Keeping Current

Edgar Degas self-portrait.

I might have to stop reading for awhile. My brain is awash in
gibberish and horror culled from a combination of today's paper, some magazines lying around the house and trivia from the Internet that seeps in when I log on to check my email. Once it's all inside my head, who knows how it impacts me; it can't be good. Here are some random facts I ingested this morning along with my spinach omelet:

The French Impressionist painter Edgar Degas once said, "The most beautiful things in art come from renunciation."

According to a survey of 600 college students, and who cares what they think since probably most of them were high on something at the time, there are differences between "dog people" and "cat people." Dog lovers are more outgoing and energetic while cat owners are more neurotic, but more intelligent.

Hillary Clinton wrote a book with a "team of book people" who she said "made sense of my scribbles." The reviewer says it could be used as a doorstop but don't try reading it. Clinton got a $14 million advance from the publisher.

One hour of less sleep per night raises the risk for obesity.

In Las Vegas, a husband and wife walked into a pizza parlor, shot two policemen dead, then went over to a Wal-Mart and killed someone else. They then both committed suicide.

Actress and model Brooke Shields has gained ten pounds and she says she doesn't care, she just wants to be a good mother.

A former Olympic swimmer was in an ATV accident and severed her spinal cord. Despite that, her husband says she awoke in "great spirits" and is "her usual ebullient self," and is busy entertaining everyone in the ICU. (Who knew spinal cord injuries were so funny?)

I am going to renounce the news and hope to make some great art.