Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

With one blast of her powerful eyes, Amy forces Datsa to surrender the use of his hind legs...

(I'd really just been going for the "unusual repose shot" but the reflection makes it so much better!)

Silly Site o' the Day

Since it's Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum) day anyway, I might as well point to one of Mark Evanier's links today - Garfield's 12 Days of Christmas. (Although I thought an "advent calendar" was pretty much supposed to be a religious countdown thing, its origin says otherwise, so I guess if the Garfield snippets actually started 12 days before Christmas it could conceivably be termed that.) If you're so inclined there's also a fun page with various online games...

Diet Madness

It's that time of year again, so pardon my rant. During most of December, consumers (particularly TV viewers) are repeatedly encouraged to indulge themselves, as it's the holiday season. Right after Christmas is over (as though people shouldn't indulge during New Year's?) the $40 billion diet industry ratchets up its propaganda in order to prey on feelings of guilt and the inevitable breakable resolutions many people make as they take stock of themselves this time of the year. How many viewers even notice this one-two cognitive-dissonant punch to the gut every year? Even the Food Network, which one might hope would know better as their whole raison d'être is the enjoyment of one of life's necessities without having to link that consumption to one's appearance, has been backsliding of late, first with their jump onto the low-carb fad bandwagon and a couple of low-cal shows (and having sponsors like Splenda without, of course, mentioning sucralose's toxicity) and now with their current trailers for a new show featuring scale-obsessed weight-loss hopefuls who may indeed become healthier with a FN-planned diet but that's not how the network is selling it. The idea of exercising more and eating better in order to become healthier (an idea on which I think most of us can agree) is never presented as such; the primary purpose of said lifestyle change is always articulated as weight loss rather than better health. As if no thin person, and every fat person, eats unhealthy foods and/or is sedentary, and completely ignoring all sorts of evidence from set-point theories to why diets don't work to exercise actually leading to weight gain. (Based on her articles, I don't think we should look for Sandy Szwarc to get herself a Food Network show any time soon!)

So as you're sitting through these TV show trailers and the latest incarnation of those insipid snake-oil ads (which continue despite lawsuits), remember that you're not alone in your anger and frustration, and that if you're to tune into your body to figure out what it really needs to feel healthier it's a good idea not to start from a point of revulsion against that body. Which, no matter what its shape, is still a temple and therefore fit for worship, not commercialism.

Milestone Note

A very happy birthday to Avedon Carol!!

Silly Site o' the Day

Another rotten night for sleep, as my injury kept waking me up, but at least it's down to a constant dull ache instead of shooting pains, so it won't be fun but I should be able to drive to and from work. Maybe playing the Guardian's quizzes will take my mind off things. Via Roger Ailes (the good one). Kim Davis found another tricky quiz from the Economist.

RIP Sontag, Orbach

Damn, and damn again. Susan Sontag's post-9/11 New Yorker essay is still must-reading, and she continued to speak out against the Bush administration's immoral policies until the end. I will always remember Jerry Orbach from The Fantasticks, having seen him sing "Try To Remember" on various TV specials, well, more times than I can remember.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Scaramouche, an adorable little Snowman movie.

The Incredible Ms. Limp-it

Home from work today due to having severely injured the muscle in my right leg that enables me to actually lift that leg to shift it between the accelerator and brake when I drive. Not to mention I'm probably unable at this point to navigate the two flights of stairs down to street level in the first place. The short drive home from the Staples where the injury happened last night was not a fun trip; fortunately, Robin was with me to help me up the stairs (unfortunately, he doesn't yet have a driver's license). Sleeping was almost impossible, as the pain kept waking me up. I hate being debilitated, and I'm not the best patient in the world. Fortunately I can sit for short periods of time if I don't move my leg too much. I'm hoping ibuprofen, a heating pad and gentle exercise will leave me well enough to drive tomorrow, then I get three days off to rest. I'm probably not moving boxes this coming weekend; all work of that nature tends to stop when one is injured. Have I mentioned I'm not a good patient?

Sleight-of-Mouth Alert

No, CNN, the State Department did not say "an additional $20 million in aid will be added to the $15 million the United States has already pledged for nations hit by the tsunamis." They actually said "we have identified an additional $20 million that we will be working to make available'' to those nations. It's like a promissory note, not an actual donation. (Media Girl gets it right in her update here.) After all, as I note below, actual charity and compassion are evil and suspect to people like these. But it's a face-saving bit of presti-regurgitation, because certain people think we were dissed and got all bristled up that we (i.e., the government) got called for not practicing what we preach. Egeland was pointing some pretty broad fingers when he said, "We were more generous when we were less rich, many of the rich countries... And it is beyond me, why are we so stingy, really ... Even Christmas time should remind many Western countries at least how rich we have become." Guilty conscience much? (That is, if there's even still a conscience at work here...)

Peace Is Bad

So say the Dominionists. Fascinating analysis by Simbaud, who cites Fred Clark's continuing analysis of the Left Behind series, who notes that these nutjobs "are convinced that the Antichrist will be a man of peace. And since they believe that the most important thing for Christians to do is to be on the lookout against the Antichrist, and vigilantly opposed to his evil ways, they believe that Christians must oppose anyone who speaks of, pursues, or tries to make, peace." Remember, this is the supposed core constituency of the people currently running this country; they have the President's ear. And they have used their tortured logic to come out on the very opposite side of the Prince of Peace Himself (after all, it's obviously not that far a leap from "peace is bad" to "war is good"). How on earth can these Dominionists still call themselves Christians if they're this utterly opposed to the whole point of what Christ was all about? And while you're at the King of Zembla's site, read what he found out about how the Dominionists think charity and mercy are bullshit as well. (On a much lighter note, Simbaud also presents this dandy Bloggers' Christmas poem.)

Silly Site o' the Day

A good reason to update your Java plug-ins - via Morgaine the Goddess, it's Pac-Mondrian!

Blog Aid

Via Kevin at The American Street, the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog is a good resource for news updates, aid organizations, emergency numbers and other information concerning the ever-growing quake/tsunami tragedy in that area of the world.

Compare and Contrast

The Queen's annual Christmas message, versus this year's greeting from George W. Bush (and the typical tepid response it brought from the Dems, who might have used the occasion to remind listeners what a heartless and uncompassionate administration is actually in charge and how nice it might be if the President and his flunkies had a Scrooge-like epiphany that finally matched their deeds with their words).

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, I had fun looking at Google's latest holiday doodle, but some people seem to have even more fun with their logo. Via Hanan Levin, here's your one-stop source for the largest fake Google logo collection on the planet (at least that's their claim).

Shelving, Round Three or So

You may recall what our library (aka the third bedroom) looked like with all the boxes still piled up in front of the bookshelves (last picture here). And then what the two side-by-side cases looked like after the Marvel comics were finally sorted and shelved (second picture here). Well, I'm happy to report that the bulk of the shelving is now done. Here are the DC shelves:

The magazine boxes, as mentioned previously, ring the top of all the bookcases except the two stand-alones (not pictured, one between the window and the closet door and the other between the closet door and the door to the hallway). The three cases on the left are all DC and its various imprints, going down four out of the six shelves on the third bookcase. It looks nicely symmetrical from head-on, as the two bottom shelves are more or less empty (that's where I'll be putting unfiled comics as I read them). That's because we shifted the Marvel stuff over from the two side-by-side cases to the corner ones, thusly:

Yes, this room is where we keep the litter box. :) The end case on the right is now filled with copies of Robin's work over the past 15 years or so:

The two middle shelves appear kind of "fuzzy" because those are all the same title, the Supergirl comps (DC comps creators about two dozen copies of each issue) from Robin's 4+ years on that title, and that's the visual effect they cause. Robin's stuff actually starts the second shelf down, and the right two stacks on the bottom shelf (beside the litter) have, respectively, the published work we've done together (that's Broad Appeal on top) and the 9-11 charity comics I've collected.

So that just leaves us with 19 longboxes of non-Big Two comics (the Big Two U.S. companies, for the uninitiated, being Marvel and DC), which are currently sandwiched in the living room between the easy chairs and the back bookcases, to sort and shelve onto the two stand-alone cases in the library. I'm actually looking forward to moving them this coming weekend into the now-empty space in the middle of the living room, as all the box-moving and shelving I did this past weekend has given my muscles a nice workout. Then Rob stores the flattened longboxes and lids up in the loft and we're done with comics filing at last! Next up, perhaps new blinds for all our windows, or a straightening up of the computer room or the studio, or... what? Rest? What's that?

Silly Site o' the Day

Happy Boxing Day! And the snow may not be deep but it's crisp and even, continuing the white Christmas, in many parts of England. Even so, the shops there are actually open for six hours today. Here in the Riggs Residence we'll be having a terrific bubble & squeak (albeit without cabbage) and, um, shelving more comics. The rest of the DC imprints are all done, and we'll get those and Robin's work (he's received about two dozen comps for every DC issue he's inked, so along with all the Marvels he's done and various other books over the years that currently takes up more than eight longboxes) up on cases so that I can start on the last section, the 18+ longboxes of indies. After which we will at last be out of boxes (save the stuff we want to keep boxed up)! Oh, that's right, today's Silly Site. Here you go - via Kevin at The American Street, it's the Scared of Santa Photo Gallery!

Christmas Cat-and-Cooking Blogging

Heavens no, not the cooking of cats, or even with cats. Just the set table for our Christmas dinner, with the cats hungrily and eagerly awaiting tidbits even though they'd been fed not more than half an hour earlier:

In the foreground, Datsa is pretty damn sure he smells turkey. And ham. And chestnut stuffing on the other side of the ham, with the gravy next to the cranberry sauce/mandarin orange mix. In back of which is the spinach soufflé (the Stouffer's microwaveable variety) and the mashed potato/turnip mixture. The light and heat from the three candles was enough to keep them at bay. In the far background Amy looks toward the Christmas puds, apple cider and egg nog and reassures us she'll have none of that.

Here's my plate:

Clockwise from the bottom right: turkey with gravy, ham, mashed potato/turnip mixture, chestnut stuffing with more gravy, cranberry sauce with mandarin oranges, and spinach soufflé in the middle. Christmas pud not pictured.

Our Christmas Present From Jim Lee

Here on his blog.

Silly Site o' the Day

Merry Christmas, to all my Christian readers out there. Hanan Levin has all sorts of Jesus-related links. Now mind you, I'm not an expert, but from what I understand...

Not the one the corporate Scrooges believe in, of course...

Season's Greetings

"If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!"

Although I've been saying it to everyone today, because most of the other holidays in this holiday season have passed. A month ago I was saying "Happy Thanksgiving," and next week at this time I'll be saying "Happy New Year." Atrios has what I consider one of the definitive observations on the subject of holiday greetings. We'd do well to remind the sanctimonious Scrooges of the world that there's a reason "holidays" is a plural noun, and plenty of people go about with "Merry Christmas" on their lips at the appropriate time.

Santa Sightings

It's Christmas Eve again, and you know what that means - that's right, NORAD's tracking Santa again. And as I've been in a Beatles kinda mood this week (Rob's birthday present was the Beatles Anthology DVD, and I've been listening to CDs of their mid-period stuff during my commute - yesterday's morning drive started off with my fictitious corporation's namesake), here's some NORAD-sponsored Christmas music by Ringo and others.

Silly Site o' the Day

Rough day at work yesterday, particularly emotionally, and the afternoon commuting weather didn't help much, so I collapsed when I got home and slept awhile before dinner, and thus find myself more awake than I should be during the wee hours. Weather permitting today will consist of a lot of errands (pharmacy, banks, FedEx, food shopping), some via public transit and others by car, so that we're all set for Saturday when most places are sure to be closed. But first, via Kathy Pearlman, how about a little Slingshot Santa? (Oh, and speaking of winter-themed online fun, have I mentioned lately that Yetisports is up to seven games? Part 5, Flamingo Drive, is Robin's favorite.)

Riggs Response to Jim Lee Challenge

Last Friday I mentioned Jim Lee's posting of a pencilled page on his blog, and that Robin would be one of the professional inkers having a go at this page. Well, he's not only finished it but he's made a QuickTime movie of the stages through which the piece went during the inking process. I opened the movie in RealPlayer as well, which I liked better because it loops continuously so you can catch bits you missed the first time around.

Silly Site o' the Day

Have you been naughty or nice? Test yourself on Santa's Nice-o-Meter! It told me "Elayne Riggs Has been nice most of the year (not just near Christmas)! Makes others happy. Could share a little more, however. Politeness is sometimes very good. Can be great listener." I'm sorry, what? Via Kathy Pearlman.

Obligatory Canadian Comics Content

Happy birthdays to Tony Isabella and Phoebe Gloeckner!

From the Son to the Moon

'Tis the season... to burn crosses? No, it's not the secularists doing it, it's the fundies! And it wasn't this Christmas, it was Easter 2003, but it's received full Bush support, pere and fils. I wonder how many of their religious constituents know about this; shame they couldn't find out in time for the election, much less in time to stop the "all you people who aren't fundies like us obviously hate Christmas" nonsense. Via BlondeSense.

Silly Site o' the Day

Here's coal in your stocking, kiddo! Letters from Bad Santa (via Dori at Backup Brain) doesn't seem to have anything to do with the movie, as far as I can tell, but some of the letters themselves (which you can actually send for around $3 each) are a piss. Love the Nigerian Santa Scam!

Sunrise, Sunset, Swiftly Fly the Years...

Happy winter solstice, everyone! (I was actually awake for the moment, which occurred at 7:42 AM Eastern time, but too tired to care much.) Clay Thompson at the Arizona Republic bravely tries to explain the winter solstice, but it hurts his brain and he refers people here. Over at the Oregonian, John Foyston adds a pretty interesting history lesson. And at the Daily Yomiuri, Kevin Short brings us down by reminding us that "in Japan the solstice is actually thought of as just the beginning of the really cold weather," but I like his detailing of how foods play a part in Japanese commemmorations of the day (can you think of 7 foods in ending in "n" in English?). Oh, and Google is celebrating the season as usual, with their latest holiday doodle underway.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Kathy Pearlman, my parents' favorite online game has expanded again. Have at some Elf Bowling! Who's your daddy, Santa?

Mm, Tasty!

Fafblog announces its Man of the Year.

Awards for the Rest of Us

Apparently there is a place for whiny bloggers who don't post often enough or "on-topic" enough to be considered in the Koufaxes and WizBangs to still receive awards just for the asking. Thanks Jess!

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Maru Soze, a great set of alternative TV guide listings for various Christmas specials.

Silly Site o' the Day

So let me get this straight - liberals are to blame for taking the Christ out of Christmas (even though history shows that every time Christmas has been banned it's been by religious folks, as with the Reformation in England and the Puritans here), but there's nothing at all blasphemous about a S'Mores nativity scene? Via Brooke Biggs.

Silly Site o' the Day

Okay, this holiday greeting from JibJab is just wrong. Via Maru Soze.

Rebooted, Server Working!

I love my husband. Yay Robin! (He knows what this is all about.) (Okay, you've probably figured it out too.)

Hey Roxanne, Has It Been Three Months Already?

YAPATLOWB (Yet Another Post About The Lack of Women Bloggers) over at Crooked Timber.

Obligatory Canadian Comics Content

Yesterday Jim Lee posted a pencilled page and a link to where aspiring artists could download and print out that page in blueline (complete with instructions) and try their hand at inking it, promising to "pick some of them and hopefully give them a verbal or written mini-critique." I thought it might be a nice idea to see what pro inkers who aren't named Scott Williams could do over Jim's pencils as well, so I asked if I could publicize the page on the Yahoo inkwell list. I'm glad Jim said yes, because as it turns out Robin had had the same idea and had already mentioned it! So Jim added,

Also, it seems a number of pro inkers are going to take on the challenge and strut their stuff. Obviously as their real work takes priority, I will be posting these images when they get done as future posts. Hopefully they can add some commentary which I can forward for them to get some insight into what it is that they do and how they do it so well.

Yes, Robin will be one of those inkers. :) While Jim's pencils are tight there's also a lot of room for interpretation, so this should be a good learning opportunity for everyone out there who either doesn't know what an inker does or persists in believing inkers just trace...

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

I tried the farmer's instructions in the comments for separating aligned text from the picture around which it's wrapping, but the whole text-wrap thing didn't quite work as well with a larger photo...

This is, of course, both cats all bundled up in our duvet. As usual, Amy's fixated on the camera and Datsa couldn't care less. I have no idea what's on the TV in the background.

Silly Site o' the Day

The headquarters for Monty Python's Spamalot (previewing on Broadway starting on Valentine's Day, with the official opening on St. Patrick's Day) is probably the textbook version of a silly site, but I don't get the pictures of the ladies in RenFaire garb; I thought Leah did that much better. Then again, considering the outfits Peter and Kath wore to that same RenFaire, perhaps we've all come full circle now...

The Tyranny of the Majority

Another great column from Frank Rich, reiterating what a lot of us have been talking about, the absurdity of the claim advanced by a small sect of fundie Christians that secularists and non-Christians are out to eliminate their religion, holidays, etc., while what they're actually doing is pushing their beliefs on everyone who doesn't share them. It's the same "I know you are but what am I" schoolyard bullying the folks in power have been doing the last four years - accusing their opponents of actions they are actually undertaking. Someone ought to keep score, you know? The minute these loonies accuse others of doing something, we need to publicize how they're shifting blame away from their own guilty consciences.

Silly Site o' the Day

Sorry, real hectic day at the office (to make up for yesterday's lull, I guess) and I haven't had a moment to myself until now. Via Scott at The Gamer's Nook, here are a few seasonal games that require keyboard keys rather than mouse clicks: Sober Santa, its follow-up Sober Santa 2 and Snow Fight.

Exsqueeze Me??

Fascism is better than Communism?!? So glad we fought that whole WWII thing, then... (Via Bob Goodsell.)

Liberal Coalition Blogaround

A good night's sleep, a relatively quiet day with the need to look busy, a perhaps-misplaced sense of obligation, and 462+ unread messages all add up to another irregular look at what's happening with my fellow Liberal Coalition members!

First of all, feeds. Bryant Gries doesn't have his Atom feed turned and his other RSS feed haven't worked in months, so I've put an asterisk next to his name on my Bloglines feeds, as with Keith at Invisible Library and Mike at Left is Right, neither of whom have yet to turn on their Atom feeds either. Folks, it's real easy. Go to your Blogger editing page, choose "Settings" (the second of the four tabs), then "Site Feed" (the sixth of the eight sub-tabs). Next to "Publish Site Feed" change it to "Yes," decide whether your description/feed should be full or short, click the Save Settings button and republish your index. I will then be able to read you via Bloglines, and your feed URL will be [blogname].blogspot.com/atom.xml and that's all there is to it! (New daddy T. Rex doesn't have a site feed yet either but he's not on Blogger so I have no idea how to help him out there...) Okay, onto the folks who have actual feeds...

Alex & co. at Sooner Thought are trying to rally their readers to protest cuts in Pell Grant funding.

Amy at BlogAmY is away on a cruise, but before she left she expressed bemusement at a proposed Canadian act to ban dwarf-tossing, which is actually a bit more complicated that she might suspect, as many dwarves who've protested these bans in various places (Florida, France, Ontario) apparently make their living this way as consenting barroom attractions...

Andante at Collective Sigh decries the waste of money spent doing tests with faulty missiles, and I agree. She also finds a list of five foreign countries who don't hate the US, and why they don't.

Charles2 at the Fulcrum celebrates the first snow of the season in his area, and notes that American workers' productivity has risen at a slower pace than in the recent past because we're all tired and overworked (including him)...

Chris "Lefty" Brown passes along a horrid little story from Jesusland. Other than that, he's busy consuming entertainment and discarding that which he no longer consumes. Here's your chance to see if Avengers Disassembled was as disappointing as much of comics fandom seems to think it was...

Over at Corrente - good grief, how long has it been the Blog of 7? and how out of touch am I that I just noticed that? - the farmer relates yet another story of someone whining about being an oppressed victim when the group to which they belong (in this case, white American fundie faux-Christians) pretty much runs everything in this country; Lambert is delighted (as am I) that the Pretenders are among the 2005 inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; and Xan is still plagued by the pain that is Trent Lott.

Echidne despairs of an Alabama judge's fashion statement (most of us were taught that truth and belief are two different things, like, way back in elementary school) and weighs in on the Koufax nominations.

Edwardpig has been railing against Donald Rumsfeld in his last few posts, and I suspect all that righteous anger may have burnt him out on posting this week...

Eryk at And Then... passes along a list of which stores support which political party, in case you want to practice selective holiday shopping, and notes that the TSA is still on the job protecting us...

Tena at First Draft has a great anecdote about President Clinton in Central Park; another goodie on that group blog is Athenae's linktastic Good King Wenceslas (scroll down a bit to "A Bloggy Christmas Carol," as permalinks don't seem to be operational at the moment...).

Guy Andrew Hall at Rook's Rant examines better living through chemicals and wonders whether it's even worth it to try and impeach Bush.

Jeff at Speedkill is headed back to Troy and receives all due sympathies.

John McKay at archy swears he has nothing to do with the flamboyant fundamentalist WWI era, but does give us other fundamentals.

Jude Camwell at Iddybud waxes poetic and has the scoop on Clinton Curtis here and here.

Maru Soze at WTF Is It Now?? has the usual scary links and cool pictures. Her photos and images are always the best!!

Michael at Musing's Musings says his holiday shopping is done. So's mine, but I don't really do any. Anyway, his post is really about how fundies want to desecularize Christmas - which I'm all for in theory, so let's make them use up vacation days instead of it being a federal holiday - but methinks he (as well as Jesse) misreads Rev. Melnyk's quote, which it seems to me was intended to be an alarmist comment reminding people of what happens when you "boycott people who are different," not an actual suggestion that anyone engage in such behavior.

Moi at bloggg finds a quiz to rate school music programs.

Mustang Bobby at Bark Bark Woof Woof reminds us that, while the last election may have been stolen, our message is still powerful.

Norbizness at Happy Furry Puppy Story Time is running his chronology of crapola for the 2004 Self-Congratulatories, which is what it's all about of course. And he has more of the best captioned funny pictures around...

NTodd at Dohiyi Mir is getting into the Nodwish (NOn-Denominational WInter Solstice Holiday, ™ MercuryX23) spirit, even though he's currently grumbling around Washington DC...

Scott at the Gamer's Nook likes his job! Or does he?...

The Scrutiny Hooligans looked for that union label.

Steve Bates at Yellow Doggerel Democrat goes all MISTY on us.

Steve Gilliard reveals that Bernard Kerik owns flats in my neighborhood - eek! (Bet he's west of the Parkway...) Not the actual story, of course; that would be the extensive, expensive renovations to those apartments, done when he had no money. The guy just gets skeevier by the minute, doesn't he? If I ever see him at any of the local shops I promise to kick him in the shin (if not higher).

Trish Wilson sold another story! Yay Trish!

Over at rubber hose, upyernoz examines the historical relationship between Muslims and Jews.

And lastly, Wanda at Words on a Page takes a look at Rolling Stone.

Whew! That's plenty for now! Back to the rest of my blogroll...

Silly Site o' the Day

Brrr! Just a bit cold this morning in the NYC environs, eh? I can't remember if I linked to this last year or to another site like it, but in any case, via Kevin at LeanLeft, you can not only create a snowflake here but leave a message with your name and location, attach it to the flake, and set it adrift so anyone who goes to the site can move their cursor to zero in on your flake, see where you're from and what kind of greeting you've left. Or what kind of flake you are. Or something like that. Brain not warm yet...

Blue Christmas

Via Robin, there's a blue robin in Britain now! Pretty cool. Here's more from the Beeb and from the Times Online. The bird was found in mid-November at the Loch of Strathbeg RSPB reserve in Scotland (whence came this picture, and now that I figured out how to wrap the text correctly I'm just putting in this nonsense parenthetical so the text will stretch just about to the bottom of the picture), and so far it appears to be hanging in there for the duration!

Falling

This morning I noticed the price of regular unleaded at my local Gulf station (usually the least expensive one in the neighborhood) was significantly lower than $2 for the first time since I began checking such things when I got a car in June. It was down to $1.94⁹ today. So I wondered why, and started looking around on Google News, and came across this article about crude oil futures falling. But I'm thinking, maybe the lowering has less to do with that than with retailers really hurting this holiday season because many moderate-income people can't afford the gas to go out to the malls. I mean, when the financial bloom is off the rose at Wal-Mart you know things are getting drastic.

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, our holiday cards are finally addressed and ready to mail (I would've done it all this past weekend but I found myself short on cards and inserts), so it's time for some seasonal Silly Sites. Today's comes via Maru Soze, NatLamp's somewhat clever round-up of the 10 Least Successful Holiday Specials of All Time.

Aaaaaand They're Off!

Koufax Award nominations are open! Please vote me in for "Most Whiny Lefty Blogger Who Never Gets Nominated for These Sorts of Things..." oh, that's not a category? Dang...

Culture of Responsibility?

Well, you know this isn't really one because, as with just about everything our current administration says to do, you know they're pretty much going to do the opposite. When was the last time anyone currently in power took personal responsibility for anything? From Kath David comes a heartbreaking story of what happens when the "we aren't really moral people, we just talk a good game" lesson seeps unconsciously into the behavior of the governed. (No, I'm not saying Bush & co. have anything to do directly with this incident, but I do think these hypocrites are at the heart of the lack of actual moral leadership in the US government nowadays; we're a far cry from the "ask not what your country can do for you" days...)

Two of the Last "Acceptable" Phobias

What do gay people and fat people have in common? Ampersand, who should know, has two fascinating posts on the subject. Everyone go over there not just to read the comments on these posts (honestly, it's so discouraging to still read comments from folks who don't understand that one can be fit and fat) but to congratulate Barry on making the Washington Post!

Silly Site o' the Day

A very happy birthday to my ex-husband and fellow blogger Steve Chaput! In his honor, I present the Self-Referential Aptitude Test (via Dori at Backup Brain).

Milestone Note

Happy belated birthday to the divine Betsy Devine, who has actually been celebrating for a couple of months, ever since her husband won the Nobel Prize.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Latkes

Yes, I finally had the strength and time and opportunity to make potato pancakes for Chanukah:

So, do you eat yours with apple sauce or sour cream? Robin prefers sour cream, whereas I like a little of both.

Silly Site o' the Day

Robin assures me that this is a pretty decent parody of Pulp Fiction, a movie I refuse to watch due to the high violence quotient and, well, just not being that interested. Via Scaramouche.

Silly Site o' the Day

Forgive me, I was up much of the night in the bathroom. Therefore, via Trevor Blake at Pleasant, I bring you Pee-Mail, which I assure you will not be going to anyone on our holiday card list. Off to label and stamp the cards...

What th...?

Bit of a jaw-dropper on my way to work this morning, as I listened to an Air America commercial break. Do you know they're accepting advertising from Wal-Mart? Granted, their ad folks aren't the most discerning to begin with - the "always low prices" propaganda snippet was sandwiched in between an enticement for CortiSlim snake oil and one of the stupidest money-wasting gift ideas of our modern age - but Wal-Mart? It's not like their rapacious business practices aren't well-documented. Doesn't something like this create a teensy conflict-of-interest problem if, for instance, Al Franken or Mark Riley wants to go on a rhetorical tear against the retail giant? Just asking.

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Amy loves to stretch out her full length on the radiator when it gets a bit nippy.

Update: Forgot to pass along this one via Maru, which Robin liked a lot 'cause it's British too: Wrapping Presents with a Cat.

And a little bonus dog-blogging:

My brother Gene's new dog, Ginger, whom he describes as having a very sweet temperament. I can hardly wait to meet her someday!

Silly Site o' the Day

Via my cousin Marc (Mazel Tov on the new job, cuz!), a couple of seasonal animations from the American Comedy Network, My Menorah and Nasty the Snowman.

Bachelor Blog

Time for some obligatory Canadian comics content! Via Oliver Willis, I was amused to read about the first known appearance of the word "blog" in a comic book:

Read all about it here. Love them Silver Age Superman stories!

Silly Sites o' the Day

Argh! Link dump time! Clean out all those political ones before they're so hopelessly out of date people start asking "Kerry who?"! Here, go play some Hamsters for Kerry (via upyernoz) with someone from Kerry Haters For Kerry (via NTodd)! Maybe I can interest you in a Dancing Ass (via Dave Johnson)? Or Baxter the chimp erasing votes (via Cyndy Roy)? Wait, is it too late to create Kerry or Bush jack-o-lanterns (via Tom Tomorrow)? That was Hallowe'en, wasn't it? Better dump the link to Monster Slash (via Eli at Left I) as well as Ahnuld in his girly-man costume (via Mark A.R. Kleiman). And speaking of dress-up, some political gags seem as timely as ever, given Bush's propensity for donning faux uniforms, so here are two of his many medals (via Jesus' General). There, that's enough politics for now... back to work...

Too Darn Hot

I love that Frank Rich's Sunday NY Times columns come out on Thursdays! This week's column is all about the various attempts by a handful of tight-assed prudes to stuff all those sexual genies back in their bottles. Hey, history shows it's happened before, so it's entirely possible that parts of America may be sliding back to pre-Kinsey days again...

When You Wish Upon A Pie...

As I light my candles to commemmorate the first great oil war, Robin's been schooling me on English Christmas customs. It started when he mentioned something about a fairy atop a Christmas tree. "Um, I think you mean an angel," said I, my knowledge of such customs admittedly being limited by, you know, not growing up with any of them. No, he insisted, in England (that would be the Christian country) you don't have an angel on top of the tree, you have a fairy. And tree lights are called fairy lights. Only here in our ostensibly secular country which more or less admits now that most of these things are coopted from pagan celebrations anyway do we have angels, 'cause I guess Christmas fairies would be like, I dunno, as evil to contemplate around this time of year as Harry Potter. Goodness knows how we've kept the elves; perhaps to ensure little people get their fair share of acting jobs during the season? (Speaking of which, this year's Christmas ad theme appears to be carolers...) Anyway, I don't think I'll be making any mince pies from stratch, although I hope to procure at least one to wish on. Right now I'm just struggling to get through creating a year-end roundup insert to go into the cards, which need to be mailed to England this week in order to have a prayer of arriving by Christmas...

Silly Site o' the Day

I'm not the first, and I won't be the last, to notice how those ubiquitous ribbon magnets on the backs of cars look like "Jesus fish" when turned sideways. Yet another reason to be wary of them, no matter what charity they supposedly help support. At this time of year I feel most keenly the disparate, desperate methods used to expunge the line separating church and state as if it were the writing on Scrooge's headstone. Maybe it's part of being such a relatively young and experimental country; American is still obsessed over sexuality, religion, racism, etc. to the point where we can't seem to discuss any of it emotionlessly enough to evolve beyond it, whereas many European countries don't seem to flaunt their Christianity nearly as openly. Well, we may not get irony, but we sure do get parody. Here, have at the Anti-Magnet site.

Silly Site o' the Day

Sorry, a busy workday and other real-life considerations still prevent me from blogging to the extent that I'd really like to in a world with, say, 40-hour days. I think I need a hug from a Giant Microbe Plushie (via TBogg). Considering my boss and his whole family appear to be ill this week, I just may get my wish sooner than I think...

Silly Site o' the Day

Hey birthday boy, what's your Secret Christmas Name? Mine's Cutie Kissy-Toes, but you probably knew that already. Via Kathy Pearlman, your one-stop shopping place for silly Santa-related sites this year...

Milestone Note

Happy 43rd birthday to my beloved Robin!

This image was taken from a British Christmas card; in England, robins are a sign of winter.

(A very happy birthday as well to David Ossman - and now I know what I want for the holidays - and to Leonard Kirk, Rob's current partner in art and other weirdness.)

Silly Site o' the Day

Yesterday wiped me out utterly; after Round One of our Thanksgiving washing-up I'd planned on sticking close to home, but Leah had called and said she was driving her son and his friend into Manhattan, so since I had the Ramona picture to give her and wanted to honor her 3-hour journey and she wanted to take us out for our anniversary, in we went to meet them at a very crowded 60th Street and 3rd Avenue. A 6-hour wait precluded us from lunching at Serendipity so we ate at the pre-French-ious place on the corner instead, which only had a half-hour wait. I was ready to go back home and sleep after that, but Leah wanted to take the kids to Chinatown and Robin wanted to tag along and all that walking (and you know, crowded-Chinatown walking isn't like real walking; it's not even as smooth as mall-strolling) wound up doing me in. At least I got some baby bok-choy on which to nibble. Then we had an interrupted night of sleep what with Amy coughing up a hairball and Datsa insisting on being fed, which he can't be until half an hour after his pill, so I had to get up and stay up and at least Washing-Up Round Two (of Three) is now done, and I plan on collapsing for much of the day. Oh yeah, today's Silly Site comes via Laura Gjovaag, and it's a few clever people Pottering about.

Silly Site o' the Day

Oh, that's right, it's Saturday already. Here, have some "Weird" Al, doing a perfect palindromic parody of Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues. Via Hanan Levin, of course!

Eight Days Late, But Worth the Wait

Tonight was our Thanksgiving/winter/birthdays/anniversary celebratory feast. We don't have a dining room table any more, as the little dinette area houses Robin's studio instead, but my parents had an extra aluminium/hardboard table they gave us, so I was able to "set" that:

Out in front we have the gravy, right in between the turkey breast and the cranberry sauce/mandarin orange combo; behind that there's butternet squash soup (from a carton but it was great!) with minced celery leaves and cilantro sprinkled on it, and the green beans with French's Onion crunchies atop 'em, which looked aesthetically nice but didn't help tastewise as the beans were a bit tough and stringy (but I didn't expect them to be a success anyway so it's okay); third row is the combo of mashed potatoes and yellow turnips (McKenzie's Southland frozen microwaveable, a godsend) on the left, and my 'shroom stuffing on the right; in the back are egg nog, cranberry cider and pumpkin pie.

Here's what the meat and veg looked like on my plate:

I was surprised that the mashed stuff came out so relatively light, I was expecting more colour, but we probably had a few more potatoes than turnips in there. But, except for the beans, it was all good, despite my earlier mishaps.

The cats are still prowling around the living room looking for more handouts:

If finicky Amy liked it, it must have been okay. I dread the cleanup tomorrow.

Feed Me, Seymour!

Back in late September I posted about those bloggers I love who hadn't yet acquired a syndicated feed for their blogs so my newsreader Bloglines (the only way I can get through the hundreds of blogs I regularly check) can alert me to and bring me their latest posts. I'm thrilled to report that both Roy Edroso and Avedon Carol now have RSS feeds on their blogs (you have all updated your blogrolls with Avedon's new URL, right?), and both August Pollak and Bob Harris are reportedly working on same. I'm a happy camper. Now, if only dinner turns out okay (only I could set off a smoke alarm by preheating the oven, then forget to turn it on again before putting in the turkey, meaning we aren't eating for at least another couple of hours...)

The Devil You Say!

Read all about my adventures with deviled eggs, and how at 47 I'm still woefully bereft of many basic cooking skills, here on Knife-Wielding Feminists.

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Amy's California dreamin', on such a winter's day (she likes the warmth of the cable box)...

(The framed picture above her is our wedding gift from Alan, which I thought appropriate to mention with our sixth anniversary coming up tomorrow.)

Meanwhile, have I mentioned we're finally out of moving boxes (although we still have to unpack, sort and shelve the stuff that's currently in comics longboxes)? Datsa enjoys himself with the last of the packing paper...

I'm told it takes some people a lot more than 8 months to fully unpack after moving, so maybe we're a bit ahead of the curve...

Update: I completely forgot I was going to link to this interesting page (via Zed at MemeMachineGo!) featuring Civil War Horses and Cats. Check out the gallery too.

Silly Sites o' the Day

Via BoingBoing again, it's a synthesized - I mean, Singular Christmas! And via Kathy Pearlman, who's been referencing some fun Santa Sites lately, something a tad more traditional - following the bouncing ball to sing along to Santa's Karaoke Machine. I thought these sites appropriate as Robin's set all his Christmas songs on randomize to listen to whilst he works.

The Day After

So yeah, my birthday was fun if exhausting; thanks to everyone who sent their lovely wishes in the last comment section. Apparently two Signs of the Apocalypse also happened yesterday - Brian Williams took over as anchor of NBC Nightly News as his bosses promised that he'd cater to a "red-state world" even though that mentality is in the vast global minority (possibly even within this country itself, if one believes the myriad accusations of Republicans cheating "Ukraine-style" to win last month's election); and Microsoft launched their blogging tool, Spaces, which potentially means even people like my parents will soon be blogging. Although, given how many folks are probably on MSN via dial-up, I'm not exactly holding my breath. By the way, I read about both these items (the Frank Rich article and the MSN thing) via BoingBoing, which decries both MSN's censorship and terms of use, which seems pretty harsh compared to Blogger's terms (which allow members to retain copyright and responsibility for their content).

Silly Site o' the Day

Hippo birdy to me! Today I celebrate my 47th birthday by going into Manhattan and doing some errands, dropping in on Midtown Comics, seeking gifts for Robin for our 6th anniversary on Friday and his birthday next Monday, as well as Secret Santa stuff for a coworker, and maybe picking up some stuff for myself. If I have enough energy maybe I'll walk to a window display or two, but I woke up with a sore throat and sneezing (not really a surprise considering all the exposure I had yesterday to bus commuters, coworkers, restaurant patrons, etc.) so I'll play it by ear. Meanwhile, I can't get too much sillier today than the (P)resident wishing me a happy birthday, disco-style.

Windy Wonderland

The bus commute back didn't take much longer than an hour, but that was pure chance. As I got back so (relatively) early and Robin met me at the terminus, we walked to our local steakhouse for dinner and then back on a couple side streets to avoid the worst of the winds. And there, about three blocks from our home, we saw the first really decked-out, dripping-with-holiday-lights house in the neighborhood:

We walked a little closer and discovered, not to be outdone, the house next door appeared to be competing with it:

So that was pretty cool, but it's been a long day and the basement dwellers are being noisy again so I can't lie down and relax yet (as our bedroom is two flights directly above their living room) and I was already cranky from having to go into the office and break up my vacation week so all I can say is my birthday tomorrow better be nicer than today was...

Froggy Goodness!

Happy first blogivers-- I mean, frogiversary to Terri at frogblog! This one's for you, Terri:

Still one of my favorite Supergirl covers that Robin inked. :)

Silly Site o' the Day

White Rabbits! G'wan, poke the bunny, you know you want to. Via Hanan Levin, queen of silly site referrals.

[Yes, I had to break up a vacation week and come in to work today, which meant getting up at 6:30 and out the door by 7 to get the buses in time to arrive by 9 because no way in hell was I going to drive in the gusting wind and torrential rain. Within an hour of my arrival I was bothered by building maintenance stuff at least three times, which isn't supposed to happen now that we have a porter. The only good thing about being here today is that they're having pizza in honor of my birthday (I turn 47 tomorrow) so at least I don't have to pay for lunch.]