We had the first snow since living with our new fireplace yesterday.  Being the safety-minded kind of guy I am, I wanted to double-check the owners manual. Good to know that the lawyers throughly checked it out. 🙄

Suppose you were in this crash... And, while the paramedics were putting the seriously injured you into the ambulance, an attorney ran up and tried to shove a business card into your (broken) hand and started to explain all the grounds you had for a lawsuit: improperly maintained road, poorly designed air bags, et cetera. Would you appreciate the attorney's actions? Now, let's assume that, instead of an attorney, it was a meteorologist who ran up to you on your gurney and told you all of the ways that climate change contributed to the accident. Do you think he would win any friends? Or, would it be better to wait until the crisis was over? During yesterday's fatal flash flood in Dallas, a number of meteorologists began tweeting about the alleged relationship between global warming and the flash flood -- even as, simultaneously, news reports were explaining that people were being pulled out of cars.  To me, these are mildly unseemly, not because of their message, but becaus...

This is from one of those annoying disclaimers at the end of medicine commercials on television. I'm sure he or she duly pondered the script (at a rate of ~$500/hr if what I've heard is correct) and decided that the word "may" needed to be inserted between Drinking Plenty of Fluids  and Reduce Your Chances of Hydration. Of course, I would ask, "May? As opposed to what?" After all, you don't need to be a doctor or a lawyer to figure out that drinking no fluids at all pretty well assures dehydration. So, how do you prevent dehydration except by drinking fluids? Chalk this up to our over-attorneyed society.