The Andrum's Conundrum

Anyone here familiar with The Shins? They rock.

My favorite song of theirs is Australia, probably because it's sort of manic. And the lyrics sort of speak to me. Ok, not sort of. They should be tatooed into my left ventricle.

In any case, there's a line in the song that says something about the android's conundrum. I like the Shins' lyrics because they are quasi-enigmatic, which appeals to my sense of words as art. So when I came across this line, at first I couldn't make out the lyrics and thought that they were saying "andrum's conundrum" and I thought it was some obscure reference. Ever the linguaphile, I looked it up and came across this site: What is Andrum? They do a thorough job of explaining it, so I'll leave it to them. Essentially: "room to breathe".

It wasn't until later that I discovered my mistake, and realized that they're saying "android," not "andrum," but the former idea had me charmed. I liked the conflicting thought of having a place of peace and throwing in a conundrum. Not something to pull one's hair out about, just something that would interrupt the tranquility and inspire a pause to reflect. If you can work it out, you can go back to your peace.

Well, lo and behold, I have here a little nook that I consider my safe place, aptly named Respite and Nepenthe, so it all fits together very cool-like. Therein, I'm establishing a new entry on my margin called exactly that: The Andrum's Conundrum. In it I will post a weekly conundrum and hope that the questions will inspire some thought, conversation amongst friends, and maybe even a minor tantrum. The questions will be selected from The Book of Questions - Gregory Stock, PhD, a favorite over the years which has inspired many a rousing evening of debate amongst my friends.