Not sure what this is but just stumbled upon it and assumed that it was some kind of forum for...Tom Tomorrow sayeth it all.
Seriously, how uninformed can you be to be undecided at this point? Of course, I don’t exactly understand how anyone can think W. is doing a good job at this point. But if you’re all about having power and not so much about actually governing, then yeah, the Republicans are the place to be.
(I know, I said: no more politics for a while. I lied.)
A number of years ago I heard a call-in show on NPR—something having to do with food; might have been Talk of the Nation or maybe a segment of The Splendid Table with Lynne Rosetto Kasper—on which the guest was World Famous Beer Expert Michael Jackson (one gets the feeling he introduces himself that way a lot) answering questions about beers. One caller asked, “What do you think is the best light beer?” After which there was a long pause and Mr. Jackson finally said:
“Drink less good beer.”
Another anecdote: some celebrity who had lived a good long time—Tony Randall? my memory is total crap these days—was asked the secret to his longevity. His response was:
“Eat only food that can spoil, and eat it before it does.”
These are two pretty good rules for life.
(more…)
So, I’m discussing John Kerry’s Daily Show appearance in IMs with my friend Otto:
DIANE
Yeah, I thought Kerry was a
little boring, but you know,
I'm not looking to marry him.
OTTO No, you have Tony Blair for that.
I need less funny friends. Not fewer funny friends. Just less funny ones.
You know you’ve completely od’d on politics when you have a dream that you’re having an affair with Tony Blair and in the dream you’re really, really upset at yourself…not because you’re having an affair, but who you’re having it with.
(I at least have the good taste to cuss George Bush out in my dreams.)
This new show, Lazytown, just debuted on Nick Jr. Sophia asked to watch it. Then she wanted to watch more. The show’s been on a week and it’s the only thing she wants to watch.
Given that it’s a show that wants to inspire kids to get up and move, I’m not sure that’s a good sign. But it’s actually a very, very entertaining show.
Lazytown is the story of (where else?) Lazytown, where both superhero Sportacus and supervillain Robbie Rotten live. Sportacus is into health and activity and eating good food. Robbie wants everyone to be lazy and eat junk food. 
Eight-year-old Stephanie moves to town and becomes friends with Sportacus and the other kids in town (all of whom are puppets), and they foil Robbie’s schemes. And periodically Stephanie, in her bright pink hair and bright pink dress, bursts into a technopop number.
Do not get high before watching this show. I’m just saying.
I sat down to watch this show with Sophia and I definitely had a good time. The themes of the episodes are pretty obvious, but entertainingly done. The importance of getting your sleep, the importance of eating well and choosing an apple over candy, the importance of being honest over telling a lie. I just wish Sophia wanted to get up and bop with Stephanie when she’s doing one of her techno numbers.
The strange accents of Sportacus and Robbie Rotten, the bright colors, and the technopop interludes made me wonder: is this Scandinavian or something? So I looked it up on the Web and no, it’s Icelandic. Yes, Icelandic. And it’s evidently this huge conglomerate, with books and stage shows and all sorts of spinoffs.
My question for my vast audience of Icelandic readers (hi there): was this show originally broadcast in English? Or did they do two versions: the English for export and Icelandic for home?
Update: I’ve closed comments on this entry because I’m getting very, very tired of deleting comments about how “hot” Stephanie is. Guys, she’s 13 oe 14. Find someone your own age. (And if I’ve let any such comments go by, let me know: n k a ( a t ) n o b o d y - k n o w s - a n y t h i n g . c o m.
Batgirl, a rabid baseball fan, is one of the funniest blogs I’ve come across:
The political climate in classical Greece was largely defined by the struggle for supremacy between two rival city-states輸thens and Sparta. Athens (hereinafter the Minnesota Twins) was renowned for its intellectual and artistic achievements, while Sparta (hereinafter called “Cleveland”) was known for its military might. While Minnesota was pursuing advances in philosophy and astronomy, Cleveland was devoting itself to expanding its power. Minnesota’s citizens thrived under a democracy, while Clevelanders cowered under the rule of tyrannical kings. Minnesota’s youth were encouraged to become thinkers and artisans, while Cleveland’s served only the state. All Minnesota children were cherished and educated with the hope that they might further advance civilization, while all Cleveland babies were examined at birth for physical fitness, and those found inferior were drowned or abandoned in the woods where they were eaten by rabid New York Mets.
You don’t need to be a fan of baseball to enjoy this blog. The Lego re-enactment of a bench-clearing brawl is particularly choice. (Via Ceej.)
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Another favorite blog of mine these days is Cracked Cauldron Spillings, a blog that has done the impossible: it makes me want to visit Oklahoma City. Cracked Cauldron Spillings is the blog of a mother-daughter team, referred to as “Moneybags” and “Manager,” who are in the process of opening their own bakery in Oklahoma City. The descriptions of putting together their business plan, combined with description of their yummy treats, keep me coming back.
Manager and I have been discussing a (working name, but it seems “sticky” - people are already referring to it by this name) “guinea pig hour”, a special day and time each month where we prepare a new item to add to the menu in multiple variations. All the customers in the store get free samples of them along with an evaluation sheet, and they can tell us “too much cinnamon”, “not enough vanilla flavoring”, “needs more yeast”, “too hard”, “too soft” or whatever. We’ll fiddle with the recipe until it’s just right according to the majority of customers, and place it on the menu for the following month - placing a photo of them all (those who want their picture taken, that is) with the product they chose on the menu board.
Several people we’ve surveyed have asked if we’ll sell T-shirts that say “Official Cracked Cauldron Guinea Pig” on them during that time. An artist friend has offered to draw a cracked cauldron with a guinea pig inside it eating bakery goods. Here in Oklahoma, maybe the casualness of this would work?
What’s particularly unusual about this venture is that it’s not just a bakery—it has larger social ambitions in the surrounding community. (You have to read the archives to find out why.) And Moneybags’s committment to buying locally and supporting other merchants turns out to be harder than she expects, but she explains why it’s important.
If you want a blog that definitely tells a story, check this one out.
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Tad Bitter: Tales from a Hollywood Screenwriter is a very entertaining and well-written blog about (what else?) a writer in action in Hollywood. I can’t imagine how someone who’s clearly so busy has time to write so much in a blog, but I’m glad he does. His take on Collateral is right on:
If youæ± e not familiar with the concept for Collateral, the film is about a hitman (Cruise) whoç—´ come to Los Angeles for the night to kill a few people and force his cab driver (Foxx) to take him on his rounds. Once Foxx finds out Cruise is a contract killer (he does in the first ten minutes so I知 not giving anything away) we have to assume that Cruiseç—´ Vincent is ultimately going to kill him since not only has he seen his face, but he also now knows what he does. This of course provides us with the obligatory conflict and tension. At times during the movie, you think or maybe hope that Cruise won稚 kill Foxx when heç—´ done with him because Cruise is probably the sloppiest hitman to ever grace the screen. At virtually every stop Cruise allows at least one person to place him at the scene. He also leaves at least a dozen finger prints at every scene and he shoots all his victims in the exact same pattern. So perhaps Cruise doesn稚 care if Foxx has seen his face since everyone else has. Hell, maybe they値l end up taking a singles cruise together when the night is done.
Tad doesn’t make me miss LA very much, though.
In the Manchurian Candidate remake topic on the Well, Ben Bacon posted what I thought was one of the funniest Top Ten Lists I’d read in a while, so I asked him for permission to reprint it here:
TOP TEN DIFFERENCES between RAYMOND SHAW (redux) and GEORGE W. BUSH
by Ben Bacon10. Raymond Shaw was elected.
9. Raymond Shaw fought for his country.
8. People remember serving with Sergeant Shaw.
7. Nobody laughs when Raymond Shaw is addressed by rank.
6. When Raymond Shaw kills you, he looks you in the eye.
5. Raymond Shaw doesn’t know he’s doing the bidding of sinister multinational corporations.
4. Raymond Shaw has a chip in his head. Bush has Dick Cheney.
3. Raymond Shaw is dominated by his fanatical obsessed ideologue mother. Bush is — never mind.
2. Raymond Shaw puts his country’s interests ahead of his own and his
party’s.And the #1 difference:
1. Raymond Shaw is probably qualified to be Vice President.
I have a quick question for those of you out there with kids in preschool (particularly in California): do your preschools send home call lists from the kid’s class?
Sophia’s and Simon’s won’t. They said it’s against the law (or something—gotta ask them again what the rationale was). However, Sophia’s school in LA not only sent home call lists, they sent them home whenever the class roster changed, which in preschool is quite often. The current school recommended that I put one together for the class. Yes, I am Little Miss Organized; I’ll run right out and do that. (Needless to say: haven’t yet.)
We have two weeks off of school. I have a few other kids’ phone numbers, but Sophia always asks, “What about So-and-so?” And it’s always someone whose number I don’t have yet.
Two weeks. Sob. I could really use a call list.
I think I’ve discovered the new VRWC meme going around: the Bush administration is “scandal-free.” I’m reading Susan over at Suburban Guerilla this morning, and she goes off on George Will for saying:
George Will on C-SPAN this morning: “There have been remarkably few scandals in this administration, compared to others.”
Then Avedon at The Sideshow points me to the article “Ire To The Chief” from The Washington Post, which contains this:
Bush’s administration is free of scandals.
Huh. Really?
Well, the next time you hear this meme, let loose with Suburban Guerilla’s handy off-the-top-of-her-head guy to W’s “scandal-free” administration (and feel free to add more in comments, with links to an article or webpage, please):
1) Iraq and the non-connection to 9/11. Many, many dead soldiers and Iraqi civilians as a result.
2) The missing WMDs.
3) Halliburton.
4) Outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.
5) Abu Ghraib.
6) Supreme Court appointment of Bush to the presidency.
7) Cheney’s secret energy task force meetings.
Patriot Act abuses.
9) Ahmed Chalabi.
10) Sibel Edmunds.
11) Political purging of Florida’s voting rolls.
12) Illegal executive order dismantling the Presidential Records Act - thus shielding Reagan, Bush I and Bush II records from the public eye.
Today’s “Make Diane’s widdle head hurt” winner is from the NY Times: Report Finds Tax Cuts Heavily Favor the Wealthy
Fully one-third of President Bush’s tax cuts in the last three years have gone to people with the top 1 percent of income, who have earned an average of $1.2 million annually, according to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to be published Friday.
The report calculated that households with incomes in that top 1 percent were receiving an average tax cut of $78,460 this year, while households in the middle 20 percent of earnings - averaging about $57,000 a year - were getting an average cut of only $1,090.
The new estimates confirm what independent tax analysts have long said: that Mr. Bush’s tax cuts have been heavily skewed to the very wealthiest taxpayers. Those are also the people, however, who pay a disproportionate share of federal income taxes.
Yes…because it would appear they have all the fucking money.