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# Monday
- URL: https://thedailyeudemon.com/33583/
- Published: 2014-08-11T07:35:29.000Z
- Updated: 2014-08-11T07:35:29.000Z
- Author: Eric Scheske
- Tags: Miscellaneous, #wpChunk

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ea/fd/eafdb338-c9b6-4f87-8363-78ab94cc3a18/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Miscellaneous-Photo-225x300.jpg "Miscellaneous Photo")

Miscellaneous Rambling

[The Tiny House Movement](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small%5Fhouse%5Fmovement?ref=thedailyeudemon.com). I'd heard of tiny houses, but I didn't realize they'd become a movement. [Tom Woods interviewed one of the pioneers earlier this month](http://tomwoods.com/blog/whats-the-tiny-house-movement-all-about/?ref=thedailyeudemon.com). A small house is one that is, well, small: Under 1,000 square feet, some as small as 80 square feet. But also efficient: every square foot is used. And often illegal: zoning codes require big houses. That latter point is, ironically, helping to drive people to the small house movement. \* \* \* \* \* \* \* I started thinking this weekend about media that puts me in a bad mood. There are certain websites and even topics for discussion that make me irritable, and it's not necessarily because I disagree with the person. Drudge, for instance, is a libertarian, but he bums me out. Mark Shea is a devout Catholic, but he makes me tired. Tom Wood is a libertarian and I'm in a good mood when I leave one of his works. John Zmirak is a devout Catholic, and he leaves me laughing. I'm assuming there are a lot of factors at play. Drudge, for instance, has obviously developed gloom as his schtick, just as Zmirak has developed humor as his. But I think there's more to it. I think the phenomenon of "[priming](https://thedailyeudemon.com/31272/)" plays into it, as does the "receptionist phenomenon," which is my term to describe how it is that callers can tell whether a business' receptionist is smiling or not (only the real pros can conceal a frown from coming across the telephone line, I'm told). Like I said, I just started thinking about this issue over the past weekend so I don't have a whole lot of insight, but it did get me thinking about this blog's title and slogan. \* \* \* \* \* \* \* I didn't know MIT published *Technology Review* and I'd never heard of "science fiction legend" Gene Wolfe, but I enjoyed this part of [the magazine's interview with him](http://www.technologyreview.com/news/529431/a-qa-with-gene-wolfe/?ref=thedailyeudemon.com):

> **Which writers have most influenced you?**

> It's a difficult question. My first editor, Damon Knight, asked me the same thing when I was just starting out, and I told him my chief influences were G.”†K. Chesterton and Marks' *\[Standard\] Handbook for \[Mechanical\] Engineers*. And that's still about as good an answer as I can give. I've been impressed with a lot of people–with Kipling, for example; with Dickens–but I don't think I've been greatly influenced by them.

> **What struck you about Chesterton?**

> His charm; his willingness to follow an argument wherever it led.

I don't know whether I'm more edified that Mr. Wolfe was influenced by Chesterton or that a writer from MIT asked a follow-up question about GKC that seems to assume that all his readers know who he is.