Arts and Entertainment Page

Cultural events this past weekend. Saturday, I managed to drag Daisy to the Shakespeare Festival at Tulane's production of Richard III. It was very well done. The play was presented in modern dress with parts of certain speeches presented as "press conferences" on big TV screens in the theater. Hmm I wonder if they were trying to make some kind of a point with this one. Let's see Richard III: Usurping ruler engages in various murderous intrigues until the country is finally drawn back into war. That doesn't sound very familiar at all. Daisy's comment: "There sure were a lot of characters in that play."

Sunday night I endured Nurse Mama's company in order that we might see Fahrenheit 911. At the very least, it should win an oscar for best use of the themesong from The Greatest American Hero. Also, we caught the 10:00PM screening on a Sunday night and had to wait in a huge huge huge line. I hope all these people vote.

Special Note Included So That I Don't Get Clobbered by People: Daisy is actually a very intelligent extremely well read librarian who just happened to not follow the play very well. Likewise the Nurse is also a very intelligent and vibrant person and I enjoy her company very much. When she behaves. Which is most of the time. Really it is.

Special Note Included Just for the Hell of it: Blogger spell check suggests "Tallness" in place of "Tulane." Rudolph went to Tulane and she is 5'10"

Ok, Potter Geeks, have at it!

You bunch of freaking weirdos. Book Six title available.

Scary

This was two blocks away from me. It really is suspicious considering that the same thing happened to the same house just a few months ago.

Very useful if you are Wile E Coyote

This is Broken

Encouraging news this morning

John Kerry: "I don't cross picket lines," Kerry said last night, shortly after attending Mass at St. Vincent's Waterfront Chapel. ''I never have."

US Supreme Court: Guess what, y'all. Defendants still have rights.

Won't have Ralph Nader to kick around anymore

And you know what? Good. So maybe this time around when the thieving bastards steal another election and continue unabated to march us toward the eschaton, the Democrats will maybe rethink their strategy of nominating bland corporatist patriarchs instead of spending four years blaming Nader. Maybe.

Ok, creative people, I'm stumped

I need suggestions. Daisy and I are trying to create a display of space books in anticipation of an upcoming NASA @ Your Library exhibit and I am way too much into the stewing and the fretting over what to name it. I've already begun assembling materials to create the obligatory solar system mobile so, ideally, I'd like to create some kind of stupid catch phrase about reading that contains the word orbit. Other space themed phrases are welcome. The best I've come up with so far is "The Search For Intelligent Life Begins With a Book" but that makes me feel like jamming a plastic fork into my thigh so I'm open to alternatives. I'll even make it worth your while. If I use your suggestion, I will send you one limited edition Read to Pass bookmark featuring a printed replica of Aaron Brooks' autograph. Who could pass that up?

Crackheads love the GBV

My poor Tercel has been through an awful lot this week. First, the battery died leaving me to bum rides from Daisy until I could a waste an off day dealing with it. When I say I am bumming rides from Daisy what I mean is I am chauffeuring her around town in her car while she rides in the back seat and reads Cryptonomicon and occasionally says something about what her dog did that day. You may insert your own "Driving Miss Daisy" joke here if you are that kind of person. My career as a personal attendant came to an end on Friday when I got my car back on line.
So last night, my car's second back on duty, one of our neighborhood's suppliers of local character provided the vehicle with some special modifications mostly to the driver's side door handle. Do I feel violated? Yeah a little but really I'm more perplexed than anything. What kind of a crackhead scans a block on which he finds several newish, large autos containing various easily portable electronic devices and says to himself, "Ooh a Toyota Tercel! There's bound to be something good in there!"
On the bright side, I can't help but feel a little lucky. The guy did have the courtesy to break the handle instead of the glass. Plus, I had gotten into the habit of keeping my checkbook in the glove compartment, a habit which I serendipitously strayed from last night. Furthermore, I was extremely relieved to find the members of Plastic Jesus (an imaginary glam band comprised of little toy animals who "ride on the dashboard of my car") completely undisturbed.
Crackhead's total take:

• Approximately $6.00 in ashtray change
• One semi-broken CD player which only works if you squeeze it really tight and scotch tape it closed before playing.
• One copy of Earthquake Glue by Guided By Voices. Pretty good record though not really their best. I'm sure he'll enjoy it.

Echo Chamber

Yeah I know but in case you missed it this deserves another look.. or two or whatever.

Veggie Burgers

At your local BK are not all that bad really. You may have to get used to them, yo.

Arnold wants to kill your puppy

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has outraged animal lovers by proposing to make it easier for shelters to kill stray dogs and cats.

The governor has asked the state Legislature to repeal a 1998 law that requires the shelters to hold animals up to six days before destroying them. Instead, there would be a three-day requirement for cats and dogs. Other animals, including birds, hamsters, potbellied pigs, rabbits, snakes and turtles, could be killed immediately.

Link
As yet there is no mention of this on BFOP

Let us all read so that we might pass

Last night we were visited by Aaron Brooks so that he could "demonstrate what being a true champion reader is all about." Apparently it is mostly about hanging out in your pajamas and keeping your yap shut while Ruby Bridges talks to a roomfull of children which isn't all that bad really. I would describe the event in detail, but Daisy has already done so. I will say that I was a little more than amused by the pairing of these guests. Next week: Vaclav Havel and Carrot Top.

I'm very sad today

And I'm hungry and Daisy took my baseball away and now I have to sit here for another hour and this is not a good day at all.

Oh for crying out loud!

Believe it or not they acutally allow her to read to children.

Sorry.. busy this morning

I will have you know that today's arts and crafts program as well as yesterday's storytime event have once again demonstrated beyond all suspicion that children love to beat the crap out of alligators.

Other than that I got nothing. Meanwhile look monkey porn!

Reagan lives

How did I miss this one?
First ketchup and now the fries too.

Think of fresh vegetables and you think of fields of crops, or perhaps rows of supermarket shelves brimming with luscious, colourful variety.
But thanks to the US department of agriculture, American consumers will no longer have to bother with such healthy fare. A little-noticed ruling by the department reclassifies french fries as fresh vegetables.

link

via Sustenance

Car won't start

This will increase the general degree of difficulty.
Does anyone have a bus schedule handy?

Nurses

Are a scary lot indeed. But I could have told you that already.

Lib Chron Sports Update Flash Super Bulletin

So thanks to stupid Ricky putting the ol' gris gris on us, the Tigers will now have to play from the losers bracket in the CWS. That guy is just lucky he's a Saints fan.

Meanwhile,
Cubs Win!! The legend of Michael Barrett continues. Cubs 4 A's 3 The Cubbies aren't anywhere near 100% healthwise and yet they've won 7 of 10. Life isn't so bad.

Bonus MLB score: Expos 17 White Sox 14 By a field goal, as they say.

And finally, we'll all miss Fetch Monsterwho sadly left us this past week. For a few years, before her ugly firing, Bleu was the best athlete on the Saints special teams unit. A moment of silence, please.

They should never have built a city here

Nature is angry and is constantly trying to reclaim this ground from civilization.Caption reads: "Summer heat causes Pontchartrain Boulevard at 30th street to buckle. Cars unaware of the problem hit the buckle at full speed, sending them flying through the air." Watch the whole slideshow here. Did they stage these photos?

Truly Shocking News

It was 1984. I was entering those precious middle school years when we all start to grow into the asinine smart ass adolescents who in turn become asinine confused adults. In other words, I was starting to have opinions about the larger world. Unfortunately so were the other kids. An unseemly cabal of the girls in my class formed one such opinion that apparently this Madonna shit was cool. I took one look at the manufactured "music," the fashion magazine bubble gum bullshit lyrical content, the gross self centered consumerist values flaunted as though they were some revolutionary idea and suddenly I had an epiphany. (get it? Madonna.. epiphany? I practically slay me!) I may not have known a whole lot about the world but by God I knew I hated this. And thus began my grand lifelong pursuit of relentlessly hating stuff.

So Madonna holds a special place in my heart. This is why I am filled with such shock and, yes, sadness at this bit of news I picked up reading RHT today. What, jeffrey, upsets you so? Is it this?

In the most bizarre name change since Puff Daddy became P. Diddy, the Material Girl has adopted the ancient Hebrew name of Esther.

Well, no, you see Madonna is a big self important flake and it comes as no surprise that she would a) take up some nutty form of Jewish mysticism or b) change her name.
Well then is it this?

"This is in no way a negation of who my mother was. I wanted to attach myself to the energy of a different name."

Or this?

It remains to be seen if Madonna's millions of fans will begin referring to her as Esther, which translates as "star."

Well, no and no. Remember. Big flake, full of herself. What is truly disturbing about this item can be found in the following excerpt.

"My mother died when she was very young, of cancer, and I wanted to attach myself to an other name," Madonna, 45, told ABC News.

Holy fuck Madonna is 45!! My God that must make me.. well a month from 30 thank you very much. But now, somehow, that too is Madonna's fault. God I hate her.

A vote for Bush is a vote for al-Qaida

So says an anonymous US intelligence official and author of Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terrorism.
Today's Guardian

Anonymous, who published an analysis of al-Qaida last year called Through Our Enemies' Eyes, thinks it quite possible that another devastating strike against the US could come during the election campaign, not with the intention of changing the administration, as was the case in the Madrid bombing, but of keeping the same one in place.

"I'm very sure they can't have a better administration for them than the one they have now," he said.

"One way to keep the Republicans in power is to mount an attack that would rally the country around the president."

I would not be surprised if this guy turns out to be right.

Google ads

Are really bugging me today.

Quote of the day

A gracious George W Bush on torture:

"Look, I'm going to say it one more time. The instructions went out to our people to adhere to the law. That ought to comfort you. We're a nations of laws. We adhere to laws. We have laws on the books. You might look at those laws, and that might comfort you."

This comes from this week's Molly Ivins column which you really ought to read.

You know what?

There should be two water parks in New Orleans. Have you been outside lately? And it's only gonna get hotter.

Get ready for an avalanche...

...of disgruntled library patrons desperately clamoring for a copy of My Life. One of the world's truly talented actors will be all over TV promoting his book beginning Sunday.

The "60 Minutes" interview, which will take up the full hour, is the kickoff to a multimedia campaign designed to hawk Clinton's $35 book. Clinton will be interviewed next week by Oprah Winfrey, "Today" and "Good Morning America," and all radio stations owned by Viacom, CBS's parent, will carry a Clinton town hall meeting that will include questions from America Online subscribers. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf has ordered an initial printing of 1.5 million copies.

Let's see... well only 24 requests so far at NOPL. I'm sure that figure will explode once the media blitz begins.

So it's definitely him then

Political Wire has Bill Richardson telling the AP that he is "not interested" in the VP slot. That clinches it. I stand by my original prediction of a Kerry/Richardson ticket in the fall.

Ahem

Cubs Win!! Five in a row. Don't think we haven't noticed. A four game sweep of Houston would be super-sweet.

The Tom Clancy Plot Generator

Oh and news flash. Maddox is pretty funny.

Ewww Snakes

Item:

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho - A man accused of tossing a rattlesnake into a bar has been charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon. Rodger Hunter, 28, was arrested Monday night and charged Tuesday. Witness Jeff Hewit said minutes after a man walked into Chic's Lounge, he pulled a 3-foot-6-inch snake from his pocket, threw it into the crowd and darted from the tavern.

link

I wonder how this event will affect Daisy's search terms.

Booknotes

Whenever I read a memoir, especially one which contains a lot of diologue and dramatic action, I tend to get distracted figuring out how much of the narrative is factual reporting and how much is invented by the author for the purpose of effective stroytelling. It's not that I object to the practice so long as the author remains true to the spirit of the events described. I mention this because I find my myself engaged in quite a bit of this kind of sleuthing through the pages of Karen Armstrong's The Spiral Staircase. Ms Armstrong is a former Catholic nun who has made her reputation as a scholar of world religions. The profile of her work has risen significantly since 9-11 as comparitive religion has become a more popular subject. Personally I can highly recomend A History of God which traces the origins of and relationships between the three major monotheistic faiths and Holy War which is a history of the Crusades and their lasting effect on the modern Mid-East. The Spiral Staircase is a sequel to Armstrong's earlier memoir Through the Narrow Gate about her experiences in the convent. This one is about her experience re-adjusting to secular society. Interestingly this is her second attempt at such a book. Her first, Beginning the World (1983) was in Armstrong's words, "The worst book I have ever written and I am thankful to say that it has long been out of print." She attributes this mostly to not being far removed enough from this period of her life to approach it from the proper perspective but also to pressure from the publisher to

... leave out any kind of learned reflection. There could also be no talk of books or poems, for example, and certainly no theological discussion about the nature of God or the purpose of prayer. I should stick to external events to make the story dramatic and accessible.

I find this extraordinary in light of the fact that The Spiral Staircase is nothing if not dramatic and accessible (almost to a fault as I pointed out above). This book, in fact, reads much like a novel. Armstrong struggles to find her place in the secular world. Despite being an excellent student, she does not find a home in academia for what appear to be personal reasons. The emotionally deadening effect of her convent experience makes it all the more difficult for her to overcome her awkwardness socially. She also suffers from a form of epilepsy which causes her periodically to hallucinate or blackout. Her condition, which goes undiagnosed for years, causes her superiors in the convent to accuse her of selfish attention mongering. Later, a series of psychiatrists attribute her fits to repressed sexuality. Armstrong's story will appeal greatly, not only to those interested in theology, but to anyone who has struggled to find a calling and piece together some meaning in a world that tends to leave them feeling like an outsider (in other words nearly all of us). I've been a fan of Ms Armstrong's work for a while. Now I am a fan of her too.

Patron Erudition Alert

"Do you have any books about autobiography people?"

Let's say this again really slowly so that there are no mistakes.

The commission investigating the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US has found no "credible evidence" that Iraq helped al-Qaeda carry them out.

Got that yet? Apparently not.

It contradicts Monday's remarks by the US vice-president about Saddam Hussein "long-established ties" with al-Qaeda.

Today I am Samurai-Dog-Angel-Man

I feel no explanation is necessary.

General chicken to go

Get it? Ha! You see because the grease makes the car go and, you know, IT'S FUNNY!

A good sign

From Political Wire:

Bill Clinton "plans to lend a political hand to the Kerry campaign while on a cross-country tour to promote his memoirs," the New York Times reports.

Perhaps the worst aspect of the Gore campaign was the decison to keep Clinton off the stump. I mean he was, of course, more popular than the "most popular president ever."

Sometimes it all just comes together

Step by step:

1) Job in library produces steadily increasing annoyance with vacuous celebrities who write stupid children's books.

2) Ride to work this morning features the airing of this Morning Edition commentary by Jon Scieszka about vacuous celebrities who write stupid children's books.

3) This piece of Drivel confirms that vacuous celebrities continue to write stupid children's books.

Bonus link: Daisy on "What's Wrong with Madonna's Picture Book" You have to scroll down but it's easy to find.

Irene-ism of the day

The local theme park has initiated a program of hiring Russian teenagers as temporary summer employees. I wonder how this factors into the massive economic impact the company purports to bestow upon the local community. But that's really not the funny part. We see the Russian kids every day when they come to the library to check their e-mail. This morning Irene refered to them as "those Soviet people." I nearly spit out my coffee.

Umm..

E-mail comes in this morning from Herr Director to all staff containig the following text:

***ATTENTION! All Staff:
Please get into the habit of checking your e-mail at least twice each day. There may be important messages that you are not getting if you do not do so daily. Thank you for your cooperation.

Who is this message for? Perhaps this is not the appropriate medium through which to reach this audience.

Geauxing for six

National titles that is. Tigers heading to their 13th CWS. This was really an exciting game.

I can't drive 55

Of course this would come up AFTER the week in which I had to drive to Mandeville and back twice.

Causeway officials admit that lack of enforcement of the 55 mph limit is one of the worst-kept secrets in the New Orleans area, and they've crafted a counterintuitive plan to improve bridge safety: They want to raise the speed limit to 65 mph.

Coming to a theater near you?

It would seem that some nutjobs may soon be treating your local cineplex the way they usually would treat a Planned Parenthood office.

A web site has launched a campaign to deter theater owners from showing Michael Moore's film, "Fahrenheit 9-11". A list of theaters currently committed to showing the film is provided along with exhortations to call and demand that the film be dropped. Some theater owners are reporting receiving death threats.

Where were these folks when we actually needed them? No thanks to them I've had to sit through Spiderman, Dracula 2000, Titanic, and Moulin Rouge. Moulin Rouge... oh the horror.

Bonus link: Maddox on Titanic

edited for clarity

Well, I knew it would never happen

But I didn't think he'd actually ask. And certainly he did ask despite the spin reflected in this story.

On the other hand, this is actually an inspired idea.

We're all Gonna Die Vol. 1

Welcome to Hurricane Season.

An upper level system in the Yucatan Peninsula bears watching this weekend, according to WWL-TV Chief Meteorologist Carl Arredondo.

Testaverde

Opened for the Unicorns in front of a nice sized crowd at One Eyed Jacks (formerly the Shim Sham)last night. This was the first time I had seen this place since it reopened and I was impressed with the sound system. Testaverde played for about 40 minutes. The set featured some minor equipment displacement as well as a...um... Reagan eulogy. The second act, Arcade Fire, sounds like something that got left off of the Pretty in Pink soundtrack. Had to split after that. Little hungover this morning, thanks. How are you?

Take that, Smarty!!

Man outruns horse.

Must Read

Democracy Now transcriprt via Alternet. Gore Vidal on Bush, the war, Diebold, empire. Go read now now now.

Ick

A few minutes ago, a kid shows me her summer reading assignment. One of her books is Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims and she's having trouble finding it. The catalog has it checked in so we go out to the shelves together. It turns out that what we have on the shelf is an earlier edition of the book which bears the title, Squanto, Friend of the White Man. Someone has written the updated title on the title page of the book with a red ball point pen. The cover is unchanged. How gross. One Amazon reviewer says,

This book, although a resource used in many classrooms across the United States, has been overused. This book has an improper representation of the history of Squanto's life. Research has not been done at all in the development of this book. The way in which the author portrays Squanto is very poor as well. This book was written in 1954, a time in which the idea of what an Indian was supposed to be was stereotypical. Squanto is portrayed as unable to speak proper English even after 9 years in England. I would not recommend that this book be used in the classroom unless it is to address the stereotypical view of Indians. There are more recent publications that are much more suitable for reading.
For a book with accurate historical information and reference items in the back of the book, see Joseph Bruchac's Squanto's Journey.
If I could give a rating of zero, I would.

If any of this has been cleaned up a bit in later editions, I'm sure our copy does not reflect this. Like I said, gross.

Where they are its books as this?

You'd like to know too wouldn't you. Well hang on to your lederhosen, kids, because here comes Lib Chron From Around the World. Daisy (or perhaps we should call her Gaensebluemchen) has collected all of your favorite episodes from this site and babblefished them into various foriegn langauges and then back into English (come on we've all done it) resulting in far out hi-jinks. Enjoy.

More Reagan

Really why did I go to all the trouble to say it when I could have just linked to Nathan Newman.

Kerry and the "responsible" Dems can play the bipartisan game that Reagan was not an evil monster, but I won't. This is a man who supported Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein when it suited his Cold War purposes, then we are expected to forget that thousands died in New York City because this man thought playing "enemy of my enemy is my friend" games wouldn't lead to consequences. The pit at Ground Zero is Ronald Reagan's legacy.

But let's not forget his trade policies. Through the IMF, Reagan promoted structural adjustment programs that demanded that poor nations stop growing food and start growing cash crops to pay off debt to Northern banks. Poverty and malnutrition soared throughout Africa and Latin America. And tied to trade were new requirements that those nations enforce intellectual property laws, especially on prescription drugs, so that if those poor people got sick, they could no longer afford drugs needed to keep them alive.

That Reagan led an assault on labor unions is a given. The PATCO strike and the crushing of the air controllers union was a defining moment of Reagan's Presidency. The assault on wage levels and health care by employers under Reagan went non-stop and the number of unionized workers plummetted.

Keep reading here.

What could possibly be more trite...

.... than linking to a Dilbert comic? Well, nothing. I just thought Daisy should see this one.

Ronald Reagan is still dead

Or as Huck Finn might say, alright then I'll go to hell. We've had to wait a couple of days for people to start saying it but finally it's trickling out (or, if you like, trickling down). Greg Palast David Corn and Michael twice now are all over it. Not to put too fine a point on it, Ronald Reagan was an awful awful president. And now he is dead. This is, of course, no excuse. There is no excuse for the legacy that Reagan left us, one that still soils our politics today. Reagan, the actor, practically invented the manipulative hyper-spin, style over substance sound bite campaigning that has become a fact of life for us today. One could argue that the current state of affairs is an inevitability of the zero attention span style of media that has arisen over the past quarter century but Reagan and his people were pioneers in taking advantage of this and screw them for it. There is no excuse for what Reagan's politics did to the poor and working classes in America. Reagan symbolically ended the labor movement in the U.S. by breaking the air traffic controllers union. He was able to muster the political muscle for this action because his racially exploitive politics had already broken the resolve of most rank and file union households. Reagan's white working class coalition was based on a divisive thinly veiled racism that blamed the poor for poverty in this country and set back organized labor fifty years. Reagan's victory in this arena was so complete that subsequent officeholders (including Bill Clinton) have cheerily treated the poor and middle classes with indifference at times, but mostly with all out hostility.
There is no excuse for the arrogance and disregard for human rights and the rule of law displayed by Reagan's foreign policy. The Reagan administration supported brutal dictatorships and trained and supplied terrorists in numerous proxy wars including Afghanistan where the U.S. agent was Osama Bin Laden's Mujahadeen, Iraq where the U.S. supplied Saddam Hussein chemical weapons and looked the other way when he used them, and most famously in Nicaragua in which case the Constitution was ignored and the Congress was lied to in the interest of selling weapons to one particularly nasty government in order to raise the money to arm more particularly nasty terrorists.
We are still paying for these policies in so many ways. The slick political hatchet work of the Karl Rove's of the world, the uber-capitalism of the Bushes or the Cheneys, The neocons running the Pentagon today are all Reagan's babies. And today he is dead. And that is no excuse.

Note: Blogger spellcheck suggests replacing "neocon" with "necking." I don't know why this is funny but it is.

People are always trying to get me to buy a cell phone

Well really just Dad and r, but who needs to sign up for this kind of bullshit?

Your cell-phone company knows you hate it. Mobile-phone service was the second-lowest-ranked industry -- beating only cable providers among the 40 rated -- in the University of Michigan's newest customer satisfaction index.

And there's more: Mobile companies were the No. 2 sector in complaints last year to Better Business Bureaus, dropping from first place in 2002. Only auto dealers did worse.

Of course the cell providers are typically cynical bastards. How do they respond to the numerous service complaints and claims of fraud? Two ways: 1) By insulting their customers' intelligence.

Asked about the ranking, Verizon's Rabe said, "Compared to what? Lands' End? You have to compare apples to apples. I wouldn't compare the customer experience of dealing with a complicated technology with buying a shirt. It's just a whole different challenge."

This is disingenuous in the extreme. The "complicated technology" has absolutely nothing to do with hiding fees in fine print, or charging fees for services which cost the company little or nothing to produce, or charging a widow an "early exit" fee on a dead husband's contract.

2) Insulting their employees' intelligence.

To improve service, the company has increased training for customer service employees to 10 days a year, introduced a new plan it said addresses common complaints and tied executive compensation to customer satisfaction, said Cindy Rock, senior vice president for customer solutions at Sprint PCS.

In other words, in response to complaints from customers generated by the company's policy of institutionalized theivery, thousands of underpaid customer service representatives will be forced to sit through hours of condescending classes on how to smile presented by a soulless coke-head consultant who makes six times their salary.
These bastards will never ever ever see nickel one from me. If they get a law passed requiring me to personally disconnect the land line from my apartment, I will resort to communication by pigeon, or semaphore or smoke signal or just yelling loudly out the window before I sign a cell contract. The pigs. I hope they all get brain cancer.

link via nosey

Update: More on condescending bullshit corporate training here

X-try update 12 hours later: Check out Daisy going off on Fish! training. Fuck a bunch of Fish!

How'd he do that?

The jig is up, Houdini! The really satisfying thing about this is that the magicians are pissed off. I really hate magicians.

Time to start a carpool

Atrios and Kevin Drum are waxing economic today about the market for oil. The short version: Given that the market is currently at or near capacity for production, as demand for oil increases, additional production becomes less and less responsive to increases in price. As demand for oil increases, production remains more or less constant and the price just goes up up up. Now the self referential part: Last month I linked to some stuff about the increasing roll of the Chinese in the world demand for oil. I also speculated that the world market for food behaves much the same way. In other words...pretty soon it's time to start carpooling to that second or third job.

Note: Blogger spell check does not allow "carpool." Is carpool a word?

Time wasting news of the day

I was going to drone on and on about how I've accomplished next to nothing since last Tuesday on account of the fact that I am deeply engrossed in Gore Vidal's Creation, and that I have acquired MST (greatest thing in the history of TV.. don't argue or I will punch you) episode #424 Manos the Hands of Fate. But all of this pales in comparison to the awesome geekiness of what Aaron has found. Behold the Map of Springfield and kiss your next hour and a half goodbye.

Enron Tapes

Most of you probably read Tom Tomorrow so I assume you've seen this post about Enron traders on tape pretty much spelling out the connections between energy deregulation and corporate fleecing of consumers and the policies of the current administration. I'd cut out some of the juicy quotes but they're all there on This Modern World. TT's post suggests that Kerry has an easy issue to capitalize on here. He won't. I would also point out that a Kerry administration is every bit as likely to end up maintaining policies that are this friendly to corporate piracy but I don't want to discourage anyone from voting to oust Bush this fall. We could really use that marginal reduction in all out assholery that President Kerry is nearly certain to furnish for us.

This, of course, would never happen to me...

...partly because I rarely have more than $20.00 in cash on me (or available to me) at any time, but mostly because I'm not an Arab trying to drive through Mississippi. And what the hell is this about?

One difference could be a money-laundering statute passed by the Mississippi Legislature in 1998. Under the law, attorneys said, police agencies can seize cash -- even if no illegal substances are found -- as long as they suspect the money was generated through unlawful activity such as drug trafficking.

Critics said local law enforcement agencies have a vested interest in seizing as much cash as they can, because under Mississippi law they can use it to buy squad cars and other equipment if the property owner doesn't attempt to reclaim it within 30 days.

Sounds like the ChristianExodus folks are pretty close to getting what they want here.

In the meantime, they won't be taking any more trips to Jackson.

"I'll never drive through Mississippi again," Quattom said. "That is another country there -- that is not the United States.

Weeding notes... and evidence of the utter subjectivity of collection development

1) At some point someone must have thought it a spiffy idea for this branch to house about six shelves full of Helen Hayes biographies.

2) I don't care if it is the 1976 edition. I will never ever ever discard a copy of the Baseball Encyclopedia.

It's June. Can we look at the MLB standings now?

Better yet, do we really have to? I hate everything.

Work work, shirk shirk

Both of these activities have contributed to the lack of activity in this space over the past week. Sorry 'bout that, yo. In the meantime, let me be among the first to invite you to check out this exciting new product. It's InvisiLeash, truly a breakthrough in the field of matter-free consumer goods.