Another article on the new 1/9 station at the boat

My excitement over getting a new station is... incalculable. There's so much room there now! Now all they have to do (which they won't) is extend the 4/5 down to the boat as well. The tracks already run there, they just need to re-open the station for it. You laugh, it's not that far a walk, but it's damn windy all the time!

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Last week, I was on the bus going home, and we had a passenger from the Upper East Side on with us. It was so cute! Like our own little tourist, standing looking out the windshield, and marveling over the boat ride and how hilly Staten Island is! Adorable!

I shouldn't laugh. Because this is wrong.

But reading about staff-condoned cage fights at a Texas high school... damn it, it's kinda amusing!

And wrong. Very wrong.

An article on using the internet while on a jury

Clicky!

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This editorial really hit a nerve. There's close to 300 comments, and several letters on it.

Re-reading Heroes of the Valley

Really good book, although I don't think the ending hangs together as well as it might have. I can think of at least three better ways for the ending to have twisted. Oh well.

Now, over on Amazon, the top review of this book states that there's an "interesting lack of religion or spirituality" to this book. (I gotta say, I get a little tired of books where the gods are DEFINITELY real, and meddling in every niggling affair too. Hilari Bell is a good one for that - gods in her books are either explicitly dead, or distant from human affairs, or, at the very least, the main character is personally atheist (and the good guys aren't shocked or surprised at this revelation, even if they disagree), though when you read all her books in a marathon session that starts to be just as noticeable!)

I replied stating - and no spoilers here - that I didn't see it quite that way. The people's stories about their hallowed ancestors, and the various superstitions regarding the dangerous trow seem to fill the spot of religion for them. To which he replied that well, they don't worship their ancestors, so it's not quite the same thing.

Fair point, but it got me thinking - what is required to call a belief a religious belief? Wikipedia is ABSOLUTELY no help here. Lots of interesting information, but not helpful at all. (Well, that's always the way, isn't it?) Religious Tolerance isn't much better. What do you think?