realized that it was good advertising to put out video vignettes to a wide audience. (Duh.)
Friday, May 9, 2008
New feature you'd probably never notice
I added a Bushisms widgit to the bottom of the page, 'cause it didn't fit on the side. And, for some reason, I still get some startle value out of some of this stuff.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Those wacky Dutch!
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
The Semi-Myth of High Thread Count
The part of me that is FiberGeek must address the question of High Thread Count.
First, I don't know why this is, but I hear fellas talk about high thread count more than I hear women talk about it. Usually I think it's in the context of "impressing the ladies" (or whoever) by providing classy sheets. At times, it's been a question: "Should I get satin sheets? Or should I go with some High Thread Count? What would impress a new girlfriend more?" First of all, NEVER go with the satin sheets. Why? Two reasons: (1) They're usually polyester, which means they won't breathe, and that means unpleasant sweating -- not the good kind. (2) Someone will slide right out of bed, and that's never good. Oh, a third reason: (3) Icky, and trying too hard to look suave. Never works. Or backfires altogether.
But here's the point of this post: High thread count is one marker of a soft sheet, but it's not the only one. HTC alone is not the be-all and end-all of sheetness. It's better than those burlap sheets you have now, of course. And if the HTC sheets are all-cotton (and not a cotton-poly blend, which defeats the idea anyway), then you're doing reasonably well.
But there is another essential factor to excellent sheets, and that is staple length. Whuzza?, you may well ask. You see, there are various species of cotton. Some have short fibers and others have long fibers ... that is, their staple length varies. As an example, take a cotton ball in one hand and pull just a few fibers partly away from the ball and twist them between your thumb and forefinger. As they twist together, pull slightly further away from the ball, trying to pick up some more fibers into the twist as you go. This is essentially how threads (and yarn) are made. A cotton ball is made (I assume) from waste fibers, so they're varying lengths and mostly they are very, very short.
Most fibers, animal and plant alike, have microscopic little barbs on them that catch onto other fibers, which is how the twist holds in threads and yarn. (This is why your pet hairs stick to your clothes, furniture, and carpets too.) Short staple cotton will hold together all right (when twisted with more oomph than your fingers can provide), but, as you can imagine, they might break more often when they are very, very thin threads. If you get HTC sheets with short staple cotton, you will find after a few washings that they start to pill or feel slightly rough to the touch. This is because the short staples are starting to break apart and pull away from each other. The sheets will still feel great compared to other sheets, generally, but they are likely to wear out and tear in a relatively short period of time (depending on how you treat them, of course).
So, what do you use instead? Long staple cotton, of course. Egyptian cotton is the standard bearer for long staple cotton, and sheets (or clothing, or towels) made from Egyptian cotton are likely to be very expensive. An American version of Egyptian cotton is pima cotton (be aware that fiber content can say "pima" but not be 100% pima -- look for "Supima," which is required to be 100% pima). However, durability is exceptional, and the hand of the fabric (the way it feels to your skin) is out of this world. Towels made from Egyptian or pima cotton are tremendously absorbent and luxurious feeling. Sheets and clothing drape well and last for ages.
Another option in the sheet department is linen -- long-stapled by nature, a HTC linen sheet will also be very expensive, should last a lifetime if treated properly, and feel amazing.
Personally, I can't afford to buy fancy sheets and stuff. However, if you can afford it and want to really impress your sweetheart, think about going for the long-stapled stuff.
First, I don't know why this is, but I hear fellas talk about high thread count more than I hear women talk about it. Usually I think it's in the context of "impressing the ladies" (or whoever) by providing classy sheets. At times, it's been a question: "Should I get satin sheets? Or should I go with some High Thread Count? What would impress a new girlfriend more?" First of all, NEVER go with the satin sheets. Why? Two reasons: (1) They're usually polyester, which means they won't breathe, and that means unpleasant sweating -- not the good kind. (2) Someone will slide right out of bed, and that's never good. Oh, a third reason: (3) Icky, and trying too hard to look suave. Never works. Or backfires altogether.
But here's the point of this post: High thread count is one marker of a soft sheet, but it's not the only one. HTC alone is not the be-all and end-all of sheetness. It's better than those burlap sheets you have now, of course. And if the HTC sheets are all-cotton (and not a cotton-poly blend, which defeats the idea anyway), then you're doing reasonably well.
But there is another essential factor to excellent sheets, and that is staple length. Whuzza?, you may well ask. You see, there are various species of cotton. Some have short fibers and others have long fibers ... that is, their staple length varies. As an example, take a cotton ball in one hand and pull just a few fibers partly away from the ball and twist them between your thumb and forefinger. As they twist together, pull slightly further away from the ball, trying to pick up some more fibers into the twist as you go. This is essentially how threads (and yarn) are made. A cotton ball is made (I assume) from waste fibers, so they're varying lengths and mostly they are very, very short.
Most fibers, animal and plant alike, have microscopic little barbs on them that catch onto other fibers, which is how the twist holds in threads and yarn. (This is why your pet hairs stick to your clothes, furniture, and carpets too.) Short staple cotton will hold together all right (when twisted with more oomph than your fingers can provide), but, as you can imagine, they might break more often when they are very, very thin threads. If you get HTC sheets with short staple cotton, you will find after a few washings that they start to pill or feel slightly rough to the touch. This is because the short staples are starting to break apart and pull away from each other. The sheets will still feel great compared to other sheets, generally, but they are likely to wear out and tear in a relatively short period of time (depending on how you treat them, of course).
So, what do you use instead? Long staple cotton, of course. Egyptian cotton is the standard bearer for long staple cotton, and sheets (or clothing, or towels) made from Egyptian cotton are likely to be very expensive. An American version of Egyptian cotton is pima cotton (be aware that fiber content can say "pima" but not be 100% pima -- look for "Supima," which is required to be 100% pima). However, durability is exceptional, and the hand of the fabric (the way it feels to your skin) is out of this world. Towels made from Egyptian or pima cotton are tremendously absorbent and luxurious feeling. Sheets and clothing drape well and last for ages.
Another option in the sheet department is linen -- long-stapled by nature, a HTC linen sheet will also be very expensive, should last a lifetime if treated properly, and feel amazing.
Personally, I can't afford to buy fancy sheets and stuff. However, if you can afford it and want to really impress your sweetheart, think about going for the long-stapled stuff.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Speaking, once again, about Albert Hofmann
Sadly, Dr. Hofmann passed away on Tuesday, at a ripe old age. NYT Obit here.
And, just to be clear, I haven't spoken this much about Albert Hofmann in a short space of time before in my entire life. I'm not, like, obsessed with Dr. Hofmann. But he (and Cary Grant and Tim Leary) all have convinced me that, if you take a lot of the stuff, you may live a long life and look relatively young while you're doing it.
(Once again, this is not advocacy; it is simply a non-scientific observation based on a very small sample.)
And, just to be clear, I haven't spoken this much about Albert Hofmann in a short space of time before in my entire life. I'm not, like, obsessed with Dr. Hofmann. But he (and Cary Grant and Tim Leary) all have convinced me that, if you take a lot of the stuff, you may live a long life and look relatively young while you're doing it.
(Once again, this is not advocacy; it is simply a non-scientific observation based on a very small sample.)
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Fascinating (speaking as an anthropologist, anyway)
Check out this blog entry and its comments on BoingBoing today!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
LoC
On this date in 1800, the Library of Congress was established, with an initial outlay of 5,000 smackers. I want to write up some sort of personal homage to the LoC, where I used to go to study when I was a grad student in DC ... but not now. Soon.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Squeaky
He's going to Cat Heaven today. Ol' Squeakster will go to curl up in some eternal comfy lap of love, and end his troubles. I'm gonna miss the old guy. Darn it.
Roy Orbison
He would have been 72 today. He died 20 years ago. He always seemed much older to me, for some reason ... maybe it was his voice. It seemed so eternal, somehow. One of those voices that makes the back of your neck prickle when it hits certain notes, as though the vibrations of his vocal cords are in harmony with some life force within you. Yeah, that's it.
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