Friday wasn’t such a great time. We went to the holiday party for David’s company, and it seemed to start off well – lots of people, nice wine to drink, and they didn’t have the creepy, smarmy DJ that they’ve had in years past. They started things off with a fun trivia contest that got everyone at our table laughing and chatting more than in previous years (the employees yak just fine, but the spice tend to sit there trying to make conversation). And then they served dinner, and then I got sick. Sort of. It was really weird –…
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New images of prisoner torture by US forces in Iraq have surfaced after the AP released images they purchased from an online photo-sharing service after Googling for them. The date-stamping shows they were taken much earlier than the notorious Abu Ghraib images, which date from months later. The site has since password-protected the pages, but the images are still apparently in Google’s image cache. The BoingBoing post is here; they are asking for help from “133t” readers in Googling more images, or finding the original cache. The photo-link leads to a Spanish newspaper site: the first caption reads “New images…
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I had noticed, in that vague not-noticing way, that there seemed to be a strip of green grass showing in the back yard, right along the drainage line when I glanced out the kitchen window this morning. It was ruler-straight, which I assumed was because it followed the line of drainage. Water, least resistance, and so on. About half an hour ago, after a half-day off spent blogging and so on in the Lair o’ Computers, I again looked out the kitchen window and noticed that there are tire tracks visible in the bare strip of lawn (in this area,…
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What a great news day. NPR reports that the new Secretary of Scariness, Bernard Kerik, had a troubled start in life and was reportedly a young tough or bully before turning his life around via martial arts and becoming a tough crimefighter. Just reading the fawning reviews at Amazon of his autobiography gives me the willies. He was a colorful beat cop only 20 years ago, with “little formal education.” And now he’s the scariest Department of Homeland Scariness commissioner we’ve ever had (admittedly, not far to go there). Guess this means the “Untitled Bernard Kerik Movie Project” will shortly…
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We’re a nation of violent lawless gun-crazy psychos, that’s why. And we’re the leaders of the Free World. The news story reads like a classic British police-procedural crime novel, except more violent than most (more in the tradition of P.D. James). An ordinary American ex-Marine with a shady past is pulled over in a routine traffic stop, and shoots the police officers, killing one point-blank as he plead for his life. A second officer was saved when a shot meant for him hit his radio instead. It happened in Leeds on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas, and a family…
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Tuesday night as I left work, it was raining, then it was sleeting, then it started snowing. I toddled off late to choir practice and found the usual suspects had only just arrived; my favorite two British choir ladies (they are sisters) were dressed in identical lavender sprigged jumpers (translation: flowered pullovers in a thermal knit). Yes, winter has officially arrived, as my ladies are very particular in matters of dress. Had it been snowing any harder, they wouldn’t have been there. They are darlings. The next morning when I went to work, the snow had thawed, then frozen solid…
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But when straight people feel the need to flaunt their lifestyle choice in front of God and everybody, I simply have to draw the line! Heterosexuality tends to lead to excessive breeding and higher rates of divorce, neither of which I think ought to be encouraged. Why can’t they just be happy comprising roughly 96% of the population, and leave the rest of us to live our simple lives, unencumbered by the burden of birth control?? Is that so wrong?? (That last line ought to be read in the voice of Harvey Fierstein.) Song: Judy Garland: “You’ll Never Walk Alone”…
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If No Icelanders Admit To Feeling Blue, Are They? The premiere of TAR showed people tearing past gorgeous Icelandic scenery and pestering gorgeous Icelandic locals for directions to Seljalandfoss (waterfall) and Vatnajokull (glacier). In their interactions with some locals in a town, Don noted that everyone seemed to be “ripped” at 7 o’clock in the morning. An old Internet acquaintance who lived in Iceland had mentioned that there are a lot of problems with alcoholism, so I wasn’t as surprised as Don was. As a Nordic country with long, dark winters, you would think that there would also be a…
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Miss Alli’s Recaplet: Well, shoot. This week’s episode takes the teams to Sweden, where they get encased in ice and then go to — I am not making this up — a huge Ikea, because that’s what they have in Sweden. Of course, that’s what they have two minutes from my apartment, too. [Eye-roll.] Anyway, a brutal counting task proves too much for all but a few teams, so most of the group winds up slapping together particle-board furniture like there’s no tomorrow. Then, the teams move on to a punishing Roadblock in which hay bales have to be unrolled…
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There is no point to this image, other than I was checking to see if I’d set up the pre-loaded div up right at Mfop2. It seemed to come over to the blog normally, so…