Why is it that some cigar smokers walk around with an unlit stogey in their mouths? Why do they do it in elevators and non-smoking buildings? It’s pretension, I tell ya. I rode up in the elevator just now with a guy who bore a slight resemblance to Jeffrey Tambor. He fiddled with and mouthed his tube of tobacco leaves in a disturbingly Freudian display. Why? He deigned to speak to me as we rode by mentioning that he’d pressed an extra floor button in error. Thanks. Whatever. He got off at his floor and immediately stuck the stogey back…

Someone I know might be interested in this little gadget – it’s called a HeadBlade. As Seen at BoingBoing.

I get many complimentary reactions on the ring, from the sort of person — invariably female, thus far — who notices diamonds. Sometimes it’s like being accepted into an exclusive club. Women Who Wear Large Diamonds. The only thing that seems to confuse them is that I wear it on my right hand, not my left; the sapphire engagement ring over the wedding ring on my left hand being quite small by comparison. Diamonds come from men, in this particular sorority’s estimation, and are always worn on the left hand. I also am not a member of that sorority –…

If you want to skip the MT babbling brook o’ technogoo, skip the next paragraph. After a false start, David got the latest version of MT-Blacklist installed. I couldn’t do it myself because an older version was up at MT-Plugins We tried to use a package called MT-Bayesian, but it’s only partly working and the creator doesn’t recommend using it for now (so that’s why no link). Which is okay, since MT-Blacklist can also delete the stuff, just not in as cool a way as the other plugin could have. And it can’t teach itself to ID spam, either –…

Mrs Norman Maine belts a long, funny one out of the park as guest bloggist at Rance’s place. Oh, my God. Still laughing at the concept of “Thinga Thong” – programmable musical underwear. BWAAhahahaha… I wonder when I’ll get my turn at bat? If I do, it’ll be right into the shortstop’s glove with two outs and 3 commenters on. And that’ll be the end of the inning. Game over. 😉

Rance had a new guest bloggist up – good choice, since it was a real stinger. Really blows the hair back with a big “whoof!!” sound. I’m still on deck with Mrs. Norman Maine. Maybe we should learn to play 2-handed gin rummy online while we’re waiting. The suspense is killing me. There’s a new and even more wordy “About” section under the ampersands. Thanks again to Elise of “Learning Moveable Type” for the how-to. I still have to bang some rocks together a little more to get certain macros (yes, yes, okay the goddamn Amazon macro) working there. All…

Neil Gaiman quotes from a reader’s email in his mailbag: Sorry about your having to clean up after the cat. We have a cat here who doesn’t understand that having all four paws in the litter box is not sufficient, and so we often end up with urine under the litter box rather than in it. Sigh. Well, I know all about a cat being such an enthusiastic and productive pisser that also thought that just the two front paws standing in litter constituted “in the litterbox.” Also there was some confusion in his mind over whether hanging one’s kitty…

It can only be a matter of time before the game is over. Rats. Could he really be, as some believe, Owen Wilson, Ben Affleck, Jim Carrey or even George Clooney? Well, I think I know who Rance is. But I’m not saying for now, because 1. he’s supposed to be anonymous, dammit. B. he’s entitled to some privacy, which apparently doesn’t get much of, bruddah and tha-rrrreee. that would be telling. Besides, Xeni thinks it’s so three weeks ago (although it was originally a Boingboing link of hers that got me hooked). Um. Shutting up now. Proxy Error The…

It seems they like blowin’ stuff up in theGreat White North, too! Culturally, we’re not as far apart as I thought.