Sonofabitch!

OK so yes I AM 6'3....so if you are looking down and I come up to your cosmetics counter at the department store, you might possibly assume I am a man because all you see in your peripheral vision is a tall looming figure, ...its happened before and I don't begrudge you the mistake.

The only way you would STILL mistake me for a man is if you were functionally blind, or had an advanced case of Alzheimers....but if that were the case you probably would be unable to dress yourself....so you likely would not be working at a department store in the first place.....but I digress....

Now if you work for the American Red Cross and you've called me up and asked me to come donate blood during my holiday vacation, and I am sitting beside you and you've looked up my information on your computer, you do not ask me "It says here you are a female, is that correct?"


Believe me, this is not the way to win friends and influence people.....or blood donors

Sign me,
Future customer of the plasma center

White Privilege vis-a-vis the Election

really good article:

http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/viewCommentary/3618/1

At lease he didn't die on my birthday

Jack Weil : Fashion inventor

Man, I love his shirts. I got one at the Cowboy Museum in OKC a few years back, its so thoughtfully made and they last forever. Plus the snaps never fall off, and the Rockmount label is so retro cool....even though its the same design they have always used.

From the Economist obit:

"Until he created his shirts, there was no distinctively western look in American couture. There were cowboys; but they wore dusty working clothes, accessorised with sweaty bandannas and clanking spurs, that no one much cared to copy. Indeed, Mr Weil early on in his career made work-gear for cowboys, and learnt an important fact: they had no money. If he wanted to make any money himself, he would have to appeal not to the catwalk instincts of cattlemen, which were hard to spot, but to wannabe easterner cowboys who lived in, say, New York. Fortunately, there were plenty of them."

Read more here:
http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12000749

Aww! Finally some Good news about Nature

Has there ever been a more adorable picture of a Gorilla? I don't think so!....He just makes you wanna run up and squeeze him!
I'll be the first to admit that Gorillas usually don't invoke the usual "Gosh how cute" feeling of Puppies or Bunnies....this photo is the exception.

But I digress, read more here:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/08/05/congo.gorillas/index.html

Who would have thought one of the signs of the apocalypse would come from Sweden?

Its not like there aren't plenty of luxury good out there...its just that they generally don't start off telling you the price of the item in the ad.
Hastens has chosen to lead off with the price which in this case is pretty exorbitant. And pretty offensive.

Good taste dictates that while the wealthy among us have plenty of money to spend on themselves they don't go around shouting about exactly how much they are spending.

Hmmmm...do I want to spend $64,950.00 on a bed? or would I prefer to save 100 starving African children....I'm going to have to think about that one...

I should always carry a flask of Scotch

So I'm at Ruthies 3rd birthday last Sunday afternoon, standing around in my wide-legged Levis and I feel something on my leg.

I brush my leg and think..."its probably nothing."

...but eventually I come to the realization that there is definitely something crawling up my leg....INSIDE my pants...its near the top of my leg, so I grab my pants there to isolate it and I run across the street to Mom's house to remove them.

I get them off and run to the side door to fling the offending bug away. It lands on the steps...and I bend down to see that it is a Cicadia.

A Bee I can handle...a Bumblebee even....but I've always had a deep and abiding revulsion for Cicadias.....

At this point I get dizzy and look around for a drink...or some Valium maybe...but none to be found.

Eventually I straightened up, went back to the party and ate a huge serving of chocolate-cherry trifle......it was almost as good as some scotch would have been...

"To wear cheap clothes, put in some horrible front teeth with a big gap, smoke 10 cigarettes and, like, just sob -- that's heaven on a stick for me"

"I like that Americans can laugh at themselves more ... And now I want to join in, now that you've got problems," she jokes, referring to the state of the union's economy. "Now, as an American citizen, I can join the discussion and I won't end up in Guantanamo Bay."


Read the article about Tracey Ullmans new show: "Tracey Ullman's State of the Union"

Oh if only I had cable.......Looks like I'll be decamping to the next door neighbors TV!

OMG! I am sooo Bershon!

From Michael Bierut:

Bershon was first introduced to a wide audience by writer and blogger Sarah Brown, who remembered it as a word from her own teenage years. Her definition is still the best:

The spirit of bershon is pretty much how you feel when you’re 13 and your parents make you wear a Christmas sweatshirt and then pose for a family picture, and you could not
possibly summon one more ounce of disgust, but you’re also way too cool to
really even DEAL with it, so you just make this face like you smelled something
bad and sort of roll your eyes and seethe in a put-out manner.

Wow! I had no idea this concept existed! It describes me perfectly!....I can remember all those pictures my mother would take of my sister and me....we would roll our eyes, seething with rage, I would grimace as I dug my fingernails into my arm.


Read the post in its entirety:
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/033664.html#more

I'm going to have a salute to bershon here soon...just wait til I dig out all my "disgusted with everything" pictures!!!

My idol

Man flies 193 miles in lawnchair-2007

Why would Couch try such a flight?
"When you're a little kid and you're
holding a helium balloon, it has to cross your mind," he told the Bend Bulletin.
"When you're laying in the grass on a summer day, and you see the clouds,
you wish you could jump on them," he told the Bulletin. "This is as close as you
can come to jumping on them. It's just like that."

....Even at two miles
high, Couch said, he could hear cattle lowing and children talking. He heard
gunshots, which worried him. A black butterfly flew past. He passed through
clouds. He said they were fluffy.

read complete article here:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003781771_weblawnchair09.html

Dolphin rescues stranded whales

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A dolphin swam up to two distressed whales that
appeared headed for death in a beach stranding in New Zealand and guided them to
safety, witnesses said Wednesday.

Anton van Helden, a marine mammals
expert at New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, said the reports of
Moko's rescue were "fantastic" but believable because the dolphins have "a great
capacity for altruistic activities."

read the entire story:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641308986

I love me some Live Trace!

2 ships that pass in the night

All my money goes to the drug companies

Ferring Pharmaceuticals to be exact


Urifollitropin--------------------2k
Ultrasound----------------------126.
Artificial insemination-----------326

Getting your period anyway-----Priceless

So long Eyak, we hardly knew ye

Marie Smith, the last speaker of the Eyak language died on January 21. She was 89.
her Eyak name was Udachkuqax*a'a'ch which meant a sound that calls people from afar.

A soft and treacherous spot in the ice was called demexch, bad place to walk but maybe a good place to fish.

There were 38 native speakers of Eyak in 1933, but after her sister died in the 1990's Marie was the only one left.

See the full article at the Economist:
http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10640514

What to do on a snow day

there now...I've created my own blog...

I've resisted so long now because the word "blog" is soo unattractive..
I like the idea of vlogs better, but "vlog" is an even MORE unattractive word.

I also dislike the vertical nature of a blog......a 3-d blog would more accurately describe the connections between ideas.......but who's got time these days?

My favorite blogger died last year.....http://rittenhouse.blogspot.com/ so the whole idea of a blog is depressing....but so is winter.....

I'll probably forget about this blog in a couple of weeks, just like I did with my Franklin Planner....

So enjoy it while it lasts.