Obama to name running mate

Barack Obama is due to announce his running mate today. It's me.

I'd love to see the looks on their faces

In my community's magazine there are listings for all sorts of events and activities. Skate with Santa, strength training, golf training indoors, etc. This event caught my eye.

Touch-A-Truck
This is your chance to not only touch, but hop right in the driver's seat of a fire engine, police car, snow plow or dump truck! Come on out to the Community Center and check out all of the city trucks.

The announcement also says "all ages." I would so like to see some adults show up. The looks on the faces of the fire fighters, cops, etc. would be priceless.

Almost autumn, almost time for soup

A couple of years ago I was having dinner at the home of the Rigtenzins. We were about to eat something interesting that kids don't like. So the kids got hot dogs. As Rigtenzin poured the hot dog water off he suddenly stopped and said, "Oh! I should have saved that for soup!"

So disgusting. Yet so beautiful.

Pele!

Who's that sweet boy? Pele! He came to live with us about a month ago. He is the happiest dog I've ever met. His tail wags pretty much constantly.

Pele is a rescue. He was picked up by animal control and no one came to claim him. After five days, unclaimed dogs, and other animals, are euthanized. Rescued Pets Are Wonderful gets adoptable animals from animal control after the claiming period is up. They put them into foster homes and then try to find 'forever homes' for them (see Pele's pre-adoption photo below).

We think he's part Chihuahua and Jack Russell and about a year old. We are having some housebreaking and separation anxiety issues but it will all shake out. Sophie and Pele push each other's buttons, play fight and mad chase through the house. I don't that she'd admit it, but I think Sophie's glad, now, that he's here.

No thank you

Bonus post! A Dumb Dare from earlier this week:

Hang a sign-up sheet in the lunchroom inviting colleagues to a “Cuddle Party.”

Using EclectChick's coined phrase, the above makes me "all flavors of horrified."

Bad taste? Yes or no?

Think about "The Lives of Others" and you'll really get the shivers. What's next? A death squad pub in San Salvador? From Reuters.

Beer - and the secret police

Aug 4 - An East German pub opens in Berlin, where drinkers can enjoy a beer surrounded by memorabilia of the communist secret police, the "Stasi".

One man from former East Germany and one from the West have opened the pub on the street where the Stasi headquarters were once situated.

Hey, that's me!

I was at an art fair and saw this sign.

Overwhelmed and undermedicated

I think I'll make one. The version at the art fair wasn't very arty.

Bush Tours America

Made me laugh. And cry. From The Onion.


Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Quote of the day

From the fabulous writer, Isaac Bashevis Singer* who was born today in 1904:

Kindness, I've discovered, is everything in life.

Genau!

*Don't hold the movie, "Yentl" against him, please.

Shoes and plants

I found this while browsing through some photos. It's a little out of focus but I love it. I saw these shoes hanging on a building in Kandersteg, Switzerland.

Mitch Hedberg

The late Mitch Hedberg was hilarious. Listening to him makes me laugh so hard I snort.

I love the bit below. It includes his take on catch and release fishing. He says it's for people who "don't want to eat the fish but do want to make it late for something." And, "I find that ducks' opinion of me is very much influenced over whether or not I have bread. A duck loves bread but he does not have the capability to buy a loaf."



Here's another. Includes, "I saw a commercial for an above-ground pool. It was 30 seconds long. You know why? Because that's the maximum amount of time you can depict yourself having fun in an above-ground pool."

Random: "If you are flammable and have legs you are never blocking a fire exit."

Dumb Dare

I have a Dumb Dares for the Office flip-a-day calendar. It's a daily dose of lovely silliness. A couple of the the latest:

Circle a few personal ads in your local newspaper, indicating assorted preferences, and leave the page open on your desk all day.

Crawl around the outside of the building on all fours with a stick in your mouth.

On a completely unrelated note, "hell" is the German word for bright. (The English word "hell" is die Hoelle in German.)

A good book/a geek from way back

I'm re-reading The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal. (It's my pick for book club.) I read it first in high school after getting sucked into the mini series on Great Performances (PBS). In high school I was watching a lot of PBS. A geek to the core at an early age.

The main character in the book is Fabrizio del Dongo. (A fun name to say!) He's quite the naive guy who wants to go off and join Napoleon's army. Later he becomes a prelate in the Catholic church. Stendhal is quite clever and mouthy but you have to pay attention or you miss it.

From a review of the new translation in The New York Times (1999):

The quick pace of the narrative and the vividness of the characters are balanced throughout by a coolly sardonic assessment of human nature and, in particular, of politics. Stendhal ... found himself living at a time of almost unprecedented political cynicism in post-Restoration France; disgust with the bourgeois complacency of his countrymen played no little part in his admiration for the Italians, whom he considered to be more authentic -- more profound and more susceptible to violent emotions, as he wrote in his diary. More.

If you like this one, you'll surely like The Red and The Black, also by Stendhal (the red represents the military and the black represents the church).

Viva la Vida is fabelhaft (fabulous)!

I simply love Coldplay. They are masters of the big, energetic sound. A sound that makes you want to stretch your arms out and move. I love all the keyboards, too. (All those years of piano lessons left their imprint.)

The sound on their new CD, Viva la Vida, is a bit different than their last CD, X&Y. On this one you can hear more of Brian Eno's influence (he has produced several of U2's albums). Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love is a particularly lovely song. It starts with Coldplay's big sound and then segues to a very sweet, slower song.

The bands worldview shines through on several of the tracks, especially Violet Hill and Viva la Vida. A reviewer compared the sound on Violet Hill to Pink Floyd. I interpret Viva la Vida as a commentary on the fall of the American empire. The juxtaposition of a grand, energetic sound with the dark story is quite powerful. A bit of the lyrics:

When the future's architectured
By a carnival of idiots on show
You'd better lie low

and

Was a long and dark December
When the banks became cathedrals
And the fog
Became God

Viva la Vida:




The following is a video not produced by Coldplay. But with lines like those above, I don't think they'd quibble with it. Dancing, goofy-acting politicians inter cut with protests, soldiers with rocket launchers and torture.

Stupid git

In April, Congressional candidate Tony Zirkle (Indiana) agreed to speak at a gathering of the American National Socialist Workers' Party. His platform consists mainly of opposing pornography and prostitution. He's also in favor of bringing back the guillotine. The gathering was a birthday party for Adolf Hitler.

Zirkle claims that he didn't know that the group was pro-Nazi because they were called National Socialists, not Nazis. This despite the giant portrait of Hitler, everyone at the head table wearing swastikas and the Happy Birthday Hitler banner. The Indiana Republican party is distancing itself from Mr. Zirkle.

More.

Andre Jordan

Andre Jordan creates the best doodles. I love his stuff.

I'm posting these today not just because it's been a long week and my brain feels like mush. I also want to share a couple examples of his fabulousness. But I am tired and lazy, too.

I don't know why I think this is so funny but I do.
This needs no explanation.

Mental Floss is beautiful

I've talked about mental_floss here before. But as I just finished the latest edition (at right), I'm compelled to talk about it again. It's just packed with info and trivia that you wouldn't likely learn elsewhere without quite a bit of effort. Much of it you don't need for day-to-day life. But that's part of the fun.

If the magazine is a really good meal, then the Web site is the equivalent of a mile-long buffet. (A good one, not the Old Country Buffet.) For example, on the trivia page you will find the following treats:

• Daily Lunchtime Quiz (includes "Star Wars Reference or World War II Reference?")
• The Amazing Fact Generator (includes gems like "House flies younger than four days old don’t react to light and therefore won’t be attracted to your bug zapper.")
• What's the Difference (includes "Art Deco vs. Art Nouveau" -- always go with Art Nouveau if you ask me)
• Geography Challenge (with sound!)
  
• All the Great Lists (includes "7 of America's Quirkiest Food Festivals")
  
• Cocktail Party Cheat Sheets (a bit of background that will make you sound smart on a variety of topics including The Qur'an, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Martini).
  
• 5 Questions (daily, five-question quizzes)

Not sure why I have this

I found this in my purse today. It must have come from my nieces' school on rollerskating day. I'm not sure why I, or one of the girls, put it in my purse.

Beware the rollerskates

Last week I went on a field trip with my niece Tori's 3rd-grade class. Rollerskating! I haven't been rollerskating since I was 13 or 14 years old. It was a hoot! It took me a bit to get used to the skates but then I did OK. Had a couple of falls -- see bruise on knee at right (about 2.5 inches or 6 cm). Until I figured out how to make turns I'd skate all the way down one side, skate into the wall, turn, skate to the next turn, repeat. It was all quite comical.

Tori and I had a great time. She is much braver than I am. She wore inline skates. I opted for the more stable, four-wheel option. She's also a great skater! She can almost do the splits while skating. I didn't try that. I would have deserved whatever injury I received at that point.

Money well spent?

There are reasons why Americans don't trust the government to spend money wisely. From the Colorado Springs Gazette via News of the Weird.

Gamblers' Shuttle Gets Terrorism Funds
Colorado Springs-based Ramblin Express, which shuttles gamblers to mountain-town casinos, including Cripple Creek, has received $382,000 in anti-terrorism grants.

The most recent grant, for $184,415, was announced this month as part of the Department of Homeland Security's $844 million Infrastructure Protection Activities program.

Ramblin Express' grant is among the $11.2 million allocated to the Intercity Bus Security Grant Program, which is intended to assess risks and prevent attacks on that part of the nation's transportation system. Rest of story.

Smart-mouth bunny

This is so mean. It makes me laugh out loud.

What now?

WPP Settles on Name for Dell Shop: Synarchy Worldwide
Finally Finds Moniker for 'Project DaVinci' but Still Needs CEO
By Rupal Parekh and Matthew Creamer

Published: May 14, 2008

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The new WPP Group agency designed to handle Dell's marketing-services business is expected to be named Synarchy Worldwide, a reference to a utopian political system coined in the 18th century.

Synarchy looks a lot like snarky to me.

Oh the noise!

It's week two of the re-roofing here at work. After a hellishly loud day one (vacuuming rocks off the roof), the noise was quite bearable. Today there is a machine outside my window that is pumping tar onto the roof. It's loud and smelly.

Underpants for peace

This is the best nonviolent protest. Ever.

Going deaf

Our office building is getting a new roof. The equipment -- some kind of big semi-truck kind of thing -- is right outside my window. It is so loud. You can feel the vibration in your skull and rib cage.

I have my iPod cranked to drown out some of the noise. I will likely lose part of my hearing.

Another reason not to eat beef

Human Head Found In Hamburger


Also from The Onion, a cynical, yet frighteningly truthful, take on the 2008 elections.

Polish language progress

I'm getting a little used to the Polish pronunciations. They are quite different than what I know but the words are really fun to say. The spelling, however, freaks me out. In the same way math freaks me out. So far I have to practice the pronunciations without looking at the words or I freeze up.

A few things I've learned:

• Dzień dobry (good day; jane DOUGHB reh)
• Jak sie masz? (how are you; yaak sheh maash)
• Dziękuję (thank you; jane COO yeh)
• Proszę (please; PROH sha)
• Przepraszam (excuse me; sheh PRASH ahm)

You can listen to pronunciations of these and other basic phrases here.

Nice reading comprehension

I was in a store in the card aisle. Among the various types of cards, “birthdays” “graduation” etc., there is a section called “milestones.” When I first saw it I thought it said “mistresses.”

This and that

Randomness from today:

• Saw this sign: Sample "sock" sale


• Heard this in the audio of Master and Commander: "A ham that could only have come from a hog with a long-borne, crippling disease."


• My new wood blinds went up yesterday. They are lovely!


• Beginning Polish class starts tonight. Hooray!


• Bryan Ferry's CD of Bob Dylan covers, Dylanesque, is very good.


• The sun is out! The sun is out! The sun is out!
  

Made me laugh

I went on Comedy Central to find something. At the top of the page it said, "You are so not logged in." It made me laugh.

Not so springy

It is snowing outside. It's April 10 and it's snowing.

Musings on prophets

It's been a week of death remembrances. Last Friday, April 4, was the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. 63 years ago today Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed. Both were 39 when they were murdered. Both pushed their fellow human beings, often their fellow Christians, to higher standards yet knew that they, too, were flawed.

It was messages like the below that got both into trouble. Bonhoeffer -- fighting for peace, human rights and the overthrow of Hitler; King -- fighting first for civil rights and then to eliminate poverty and end the Vietnam war. We love the prophets when they're speaking truth to others. When they speak truth to us we kill them.

Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christian should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from a sermon on II Cor. 12:9

Product recall

Do you have any pot pies at home? You need to listen to this.


Hungry FDA Official Orders Massive Pot Pie Recall

Coolicious!

Idealist is like candy! Designers post things like this dog bone phone . You can vote "yes" or "no." I want this phone. Mostly because the ad has a Sophie dog.

Via Technomarketer on Twitter.

Substitute "Sophie" and it's right on

I hope this Mutts comic will be available as a print. Substitute "Sophie" and it's exactly how I feel.

Subscribe to get your free daily dose of sweetness via e-mail.

Tears of joy, Wayans is back

I've been mourning the loss of In Living Color since it stopped running in the mid '90s. It was the funniest show on television, past or present. Period. You'd laugh while feeling like you were a really bad person by laughing and then laugh harder.

Ad Age ran a story on Damon Wayans' new site, Way Out TV. Ah, the return of the biting, no-one-is-safe humor. Brilliant!

Warning: the sketches may offend.

:`)
blotting my tears of joy

Where did this put-down come from?

I really like using the put-down, "commie pinko spy." Although it has much less oomph than in the past. Any idea where it comes from? I checked Wikipedia and Google. Nada, nichts, zip.

Groovy bandages

You can buy these on Fred Flare. I love them.

I knew it!

From this week's The Onion.

Study: 93% Of People Talked About Once They Leave Room

LOGAN, UT—According to an alarming new study published Monday in the American Journal Of Sociology, the vast majority of Americans are critically discussed after leaving a room occupied by two or more additional people.

The groundbreaking research contradicts decades of previous inquiries into the area, including dozens of informal surveys in which respondents adamantly denied ever having talked behind others' backs. More

Ah, passive aggressiveness. Such fun. I swear, Minnesota has got to be passive aggressive capital of the world.

New tattoo ideas!

Kelsey told me about this story. Father and son forehead tattoos! One says, "Get-R-Done," and the other says, "Pyscho." Check it out. The son also has words tattooed on his eyelids.

Via BoingBoing (from The Smoking Gun).

**The Smoking Gun has a RSS feed!

R.E.M. -- a great way to start a Monday

R.E.M.'s full concert at SXSW is at www.npr.org/music. An hour and a half of listening pleasure. Includes songs from their upcoming CD, Accelerate.

I've seen them in concert twice. Each time, brilliant.

Not about basketball

Interesting this is. Via Seth Godin's blog.

Fun words that start with the letter G

Disclaimer: These are violent and/or mean. I'm generally nice and a pacifist. But I talk big.

• Gut -- slang for stomach; e.g., "I'd like to punch you in the gut."
• Gob -- slang for mouth; e.g., "Shut your gob."
• Git -- slang for incompetent person; e.g., "Pull over for that ambulance you stupid git."
  

Sign offs

I love the way that John Hodgman ends his blog posts on Good Evening -- "That is all."

In some of my personal e-mails I've taken to signing off with "Over and out."

More boo on Bush

From a recent monologue on A Prairie Home Companion:

Moral disapproval is a powerful stimulant to many people. The president is reponsible for the longevity for many, many Americans.

Dreary day brightened

It's snowing today. Argh. Spring teased us for a few days. Oh well, at least the new snow is covering up the dirty snow.

I found A Beautiful Revolution blog via a blog that linked to a blog that linked to another blog. The perfect site to offset the it's-still-winter blues. Warning. Some of the drawings aren't G rated.

I couldn't resist the coin purse

I went to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts with the Rigtenzins on Sunday. There is currently a great Arts of Japan exhibit. The kimonos are gorgeous. I could stare at them for hours. The Design Concepts exhibit was very fun but entirely too small. I love that kind of stuff.

On the way out we stopped in the museum shop. I couldn't resist this coin purse. Boston Terriers ueber Alles!

Just plain cool

Advertising Age now runs a weekly video run down of the best work on Creativity-Online.com. It's a beautiful thing.

See this week's ads and a top 5 commentary. My personal favorite is this Thai ad.

Movie reviews

Three kiss-of-death phrases in movie advertisements.

1. A romp!
2. The feel-good hit of the [insert name of season here]
3. Phrases with ellipsis, e.g., "Taut thriller ... superior ..."; "Romantic farce ... giddy comic exuberance ... "
   

Russian Monday Morning

A couple of laughs from Russia.

This joke is going around Russia:
Vladimir Putin and Russia's new president, Dimitry Medvedev, are at a restaurant. The waitperson comes to the table and asks Putin what he would like. "A steak." The wait person says, "And the vegetable?" Putin says, "He'll have a steak, too."

And, caught on a cell phone video,
A tank stops at a liquor store to buy vodka. Then the tank crashes into a house. (This one is also sad.)

Trouble via MySpace

Cory Delaney, a 16-year-old Australian from Melbourne, posted info on his party on MySpace. 500 people showed up.

It took 30 police officers, a helicopter and a dog squad to break up the party. Full story.

Via the NewsQuiz on the BBC (available as a podcast!)

Quote of the day

Saw this on the Mutts Web site. So true, so true!

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

New words to Shaft

I heard the theme song to Shaft the other day on the The Current.

New lyrics came to me yesterday. I realize that this throws me into the realm of really crazy dog lady. Oh well.

Think of that opening instrumental bit in Shaft, then sing:
Who's the sweet girl with all the toys? Sophie!*

*You have to say "Sophie" really fast because "Shaft" is only one syllable.

Words that look funny to an English speaker

This photo was in Der Spiegel in a story about driving schools offering 'crash courses.' To a partial German speaker whose first language is English, this looks really funny. (Der Kurs means a course.) It looks like the driving school offers a class in how to crash.

Here's another. The word malerisch is a German adjective. It looks like malaria but means picturesque.

Social networking for everyone

I heard about a couple of satirical social networking sites the other day. Snubster and Enemybook. I love the idea of asking someone, "Are you on snubster?"

Had it been around in the early '70s, Enemybook would have been perfect for U.S. President Richard Nixon who, this is no joke, kept an enemies list (also here).

Amphibians

I just love Stephen Colbert. When I watch his show I'm guaranteed at least a handful of belly-busting laughs. (He describes his character on the show as a well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot).

His introduction of ecologist Mark Moffett, author of Face to Face with Frogs, included this line about amphibians:

I'm no fan of amphibians. I say, water or land. Pick a side. We're at war!

Not exactly a Hallmark card

In the fictional town, Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor describes the townspeople as nothing near romantic. Stereotypical descendants of northern European stoics. A line from one of his monologues on A Prairie Home Companion:

It's like Dorothy down at the Chatterbox Cafe said. 'If you're going to fall in love, you might as well save your time and set your house on fire. You get the same amount of drama and it causes less damage.'

If you're in Minnesota, caucus on Tuesday!

This music video gives me the shivers. In a good way.



Created by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and Jesse Dylan. Inspired by Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” speech.

Find out where to caucus on Tuesday here. (You don't have to stay for the whole caucus. Just show up, vote and go home.)

I could picture him saying that

toothpastefordinner.com

Ooooh, a new-to-me singer!

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I heard this song, "Love Song," on a television commercial. It immediately set my toes tapping so I found out what it was. I hadn't heard Sara Bareilles. I love her voice!

Here she's on the Late Late Show. The official video is quite cute but embedding is disabled so follow the link.

Spanish confuses me

I received an e-mail from a colleague who speaks Spanish. It starts "Hola hermana." I read it quickly and thought, "Why is he calling me Herman?"

I think I have a mental block around Spanish. I had one semester of basic Spanish in college. At the same time I was taking upper-level German classes. I was so confused. In Spanish all the words seemed to run together ("was that a word, phrase or paragraph?") , you can't tell which words are nouns because they aren't capitalized, and on and on. It didn't help that I had a nut-job professor. He never taught us the alphabet or how to pronounce things. How was I supposed to know that a double "l" sounds like a "y"?

On the first day of class he asked us to take out our books. Huh? Who has their books on the first day? You make that mistake once, the professor changes the syllabus and you end up with books you don't need and can't return.

Every test and quiz overwhelmed me. I always wanted to ask if I'd get half credit for an answer other than English. My guess is the answer would have been no.

That doesn't work

When Sophie was a puppy I wanted to keep her off the furniture. With all that bouncing and craziness it was hard to do.

I read that putting aluminum foil on the couch would keeps dogs off because they hate how it feels. I tried it. She jumped up on the couch and immediately started chewing on the aluminum foil.

Quote machine

I love this quote from Craig Newmark, founder of the wildly popular Craigslist, the online classifieds site.

The only difference between a little hobby and what we have now is that we follow through.

Vladimir Putin scares me

Jeremy Hardy eloquently explained Putinphobia on the Jan. 18 Friday Night Comedy BBC News Quiz (available as a podcast).

"Putin manages to combine the worst elements of Tsarism and Stalinism in this one muscular, bald, weird ex-spy."

Funny word pictures

From David Rakoff's book, Don't Get Too Comfortable:

A smell of head-kicking intensity.

You must be a professional gift wrapper!

This was the first, and likely the last, gift I've received wrapped entirely in duct tape.

Ah, serenity

I received this rock garden for Christmas. I think it's so pretty and the water dripping is quite calming.

It's now on my desk at work. That is the place where I could really use the calming effect. (I like my job but the pace could sometimes be called frenzied.)

Sick 'n twisted

toothpastefordinner.com

Who's being coy?

Great story on NPR this morning about Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City. There is speculation that he'll run for president as an independent. He hasn't announced. Yet.

Robert Smith's story offers up Candidate Bingo, a game to discern who might be running for office but is keeping it under wraps. Read or listen to the story, or not. A link to the bingo card (a PDF) is half way down the page under "Presidential Candidate Bingo." Some of the tell-tale signs: eat junk food, kiss babies, visit State Fairs.

Toothpaste and pugs

I love the cartoon Toothpaste for Dinner.


toothpastefordinner.com

The artist also does videos! Here's "Roller Chester 2: Politics With Charles." So very strange and delightful!


"Pugs and Donuts" is also lovely!

Blogging from Iran

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, has a blog. He doesn't update very often (put it in Google Reader and you won't have to worry about checking back). Kind of mind bending. The comments are pretty interesting, too.

Not exactly an enticement

This header was on an e-mail I just received. These people look mean. I don't think I want to go where they are.

Sick and funny

"The East London Decapitator" has been stalking outdoor advertising, cutting off heads and leaving a bloody mess.

Via psfk.

Shudderlicious

Check out the creepy realtor photos. Makes you wonder about their judgment, no?

Thanks to the BrandFlakesForBreakfast for the spine chill.

President Bling Bling

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has been dubbed le presidente bling-bling by the French media. I think this moniker is hilarious. So biting. His high-roller lifestyle and new girlfriend inspired the nickname.

Read more.

Word Wars -- tales of the obsessed

Word Wars is one interesting trip down obsessed lane. The film's subtitle: Tiles and Tribulations on the SCRABBLE Circuit.

The film highlights four top SCRABBLE players who regularly, and frequently, compete in tournaments. So much so that three of the four don't have jobs. They practice, practice, practice and compete. SCRABBLE is their life. For example, at tournaments after the competition is finished for the day, they play SCRABBLE.

One of the best moments in the documentary takes place at a tournament. It's at a large hotel. After a round several players take a SCRABBLE board out to the hall, sit on the floor and deconstruct the last round. Down the hall there is a bride, in full bridal gear, looking at them with a look of confusion and horror.

2007 recap

This is a perfectly sufficient wrap up of 2007. From Toothpaste for Dinner.

Were you awake during 2007? Good. Then neither of us missed it and I don't have to go through the details.

2007: It was okay.

Check out Toothpaste's daily comic.

A Sophie by any other name

Sophie goes by many names. Twelve in addition to her given name.

• Licker locker
  
• Lady Pees-a-lot
• Queen of the deep sigh
• Little Miss
• Little Nutter
• Sophala
• Sophaloo
• Pookaloo
• Cozy girl
• Sophie Ueberhund (super dog)
• Sweat pea
• Stinker
  

At right, Sophie sunbathing. Her favorite activity.

Obama takes Iowa!

I hope Barack Obama's win in the Iowa caucus is a foretaste of the future!

It's been a long time since I've been excited about a political race. The first time since Senator Paul Wellstone -- the first and only political candidate to whom I've given money -- died in a plane crash a few days before the 2002 election. I'm not superstitious about backing another political candidate but I am, in the words of Rhodes Scholar Michael Scott, "I am a little stitious."

Kids in the box

Lots of lovely items presented on Christmas. What was the favorite? A soccer ball bean bag box. My oldest niece and nephew had hours and hours of fun with this fort.

Are you paying attention?

Thanks to Pig Sty Ave -- a site where you can invert your words. You may ask, how is that helpful? Well, the next time you have to write a long paper or report, you can sneak in a few of these to see if people actually read it. ¡sıɥʇ pɐǝɹ ʇ,uɐɔ noʎ

Or you could do it just to mess people up.

˙ɹǝʞɔɐls 'ʇı ʇɐ ʞɔɐq ʇǝƃ llǝʍ ¿ʞɹoʍ ʇɐ noʎ ǝɹɐ