作譜

There’s an attribution for this joke, but I’ll find it later.

Q: What’s Bush’s stance on Roe vs. Wade?

A: He doesn’t really care how people get out of New Orleans.

Between the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, a drawn-out war in Iraq, and now, two benches on the Supreme Court open, I look at the calendar and say, “It’s only 2005.” Three more years left in this administration. Will any of us make it out alive?

I usually don’t get too meta when public figures die, but I have to say, I am pretty bummed about the passing of Peter Jennings. I’m no fan of broadcast news — oh, hell, I’m a print snob, truth be known — but Jennings had the coolest head. He had that kind of graceful delivery that’s far above the screedy anchors on the cable networks, and that kind of class is all too rare in broadcast journalism.

Ibrahim Ferrer also passed away this weekend. I don’t listen to Cuban son, and I’m ambivalent about the Buena Vista Social Club’s recordings. But the story of Ferrer and his cohorts achieving success at a point of in their lives when their dreams seemed so distant is inspiring. It’s sad he’s gone, but it’s nice he got to play at Carnegie Hall.

I was rather sad when I discovered Americakokki.com is no longer running. America Kokki was the home of Home English Home, the only piece of Flash animation to make me lose it. I thought surely this Interweb masterpiece is archived somewhere? The Internet Archive Wayback Machine wasn’t much help, and most of the search results on Google pointed to the original page.

I did, however, find one site that saved both lessons on its own server. For the sake of posterity, I will redouble their efforts by archiving these files on my site as well. Learn English now!

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

My mom told me this when I was a kid, and even then, I thought it was bullshit. (About the eight glasses, that is. Not the not need to.)

I can’t stop playing this.

I like the fact the name Big Boi drops as an influence is Kate Bush and not Tori Amos.

It occurs to me …

… it would be nice if gay marriage were to become socially acceptable, because then it could lead way to arranged gay marriages. And mail-order husbands.

What a day it would be when I can sit in a movie theater to watch a comedy of errors about an arranged gay marriage. Or an episode of a crime drama centered around a mail-order husband.

I have a lot of reasons why I have a draconian relationship with phones and e-mail.

Avoiding a 24/7 work week is one of them.

I learned a long time ago the office needs to stay at the office, so the only non-office contact number I give is my residential land line. I don’t check work e-mail at home, mostly because I’m not set up for it, which of itself is a way to keep distance.

It helps that I’m not in a management position, and that too is deliberate. I don’t believe in climbing a ladder to be more successful — I move laterally.

Playgirl has announced Keith Olbermann of MSNBC as the no. 1 sexiest newscaster, and judging by the pictures, I’d say I agree. (Glasses. Yum.)

But Sean Hannity? Not so much. Anderson Cooper, though — the boy pings.