blog, schmog: a jennifer aniston-free zone. no paris hilton either.

Beck Blames Many for Egypt

2011-02-06T04:27:00.000-06:00

As protesters took to the streets of Egypt this week, Glenn Beck took to his multiple broadcast platforms to weave an elaborate theory about the forces behind the uprising. During this span, Beck connected the protests and violence in Egypt to, among other things, Islamic socialists, Marxist communists, food prices, Bill Ayers, Code Pink, ACORN co-founder Wade Rathke, the Tides Foundation's Drummond Pike, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the AFL-CIO.

California Chardonnay Communion Wine

2009-10-18T11:01:00.002-05:00

When my father was ill, the visiting pastor from their church would come and, well, visit. And give my parents communion.

One time as he was getting ready to leave, he realized he was out of wine. He still had more communion visits to make that afternoon.

So he asked my parents if they had any wine he could borrow. They did, and my mom poured some into a Tupperware container so he could take it along.

A couple of weeks later, the pastor called and asked if he could visit.

"He must be out of wine," my dad said.

Death panels

2009-08-31T13:09:00.001-05:00

My 86-year-old father died three years ago this month. His death certificate indicated that he had died of old age, of natural causes. He had suffered from a Parkinsonian syndrome and had strokes and probably dementia for years.

He was hospitalized three times, and each time was sent to a rehabilitation facility for physical and occupational therapy before he was allowed to go home.

My heart broke dozens of times during that period. Once, there was a family meeting in a windowless basement conference room with an assortment of staff members. They were discussing his progress and his deficits.

My father remained silent through the entire meeting. When it was over, he exclaimed that he had never heard his work criticized like that during his entire career. He’d retired as an assistant vice-president at a large insurance company, and apparently believed he was at a work meeting.

Another time when he was in a rehab facility, my mother and I caught the stomach flu that was going around, and had to stay away for a day. (My mother rarely left his side when he was hospitalized or in rehab, often sleeping through the night in a broken chair at his bedside.)

When we came in the next morning to see Dad, he was waiting for us at the elevator doors, in his wheelchair, wearing the headphones that he used to listen to television. A staff member had put a piece of paper in his pocket with his room number on it. (My mother has been unable to throw away that piece of paper.)

All my mother can think about when she envisions that scene is a drawing that she keeps on her living room wall. It’s a depiction of my father holding up a very complex insurance form that no one else wanted to teach the new claims adjusters because it was so complicated. So he usually ended up tutoring them on it.

One night when he was in rehab, they had to move Dad back to the hospital because he had aspiration pneumonia. The emergency room doctor, for some unknown reason, wanted to put a tube into his stomach to deliver seizure medication, though there was no indication Dad had had a seizure, and he was perfectly capable of swallowing pills.

My father refused the tube. He thought the doctors were going to execute him.

In the last few months of his life, Dad started eating and drinking less. Fell asleep more often when he was listening to his beloved books on tape and Big Band CDs. Hallucinated. Became far less mobile. Began to lose control of his bowels and bladder.

After his last hospitalization, for another stroke, the physical therapists came to the house, and we called in the home health aides that had been helping Mom care for Dad in the morning and at night.

The PTs conferred with Dad’s primary physician, who knew my father well. He made a recommendation that couldn’t have been easy for a professional who’s charged with maintaining lives: home hospice care, rather than additional therapy.

At that point, we could most certainly have said no, keep working with Dad and see if he can get a little better again, like he had before. He had great insurance. But we trusted his doc to know when it was time. Dad had a living will (no heroic measures) and a DNR order, his choice.

My father slipped away from us, little by little, over a few weeks. He was tired. He didn’t want to eat or drink. He kept, “dipping one toe into that other world,” as one hospice nurse told us. He talked to long-gone family and friends, and one day announced to me, “I’m dying.” I couldn’t contradict him, much as I wanted to.

Towards the end, Dad seemed more interested in those other people from his life than us, though my mother was indeed his best friend forever.

Finally, he had to be heavily sedated, per the doctor’s orders. He’d begun to choke from the effects of the Parkinson’s, and no one wanted to see him die in panic and pain.

Dad passed from us at 4:30 one Wednesday morning, at the beginning of a blazing hot Minnesota day, during one of the most ferocious thunderstorms I’ve ever experienced. My mother had spent the night sprawled across his body in bed, reminiscing about their 56 years together. (In a moment of dark humor, she’ll say she bored him to death.)

Was my father’s physician one of Sarah Palin’s “death panels?” I think not. Not the way she means it, at least. My father did not want to die, and we certainly didn’t want him to, but we trusted the family doctor to read the signs and tell us when it was time for all of us to let go.

This is, I think, what those who are writing the health bills are proposing. Think about what you want to have happen when your body wears out. If you want a special session with your doctor to figure that out and legalize it, the government will pay for it.

It involves your final wishes, not someone else’s wishes that you be final.

Because my father had a doctor that did everything possible to keep him well when he could, but respected his wishes about the way he wanted to die (quietly, naturally, at home), my father had the same dignity in death that he had in life. That’s all this legislation is about, I believe. Doctors and families working together to have the same simple end to life that my father had.

A Catastrophe Within a Catastrophe

2006-03-03T08:47:00.000-06:00

1,300 of your fellow citizens died last August and from all indications, not all of them had to die. Wind and rain can kill, but so can arrogance. Rising water poses a serious threat to life, but so does apathy and incompetence. If you or I accidentally caused the death of someone, we would face charges of negligence. Why do we not hold our elected officials to an equal standard? The Vice President shoots someone in the face and gets to sleep on it before talking to police. This is not the country I grew up in. Is it the country you wish to raise your children in? Where the president of the United States stays on vacation for four days while your neighbors drown and then when he has the decency to address us, he cannot even be honest?

More at Op-Ed News

A fat Tom Hanks? Or a young, stylin' Bill O'Reilly?

2006-03-02T08:19:00.000-06:00

You decide.

I lied -- here's a hilarious Paris Hilton quote

2006-03-02T08:12:00.000-06:00

New York, March 1 (IANS) Hotel heiress Paris Hilton has warned Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron to watch out - as the pair could be battling soon for the same movie roles.
The 25-year-old socialite, who previously appeared in the horror film "House of Wax", is confident she shares a similar screen style to Theron, reports hollywood.com.
And Hilton has no qualms about putting herself in direct competition with Theron.
"My acting coach told me I have a similar style of acting to her so we may end up vying for the same parts," she explains.
FemaleFirst

Mr. Sensitive, on New Orleans reconstruction jobs

2006-03-02T08:01:00.000-06:00

In a conversation with a caller about the disproportionately few jobs and contracts that have gone to locals in the rebuilding of New Orleans, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly said: "[T]he homies, you know ... I mean, they're just not going to get the job." O'Reilly made his remark during the February 27 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show in response to a caller who blamed President Bush for not creating jobs for people who live in the regions affected by Hurricane Katrina. Since the start of the rebuilding effort, more than 90 percent of the federal contract money for the recovery and reconstruction of the Gulf Coast has reportedly gone to companies based outside the three states that were most affected.

Media Matters

Bush Pays Surprise Visit to Reality

2006-03-02T07:46:00.000-06:00

President George W. Bush departed from his planned itinerary today to make a surprise visit to reality, later calling the two-hour stop in the real world "informative."
For Mr. Bush, the visit to reality, while brief, was still significant because it represented his first visit to the real world since being elected President in 2000.
"The President has not visited reality the entire time he's been in the White House," one aide said. "The closest he's come is watching 'Survivor.'"

More at Borowitz Report.

That's a relief

2006-03-02T06:07:00.000-06:00

"There won't be a President Limbaugh because I refuse to take the job on the basis that it's too big a pay cut."

More pap at Rush Limbaugh.

O'Reilly: "I don't do personal attacks here"

2006-02-28T11:35:00.000-06:00

I don't even know what to say to that. Let us count the ways, according in part to Media Matters for America:
On his radio program, Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, O'Reilly has launched even more personal attacks. He called Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) a "left-wing nut," former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader a "loon," and Moyers a "secular, far-left fanatic." He described former president Jimmy Carter as "cluless" and "a fool" and said of Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), "He's a sissy." More recently, O'Reilly called Dallas Morning News columnist Macarena Hernandez "incompetent," and a "Latina ideologue."
mediamatters.org

BIN LADEN TO RUN U.S. POSTAL SERVICE

2006-02-28T01:50:00.000-06:00

The White House became embroiled in controversy once again as it announced today that it had made a deal with Osama bin Laden to run the U.S. Postal Service.
Only days after it agreed to a review of its deal with a Dubai-based company to run several U.S. ports, the White House surprised Washington with its decision to put the U.S. mail in the hands of the world's most wanted man.
But at a press briefing in Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney vigorously defended the deal, calling Mr. bin Laden "the right man for the job."
"Osama bin Laden is eminently qualified to run the U.S. Postal Service," Mr. Cheney told reporters. "For one thing, he's already disgruntled."

More at humor site Borowitz Report www.borowitzreport.com

Don't get off on the second floor

2006-02-28T01:35:00.000-06:00

My dad has been bouncing between a hospital and a nursing home for the last six weeks recovering from a stroke, and is finally home with my mom and a 24-hour aide.
I could tell you lots of nursing home stories, but you've heard them all before. And they're all true, especially the parts about the roommate who blares Gunsmoke reruns all day (RIP, Dennis Weaver), the aides who throw a mouthful of pills into your dad's mouth when he has trouble swallowing one, and the stomach flu that moves through the floor like wildfire (my mom and I got it but Dad didn't).
If you have a loved one incarcerated, you must be with them frequently to monitor their care.
My dad's care center had three stories. The first floor was rehab, the most ambulatory, and third floor was long-term care, those least mobile.
I asked the social worker one day what their evacuation plan was.
"I don't know?," she said, twirling a piece of hair with her finger.
(OK, I made up the hair-twirling part.)
Second floor was the "memory care" unit. The poor souls who had Alzheimer's, dementia, or mental illness.
I got off on second floor by mistake one day. Walked around to the doors that led to the lobby. Locked.
Hit the elevator button repeatedly, and watched it skip second floor on its way up and down.
Finally, listening to the screams of someone who wanted desperately to get out, I asked a nurse how to get out. I have no idea what she said, but finally she came over and punched a code to get the elevator to stop.
I escaped. They couldn't.
Don't get off on the second floor. Kind of a good metaphor for life.

Give your Girl Scout Cookie money to Scooter this year

2006-02-28T01:29:00.000-06:00

Scooter Libby has a Website begging for dollars for his legal costs. This quote from Dick Cheney appears at the top:
"Scooter Libby is one of the most capable and talented individuals I have ever known."
Just who I'd want an endorsement from.
www.scooterlibby.com
(can't set up link -- Blogger is acting up.)

My man Satchel

2006-02-27T15:27:00.000-06:00

I can't believe I just did this

2006-02-27T15:13:00.000-06:00

I recently moved backed to St. Paul, MN, and I'm reconnecting with old friends. One is now a high-powered executive with a health care services conglomerate.

She sent me a postcard from Italy in December and told her mother she'd like to get together with me (our fathers are both ill), so I e-mailed her.

I heard back from her, with a cc: to her administrative assistant, asking her to set a lunch up.

???

Did I miss a big meeting? Is this how executives deal with their personal lunches? Maybe so.

Anyway, I got an e-mail from her AA today asking me to call her to set lunch up. I did, and she asked if I would mind meeting my friend near her office, in a suburb about 30 minutes away.

I said sure, mumbling that her time was more valuable than mine.

Is it? In terms of earning power, that's true (I've seen one of her two houses). But my own comment hurled me back about 20 years in terms of personal self-esteem.

I'm assuming she'll buy lunch.

New TV series from one of my favorite filmmakers, David Mamet

2006-02-27T09:04:00.000-06:00

..."The Unit" (premieres at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 7, on CBS). Created by playwright David Mamet and co-written by Shawn Ryan, who created "The Shield," "The Unit" explores the workings of a military special-forces team that takes on high-pressure missions worldwide, from blowing up the homes of arms traders in Afghanistan to subverting terrorist plots at home....Of course, this show has Mamet's sticky fingerprints all over it, from the unrealistically sharp and somewhat leaden dialogue to the melodramatic, suffering-hero scenarios.

Salon.com

Halliburton, again

2006-02-27T09:01:00.000-06:00

The Army has decided to reimburse a Halliburton subsidiary for nearly all of its disputed costs on a $2.41 billion no-bid contract to deliver fuel and repair oil equipment in Iraq, even though the Pentagon's own auditors had identified more than $250 million in charges as potentially excessive or unjustified.

The New York Times

Day off today

2006-01-17T08:11:00.000-06:00

My dad had a stroke yesterday.

Anyone who has to tell you he's humble, isn't

2006-01-16T09:50:00.000-06:00

Roughly three years, 2,000 American deaths, $200 billion, and no functioning government later, the Bush administration has finally laid out its plan for victory in Iraq. And the plan is ... humility. I'm not kidding. Last month, The Washington Post reported that top White House advisers have concluded that the key to regaining public support for the war is to adopt a more humble approach...
What's going on here should be pretty obvious. The Bushies have decided to focus on character (whether the president is humble) in order to address substance (whether the war is winnable). This is hardly surprising, of course. The Bushies have excelled at nothing if not reducing substantive matters to issues of character. The question is whether it can work when it comes to public opinion on Iraq.
The New Republic

Today's news you need to know

2006-01-16T09:42:00.000-06:00

You go, Trent. No, really: Sen. Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican, says he will announce tomorrow whether he will seek re-election (Washington Times)...
Rush on life, except where it affects the death penalty: “I have tried talking to a number of pro-choice feminists and liberals, and I said, ‘I’m pro-choice too, I just choose life." (Rush Limbaugh.com)...
Borowitz Report: SEN. BIDEN PRODUCING DANGEROUSLY HIGH LEVELS OF CARBON DIOXIDE: Talkative Lawmaker Creating Environmental Threat, Scientists Fear (Borowitz Report)...
Bush Below 40%: President Bush's approval numbers are sliding again, according to pollster John Zogby: " In the face of rising gas prices, partisan sniping over Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, and a resumption of insurgent violence in Iraq, President Bush's job approval rating has slipped into a post-holiday funk, again dipping below 40%, a new telephone poll by Zogby International shows. (Thecherrycreeknews.com...
Americans find being fat not unattractive: A survey finds America's attitudes toward overweight people are shifting from rejection toward acceptance. (Yahoo! News)

The seven dirty words

2006-01-16T08:39:00.000-06:00

Get Fuzzy

Pickles is pissed

2006-01-16T08:19:00.000-06:00

ACCRA, Ghana -- First lady Laura Bush yesterday said she was "irritated" by outside criticism of her husband's anti-AIDS programs in Africa as being focused too heavily on abstinence and not enough on condoms.
Mrs. Bush, on a trip to West Africa to witness the inauguration of the continent's first elected female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, also defended a National Security Agency program to eavesdrop on foreign al Qaeda suspects who communicate with Americans. She said the political furor in the U.S. would aid the terrorists.
But she was most annoyed by a question about AIDS and the U.S. policy to emphasize abstinence, which the reporter asking her said "some people have equated ... with Christian moralism."
"I'm always a little bit irritated when I hear the criticism of abstinence, because abstinence is absolutely 100 percent effective in eradicating a sexually transmitted disease," Mrs. Bush said, before tying her answer in with one of the major themes of her trip, women's rights in Africa.

Washington Times

Excerpts from www.dubyaspeak.com

2006-01-15T09:19:00.000-06:00

Countries such as ours have an obligation to step up, working together, sanding, sending a common message, to the Iranians, that, uhh, uhh -- that it's -- the behavior -- kind of -- trying to -- uhh, clandessintly develop a nukyular weapon, or using the guise of a civilian nukyular weapon program to get the know-how to develop a nukyular weapon is unacceptable.
-- Three "nukyulars" and one "clandessintly"... who could ask for anything more? (And what is a civilian nukyular weapon program?) White House, Jan. 13, 2006
There are SBA loans for this. And I understand for some the word SBA means Slow Bureaucratic Paperwork. I hear it loud and clear.
-- Are you sure you heard it loud and clear, Dubya? You're spelling out SBP. Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, Jan. 12, 2006

Dubyaspeak

A troubling psychological phenomenon in Japan

2006-01-15T09:02:00.000-06:00

After years of being bullied at school and having no friends, Y.S., who asked to be identified by his initials, retreated to his room at age 14, and proceeded to watch TV, surf the Internet and build model cars - for 13 years. When he finally left his room one April afternoon last year, he had spent half of his life as a shut-in. Like Takeshi and Shuichi, Y.S. suffered from a problem known in Japan as hikikomori, which translates as "withdrawal" and refers to a person sequestered in his room for six months or longer with no social life beyond his home. (The word is a noun that describes both the problem and the person suffering from it and is also an adjective, like "alcoholic.") Some hikikomori do occasionally emerge from their rooms for meals with their parents, late-night runs to convenience stores or, in Takeshi's case, once-a-month trips to buy CD's. And though female hikikomori exist and may be undercounted, experts estimate that about 80 percent of the hikikomori are male, some as young as 13 or 14 and some who live in their rooms for 15 years or more.

Read the whole fascinating, troubling article in the New York Times Magazine

We need a Bucky Katt calendar

2006-01-15T08:41:00.000-06:00

Get Fuzzy

Constitutional Crisis Waters Rising Fast

2006-01-15T08:37:00.000-06:00

The understanding that Bush has provoked a "constitutional crisis" is taking root and spreading. Al Gore is expected to deliver a speech on Monday that is going to focus on this. (We will be there and hope to do a little live blogging, if possible.)
We think we are entering a period of extreme fluidity; Bush's ability to control the many dark forces that he has unleashed is diminshing by the day. But, this is a time of both great danger and great opportunity. Watching Americans slowly coming to grips after years of indifference is not a pretty picture, but it is movement in the right direction. In American history, we know that there are periodic convulsions in which the forces of evil sometimes get the upper hand. (i.e. The Alien Sedition Acts of 1798, the red scare of the early 1920's, the internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII, McCarthy, decades of J. Edgar Hoover's illegal actions, COINTELPRO, and now Bush, the NSA, and the Patriot Act.)
In each of these dark times, the ideals on which the country was founded appeared to be headed for the junk heap of history. But time and again, the American people have ultimately returned to the arms of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The ability of the American people, again and again, to find ways to transcend these efforts to subvert freedom and liberty is the true exceptionalism that has made America a beacon of hope for lo these two centuries.

More at Democracy Cell Project

Pretty damn scary if it's true

2006-01-14T11:03:00.000-06:00

President George W. Bush has signed executive orders giving him sole authority to impose martial law, suspend habeas corpus and ignore the Posse Comitatus Act that prohibits deployment of U.S. troops on American streets. This would give him absolute dictatorial power over the government with no checks and balances...
The White House press office would neither confirm nor deny existence of Bush’s executive orders or the existence of the Northern Command for National Defense. Neither would the Department of Homeland Security.
But my sources within the White House and DHS tell me the plans are in place, ready for implementation when the command comes from the man who keeps telling the American public that he is a “war time president” who will “do anything in my power” to impose his will on the people of the United States.
And he has made sure that power will be absolute when he chooses to use it.

Capital Hill Blue

The Tender Bar

2006-01-14T10:55:00.000-06:00

If you want to read a real (I think) memoir that's far, far better than "A Million Little Pieces," check out "The Tender Bar," by J.R. Moehringer. It's the story of a young boy growing up without a father on Long Island in the 70s, and about the substitiute relationships he builds with other men and a local bar, and with alcohol. I'm not even halfway through with it, and the characters and story are terrific.

I was skeptical at first, but "Dog Eat Doug" is all right by me

2006-01-14T09:35:00.000-06:00

Creators.com

I'm no Condi fan, but this is beyond the pale

2006-01-14T09:27:00.000-06:00

The wacko leader of Russia's Liberal and Democratic Party has surpassed his earlier screeds with a misogynist attack on our secretary of state.

Speaking with Pravda this week, Zhirinovsky chastised Rice for calling on Russia to "act responsibly" in supplying natural gas to Ukraine.
The fascistic pol attributed that "coarse anti-Russian statement" to Rice being "a single woman who has no children."
"If she has no man by her side at her age, he will never appear," Zhirinovsky ranted on. "Condoleezza Rice needs a company of soldiers. She needs to be taken to barracks where she would be satisfied.
"Condoleezza Rice is a very cruel, offended woman who lacks men's attention," he added. "Such women are very rough. … They can be happy only when they are talked and written about everywhere: 'Oh, Condoleezza, what a remarkable woman, what a charming Afro-American lady! How well she can play the piano and speak Russian!'

New York Daily News

If their genders were reversed, this would be a stalking case

2006-01-14T09:19:00.000-06:00

marrytomcruisein30days

Could this man be your President in 2008?

2006-01-14T08:29:00.000-06:00

Long story short. New Jersey native, now living in Minnesota. Military veteran and former professional wrestler runniing for governor here in 2006 (sound familiar?). Plans a run at the Presidency in 2008. Name: Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey. Satanist. Here's part of his platform; see his Website for more.

Any Terrorist who is caught in Minnesota while I am Governor, will find
out what the true meaning of my nickname 'The Impaler' means.
Right in front of our State Capital. Then Fed’s can take the terrorist’s
body from the impaling stake. If the US Department of Justice (DOJ)
wants to charge me with brutally murdering a terrorist, they may do so.
I do not see an American Jury convicting me.

jonathonforgovernor

The Alito Drinking Game, courtesy of another blog

2006-01-13T15:56:00.000-06:00

Take one drink if:
... Stare decisis is mentioned
... The word subpoena is mentioned
... A Republican refers to Alito as "consistent" and his opponents as "desperate"
... The audience breaks into fake Washingtonian laughter.

Take two drinks if:
... Someone says "White Boys Club."
... A heated argument breaks out between Senators/ A Senator loses his or her temper
... Brown v. Board of Education is brought up.
... Senator Spector, adrift on a sea of chaos, pedantically reminds everyone, "I am the Chairman of this Committee"

Pound it if:

... A Senator drops the "Scalito" bomb.
The Corsair

Kids today would ask where you plug the headphones in

2006-01-13T15:30:00.000-06:00

The Yo-Yo Museum

Was Bush wired for Alito speechifying?

2006-01-13T10:06:00.000-06:00

Or just having trouble, uh, articularizing? You decide.
Brad Blog

Oh, pu-LEEZE

2006-01-13T09:54:00.000-06:00

Brain scientists want high schools to start later so teens can sleep. Research shows that body clocks run later in teens than in adults and younger kids: In teens, a sleep-inducing hormone doesn't start rising till 10 or 11 p.m. and doesn't let up till 8 a.m. Some high schools are starting later; others are considering it. Skeptical parents say adjusting the school day would 1) interfere with after-school jobs and 2) give in to teens who stay up late playing video games or chatting on the phone. But some scientists say 1) we should respect kids' sleep needs the way we respect their nutritional needs, and 2) sending them to school at 7 a.m. just teaches them to dope themselves with coffee.

From Slate.com

Get Fuzzy rocks

2006-01-13T08:16:00.000-06:00

Comics.com

Studly beast Limbaugh knows what women want

2006-01-13T08:05:00.000-06:00

On the January 10 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh asked the women in his audience: "How many of you in the secrecy and privacy of your own dreams and hopes would love to be hired as eye candy?" Limbaugh's question was part of a discussion about a January 10 report on the conservative news website NewsMax.com about six women who filed a lawsuit for sex discrimination against their company, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein Securities, a division of Germany's Dresdner Bank. According to the article, the lawsuit, filed in Manhattan by five employees working in New York and one working in London, asserts that they were hired as "eye candy," and that one woman was openly called "the Pamela Anderson of trading" by her boss.

...

Media Matters has previously noted that on the April 26, 2004, edition of his radio program, Limbaugh stated that women "actually wish" for sexual harassment.

Media Matters

It's the little things

2006-01-12T11:32:00.000-06:00

I do water aerobics at a local community center, and I love the ritual of it. Having my card booped on the machine, getting the wristband for my class, putting the quarter in my locker, etc.

But my favorite thing is the swimsuit dryer. You drop your suit in it and close the lid. It makes loud ka-chunking noises, and viola! Your suit is almost dry. I go into a blue funk when it's out of order, which is frequently.

Here's what it kind of looks like (above -- I haven't gotten used to the new image download in Blogger yet).

A Million Little Lies

2006-01-11T11:50:00.000-06:00

I tried reading James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces" on an airplane. I can read ANYTHING on an airplane, just to make the time pass. I've even been known to start the crossword puzzle in the airline magazine.

But I found it unreadable after awhile, even on a plane.

I was telling my husband about one particularly gruesome scene where the main character is having root canals and caps done -- without anesthesia, because the people in the rehab center where he was staying wouldn't allow it.

You can imagine. Or probably not.

I was telling my husband about that scene, and he was beyond skeptical. No dentist would perform such torture, he said.

I didn't think much about it until all of the recent hooha about Frey's book being fabricated. The dental scene couldn't have been true, according to a Dental Association rep I just heard quoted on the radio. A former PR rep for Northwest Airlines said that a guy with a hole in his cheek covered with blood and vomit and missing four front teeth wouldn't have been allowed on a plane anywhere.

That shoulda been my first clue. It seemed odd when I read it.

Personally, I can't get too worked up about this. But it does speak to the gullibility of the reading public, even considering the Oprah recommendation.

2005-08-05T15:05:00.000-05:00

Wish I'd thought of this...

Posted by Picasa

The best part is, you get to eat the jelly bean poops!

2005-08-02T08:18:00.000-05:00

Christmas is just around the corner.

Posted by Picasa

Who's in charge here?

2005-08-02T08:13:00.000-05:00

I don't dress my cats in little outfits or anything, but I can't believe I just put an ice cube in their water dish because it's so friggin' hot here.

My husband's birthday cake.

2005-08-01T09:25:00.000-05:00

Love the bolo tie!

Posted by Picasa

Cooking tip from my Uncle Clyde

2005-08-01T03:00:00.000-05:00

We had a picnic for my husband's birthday today. He did the first round of grilling and then took some kids off fishing.

So when some new guests arrived, I, not a devotee of Martha Stewart, had to grill the bratwurst. The coals were cold, so I dumped some new ones in and they caught fire.

Somewhere in the cobwebby recesses of my brain was the thought that you're not supposed to put the meat on until the flames have died on.

My guests were hungry, so I put the meat on the grill. It, of course, burned black instantly. So I threw it away.

Uncle Clyde came over and said, "You don't have to cook the meat before you throw it away."

I started over when the flames had died down, and it worked this time.

Uncle Clyde came over and said, "Looks like they're ready to throw away now."

That's odd. I quit blogging for a few weeks and I still get traffic.

2005-08-01T02:55:00.000-05:00

Wonder if I'd still get money if I quit working for a few weeks.

On hiatus. Back when I figure out what to do with this blog.

2005-07-09T16:04:00.000-05:00

More bad news for Rush. I weep.

2005-07-07T06:03:00.000-05:00

From CNN.com:
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (CNN) -- After a lengthy legal fight that went all the way to Florida's highest court, a judge Wednesday gave prosecutors some of Rush Limbaugh's private medical records related to his use of prescription drugs. But the judge returned the rest of the records, seized in 2003, to the conservative talk show host.

Limbaugh's attorney, Roy Black, said the fact that the bulk of Limbaugh's records were returned "proves our point that the state's wholesale seizure of Mr. Limbaugh's medical records was improper."

Dude!

Posted by Picasa

G8 LEADERS HOLD CONCERT ATTACKING STING

2005-07-07T03:44:00.000-05:00

Millions Watch Heads of State Rip Rock Star

Kicking off their annual summit in Auchterarder, Scotland today, the leaders of the G8 nations started their meeting on an unconventional note, holding an open-air rock concert devoted to attacking the singer known as Sting.
.......................
Elsewhere, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan were forcing the Pentagon to rethink its ability to lie about two wars at the same time.

Read more from humorist Andy Borowitz.

Bush's woman troubles

2005-07-06T11:17:00.000-05:00

From Salon.com (subscription)

After George W. Bush's most recent press conference, some reporters complained that the president hadn't taken questions from very many female reporters -- "very many," in this case, meaning more than one. The day after the press conference, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan was asked, "At the press conference yesterday, approximately 25 percent of the journalists were women, and the president took only one question from a woman reporter. Can you explain this pattern?" McClellan said it was the media's fault; if editors would assign more female reporters to the White House, the president would have the ability to call on more female reporters.
If that answer wasn't exactly a satisfying one, the president didn't help himself much during a stop in Denmark on the way to Scotland Tuesday. Bush apparently wanted to take a question from Reuters, so he shouted out, "Reuters man, Toby." Only it turns out that "Reuters man, Toby" is Tabassum Zakaria, who happens to be a woman. Bush immediately corrected himself, then made matters worse. "Woman -- excuse me, I can see that," he said. "So how long have you been on the presidential beat?" When Zakaria said that she'd been covering the White House since February, Bush told her, "Yes, well, make yourself less scarce."

I actually like Mark Morford's whining today.

2005-07-06T11:12:00.000-05:00

Note to Tom Cruise: You are maxing out. Wearing out the welcome. Becoming less the tolerable and moderately talented and mildly likable megastar and more like an itchy boil on the deranged ferret of popular culture, requiring lancing.

The signs are all in place. The crazy ranting, the jumping on couches, the crazed grins, the enormous piles of money, the incessant photos of you sucking the face off your new and bewildered and child-like fiancee, the weird diatribes about psychiatry and mental health, the relatively common knowledge that you are super-seriously involved at the highest levels with one of the creepier money-hungry pseudo-religions in the nation.

Read more at the San Francisco Chronicle site.

My brother-in-law did slightly better.

2005-07-04T05:24:00.000-05:00

Looks like a Minnesota postcard to me.

Posted by Picasa

Check out the maniacal grin on his face.

2005-07-04T05:19:00.000-05:00

My brother and sister-in-law are visiting from California, and my husband took my brother-in-law fishing because they both love it. How proud my husband looks about his catch.

The Old Man and the Sea.

Posted by Picasa

i'm turning into a parent at the age of 49.

2005-07-01T07:37:00.000-05:00

is this happening in your family? it is in mine.

Posted by Picasa

yeah, what about bob?

2005-07-01T07:32:00.000-05:00

Novak stonewalls press corps as Times reporter faces jail

Following a federal judge's announcement that he would send two reporters to jail if they did not agree to disclose their confidential sources to a grand jury, CNN host and syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak refused to answer direct questions from either The New York Times or CNN regarding his involvement in the case, let alone reveal his secret source. But in the past, Novak has been more willing to reveal confidential sources.

read more at media matters.

you go, brookie.

2005-07-01T07:28:00.000-05:00

brooke shields has an editorial in today's New York Times in response to Tom Cruise's uninformed comments about postpartum depression and psychiatric drugs.

I WAS hoping it wouldn't come to this, but after Tom Cruise's interview with Matt Lauer on the NBC show "Today" last week, I feel compelled to speak not just for myself but also for the hundreds of thousands of women who have suffered from postpartum depression. While Mr. Cruise says that Mr. Lauer and I do not "understand the history of psychiatry," I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Mr. Cruise has never suffered from postpartum depression.

more...

rosie turns on tom?

2005-06-30T08:56:00.000-05:00

from rose o'donnell's blog. Maya Angelou, be not afraid.

after watching tom on o
and then everywhere else
in the free world
i think i may need to up my meds

shout out to brooke
stand tall girl
u saved a lot of women
by telling ur truth

my tommy needs to breathe
“heart humor and humility
will lighten up your heavy load”
said joni mitchell

Hoping to get more makeup tips from Katherine Harris.

2005-06-30T08:50:00.000-05:00

From Salon (subscription):

From the Understatement of the Year Department, here's an unnamed supporter of former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris complaining about the lack of support she's getting from the White House in her run for the U.S. Senate: "It's unimaginable that the White House folks and the National Republican Senatorial Committee would be so disloyal to Katherine Harris, especially after all she has done for the Bush family and the Republican Party."
Actually, the guy has a point, and not just because Harris took the lead in handing Florida -- and, with it, the presidency -- to George W. Bush in the contested election of 2000. According to the Hill News, Harris' people say she decided not to make a run for the Senate in 2004 at the request of national Republican leaders who feared that she might hurt the president's chances in Florida. Now that Bush is safely back in the White House, it ought to be Harris' turn to do what she wants, her backers say.

Satchel Pooch, gourmet extraordinaire.

2005-06-30T08:44:00.000-05:00

Isn't yogurt aged by definition?

Posted by Hello

have you smiled today?

2005-06-30T07:38:00.000-05:00

doesn't he look like he's about to bite?

Posted by Hello

My sister said I have to start blogging again because she's tired of looking at that ketchup bottle.

2005-06-29T15:16:00.000-05:00

I love the early morning hours. I always have. And I don't understand why everyone doesn't. Most people can't understand why I go to bed by 9 when there's so much late night stuff going on. But if I slept til 7, I'd feel like I'd missed half the day.

I have vivid memories of going along when my mom drove my dad to work in the summer of 1968. Dad was an early riser and an early worker so we left home by about 6. I thought he was just eager to work, but now I suspect he wanted to get to his coffee klatsch. He was a big deal executive, but his coffee group included an elevator operator, janitor, etc. My father never forgot about the little guy (or gal). He promoted a woman to the highest position one had ever held at State Farm.

Anyhoo, on the way home, we'd stop at the little store around the corner sometimes, and if Mom had a spare 12 cents, I'd buy a Twinkie for breakfast.

There are a lot of cliches about how new and crisp everything seems in the early morning, and I won't drag them out here, but they're true. We get a fresh start every morning.

If you live in a climate that has hot summers, morning is your only chance at nice cool weather. And you'll never heard the birds singing so clearly as when the sun is just rising.

I had visited a friend in New Ulm many years ago and had stopped at a gas station on the way back to the Cities early in the morning. As I was driving away, I watched a gorgeous red and gold sunrise, felt perfect, cool air, and listened to the morning radio show I remembered from my youth on AM radio. I thought, How can this even be possible? It's so perfect.

As the day and the drive wore on, that feeling went away as the air filled with machanical sounds and the sun turned warm, but I'll always have the memory of that moment.

Some of my other memorable morning moments occurred when my husband was hospitalized in Palm Springs in 1991. He would eventually be diagnosed with viral encephalitis and recover completely, but his family and I went through hell as the doctors tried to puzzle this life-threatening condition out. Early morning was so hopeful for me then. I never knew how I'd find him when I went to his room (if I'd ever left his room the night before), and there was always the chance of improvement.

I spent the very early morning hours just trying to figure out what might be going on with him. When he'd regained consciousness and was able to talk, he was still pretty goofy, and would not eat. One morning I finally figured out that he didn't know what food was. I raced to the hospital cafeteria and got a banana and some cottage cheese and took it to him. "This is food," I said. "You put it in your mouth and eat it."

So he did. Later that day, he was marvelling at his hairbrush. "That's your hairbrush, George," his mom said. "You brush your hair and beard with it."

"Well, I'll be damned," George said, and proceeded to happily groom. I realized that his mother had been through all of this learning stuff with him before, and she didn't seem fazed by having to do it again.

I was thinking about all of these things when I was standing on my parents' deck smoking a cigarette the other morning. The back of their townhouse faces a pond and beautiful grove of trees. We've seen deer back there, duck and goose families, and even the occasionally snowy white egret, even though we're in Minnesota.

My father had a mild stroke 18 months ago, and last week he apparently had a TIA (a transient ischemic attack, a mild stroke that doesn't leave any damage in its wake). He was in a hospital for four days, and then the rehab wing of a nursing home for three more days.

I was reminded of the imprecision of medicine, though Dad had great doctors and nurses and a great hospital. And like a doctor once told me, our brains aren't perfect. Diagnosing brain disorders is so difficult. Like my mom says, that's why they call it "the practice of medicine."

So since the tests found no sign of damage but he'd had stroke-like symptoms, Dad got the TIA diagnosis, which I suspect is a catch-all for a lot of things we don't understand yet.

We wanted to take him straight home from the hospital but he was still weak, and his doc thought he should go to a rehab facility. Long story short, he wasn't getting any care there that we couldn't provide at home and with in-home health services. They wanted him to stay for 2-4 weeks (good insurance), and after a couple of days I realized we needed to get him out of there.

Up to 30% of elderly people suffer from delirium in a hospital or nursing home, a temporary state of confusion. They might think they're in the Holiday Inn, or that they're at a business conference. Dad suffered from this, and I knew it wouldn't subside until we got him back on familiar ground.

Which it has, once we got his doctor to discharge him. More later about the rehab facility and the wonders of Medicare coverage of in-home services -- this is running long. Time for Get Fuzzy.

i can't call anyone who has a 6 in their phone number.

2005-06-29T15:14:00.000-05:00

the 6 key doesn't work on my phone keypad. suggestions?

i'm showing this to my mother, the expiration-date queen

2005-06-21T23:00:00.000-05:00

Surprising Expiration Dates

A handy, who-knew guide for 77 foods, beauty products, and household goods

Keate

Certain items in your house practically scream “toss me” when their prime has passed. That mysterious extra white layer on the Cheddar? A sure sign it needs to be put out of its misery. Chunky milk? Down the drain it goes.

But what about that jar of olives or Maraschino cherries that has resided in your refrigerator since before the birth of your kindergartner? Or the innumerable nonedibles lurking deep within your cabinets and closets: stockpiled shampoo and toothpaste, seldom-used silver polish? How do you know when their primes have passed?

With help from experts and product manufacturers, Real Simple has compiled a guide to expiration dates. These dates are offered as a rough guideline. The shelf lives of most products depend upon how you treat them. Edibles, unless otherwise indicated, should be stored in a cool, dry place. (With any food, of course, use common sense.) Household cleaners also do best in a dry place with a stable temperature. After the dates shown, beauty and cleaning products are probably still safe but may be less effective.

Food

Beer

Unopened: 4 months.

Brown sugar

Indefinite shelf life, stored in a moistureproof container in a cool, dry place.

Chocolate (Hershey bar)

1 year from production date

Coffee, canned ground

Unopened: 2 years
Opened: 1 month refrigerated

Coffee, gourmet

Beans: 3 weeks in paper bag, longer in vacuum-seal bag (After this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume.)
Ground: 1 week in sealed container

Coffee, instant

Unopened: Up to 2 years
Opened: Up to 1 month

Diet soda (and soft drinks in plastic bottles)

Unopened: 3 months from "best by" date.
Opened: Doesn't spoil, but taste is affected.

Dried pasta

12 months

Frozen dinners

Unopened: 12 to 18 months

Frozen vegetables

Unopened: 18 to 24 months
Opened: 1 month

more at Real Simple

what about make-up?

2005-06-21T22:57:00.000-05:00

Most shoplifted items

The Food Marketing Institute has ranked the fifty most frequently shoplifted products snatched by organized retail thieves. Organized retail theft (ORT) is "separate and distinct from petty shoplifting in that it involves professional theft rings that move quickly from community to community and across state lines to steal large amounts of merchandise that is then repackaged and sold back into the marketplace." The Top 10 shoplifted items: #1 Advil tablet 50 ct
#2 Advil tablet 100 ct
#3 Aleve caplet 100 ct
#4 EPT Pregnancy Test single
#5 Gillette Sensor 10 ct
#6 Kodak 200 24 exp
#7 Similar w/iron powder - case
#8 Similar w/iron powder - single can
#9 Preparation H 12 ct
#10 Primatene tablet 24 ct

from Boingboing.net

New lies from Klein in the National Review Online

2005-06-21T22:51:00.000-05:00

In an interview with National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez, Edward Klein, author of a new attack book on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), lied when he stated that "[l]ike Nixon, Hillary has used FBI files against her enemies." This new lie from Klein is likely a reference to allegations that the Clinton White House improperly collected FBI files on a number of Republicans. But the Office of the Independent Counsel investigated these allegations and "concluded that no senior White House official, or Mrs. Clinton, was involved in obtaining FBI background reports."

During the interview, Klein also stated that "[l]ike Nixon, Hillary has a penchant for doing illegal things." But Clinton has never been charged with, much less convicted of, any crime.

These are only the latest of Klein's falsehoods about Clinton. As Media Matters for America has documented, Klein's attack book, The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President (Sentinel, June 2005) is filled with numerous lies and misrepresentations.

from Media Matters for America

democratic underground's new top ten conservative idiots.

2005-06-20T09:15:00.000-05:00

democratic underground has come out with its new list of conservative idiots. gw takes the first three slots, and his brother makes the list, too, not surprisingly. excerpts:

Mind you, never let it be said that President Personal Responsibility ever allows the buck to slip past him. George W. Bush was out and about last week placing the blame for his sinking approval ratings right where it belongs - at the feet of... the Democrats?

"On issue after issue they stand for nothing except obstruction," Bush whined at a Republican fundraiser last week. "Political parties that choose the path of obstruction will not gain the trust of the American people." What a wimp! So let's see... the Republicans control the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, and have recently been doing what they can to plant conservative activists in the judiciary - and it's the Democrats' fault that Bush can't get his agenda through?
.....
Last week, Mark Kulkis of Kick Ass Productions, a hard-core porn production company based in California, was invited to "The 2005 President's Dinner and Salute to Freedom," held by the National Republican Congressional Committee. Kulkis had donated $5,000 to the NRCC, and chose to bring porn star Mary Carey with him to the event.
.....
Apparently Jeb Bush didn't get the memo about "moving on" though - it seems that he's decided to continue his harassment of Michael Schiavo. Bush announced last week that he had met with the medical examiner before the autopsy results were released, and "What he did say to me that was troubling ... was that there was some doubt about when she collapsed and how long it took for a phone call to be made to 911. I think that is worthy of some investigation." Good grief...

Meanwhile, Michael's attorney weighed in on Jeb's ghoulish politicization of the unfortunate case of Terri Schiavo. "I think it's sad and disgusting given the governor's continuing unwarranted meddling in this case," he said. "The extent to which he will prostitute himself to right-wing constituents for his future political gain I think is just pitiful."

this picture is creepy, but his presidency does seem to be cracking.

Posted by Hello

2005-06-20T08:33:00.000-05:00

read the whole thing. it's not the drippy one.

Posted by Hello

can you stand one more jesus sighting in household items?

2005-06-19T09:45:00.000-05:00

jesus peeking around the shower corner?

Posted by Hello

courage

2005-06-19T03:24:00.000-05:00

courage does not always roar. sometimes, courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "i will try again tomorrow."

ok, let's look at this.

2005-06-18T09:17:00.000-05:00

"My friends, the people who are imprisoned at G'itmo are living better lives than their free friends and neighbors back at home in the vast majority of cases."

Rush Limbaugh

maybe, in terms of food and shelter and air temperature. but there's apparently torture going on in both places. And the people at gitmo are facing charges.

if we purport to be a civilized country, shouldn't we be treating prisoners as well as we'd like our POWs to be treated? they're being incarcerated, as in not free to go. there are horrendous things going on both a gitmo and abroad.

one of rush's new "hilarious" club gitmo t-shirts.

Posted by Hello

see a list of the top 100 sweatiest U.S. cities...

2005-06-18T08:59:00.000-05:00

...here.

oh, quel surprise.

2005-06-18T08:49:00.000-05:00

Today Page Six asked (the very recycled "blind" item):

WHICH top leading man interviewed three different starlets for the job of girlfriend/future wife before picking his new beloved? "Mark my words: They'll have a baby," said our source. "Maybe he or she will be conceived in a petri dish, but they'll procreate"

And Radar had the answer right away (or was it like Jeopardy, and they had it before the question was asked?):

Katie Holmes may have fallen for it, but Tom Cruise’s sci-fi seduction technique scared the bejeezus out of Scarlett Johansson, a source close to the actress says. Weeks before he began wooing his brainwashed bride-to-be, Cruise made repeated phone calls to the 19-year-old starlet—who was then set to co-star with him in Mission Impossible III—imploring her to meet him at the Scientology Celebrity Center in L.A.

In the aftermath, Scarlett bailed on M:I3 due to "scheduling conflicts." We don't blame her. But poor Katie Holmes, who was picked fifth after Jessica Alba (24), Kate Bosworth (22) and Lindsay Lohan (18). That's gotta cramp a girl's sense of self-worth.

And you know those Scientologist folks made Katie sign her life away on paper .. so we're just waiting for her contract to leak and spill the details of her agreement.

From Jossip.

none of your frigging beeswax.

2005-06-17T11:52:00.000-05:00

i just sent this message to my sister in florida:

Why is your frigging governor sticking his big Bush nose into the Schiavo case? It's not his job to insist that they figure out why her heart stopped.

she responded:

No s**t, Sherlock. Our esteemed ex-sheriff got arrested and found guilty of criminal trespass for trying to bring Terri water at the hospice. And he’s very proud of that. There’s some sort of pride thing going on here, that they can’t give up. I mean, we have physical evidence of blindness and persistent vegetative state, and the family won’t let it go. I’m beginning to understand why Michael Schiavo was so adamant in his refusal to compromise with them.

And how quick they all are to point a finger at the justices for sticking their noses in people’s personal affairs, and then how quick they were to condemn them for not intervening in the Schiavo case. How much more personal could you get?

what took everyone so long?

2005-06-17T11:40:00.000-05:00

Increasingly pessimistic about Iraq and skeptical about President Bush's plan for Social Security, Americans are in a season of political discontent, giving Mr. Bush one of the lowest approval ratings of his presidency and even lower marks to Congress, according to the New York Times/CBS News Poll.

Read more in a lot of places, including the New York Times. Limbaugh will dismiss this because of who did the poll.

yes, more get fuzzy.

2005-06-17T11:36:00.000-05:00

Read Get Fuzzy here.

bucky is pure evil. teasing satchel with a twinkie, of all things.

Posted by Hello

if women controlled the world, part deux.

2005-06-17T11:30:00.000-05:00

actually, my husband puts the lid down and my mother-in-law leaves it up. i'm serious.

Posted by Hello

SADDAM REQUESTS JACKSON'S JURY

2005-06-17T02:36:00.000-05:00

Asks Accuser's Mom to Testify Against Him

Humorist Andy Borowitz:

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein startled the international legal community today by requesting that the jury in the Michael Jackson child molestation trial be empanelled to sit in judgment of him when his trial gets underway in Baghdad.

The Iraqi dictator made the extraordinary request in a special hearing today, telling the judge in his case, "There is no jury in the world better qualified to hear my case than those twelve people who just let Michael Jackson walk."

more...

nigerian fortune cookie.

2005-06-16T08:59:00.000-05:00

is there ANYONE who hasn't gotten this e-mail? even my mother has.

Posted by Hello

if women controlled the world.

2005-06-16T04:40:00.000-05:00

that's how i pick rental cars.

Posted by Hello

maybe he should have taken french. or latin.

2005-06-15T08:09:00.000-05:00

OLATHE, Kan. -- A Kansas high school student who vomited on his Spanish teacher has been charged with battery against a school official. The misdemeanor charge was filed Monday against the Olathe Northwest High School student. The 17-year-old was charged as a juvenile and his name was not released. Prosecutors said the vomiting was intentional. The teacher, David Young, called the act "outrageous."

The student's father said his son told him he did not mean to throw up on the teacher, but had been made uncontrollably ill by the stress of final exams. The father said the district expelled his son and recommended he enroll in an alternative school in the fall.

i've had prospective employers who smoked during interviews, but not THIS kind of smoking.

2005-06-15T08:04:00.000-05:00

BBC news:

A man who tried to conduct a job interview naked has been sentenced to three years' probation and placed on the sex offenders' register.
Glasgow Sheriff Court was told that Saeed Akbar, a manager at an interpreting and translation company, "had wanted a bit of excitement".

Sheriff Brian Lockhart described the behaviour as "wholly unacceptable".

Akbar, 35, left the interview room and came back in to speak to his female victim naked and clutching a clipboard.

When the job candidate refused to strip as well, he put his clothes on and attempted to continue the interview as normal, the court was told.

Akbar, from Fife, said: "I wanted a bit of excitement that afternoon, that's purely all it was."

yeah, i'm lettin' this guy into my brain.

2005-06-15T06:18:00.000-05:00

this is a hilarious page -- tons of old ads for hypnosis training.

a good example of selecting bad images for your ads.

Posted by Hello

this is possibly the least flattering picture of tom cruise i've ever seen.

2005-06-15T05:54:00.000-05:00

have you ever noticed they kind of have the same face? Except katie doesn't have tom's big schnoz.

Posted by Hello

think i'll disappear for a few days

2005-06-15T05:46:00.000-05:00

isn't this why she did it, anyway? and aren't you prohibited from profiting from the commission of the crime? i think the court should make her turn her proceeds over to a missing persons' fund.

Runaway deal?: Fresh from copping a plea to faking her own abduction, "Runaway Bride" Jennifer Wilbanks seems ready to cash in. I hear that Queen of All Media Judith Regan is close to inking a mid-six-figure deal with the 32-year-old Wilbanks and her on-again, off-again future husband, John Mason, that includes movie-of-the-week rights (possibly for NBC) and a network television interview - maybe with Katie Couric. No comments all around.

New York Daily News.

not just for guys with Skittle breath and bad social skils.

2005-06-12T11:05:00.000-05:00

Make, a new quarterly put out by O'Reilly Media, a publisher of computer and technology books in Sebastopol, Calif., is a throwback to an earlier time, before personal computers, to the prehistory of geekiness - the age of how-to manuals for clever boys, from the 1920's to the 50's. Its compact, booklike format, in fact, directly mimics a 1959 copy of Popular Science, according to its publisher, Dale Dougherty.

The technology has changed, but not the creative impulse. Make's first issue, out in February, explained how to take aerial photographs with a kite, a disposable camera and a rig of Popsicle sticks, rubber bands and Silly Putty. It also showed how to build a video-camera stabilizer - a Steadicam, basically - with $14 worth of steel pipes, bolts and washers; how to boost a laptop computer's Wi-Fi signal with foil from an Indian take-out restaurant; and how to read credit card magnetic stripes with a device made with mail-order parts and a glue gun.
The current issue challenges readers to invent a water purifier with a hypothetical set of supplies including a bicycle with flat tires, bamboo tubes, steel wool, $10 in coins and an endless supply of coconuts.

Read more at The New York Times
or visit the magazine's site.

new york times editorial has a different take on greenspan's optimism.

2005-06-12T10:34:00.000-05:00

Alan Greenspan keeps saying that it's unclear why home mortgage rates have remained so low. After all, the Federal Reserve chairman has been doing all the things people in his position normally do to push rates up - warning about "bubbles" in the housing market, assuring the business community that the economy is basically strong and tripling the Fed's overnight lending rate, to 3 percent.

Perhaps we can help solve the mystery.

Persistently low mortgage rates are symptomatic of an economy that is not doing as well as Mr. Greenspan suggests. Mortgage rates are linked to Treasury bond yields, which are unusually low. And depressed bond yields are generally the market's way of saying that the economic outlook is worrisome.

doonesbury offers a collection of bushisms today.

2005-06-12T10:04:00.000-05:00

it's hard to pick a favorite.

Posted by Hello

'nuff said. now please shut up and sit down, tom.

2005-06-11T11:18:00.000-05:00

In an EW.com (Entertainment Weekly)poll, 61 percent of respondents said they liked Cruise less now after the recent exhaustive attention to his personal life, 3 percent said they liked him more, and 36 percent said their viewpoint of the "Top Gun" star hadn't changed.

update on my scent search

2005-06-11T09:12:00.000-05:00

as my URL hints, i'm always looking for great, strong candle scents in both lilac and vanilla. i'm very picky, but i've mentioned at least one vendor that i like. another is colonial candle.

it has a great selection of votives, pillars, tealights, portable scents, jar candles, etc. i like their lilac, but i ordered their vanilla in votives because there are about a thousand blends and i don't know yet which i'll like.

a little pricey, but great scents

Posted by Hello

since so many of you have asked, here's an update on our new kitten.

2005-06-11T09:05:00.000-05:00

we adopted the cutest kitten on earth last sunday. we were told her name was maisie, but it's actually daisy. we have two older cats, one 10 and one 13. butthead, pictured here chatting with daisy, is taking to the new kitty faster. he flicks his tail for her to play with and doesn't hiss unless she jumps him.

scout, on the other hand, is not amused. she's no longer the baby. she's both fascinated and repelled by the little creature. i predict more hissing before they settle in.

daisy likes to carry my husband's reading glasses around. at least he knows where they are. he used to have about 12 pairs and leave them around the house, office, car, etc., because he was forever losing them.

"so who do you like in '08?"

Posted by Hello

i'm happy when media matters catches limbaugh in a lie, but can we please let this go?

2005-06-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

Limbaugh falsely claimed that Kerry "did not get his Form 180 records released that show his naval records"

Nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh falsely asserted that Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) "did not get his Form 180 records released that show his naval records" because the "records that he released only gave his grades from Yale." In fact, Kerry authorized the full release of his military records to The Boston Globe when he signed Standard Form 180, according to the Navy.

Though John E. O'Neill and Jerome R. Corsi, co-authors of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry (Regnery, August 2004), have responded to the Globe by insisting that the newly released documents do not constitute Kerry's full military record, The New York Sun reported on June 9 that Kerry released his military records from both the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis and the Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tennessee, citing Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Hernandez, who confirmed the Globe's report that the documents it reviewed are Kerry's "whole record."

In separate June 7 articles, The Boston Globe reported that it had obtained Kerry's complete military file, including medical and education records. The Globe emphasized Kerry's mediocre grades over the report that his full military records provided no new information about his service, even though the latter revelation definitively proved that smears by the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the presidential campaign were baseless.

i think i'll stick with vivarin.

2005-06-11T02:59:00.000-05:00

Adrenalin Strips deliver a jolt of caffeine when you place one under your tongue. Starbucks has no reason to fear.

if you ask me, this guy's had plenty of caffeine already.

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satchel has writers' block.

2005-06-10T14:37:00.000-05:00

Get Fuzzy here.

satchel is so cute when he's concentrating.

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and i thought 17 cup holders in our minivan was excessive.

2005-06-10T14:29:00.000-05:00

My friend MJ just visited from Seattle with a rental car. It had many cup holders. Two were in the trunk.

So Vinnie can have his cuppucino.

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severe thunderstorms? ho, hum.

2005-06-09T08:20:00.000-05:00

I was offline much of yesterday because of a power outage caused by a thunderstorm. My husband looked at the St. Paul paper this morning and wondered why there weren't bigger stories about the storm.

"It was a thunderstorm," I said. "Big deal."

Thunderstorms WERE a big deal when we lived in California. They were rarer than a compassionate conservative. My husband's house got hit by lightning once many years ago -- the only lightning bolt to come out of the storm.

He went outside to check the damage, and noticed a small fire in the backyard. So he got out the garden hose. The fire department was across the street putting out a related fire, so George wandered over and asked if they could stop by when they were done.

The fire fried every electric appliance in the house, especially computers and modems. It was such a rare event that my husband was on the 6:00 news and in the paper.

Here in Minnesota you might get a mention on the front page if your entire house is carried away by a tornado. But a thunderstorm? Nah.

I don't mind going through a thunderstorm just to experience that moment when the lights come on again, and you realize how much of your life revolves around that amazing discovery.

more wise words from america's misogynist.

2005-06-09T08:17:00.000-05:00

Limbaugh peddled Klein's sexual innuendo about Hillary Clinton

Nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh peddled gay-baiting sexual innuendo about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) from author Edward Klein's new book, The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President (Sentinel, June 2005), on the June 7 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: I've got some interesting, juicy details on this book on Hillary by Ed Klein, but I'm not going to be the first to mention them. I'm not going there. It will come out eventually. It has to do with sexual orientation, and I'm not going to be the one. That's the book that everybody says is going to be presenting a firestorm.

Limbaugh apparently has an addiction to juvenile comments about Clinton's sexuality; his fascination with the topic goes back many years. Lately, he's taken to suggesting she is actually a man:

May 12: "I mean, where are the real men in the Democratic Party? Where are the real men? Hillary Clinton's one of them, but where are the others?"

April 19: "And, they're all [asking], 'What about Hillary? What about Hillary?' So, I told them, 'I'm not worried about Hillary. She puts her pants on one leg at a time like every other guy does.' "
Limbaugh's wild speculation about Clinton isn't confined to her sexuality; he also famously suggested that Vince Foster was "murdered in an apartment owned by Hillary.

Media Matters for America.

just can't get enough of the rush man.

2005-06-09T08:13:00.000-05:00

Limbaugh repeated false Sessions accusation that Schumer compared Bush judicial nominee to KKK

Nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh echoed a false claim by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) when he stated on the June 7 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show that Democrats had "compare[d] [Bush appellate court judicial nominee] Janice Rogers Brown to the Ku Klux Klan" (KKK) when they "accuse[d] this woman of being a grand exalted ruler." In fact, Sen. Charles Schumer's (D-NY) suggestion that Brown might want to be nominated as "grand exalted ruler" recalls not the KKK, which does not confer such an honorific, but the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

Read more.

oh rush you handsome dude you.

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disobeying authority saved lives on 9/11

2005-06-06T10:13:00.000-05:00

For nearly four years - steadily, seriously, and with the unsentimental rigor for which we love them - civil engineers have been studying the destruction of the World Trade Center towers, sifting the tragedy for its lessons. And it turns out that one of the lessons is: Disobey authority. In a connected world, ordinary people often have access to better information than officials do.
.....
After both buildings were burning, many calls to 911 resulted in advice to stay put and wait for rescue. Also, occupants of the towers had been trained to use the stairs, not the elevators, in case of evacuation. Fortunately, this advice was mostly ignored.
.....
In fact, the people inside the towers were better informed and far more knowledgeable than emergency operators far from the scene. While walking down the stairs, they answered their cell phones and glanced at their BlackBerries, learning from friends that there had been a terrorist attack and that the Pentagon had also been hit. News of what was happening passed by word of mouth, and fellow workers pressed hesitating colleagues to continue their exit.

Read the story at Wired.

my favorite show is back!

2005-06-06T08:04:00.000-05:00

Globe and Mail:

Spoilers ahead!

Six Feet Under (TMN, Movie Central, 9 p.m.) is back for its fifth and final season, and it's damn bleak. However, it is a bracing, beautifully crafted drama.

As the season opens, the situation with the Fisher family is superficially serene but in truth it's complicated. The main characters are in seemingly solid relationships, but each is under great strain. And Federico Diaz ( Freddy Rodriguez), now separated from his wife, is desperately looking for a relationship. Man, is he desperate, sad, ridiculous and a tad slimy in his desperation.

Nate (Peter Krause) is with Brenda (Rachel Griffiths) and they are about to get married. Brenda is also pregnant. The wedding, when it happens, is stunningly staged. Only on Six Feet Under could a wedding, that signal of optimism, be turned into an occasion for terrible pain, anger and regret.

David (Michael C. Hall) and Keith (Mathew St. Patrick) want to have a child, but they play manipulative games with each other about how this should be done. One wants to adopt, the other wants to use a surrogate. Nothing goes right.

At the heart of the story is Ruth Fisher (Frances Conroy), whose husband George (James Cromwell) has been revealed to be mentally unstable. He requires medication, therapy and a lot of care. Ruth feels trapped. This man she married and with whom she hoped to end her days in companionable bliss, has become a millstone around her neck. It's far worse than having a child.

Meanwhile, Claire (Lauren Ambrose) and Brenda's brother, Billy (Jeremy Sisto), appear to be in a self-absorbed but supportive relationship. But the viewer knows, as does the rest of the Fisher family, that Billy's equilibrium is maintained by medication.

Based on the evidence of the first four episodes, this season of Six Feet Under is, at its heart, profoundly skeptical about the possibility of true happiness. It suggests that life is ugly and filled with pain, and that it's necessary to constantly nurture love and affection in order to survive.

As usual, each episode opens with a death. The first thing you notice is that the deaths are particularly grotesque. That's a hint, and you'd do well to take it.

this is our new kitten maisie. she likes watermelon.

2005-06-05T15:43:00.000-05:00

more about maisie later. busy "introducing" her to the old cats.

she's gonna be a big cat. check out those feet and ears.

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