Today’s word is from an article Adam Curry read on his abbreviated Daily Source Code. The article, by Felicity Lawrence, is a wake up call for the western world’s food consumers. “The way we eat is not just ecologically unsustainable but also morally and even biologically unsustainable.”

The word is profligate. Let’s listen.

Profligate, it an adjective that, in this context, means recklessly wasteful, wildly extravagant. It can also be used a as a noun to describe a profligate person.

Adam, thank you for reading this editorial to us. I think you and Felicity draw attention to a very serious problem. Everyone should read this article or listen to Adam’s podcast.

The Article: This food racket just can’t go on

[I can no longer find the podcast online. But you might be able to find it by searching for DSC20041202.mp3. It was posted on December 02, 2004. –Scott]

Billy Joel’s third historical reference is Red China. It was the nickname given to mainland China in 1949, after the second World War. It was an derogatory term used by critics of communist China to remind us that China was communist. This nickname also helped differentiate communist Mainland China from Nationalist China, modern day Taiwan.

Today there are still two China’s. Taiwan’s ROC or Republic of China and mainland communist China, also known as the People’s Republic of China. Although most of the diplomatic world, including the U.S. operate under a One China policy. A policy that has evolved from the the cold war era when it meant there was only one China, Taiwan to the more recent view that one day Red China and Taiwan will reunite as one China.

I probably shouldn’t use the term Red China, since mainland China isn’t that red any more. Since the late seventies China has undergone many economic reforms that make it look a lot more like a market economy or capitalist economy.

According to the CIA World Fact Book China’s GDP real growth rate for 2003 was 9%. That is huge. Especially, for a country as large as China. The US boasted a 3.1% growth rate in 2003. Hard to imagine a communist country growing 10% more productive in one year.

A little note on the CIA World Fact Book. If you want a quick ten minute overview of a country or you want to know the % of arable land in Namibia the CIA Fact Book is a great resource. BTW it is .99%.

Today’s quote is from Don Marquis, an early 20th century writer, poet and cartoonist. He authored about 35 books and said this:

“If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you; But if you really make them think, they’ll hate you.”

How true. Everyone want to be smart but few want to do the learning.

As far as I can tell Joel hasn’t offered us much insight into the lyrics of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” but I think he included Doris Day because she personified the ideal, wholesome, perfect woman of the 50′s, Joel’s formative years.

Doris Day is a 20th century singer and actress. She turned 80 this year.

Her first #1 pop chart hit was “Sentimental Journey.” It was released during WWII. Let’s listen.

Eventually she grew to hate singing that song. Overexposure I guess. For me, the song that reminds me of Doris Day is Que Sera, Sera. More on that later.

In 1948, Day began her movie career in Romance on the High Seas as Miss Georgia Garrett. According to IMDB she went on to make 41 movies, including one by one of my favorite directors, Alfred Hitchcock. The movie is The Man Who Knew Too Much. Hitchcock’s remake of his own 1934 suspense/thriller. Yes he remade his own movie and did a fine job.

Back to Doris Day. In The Man Who Knew Too Much she sang Que Sera, Sera and won an oscar for her performance. And this is the song that makes me think of Doris Day. As far as I can recall this is the only Doris Day movie I have seen.

Earlier this month her son, singer, songwriter and record producer Terry Melcher died at the age of 62. Melcher’s claim to fame was in shaping the “California Sound.” He sang on the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album and produced the Byrds’ version of Bob Dylan’s Mr Tambourine Man.

Today’s word might not meet a strict, scrabble (is it in the dictionary?) definition, but I found enough sites and writing using it to meet my low standards.

I came across the word on William Gibson’s blog. An interesting thought provoking, just a little bit out there blog, that Gibson has recently returned to writing.

The word is fortean. It is an adjective derived from Charles Fort’s work. Who was Charles Fort? Good question.

Fort was an early 20th century writer and researcher who coined the term teleportation while making a name for himself researching and writing on the paranormal. Today the term fortean is used to describe weird unexplainable phenomena.

The unexplainable phenomena that Gibson refers to in his blog is the vacation that apparently he and a big shot economist at Morgan Stanley believe Americans have been enjoying. A vacation from an impending economic Armageddon caused by America’s record trade deficit. I will have to look up Armageddon but it sure sounds worse than a depression.

ForteanTimes.com offers some entertaining fortean stories.