never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right

1. What was the most unintentionally stupid thing that someone has said to you this week?
   I haven't heard much this week that's been too stupid, really. Last week, though, I wore an outfit that hasn't been trotted out in quite some time. One colleague told me that I looked "so grown up!" Another told me that I looked "very skinny!" And when I relayed that to one of my supervisees, she responded with a long pause, and then, "Well, I do kind of like your shoes."
2. Star Trek or Star Wars?
   Star Trek, of course. No contest. I have almost zero tolerance for Star Wars anymore.
3. What outfit or article of clothing does your spouse/significant other/best friend look best wearing?
   if you've been paying attention, you know that I haven't a spouse nor a significant other, and I've numerous best friends, each of whom looks good in something quite different from what suits each of the others. In the interest of playing along, though...: the first person who came to mind when I read this question is a certain animal-brained attorney who shall remain nameless. The first several times that I saw him, he was wearing a suit, twice with vest; he's an extremely natty dresser. He has an overcoat that I'd literally hurt someone (though not him) to get my hands on for my own use. The last time that I saw him, he was wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt, jeans and boots. The boots were muddy, the jeans were a little greasy in one spot (from one of his motorcycles), and his hair was long and rumpled from a ride in the rain. I thought he was handsome and compelling in those expensive-looking court suits, but he was really something else, eating pizza and drinking beer in that outfit, down to the socks with a hole in the toe, on my saggy couch.
   "Look best", I'm coming to believe, is circumstance-dependent.
4. Show and Tell. What comes to mind first when you see this picture? Or, tell a story if it reminds you of one.
   
   [Public Domain Photo] this photo reminds me of the downtown of a nearby city that I've explored a great deal, both on foot and in a car, though I don't think I've been to this specific area. Ironically, I had a memorable lunch with the subject of question number three in this very city, just a few blocks from here, if I'm guessing correctly.
   More generally, though, the photograph reminds me of the downtowns of middle America, the way that they look humble and winsome, clean and unassuming, both welcoming and slightly barren. Hopeful and hopeless at once. Struggling, though perhaps not obviously. Some still do really well, while others can't even make a show of surviving. It makes me wish that the Oprahs of the world could donate their way to real change, rather than giving $12 million to the Smithsonian, to commemorate the idea of something. I guess this just makes me sad, homesick for something that I feel like I am losing. All of us are losing.

[from the original source; the title quotation is by Isaac Asimov]