2005-02-12 - 12:18 a.m. Tonight I went to a dinner party at the home of a couple I'd never met before. It turns out they live...in the apartment I lived in for three years in Park Slope. Freaky? You betcha. And one of their best friends turns out to be a coworker of mine, and one of their old coworkers is a good friend of mine. Some serious Scrabble was played (they're the kind of people who know all the 50-point 2-letter words, the Hebrew alphabet, the words that use "q" and no "u," etc.) and at one point I played what I thought was a real word, "opticon." No one challenged me, mostly out of pity as the bulk of my turns were about "cat" and "it," but it turns out "opticon" is not a word after all. But it should be. So I hereby define "opticon" as a digital sighting device used by sailors. Perhaps its "street" definition could be any tool that enables one to look at a situation more clearly, or a trope that gives hope when we're lost at sea. Hey, it's the return of the Friday Five! 1) Would you rather live in a world with or without technology such as computers, cars, airplanes, bombs? With 2) If you had to live without either heating in your house or air conditioning, which one would you keep? I'd keep the heat, possibly even in summer. 3) If you had to own five dogs, what kind would you get? "Had to?" Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen, Basset, Redbone, Pointer, and a Corn Nut. 4) If the world had a front porch, what would you do on it? Polish my opticon. 5) Would you rather live in a neighborhood where you know all of your neighbors by name, or where everyone sticks to their own business? Can''t I have both? thoughts? (4 comments so far) previous - next blog archive contact