Haberdashery or Heresy?

Some things just scare me, and one of them is horizontal corduroys. They didn't scare me yesterday, because I was unaware of their existence. If ignorance isn't exactly bliss, it certainly is better than what I'm feeling now.

My feeling today must be like it would have been back in the day if Copernicus told me that, contrary to what I seemed to see in the sky every day, the earth actually revolved around the sun and not the other way around. I would have said, "Nick! Don't tell me that, man!" And then I would have had to go lie down in my hut or castle or whatever I would have been living in in the early 16th Century. It's tough when your worldview is suddenly ripped apart.

And in my worldview, corduroy ridges run up and down.

But now I know about "Cordarounds," so nothing will ever be the same again. I'm going to have to go to my hut and lie down.

This is why I have sympathy with people who oppose science education. Yes, they're idiots, but they have a point. Science is always turning up information that supplants previous information, sometimes proving incorrect things you thought you knew. It is interesting to note, however, that back in the days when an unpopular theory could get you burned, Copernicus' theory of the sun as the center of things was praised by Pope Clement VII.

If a medieval Pope can have an open mind about things, I guess we all ought to be able to do so.

But I draw the line at horizontal corduroys. And I draw that line verically, the way God intended.