A commenter left a link to this comic here; now we know what happens when you combine plumbing and philosophy.
Good timing, too. On my to-do list for today is to pop off the trap for the bathroom sink — we think the satanic cat who is lurking in our house knocked something into it, clogging it hopelessly. Now I’m going to have to tell my wife I can’t do it, and I’ve got a good reason: existential dread.
And what does a mere obstructed pipe have to do with the Grand Scheme of the Cosmos, anyway?
PZ, they make little plastic doohickeys that allow water to pass, but screen out hair and larger items that you can put in your sinks. They aren’t called Cat-Plumbing-Problem-Preventers, but they ought to be.
Why bother unclogging it? It’s just going to get clogged again. That’s my philosophy.
No death will not be identical to before birth because we would have lived and know what living is like. Death would be surrendering live as opposed to not ever having it.
Death is nothing to us,
for when we are, death has not come
and when death has come, we are not.
The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.
John W. Gardner
Randomfactor @5:
Where shall I send your internet? Or perhaps I should send it to John W. Gardner.
Bathroom sink: fixed. I overcame my fear of death to take care of it.
well?
what was in there?
Once I found a test tube down the bathroom sink. Had to be a little creative to get it out. (The sink currently does not have a stopper, which would have prevented this particular issue.
My money is on hair. Lots of hair.
Dean, to the physics department. “Why do I always have to give you
guys so much money, for laboratories and expensive equipment and
stuff. Why couldn’t you be like the math department – all they need
is money for pencils, paper and waste-paper baskets. Or even better,
like the philosophy department. All they need are pencils and paper.”
that is a funny cartoon and has some truth in it. As someone who has worked in construction for a long time I have seen similar things. Many of the trades require a lot intelligence and creativity to solve the problems encountered but the work itself does not. It leaves the mind free to think about things unrelated to the work. I have been involved and overheard many very thoughtful conversations on many far flung subjects
uncle frogy
So, Christian lurkers, if, as you believe, there is some god up above us in a place called heaven, then we can blame that god for all our problems — as any plumber can tell you, shit flows downhill.
Scott Adams did a Dilbert strip which started with that premise, but of course came to the conclusion that non-techie workers would merely waste the opportunity.
Chas @ 8 Probably some miscreant squid,
@13 I am not sure the kind in attention required of a plumber, carpenter, electrician , air-conditioning tradesman or other skilled trades is equivalent to a security guard.
Once the design problems are worked out like the sizing and layout particular to the location and job the work is mostly physical. If the particular tasks are already mastered the mind is free to explore the more existential aspects of life and work. just like the plumber in the cartoon.
uncle frogy
While planning and layout is the most mentally demanding part of many skilled trades, paying attention to what you, and others around you, are doing does not end there. As retired cabinet and furniture maker — with 10 relatively scar-free fingers– I can tell you that working with carbide-tipped blades spinning at thousands of RPMs, only a fraction of an inch from your fingers, does not leave a much time to contemplate the nature of life. Other tradespeople face similar dangers, in much of their work, which requires focused attention to the task at hand.
I always felt philosophy was round the bend.
A bottle cap that almost perfectly fit the diameter of the pipe. It was actually pretty clean, otherwise.
“A bottle cap”
How did the cat put that in there?
That reminds me. There’s a bathtub drain upstairs that’s been getting slower and slower. Hair.
Long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming,
Steaming, flaxen, waxen
Covered in slimy gray soap residue.
No doubt.
Yeah, Chigau, kinda tricky without opposable thumbs. Must’ve used her mouth, i guess.
I would also add that being 20 feet up a ladder is also a time and place where a wondering mind is not an advantage but there are still much time where the tasks are simpler and safer.
It might be just me though the ability to focus on a single thing at a time has always been a challenge so having a physical task to do lets the mind do other things.
which is very different from audio engineering for live performance which leaves no time at all as there are already too many things going on to catch them all perfectly. all very different from a security guard as illustrated by dillbert
uncle frogy
Cats are totally different creatures when out of sight of humans. They walk on two legs, HAVE opposable thumbs, and speak all languages. Don’t try holding a mirror around the corner to try and catch them in the act … they are on to that. The only time they fall out of kitty character while in plain sight, is if you take hallucinogens. That way they have deniability.
No One
Cats can also teleport.
Have you ever been alone in the kitchen and opened a can of … anything?
or even just taken the can-opener out of the drawer?
What is suddenly at your feet?
Hmm, change one letter and that cartoon isn’t “plumbing the depths” but “plumbing the deaths.” Okay, I’ll leave now . . .
No One, I had a friend who “owned” a cat the he called Nothing and I swear I came in one night late and he said called me by name and said Hi it took me by surprise at first as because of the shape of his mouth he had a speech impediment in english. I swear I was not under the influence of anything at the time
uncle frogy
Plumbers know a lot about the terrors of underlying reality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWT07iRvI9M
Thank you Elder Sign.
For plumbing nightmares, you haven’t seen anything until some 3 year old has flushed a quarter of a cucumber down the toilet.
If you have to ask what an obstructed pipe has to do with the Grand Scheme Of the Universe, you’ll never know. Seriously though, you haven’t experienced a plumbing nightmare until you’ve had to deal with a toilet that has had a pager flushed down it followed by a tampon, in an inner city hospital women’s restroom.