Midweek mini-rants

1. So my dentist's office is switching to a new electronic records system which should decrease the number of forms patients have to fill out (good!), but in order to make the switch, they need every patient to fill out a big pile of forms (bad!) that required me to write my name, address, phone number, and other common info four or five different times in spaces too small to hold all the necessary information (very bad!). By the fifth time I wrote my address, it looked like what would happen if a mouse scampered across an ink pad and then danced across the page. I drew the line, however, at writing down all those incomprehensible numbers from the back of my insurance card, primarily because I don't carry a magnifying glass with me. Let someone with younger eyes decipher those numbers.

2. I'm reading a new and very interesting bit of academic prose that does not, thankfully, indulge in my least favorite kind of thesis statement: "In this book I argue that blah blah blah." Instead, it keeps making the title of the book the subject of sentences. Suppose the book is named "Extremely Clever Title"; repeatedly--like at least once per page--the author writes something like "Extremely Clever Title argues this..." or "Extremely Clever Title considers that...." Which, I suppose, would be a helpful reminder for readers incapable of remembering the title of the book, but on every page? How dumb does Extremely Clever Title think its readers are?

3. And speaking of dumb, what kind of action-movie-addicted idiot thinks that all it takes  to take over a country's government is a hijacked helicopter and a few hand grenades? Helicopter dude says "Hand over the government or I'll toss another grenade at this big imposing building"; are the Powers That Be going to fold up and say, "Oh okay, if you insist, land your helicopter right here and we'll give you the keys to all the important offices. Just put the grenades away and we'll forget this ever happened." 

Who would do that? More likely helicopter guy lands the helicopter and hands over the grenades and then the PTBs hand him a big pile of medical forms and ask him to read the numbers off the back of his insurance card. That'll show him who's boss!