When
· Naughties
· · 2004
· · · November
· · · · 10 (2 entries)
455 Grams · At the joint where I stop for coffee most mornings, there’s a little notice taped to the counter for the staff. It says “One pound = 455 grams.” This has been bothering me for weeks. This morning something snapped and I said to the pretty sales-girl “You know, that’s wrong.” “What?” “It says 455 grams but it’s really 454.” “What?” “That little sign there, it’s wrong, there are really only 454 grams in a pound.” “WHAT?” She wasn’t parsing me, and I was getting rattled. I think I failed to charm her. Anyhow, there are really only 453.592.
1000 Thanks · I just hit the publish button for the thousandth time, which is a good occasion once again to thank you, my partners out there in the Great Conversation. Maybe I’ll get bored but at the moment I couldn’t imagine not doing this. When I play Lego with the kid he’ll often ask “What are you making, Daddy?” and I’ll say “I don’t know, let’s see what it turns out to be.” The same is true not just of ongoing but of the millions of others who, given the freedom to write, write. A few (not me) may know what they’re trying to end up with, but as a group, we’re snapping together little bright-coloured pieces. Sometime, we’ll find out what we’ve been building. I can wait.
