Date: 2008-05-29 16:01 Subject: 1001 Books To Read Before You Die Security: Public

Or, The Snarkman Cometh.
From the NYT Review:

But when Professor Boxall brings death into the picture, he sets the bar very high. Let’s have a look at some of these mandatory titles. Not only is it not necessary to read “Interview With the Vampire” by Anne Rice before you die, it is also probably not necessary to read it even if, like Lestat, you are never going to die. If I were mortally ill, and a well-meaning friend pressed Anaïs Nin’s “Delta of Venus” into my trembling hands, I would probably leave this world with a curse on my lips.

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Date: 2008-05-28 11:13 Subject: The Hallelujiah Repository Security: Public

If you're ever in need of several different versions of Leonard Cohen's oft-covered, frequently used in soundtracks, really ironic / sad bastiche tune "Hallelujiah," here's a site that's collected MP3s of 40 of them.

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Date: 2008-05-20 10:47 Subject: Um. Security: Public

High on the WTF scale: An Icelandic political cartoon with a cannibal Obama boiling a naked Hillary.

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Date: 2008-05-14 10:47 Subject: Movies Watched This Weekend Security: Public

Straw Dogs, There Will Be Blood.
In other news: humanity is depressing.

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Date: 2008-05-13 15:34 Subject: Do Not Tell Me About Thy New Character, Nor Crush Security: Public

The one nice thing about knowing mostly old married folk is that I never have them burbling about OMG their NEW BOY in my ear. There is never really a good answer to "And aren't you going to ask me about the boy?" I mean, you really can't say "Oh, Christ, yes, that's just what I want. A mental picture of Crushing Breakup #314 rendered more vivid by the eternal memory of your early yearning fire for his long, lean flanks."

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Date: 2008-05-13 12:38 Subject: Beginnings and endings. Security: Public

One of my friends will become a father this week, whether the little squatter likes it or not. And one of my grandmother's friends from childhood has had a bad stroke, leaving Gram scrambling to find out if the rest of her family realizes that and has planned for it. And then we had the talk about What To Do. It depresses me to even think about it, and I can't but react badly to the thought of a plastic bag. Not dignified. But I suppose the alternative is equally or more graceless.

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Date: 2008-05-09 13:00 Subject: Proper. Security: Public

What punting dogs should be used for.

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Date: 2008-05-08 12:17 Subject: Dr Sue retires. Security: Public

Sad day- the septuagenarian sex advisor from Oxygen is going off the air. This was the one show that I could play to get my normally sleazy roommate to leave the room due to its "inappropriate content."

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Date: 2008-05-05 11:42 Subject: Tony Stark's Girl Friday Security: Public

Whilst I surfed the various responses to Iron Man and its story over the weekend, one stuck in my head: It is indeed a good thing that they seemingly nipped the Potts/Stark thing in the bud in this film, because Our Flawed Hero hooking up with the Girl Friday would be A) cliched, B) not canon, and C) just a bad, bad idea for these two.

Agree/disagree? And why do we praise His Girl Friday, yet find this similar relationship Not Good?

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Date: 2008-04-28 12:20 Subject: How To Embarass The Hell Out Of An Undergraduette Security: Public

Step one: Have said chicky dash from the collegiate-age rental housing across the street in front of your car as you are about to pull into parental unit driveway.
Step two: Turn to upbraid, and watch her dissolving into wracking sobs behind car wheel.
Step three: Commence unloading Father's beer delivery, noticing continuing waterworks.
Step four: After exchanging hops for arborio and 25lbs of bread flour, proceed outside with tissue box.
Step five. Approach driver's side door, almost causing splotchy-faced young'n to have heart attack, and offer solace in form of thin sheets of paper.

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Date: 2008-04-28 12:16 Subject: Things I think. Security: Public

Hiding a syringe and bag of meth in your vagina? Poor choice.

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Date: 2008-04-25 16:04 Subject: Stay classy, now. Security: Public

Apparently the statute of limitations on prostitution is short in Texas, because Amanda Brooks has published a self-help book where she admits to experience in the trade, and teaches on the basics- available here.
I'd like to retire at 29, but unfortunately I think my man-whore days are behind me.

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Date: 2008-04-25 10:36 Subject: McCain Security: Public

I always feel like a spurned suitor when analyzing John McCain. I would have voted for him in 2000; I always felt that a Bradley-McCain race would have been more substantive and better for the country that Bush-Gore. Now, however, the man has absorbed the 'lessons' of that abortive try for the White House all too well; the 'maverick' often espouses the straight party line. And not just because he's more conservative than normally given credit for; if there's anything that pisses me off about McCain, the man who's lauded for honesty and straight shooting, it's that he's become very pragmatic about which views are politically beneficial for him to hold.

For instance, the other day the Senator skipped the cloture vote on a bill that would change the interpretation of Title VII and allow the statute of limitations on private suits for pay discrimination to run from the moment that pay discrimination is discovered. Now, the Supreme Court has said that the suit must be brought when the discrimination occurs. Because, of course, companies tell you what your cubicle mate is earning, and why. I've been guilty of discussing salary with others before, and found it's a good way to piss off your boss. It is against business's interests to promote information transparency on this issue.

McCain deftly avoided taking a stand either way on the issue at that point, later stating that he was opposed to the bill on the basis that it would open the door to litigation. Today McCain said in a speech that the way for women to achieve equal pay (the bill's title) was for them to get more "education and training."

However, that education and training means that you may get the job, not that you'll be paid fairly for your work.

Here's Justice Ginsburg's summary of the facts in Ledbetter:
Lilly Ledbetter was a supervisor at Goodyear Tire and Rubber’s plant in Gadsden, Alabama, from 1979 until her retirement in 1998. For most of those years, she worked as an area manager, a position largely occupied by men. Initially, Ledbetter’s salary was in line with the salaries of men performing substantially similar work. Over time, however, her pay slipped in comparison to the pay of male area managers with equal or less seniority. By the end of 1997, Ledbetter was the only woman working as an area manager and the pay discrepancy between Ledbetter and her 15 male counterparts was stark: Ledbetter was paid less than all of them, between 15 and 40% less than the male area managers.

McCain's answer to this fails to convince me. Yes, we should trust business to do better. We should also verify that they're acting legally.

While I don't deny that the courts should not be the first resort for anyone seeking redress of grievances, in many cases they're the last best hope. The past 8 years, the EEOC and Justice Department have been more inclined to step up to the plate and take an employer to task on behalf of evangelical christians than the elderly, people of color, the disabled, or women. Without public enforcement of the laws, private enforcement is all that is left. Stating that private enforcement can only occur under patently ridiculous circumstances robs the law of its teeth.

And this is what this presidential candidate wants. Trust, and don't verify. Bleah.

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Date: 2008-04-24 22:17 Subject: Earth Week Security: Public

Last night, went to a lecture hosted by NDSU and the Audubon Society. Good talk by an ornithologist from Toronto. Learned quite a bit on the effects of habitat fragmentation on songbirds, and also suffered through the 'science for the public' air of the talk. For some reason, the former lab rat part of my brain was extremely irked. The statistics which form such an integral part of any ecological experimentation were completely absent; I detest neat little lines that can be neat little lies.

Also learned a bit on how to put pressure on other countries to stop using pesticides that have unintended side effects. (For an interesting digression, check out the third result when you google swainson's hawk and pesticides.) If the fish and wildlife scientists can get Customs to declare that there will be a zero tolerance policy in effect on residue from a certain pesticide, use drops dramatically, as the economic incentive to use it is quickly counterbalanced by the possibility of a US import ban.

And a week from now, I will have forgotten to be pissed at a Ph.D. for fudging the terminology for the mundanes. Cholinesterase is an ENZYME, not a CHEMICAL. You can use the big words, and I might buy Audobon Society shade-grown coffee anyway.

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Date: 2008-04-24 22:15 Subject: That is not appropriate Security: Public

I'm sure the music is soothing to you, o yoga instructor, but "Fever" and "Let's Get It On" to me say less about mind and body harmony, and more that the IPod is accidentally into Dr. Cammi's Hot Rabbity Make-out Playlist.

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Date: 2008-04-24 12:43 Subject: I miss Jim Henson. Security: Public

Apropos of nothing, Ernie: I don't want to live on the moon. Also, Youtube has Aaron Neville and Shawn Colvin versions. The Colvin's pretty good.

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Date: 2008-04-24 10:56 Subject: Open Source Boobs take over the world Security: Public

And this idiocy has hit Gawker Media.

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Date: 2008-04-23 10:22 Subject: Dude. WTF. Security: Public

According to Antonin Scalia, millionaires are less prone to the corrupting effects of money than the rest of us. Could I get a sequitur somewhere for his thinking? Anywhere? Bueller?

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Date: 2008-04-21 09:43 Subject: The Making of a Soused Chef Security: Public

Pickling a chef is easy and fun.
1. For the day, limit yourself to a bowl of rice and multiple cups of tea.
2. Get some exercise- for instance, a 10 mile bike ride.
3. Plunk yourself down in front of a couple of new cookbooks and find some 'fun' recipes involving wine.
4. Do not read deeply enough to ken that each of the three recipes chosen requires much chopping and cleaning, and that a key verb in each is 'marinate.'
5. Marinate yourself with the rest of the wine after you've opened the bottle.
6. The next day: regret and cook.

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Date: 2008-04-16 16:29 Subject: I am SO TEMPTED Security: Public

At another cover site: Leonard Nimoy does Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town.

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