Looming Deadline Studies roundup

No more thoughts on Civilization Studies, other than that if presented with the option of teaching a course on Poodles in Civilization, I probably wouldn't say no.

But a few scattered thoughts, before plunging back into Looming Deadline Studies:

-What's the deal with the dainty knuckle-rings hip women now wear? Wouldn't that be massively uncomfortable? I say this as someone who a) doesn't really wear jewelry, and b) occasionally tries to wear wedding band and engagement ring on different hands, because it does kind of look better, only to find rings in more than one location incredibly unwieldy. It took time enough to get used to wearing any rings, what with the fear-of-sinks it necessitates. And what exactly keeps a knuckle-ring on? Sleepy searching for answers tells me that nothing does - they fall off all the time. Which could be a lot of money down the drain. But even if they were of no value, they seem like this minute's drop-crotch pants - something whose faddishness is evident from the inevitable discomfort.

-Are we or are we not about to be inundated with a plague of locusts? By "we" I mean the woodsy outskirts of Princeton, NJ, and by "locusts" I mean cicadas, lest there be any nitpicking (pun intended) entomologists among my three readers. I have - because obviously - Googled 'can dogs eat cicadas,' because if there's a swarm of "Biblical" proportions as they keep saying, there's no way a dog fascinated by dried-up worms (and, more appealingly, dedicated to killing every bug that dares enter the apartment) isn't going to dig in.

-I remain more pleased than I can even express that I was born in 1983 rather than, say, 1996. Why? Because my entire youth wasn't recorded. And this is, of course, relates to parental overshare - if parents can now know everything, they can also now tell newspapers everything. Then again, the parents who comment on the stories along these lines that allow comments, to chime in that their children (who are maybe 17-27 at the time) have never tried this or that run-of-the-mill substance or activity, suggests to me that we are, if nothing else, still at a point where children know better how to work those newfangled whosawhatsis phones than their parents do.

-The problem with this contrarian complaint about dogs being allowed everywhere is that dogs are not allowed anywhere. OK, they're allowed in dog runs, on the sidewalk, and - for reasons I don't understand - almost encouraged in Uniqlo. But they're not allowed in food establishments of any kind. And that includes a small dog hidden away in a carrier - if a dog is detected, you can't go in. Restaurants with outdoor seating might allow dogs, but that can't be assumed. And even in Europe, where dogs are a good bit more welcome, supermarkets? Forget it.

OK, except sometimes in Paris. But as I understand it, this was not allowed on multiple levels.