I’m listening to WWDTM just now on WBEZ and they had Scott Simon on playing their “Not My Job” game. His subject: “Painter of Light” Thomas Kinkade (REGISTERED TRADEMARK). As soon as Peter said “Kinkade,” “LA Times,” and hints of the chiaroscurity of Kinkade’s doings in private life, I had to Google it. Because, of course, I can’t stand Kinkade or his crappy drek, which is all over Lahaina in multiple galleries on both sides of the street. Dark Portrait of a ‘Painter of Light’ – Los Angeles Times Amongst his more colorful (and beautifully depicted) acts: he got loudly…

Ohio Board Undoes Stand on Evolution – New York Times COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 14 — The Ohio Board of Education voted 11 to 4 Tuesday to toss out a mandate that 10th-grade biology classes include critical analysis of evolution and an accompanying model lesson plan, dealing the intelligent design movement its second serious defeat in two months. And we can all thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for this… miracle!

Chicago Tribune | Beans Recalled; Bird’s Head Found in Can Yack! No pinto beans for me for a good long while! And now, I’ve got a song stuck in my head: My mother told me to put birds in my beans, birds in my beans, birds in my beans. Birds in my beans. And now I can whistle from either end. Either end, either end. And now I can whistle from either end Birds in my beans.

WWDTM has a podcast now. Yayy! NPR : Podcast Directory I read about this on Adam Felber’s blog Fanatical Apathy, and it makes me happy to know that if we wanted to tackle a home repair project or take off for the day, we don’t have to miss the show.

Oh, man, this looks like fun. Idiotarod January 28, 2006 The Iditarod is the famous long-distance race in which yelping dogs tow a sled across Alaska. Our Idiotarod is pretty much the same thing, except that instead of dogs, it’s people, instead of sleds, it’s shopping carts, and instead of Alaska it’s New York City. The third annual event happens January 28, 2006. It will start in Brooklyn, run into Manhattan, and end approximately five miles later. Teams of five will race for a cash prize. And glory. *Who can race?* Anyone. Everyone. Last year we had 500 runners. We…

Take a look at what happens when metal objects are in the same room as a fully charged (“ramped?”) Magnetic Resonance Imaging lab. Several floor buffers, oxygen and welding tanks and IV stands later… hilarity ensues. Have a closer look at “Chair 2.” I think one of their CPR dummies is missing. 😉 Via the interesting Pale Blue Dot.

I ordered some Fannie Mae chocolates and sold some, too recently for a Holy Moly fundraiser. Filled in the forms, turned them in with payment a couple of weeks ago. Today at work I kept getting calls on my cell phone that went to voicemail, but I had the phone set at an annoying ring volume and the last time I pretty much opened and shut the phone to shut it up, because I can’t seem to turn down or turn off the ringer when the thing is closed. So I managed to set it to vibrate, and the phone…

News flash, as I listen to today’s Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me show: Peter Segal just begged Bill O’Reilly to denounce the news quiz show as an enemy of the State by adding to an online enemies list. As of yet, no such enemies list has appeared on O’Reilly’s site.

False alarm. That doesn’t mean this issue won’t bust out again later. In a manner of speaking, that is. We haven’t heard the last of this.

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…