Britain is all a-twitter with news of the parrot that died of the avian flu – there are a lot of unanswered questions, such as “was it infected before it entered the British quarantine facility, or did it pick up the virus there?” I was considering doing the obvious “dead parrot sketch” comparison, but the staff writer for MedPage Today, an otherwise serious health-news site, has done it for me. Thanks, Michael Smith! Just as a correction, though, the “shifty pet shop owner” is played by John Cleese, and the timid but plucky erstwhile parrot purchaser is played by Michael…
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The Sunday Philosophy Club : An Isabel Dalhousie MysteryBy: Alexander McCall Smith Finished this one a few days ago. I had really loved the “Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency” novels by the same author, and I hope to encounter a new favorite series with this one. That wasn’t the case, but I did enjoy meeting Isabel Dalhousie and seeing a bit of her world. She’s a very deep person who spends a lot of time thinking about things philosophical, romantic, and mysterious. Ultimately it’s an unsatisfactory read, because philosophy gets in the way of logic. In the real world, a…
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You may disagree, but the current storyline at PVP sure looks like a classic shark-jumper. In a nutshell, Brent is dreaming about a possible future, because Jade thinks she might be pregnant. I’m hoping it’ll turn out to be a false alarm, with some plotty goodness that makes it all just a scary side-issue. But it may well be the next direction for this strip, because quite often strips follow a kind of life of their own that may more or less mirror their creators’ lives. Which means that the classic dictum “write what you know” works just as well…
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If you were thinking about sending a picture of your open refrigerator to Alton Brown, don’t bother: Thursday, October 20, 2005 Some of you may have noticed that the “contact†button is gone from my web site and that my rant calling for refrigerator pics is gone. Here’s why: although many of you sent in some really nice pics and insightful, fun emails some of you decided to send vulgar, nasty, frightening messages and images. I always knew there was ugliness and meanness out there but you know what, I don’t have to give you a place to put it.…
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FEMA Official Says Boss Ignored Warnings – Yahoo! News A FEMA employee tried frantically to get his superiors, including Michael Brown, to respond to his emails warning the agency of the first levee break in New Orleans and the desperate need for supplies for the Superdome. Meanwhile, a few hours after he again warned Brown that “many will die” after people began gathering in the streets by the thousands with no food or water, Brown’s press secretary was attempting a form of communication – written English – that was a little beyond her capabilities. Later, on Aug. 31, Bahamonde frantically…
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Religious bias cost job, says teacher In Sevier County, everyone noticed she was a coffee drinker. Co-workers looking for the sacred garments worn by church members never saw her wearing them. Erin Jensen says those clues revealed she was not a practicing member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and led to even more talk about her beliefs. “There were rumors around the community that I was a witch,” the former South Sevier High School teacher testified Wednesday. The end of the hallway where she and another non-LDS teacher had classrooms was referred to by students as…
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The current season of TAR continues to eerily predict impending disasters, like Katrina or the cancellation of a once-great show. This week, teams wandered around the Southeast avoiding Hurricane Dennis while finding random bits of giant furniture and spending the night in a trailer park. Wow, love the cultural immersion they’re undergoing! Not. There was one awesome shot of a curtain of rain and stormcloud behind the Paolos, who at least stopped for a second to look at it. Before the episode, there was a disclaimer about how the episode was filmed before Katrina and Rita laid waste to the…
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This isn’t going to be of much interest unless you’re a progressive/liberal/God is doing a new thing Episcopalian. The Diocese of Pittsburgh, which is headed by a very conservative, “network” bishop, has settled a court case with a more liberal parish of that diocese. At issue: property, and who owns it if an entire diocese elects to remove itself from the larger, more liberal Episcopal church, but a liberal church within that diocese says “no, we’re staying and we’re keeping our church and its endowment.” The settlement is favorable to the liberal parish. As I’m a member of Holy Moly’s…
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New Storm Measures as Most Intense Ever for Atlantic Basin – New York Times Hurricane Wilma, which appeared headed toward Cancun, Mexico, and possibly the Gulf Coast of Florida by this weekend, intensified into the most powerful storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean basin early this morning, with winds of 175 miles per hour. Oh, goodie. The “named” storm after this one will be Alpha, because we’ve run out of names for this cycle. They could have named it Xena if they really wanted to. I just hope we don’t get all the way to Omega, or the tinfoil…
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Okay, men will not want to read this post. It will squick you out. So just go read HULK’S DIARY THAT IS ON THE INTERNET and whistle the theme song to “the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” for a few minutes.