This week, not much to report.

I do have one pet peeve that keeps on popping up. Could we please all agree on the airplane flight metaphors? There seems to be an unhealthy number of flight altitudes floating around in conversations I hear. For example, I heard somebody say this week "Just give me the 30,000 foot version". I've heard everything from 10,000 feet to 100,000 feet. Frequently someone will really think he or she knows what he/she is talking about, and will throw in an increment of 5000, as in "Well, here's 45,000 foot view of the situation". These are usually silly and pointless. It would suffice to say "cut to the chase", or "just give me an overview". One problem is that people typically use the number they remember from the pilot's announcement on the last flight they took ("We have reached our cruising altitude of 52,000 feet, and I'm going to turn off the fasten seatbelt light"). But if I'm not mistaken, these numbers are always different. Also, nothing looks like much of anything from above 50,000 feet. For me, the views aren't that interesting unless I'm taking off or landing. This means that if I had my choice, I'd prefer the view from 5000 feet, thank you very much.

Also, one thing that has always bugged me about sweaters. They are harsh on my elbow skin. Every time I rest my elbow on a table with a sweater on, it makes a semi-permanent waffle pattern. Besides the fact that this is annoying, it is also mildly uncomfortable. A related point: what's up with the elbow patch on sweaters and blazers, anyway? I have yet to see any article of clothing that has been so abused in the elbows that it would warrant this kind of overkill protection. It's not like all of us wear our nice tweed jackets to play rugby or compete in arm wrestling tournaments. So I've got an idea. Sew the patches on the INSIDE of the sweater elbows. Voila! No ugly elbow patch is visible, and resting of arms on tables is much more comfortable.