Twilight Tarot

I don't know which is worse - the desecration of the sacred Tarot deck, or that annoying extra "e" in judgement.

Fingers

Here in a nutshell, is one of my pet peeves about religion. Any religion. The first image is of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, one of the Iranian "good guy" clerics. MSNBC.com ran it this morning, cuz he gave his first sermon since the protests started, and everyone was all agog about what he would say. . Okay fine. But what caught my eye was "the finger". What is it about religious fanatics that makes them feel like they are entitled to wave their fingers at us peasants when they're in the pulpit?

Is it a power trip? Do they think they now "speak for God"? Does it make them feel righteous?

Of course, political nutcases do the same thing, like bozo Ahmadinejad above. So I'm guessing it's mostly about the power.

Hey, Rafsanjani and Swaggart and Pope Benny and Ahmadinejerk, I got a finger for you as well.

Harry Potter 6 - A 29-word Review

This is courtesy of my carpool partner, who had the privilege of chaperoning 5 teenagers at the midnight opening of HP6 last night; finally getting home at 3:45 AM, and then having to be ready to go to work at 6:30 AM. I drove. . "Heavy on the drama; light on the action. It doesn't follow the book at all. Not the best HP movie; not the worst. Dads are not the target audience." .

- WORD FOR THE DAY -

. Snogging. (v) : (French) kissing; sucking face; tonsil hockey; and about 50 other synonyms that you can read here. My favorite is the French slang : "Rouler une pelle." (to roll a shovel). As in, "There is some snogging in HP6." . I have to admit, I had never heard of "snog" before.

No words needed...

Art Appreciation Monday

A couple Van Gogh images - one real, one ersatz. I've been dueling with a Trojan Horse virus the last couple days. Tenacious little booger, but I think I finally got it. We'll see if it stays away.

The Mummy : Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

AKA : "Mummy Three"

Genre : Campy Action

Time : 112 minutes

Year : 2008

Overall Rating : C

. Mummy-3 switches the setting from Egypt to China; adds Chinese megastar Jet Li to the line-up and replaces Rachel Weisz with Maria Bello as Evy. Rick and Evy have to come to the rescue of their now-grown son, who has accidentally revived the evil emperor Han. . Alas, it has to follow the first two masterpieces, and frankly falls flat. There's no chemistry among our family of heroes, Jet Li is woefully under-used, there's no depth at all to any of the Chinese characters; and you're gonna hate the new Evy. . What's To Like... That being said, there's still lots of action, including some butt-kicking Yetis. The computer-generated armies look good, and the Chinese characters speak honest-to-goodness Mandarin. Very little of which I understand anymore. Evy's brother, played by John Hannah is the saving grace, delivering some great comic scenes. The terra cotta army motif is nicely done. .

Survey Says : Put Mummy to bed.

Mummy-3 got raked over the coals at Amazon.com. I can't remember any other movie where the one-star ratings outnumbered each of the other options. Wow.

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It really isn't that bad, but it doesn't merit anything above a "C", as in "meh". And to think I could've watched Iron Man instead of this.

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The ending keeps the door open for a Mummy-4 set in Peru. Sadly, here's hoping they choose not to do that, and let the series die. Hey, two out of three ain't bad.

Happy Birthday, Nikola Tesla !

Nikola Tesla is (or for you chronological flat-liners, "was") a fellow time/dimension traveler, and a genuine think-outside-the-box genius. I'm having lunch with him tomorrow, 23 millenia ago, on the planet Citsong, in a nearby parallel universe.

Queen Victoria will not be joining us, although we occasionally talk her into chrono-hopping. Vic finds Nik both slick and thick.

Cyanide & Happiness

Cyanide & Happiness is another web comic I read daily. A number of the strips make you go "Ewwww", and others are unfathomable. But some, like the one above, are of ROTFLMAO quality. . On the home front, all three of the dogs we were sitting have returned home. We got the pup and the momma dog partially house-broken during their sojourn here. Cookie was the faster learner. We're done dog-sitting the shepherd, Echo as well, at the very least for three weeks, and maybe completely finished. Our three dogs are all happy to not have to compete with the interlopers for our attention. . More dog pics to follow, although tomorrow night will possibly be a rare movie review from Yours Truly. Liz and Jason are going to see Wicked, which means I get to waste the whole evening online.

More Cures, Less Wars

You can expect a lot of self-righteous ranting in the near future from the dittoheads about the cost of Obama's Health Care Reform plan. This is hypocritical, since the Dubnutz regime took deficit-spending to new heights. Er... depths. It is also not surprising, since the GOP has pandered to the big-business drug companies and insurance providers for decades.

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Personally, I'm all for bringing the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan, and spending all that wartime "Mad Money" to improve the day-to-day conditions of folks here in the USA. I realize that the wing-nut stance is "as long as wealthy white Americans can afford health coverage, who cares about anybody else". But I'd prefer that the American Dream be achievable for all of us.

Rae Waters sightings !

Both photos by Michael Chow of the Arizona Republic.

Rae's the dashing redhead directly above the "high-fives" in the lower picture. Both pics show some of our Democratic state legislators at the recent all-night budget session.

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Arizona, like most states, is facing severe budget shortfalls. Our Republican governor, Jan Brewer, would like to raise taxes to meet the needs. Our Republican reps feel that instead of more taxes, we should cut expenses on unimportant, frivolous things. Like education.

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Both Rae Waters and Governor Brewer have always made a good education system a cornerstone of their platform. And you know how those bleeding-heart Democrats are always caring about the welfare of our youth.

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BTW, I have an inside tip that Rae occasionally runs google searches to see what's being written about her. Hey, Rae! If you make it here, leave a comment! And tell Jason to introduce you to FaceBook. :-)

Cookie's Pedigree

This is Joey, Cookie's dad, and a purebred King Charles Spaniel. This is Odie, the mom, who's a chihuahua-dachshund mix.

And here's the offspring, Cookie. She gets her markings from her dad, albeit black-&-white instead of Joey's brown-&-white. She gets her body shape, and her hyperactivity, from her mom.

For the record, Cookie already has figured out the doggie door, and is about half housebroken. We should charge extra for these services.

Happy Fourth of July !!

Happy Independence Day, everybody! Or, as they call it in England - Happy Ungrateful Rebellious Insurgents Day! . Today most patriotic Americans will commemorate our freedom by getting drunk, grilling dead animals, and watching baseball and fireworks on TV. It's a really cool holiday; and a pity we have only one. . Canada, OTOH, has two independence days. One is Canada Day, held on July 1st, just so they can get drunk a couple days before we do. And the Quebecois celebrate Francophone Independence Day on June 24th, although to fool their English-speaking countrymen, they call it St. John the Baptist Day (Saint-Jean Baptiste Day). . Mexico one-ups Canada by having three independence days. The main one is on September 16th, to celebrate their victory over Spain. But there is also Cinco de Mayo, which falls conveniently on the 5th of May, celebrating their victory over France. Last but not least is The Day of the Revolution, on November 20th, to celebrate their victory over Mexico. . But pity poor England, which ANAICT doesn't celebrate a single independence day. That's somewhat surprising, since over the years they've been overrun by the Beaker people, Druids, Jutes, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Catholics, Vikings, Normans, Braveheart, Anglicans, and Japanese tourists. Do you mean to tell me they never successfully threw off the oppressive yoke of any of those foreigners?

Quidditch for Muggles

Muggles Quidditch. It is having as profound an impact on the collegiate scene as, say, Hacky-Sack.

Wikipedia doesn't devote a separate article to Muggles Quidditch yet, but you can find a section on it under "Quidditch" here.

There are chasers, seekers, keepers, beaters, and even (as shown above) a golden snitch.

Obviously, the game has been modified from the HP series. We scientists are still working on those flying brooms. ANAICT, it's kind of a cross between rugby and basketball, with the added stipulation that you run around while "riding a broom".

There are leagues and tournaments, although I get the sense that the rules haven't been standardized yet. For instance, Wiki says the goal areas are hula hoops (mounted on PVC), but the pictures here (especially the one below) show quite a variance in goal-diameter.

Although the pitch itself is usually the size of a soccer field, the snitch often has the run of the entire campus. He dangles a sock stuffed with tennis balls from his belt, and the seekers attempt to grab that off him, similar to flag football.

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Personally, I was having enough trouble comprehending the zen of Hacky-Sack when I saw it being played at MCC before night classes a few years back. When I was getting my degree back in the 70's, frisbee was our primary interactive, no-cost, time-wasting activity. To each his own, I suppose. But I would like to see a Quidditch-For-Muggles match someday.

The thing about Faulkner is...

I've never crossed paths with The Sound And The Fury. I do vaguely recall having to read As I Lay Dying for a high school English class. (*) Yeah, that quickly became a "Cliff Notes" project. . As for Rat's comment in the middle panel, I did say that about Waiting For Godot in a freshman English Lit class at Penn State. Hey, the prof asked for our honest opinions. I guess what he really meant was our honest positive opinions. . (*) : ISTR (but could easily be wrong) that there is one chapter in As I Lay Dying that's something like one sentence long. Some last-gasp thought by whoever is lying around dying. Maybe. Maybe not. I've been quite successful at purging my brain cells of anything having to do with Faulkner.

Cookie Pogo

We're dog-sitting this little cutie for the next 10 days. Her name is either Cookie or Pogo (her owners haven't decided yet), and she's 8 weeks old.

Her poppa is a King Charles Spaniel and her momma is a Chihuahua-Dachshund mix. That makes Cookie-Pogo a ...um... mutt.

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We're also on-&-off dog-sitting over the course of the summer Echo, a shepherd mix, whom you can see in an old pic here. She'll be here over the coming holiday weekend, which means it'll be Liz, me, and five dogs. And fireworks. And monsoon thunderstorms. Send tranquilizers for everyone.

RIP - R.L. (Bob) Burns, Sr.

This one's a long, personal post, so feel free to skip. Bob Burns passed away late last year, although I didn't know it until it showed up a couple months ago in the obit section of C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News). . Bob was a fellow chemist, and a graduate of Rutgers University. Somehow he ended up working in State College, Pennsylvania, home of Penn State University, and one of my alma maters. . I first crossed paths with Bob in the late 90's when I had to revise our company's Chemical Hygiene Plan, which at the time was a holy mess. Most CHP's are 20-30 pages long; ours was a 600-page monstrosity. Having no idea where to begin, I went out to a Usenet site and yelped for help. Bob not only responded, but also offered to send me a copy of the CHP he developed for his company. I quickly accepted, and it became the template for our CHP. . The story might have ended there with no first-hand contact, but by a stroke of luck about a year later, I had to make a business trip to a customer about 40 miles outside State College. So I flew in the night before, and met him where he worked. He gave me a tour of the place, we chit-chatted, and I got to thank him for sharing the CHP. . About a year after that, we crossed paths again - this time at the ACS national convention in Las Vegas. Neither he nor I care for gambling, so after the meetings, we shared a dinner and a bottle of wine at the casino's Mexican restaurant, then both learned exactly what is meant by a "traditional Vegas show". There's a longer story there. but we swore each other to secrecy. . Bob retired in 2003. He wasn't big on communicating by e-mail, but I'd occasionally send him a "funny", chide him about the woeful state of Rutgers athletics, and see how he was liking retirement. . He in turn would give me a short update, pooh-pooh us cretins who followed collegiate sports (he felt that the NCAA was totally irrelevant to a place of higher academic learning), and chide me for not being retired yet. His automatic e-mail signature read, "When you're retired, every day is Saturday". A couple years ago, it just worked out to where Rutgers University wound up playing Arizona State University (my other alma mater) in a bowl game here in Phoenix. I had him half talked into coming out with his wife to see the game. . The last time I checked up on him, he had bad news. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Which left me feeling like I had put my foot in my mouth. Naturally, he was bummed, but said he had his family around him to give him lots of support, so he was in good hands. I never heard from him again. . Regardless of your spiritual/religious beliefs; the truth is (as my plumber racquetball-playing philosophizing buddy notes) most of us are only going to be remembered here on earth for about two succeeding generations. For instance, I recall my grandparents, but my great-grandparents were long gone when I came into this world. For all extents and purposes, those great-grandparents - their dreams, accomplishments, thoughts, loves, lives and people's memories of them - have disappeared. . So this post is in remembrance of Bob Burns. You can read the career aspects of his life in the April 13 issue of C&EN. But that doesn't tell you about his essence. I have no photo of him. but as long as this blog exists (and who knows how long Google will allow that), he will not be totally forgotten. He had a dry wit, would go out of his way to help a total stranger, loved his family and chemistry, and his passing leaves this world a slightly sadder place.

Queen Victoria & Salvador Dali

Something quick, as I've been writing a book review this evening.

It's been a while since we've posted something Daliesque, and a while since we've featured that great comic strip New Adventures of Queen Victoria. So why not combine the two? BTW, you can get your daily fix of NAQV here.

Clapton-Winwood Concert

Who : Eric Clapton - Steve Winwood

When : Friday, 26 June 2009

Where : Glendale Arena

Concert Rating : A

. The Friday night Clapton-Winwood concert lived up to expectations. There was no warm-up band and no intermission. Just two full hours of these two virtuosos strutting their stuff. The song-selection was excellent and well-planned. First some rocking; then some blues; then some acoustic work; and finish up with more rocking. . The plusses... They started about 20-30 minutes late. That's actually very good compared to a couple (metal) concerts I've been to lately. The supporting musicians & singers were first-rate. Winwood showed his versatility - switching around from guitar to keyboards to piano. Clapton showed why some people think he's the greatest guitar-player around. . Layla was one of the acoustic numbers. As anticipated, they did a lot of tracks from the Blind Faith album. The last song (prior to the encores) was a b*tchin' 20-minute version of Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child. They did a couple Traffic songs as well, and Winwood sang a great cover of Ray Charles' Georgia. . The Minuses... The parking sucked. Friday night concerts suck too, especially when you have to drive 40 miles across town to get to the arena; then do the drive back home late at night. . The other stuff... Our seats were at the far end of the arena, although this was compensated by two big screens showing the concert up close and personal. The acoustics were what you'd expect in an ice-hockey arena, and the volume was just about right. Loud enough, and at least the vibrations didn't microwave all the organs of my body. The A/C was okay, considering it was 108°F outside. The light-show was minimal but perfectly done. Except for the damn disco-ball spotlight that occasionally shined right in my face. Think of a camera flash that stays on for 5-10 seconds. . Winwood and Clapton never did introduce the rest of the band, but I guess that's their prerogative. It should be noted that the drummer and back-up keyboardist were sensational. I rate this concert an "A". I saw Clapton once a long time ago - shortly after 461 Ocean Boulevard came out, and he was quite disappointing. I'd never seen Winwood in concert before. Both men's voices are still doing well, and you got your money's worth. It does make you wonder what might have been, if the Blind Faith line-up had lasted for more than one solitary album. And if you don't/didn't get a chance to see this concert, the double-CD pictured above is the next-best thing to being there.

SCOTUS Review

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett grabbed the headlines on Thursday, but SCOTUS also issued two important rulings that same day. STRIP-SEARCHING for IBUPROFEN We reported about this bit of Arizona stoopidity here. On Thursday, SCOTUS ruled 8-1 that subjecting a junior high age girl to a strip-search in search of two ibiprofen pills was illegal. The MSNBC report on the verdict is here. . However, just to keep me from gaining too much respect for them, SCOTUS also ruled that the girl couldn't sue the school officials that strip-searched her, and that maybe or mavbe not she could sue the school district. Huh? . The lone dissenter was - no surprise here - Clarence "Who put the pubic hair on my Coke Can" Thomas. I suspect he was fantasizing about doing a strip-search of Anita Hill (Wiki article about her and the Coke can here) during the hearing. Neverthless, it's nice to see the other three wingnut justices finally rendering an intelligent verdict. . THE RIGHT TO CROSS-EXAMINE FORENSIC EXPERTS This SCOTUS ruling also happened on Thursday. The short MSNBC article on it is here. . I'm happy for the result, but I was somewhat dumbfounded that SCOTUS split 5-4 on this case. Isn't the right to cross-examine your accusers a cornerstone of our judicial system? I sorta chalked it up to the four right-wing justices being dittoheads, but - SURPRISE SURPRISE - Antonin Scalia, a Ronald Reagan brownshirt appointee, wrote the majority opinion! . I think this is the second and third time Scalia and I agree on a SCOTUS case. Which now puts him two ahead of me-&-Clarence. I wonder if Scalia's getting smarter, or if I'm getting stupider.

Eric and Steve

We're going to see these two in concert tonight. Hopefully, there will be lots of Blind Faith songs.

RIP - Farrah Fawcett

Mary Farrah Leni Fawcett

b. : 02 February 1947

d. : 25 June 2009

. Farrah Fawcett, who appeared in more teenage boys' dreams in the late 70's than any other fantasy girl, passed away today at the age of 62. She is best-remembered for playing Jill Munroe in Charlie's Angels, even though she was only on the show a year. Thought of as a ditz, she later proved her mettle in movies like The Burning Bed, and was nominated a number of times for the Golden Globe and Emmy Awards. . Personally, I can't say I was infatuated by her. I wasn't impressed by the Charlie's Angels show itself, and if you're going to make me choose an angel, then I'll go with Kate Jackson's Sabrina Duncan character. What impresses me most about Farrah is the dignity and courage she had while battling the cancer for the past three years. I haven't seen the movie/documentary made about it, but I've heard it's riveting. Methinks Farrah will be remembered as much for her fight against the disease as the iconic poster (above) and Charlie's Angels. . PS #1. It was a tough day for entertainers. Besides Farrah, Michael Jackson passed away (I'm thinking drugs/medications here). But the biggest entertainment loss may have been the death of Sky Saxon (who?). . PS#2. Really, I could take or leave Farrah. My dream girls were, in no particular order : Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha in Bewitched (the mind drools thinking about what she could do in the bedroom by wiggling her nose); Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel in The Avengers (gotta love a woman who dresses in leather and can pick her nose with her toes); and Angie Dickinson as Sergeant Pepper Anderson in Police Woman (a blonde in a uniform and with handcuffs. oh my!).

Sanford & Hon'

Republican presidential hopefuls are getting caught with their pants down faster than I can write about them. Last week it was Nevada Senator John Ensign (see here); this week it's the Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford (read about it here). . Of the two, Ensign was at least the smarter dirtbag - he only came forward once his mistress's husband started demanding beaucoup d'argent for his silence. Sanford "disappeared" to Buenos Aires for a week, for some reason thinking that no one would miss a governor for that amount of time. . Sanford did the usual Jimmy Swaggart "I have sinned!!" tearful confession today. Ho hum. He claims he spent the week in Argentina crying and telling his little Spanish hottie that the affair was over. My my, does it really take that long to say, "Hasta la vista, baby"? . Let's be clear about one thing - I'm not suggesting that Democratic politicians are any better. Bill had his "Monica", and John Edwards is particularly scummy for fooling around while his wife battles terminal cancer. But Republicans are the bigger hypocrites because they posture themselves as the "Family Values Party" and espouse their "Contract With America" bullsh*t. All the while boinking away. . So put away your hanky and dry those tears, Governor. You're only crying because your White House aspirations are now completely screwed.

The PETA file

Oh jeez, you mean to tell me PETA's miffed at Obama cuz he swatted a fly? Read all about this craziness here. . Listen , PETA. I'm trying to take you guys seriously. So let's get a couple things straight about flies. They ain't endangered. They'll be around long after we humans have nuked ourselves into extinction. They're filthy little boogers. And the first thing they do when they land on you is puke on your skin. . I worked with a girl once who felt this way about insects. If she came across one in the lab, she'd scoop it up and carefully carry it outside. And of course, the Hare Krishnas (are they even around anymore?) hold that all life is sacred. I've seen them do the same when they used to have a temple in Tempe. But normal people know the only good bug is a dead bug. . So get real, PETA. I'm all for you protecting Thumper from getting his eyes poked out at a Mary Kay Cosmetics Testing Lab. But insects don't merit any compassion. If God didn't want us to kill 'em, He wouldn't have invented fly swatters.

The whole world is watching...

Iran is one of three things that I can think of (*) that brings all Americans together. Rich or poor, black or white, left-wing or right - one thing we all agree on is that the present government in Tehran is a bunch of loonies. From public executions for minor offenses to denial of the Holocaust; from Dark Ages mentality about human rights to Nukes for Nutcases; Iran is only rivaled by North Korea as the country most in need of a regime-change. . Then came the blatantly rigged elections. A spark that kindled a bonfire of pent-up frustration at a crumbled economy (despite being rich in oil) and at being isolated from the rest of the world for 30 years by Asinine Ayatollahs. The rich, the educated, and the skilled have all left, and they now help fan the flames of protest worldwide. . So today the whole country, and indeed the whole world (including the Moslem nations) holds its collective breath as Iranian citizens risk their lives - again - in protest of an oppressive tyranny. Frankly, the odds are stacked against them. But that was true when Uncle Sam's puppet, the Shah, was on the throne. There's a movement underway to petition Google to run the above image for one day on its homepage. Find the website, and help play a small part in the protests. You can make a difference. . (*) : Oh yeah, the other two things that bring all Americans together : getting rid of Photo Radar and destroying all Barry Manilow albums.

Happy Summer Solstice!!

Happy Father's Day, too. And Happy Wimbledon Tournament Start Day as well. MSNBC once again ran an article about the "pagans" who celebrated at Stonehenge this year. You can read it here. Alas, "party-goers" would be a more accurate description. . During our March 2004 vacation, we made it to Stonehenge, and the above pic is from then. It was bitterly cold, and the wind just tore across the Salisbury Plain. All of us tourists did a quick walk around the outside of the henge (you can't go in, except apparently on the solstices), then hung out in the warm gift shop until it was time to get back on the bus. The gift shop did a brisk business that day. . Since I'm a time-traveler, I went back a couple millennia today to celebrate the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge. It was a much more spiritual occasion, but the sanitary conditions were just atrocious. We watched the sunrise and toasted some newlyweds with a couple rounds of mead. Which was thrice as strong as the watery beer served in modern Britain. So I'll be nursing a hangover for the rest of the day back here in the present.

Today's Comic

B.C. joins the Twitter-spoofing crowd. Maybe he should follow Oprah.

The Priestley Riots

This picture appeared in one of my chemistry journals a few weeks ago. It shows the house of a revered icon in my field, one Joseph Priestley, being burnt to the ground by a mob. Unfortunately, the article offered no background information regarding the pic. . I naturally wondered how a chemist could p*ss off such a large number of people (isn't everyone in awe of us chemists?) , so I wiki'd it and found an enlightening article on something called the Priestley Riots, which you can read here. . I suppose I should be critical of those Birmingham brutes who torched Priestley's house. After all, it's been a long time since Presbyterians and Methodists were viewed as radical revolutionaries. OTOH, Priestley admired the French Revolution, and anyone who doesn't support Royalty - French, British, or whatever - will eventually get his just desserts. . All in all, the Wiki article is quite educational, and it's reassuring to realize Priestley was assaulted because of his Unitarian leanings, not because of his scientific insight into that well-known gas, phlogiston.

Iran Protests in Arizona

These are interesting times in Iran. We may do a serious rant about it over the next few days, but for now, we'll content ourselves with some off-topic comments about a couple pics from the demonstrations here in Phoenix. First up is the above pic. I admit to being influenced by The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks, which a friend of mine follows. Now I abuse punctuation marks myself, but jeez, what's the purpose of them on that sign at the right? And why is she using 'single' quotation marks instead of the default "double" ones?

Nothing sarcastic to say about this second pic. It brings back old memories. That bridge is on University Avenue, and that's Manzanita Hall (a 15-story girl's dorm) in the left-background, and the Physical Sciences Building (where all my chemistry classes were) in the right-background.

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But the relevant memories here are the anti-war demonstrations I participated in way back in the early 70's. I recognize that the protesting Iranians have a smaller population-base to draw from, but on the night after the US invaded Cambodia, we not only filled up that bridge, but took over University from the foreground clear back to Manzanita. We were drunk, we were stoned, but we weren't about to go to Cambodia for Tricky Dick's little war.

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There are two ways to look back on those protests. One way is to say we didn't accomplish much. We marched in the streets around ASU/Tempe - University, Mill, and Apache. The police blocked off the streets from traffic as we made our circuit, and after we had let off our steam (and ran out of joints) we all went home and crashed.

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But on a larger plane, there were enough protests nationwide, involving not just students but adults - white & black, rich & poor, liberal & centrist - that eventually Nixon had to do away with the much-hated draft, and bring the troops home.

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We'll see if the Iranian protests can also change the world. Two of my co-workers are from there, so this crisis cuts near to me. If it sustains its energy, both in Iran and throughout the world, then great things are possible.

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Well damn. I went and got serious anyways.

Word for the Day

mamihlapinatapai

. Which has been called the hardest word in the world to translate, and means "a look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start". . Read the Wikipedia entry about it here. Now let's see if I can somehow work it into my next book review.

"We were close friends ... really close."

Another member of the "family values" GOP had to admit today that he had an extramarital affair. This time it was Senator John Ensign, R-Nevada; described as a "rising star" in the wing-nut camp, and occasionally mentioned as a 2012 Presidential candidate. . You can read all about it here. I suspect this one's gonna get messier. If you believe Ensign's peeps, the dalliance ended last August. So why announce it now? It sounds like someone told him, "Either you go public, or I will" and had the evidence to back up the threat. . Then again, what can we expect from a party who's #1 star right now is Noodling Newt Gingrich, who seems to go to bed with every secretary he hires? Yeah. Family values, my sphincter. .

- UPDATE -

. Oh yeah, it got messier alright. Real fast. It turns out doofus Ensign had an earlier affair (in 2002), so this isn't his first indiscretion. Also, he's a member of the Christian ministry "Promise Keepers". Oopsie. Maybe it's time to join "Hypocritical Politicians for God" instead,

Best Pun (so far) of 2009

From last Sunday's Pearls Before Swine comics. A smooth-flowing triple-pun punchline. Gotta love that.