Well, I'd initially planned to do this on Friday to celebrate my fifth year of blogging and to wish The Truffle a happy birthday while I was at it, and I didn't even do it in time for Cookie Jill's birthday yesterday. Oh well, at least I made it in time for Kath's birthday today, so that's something. I'm glad I'm finally closing all those "keep as new" posts, I have some saved up from last month! Onward, then:
• Over at Mahablog, Barb has another terrific post among many, this one about how the people currently in power hate government so much that they not only seek to dismantle it but to render it functionally ineffective so they can point and say "See, we were right, it doesn't work!" This makes a good companion piece to Avedon's from last week about how Democrats keep flinging themselves into that same Republican-generated briar patch of fear.
• Speaking of Mahablog, Moonbat posts there and links to a George Carlin video which garners much praise, but the minute I read the Carlin quote that AlterNet chose in its intro -- "It's a big club and you and I aren't in it" -- my reaction was, "what do you mean you and I, kemosabe?" Like Stewart, Olbermann, Colbert, Maher et al, Carlin does indeed speak truth to power, but please, people, let's remember they're all millionaires and stop falling for their faux populism. We don't like it in our politicians, we shouldn't accept it in our satirists, no matter how otherwise beloved they may be.
• Like Michael Palin, for instance. I'm extremely jealous of Space Cowboy at Shakespeare's Sister, who attended a discussion with Palin in between the comedian-travel writer's sojourns. And in the category of what other famous people are doing, Julia Sweeney dishes about Phyllis Diller's outspoken atheism, and Alan Alda contemplates the three minutes he spends daily while microsaving his oatmeal.
• We Are All Meg: Two popular writers of young adult books, Cecil Castellucci and Tamora Pierce, pay tribute to the late Madeleine L'Engle. And Moi pens a very well-worded farewell to Pavarotti.
• Cat's back in Vancouver, and this time he tries the dungeness crab.
• Have you heard of diacetyl? It's a chemical used to make the "butter flavor" for microwave popcorn because it's, you know, just too much trouble to zap a few pats of actual butter in the microwave and pour it over the popcorn yourself. Anyway, popcorn lover Wayne Watson visited Dr. Cecile Rose to find out why he was having all kinds of breathing problems, and she happened to be an expert on this ("she and several colleagues have spent four years consulting with 16 U.S. manufacturers of buttery microwave popcorn or butter flavoring," the article says, "trying to figure out how to keep dangerous fumes away from workers") and figured out that the chemical was the likely culprit that led to his broncheolitis obliterans. Okay, the real culprits actually include ConAgra, another factory "farm" corporation putting lots of real farms out of business while it poisons workers and consumers in the process. Chris at Americablog reports that they promise to drop their use of the toxic chemical, in what must be sheer coincidence, shortly before the release of an EPA study done two years ago and hushed up since then. Not only that, skippy notes the investigations into diacetyl began in 1999 and finished in 2001. But I guess the administration at the time had more important things to ignore...
• Zuzu's back posting at Feministe, but not for everything; she deems some meta-posts like this one best expressed on her own blog. She and Kate Harding, another blogger whose writing I really respect, are also having an interesting discussion about fat acceptance. Go to Kate's post in Shapely Prose to get caught up. Speaking of fat acceptance, Zed is profoundly disappointed in Glamour magazine's retouching of America Ferrera, and the Hathor Legacy's BetaCandy rips apart a Baskin Robbins ad.
• Of course, some ads are worth watching. Terrance invites us to "Name That Innuendo" and see how many double-entendres we can find in the following ad that's run in New Zealand:
I challenge... my husband! King of the double-entendres! At least in this house.
• Congratulations to Mikhaela Reid and Makesha Wood on their wedding day, and congrats to their fellow Cartoonist with Attitude August Pollak for having his 'toons run on HuffPo!
• What can you add to Jedi squirrels in training?
• Like Val D'Orazio, I get the joke, I just don't find it funny. Wishing death on anyone, even in jest, because you don't like the entertainment they provide is so far beyond the pale that it's no wonder fanboys have the kind of immature rep that they do. And as Jill points out, of course we treat our beloved pets differently than we treat other family members. Animals have no agency, and some PETA people who don't get this are as much around the bend as death-threat-sponsoring fanboys.
• When I read things like Digby's marvelous account of anti-racist activism in Knoxville, I think maybe society is finally headed in the right direction. Then I read the Group News Blog's Jesse Wendel on Oakland and GNB's Lower Manhattanite on how little has changed from NC in '93 to Jena in '07 and my heart breaks all over again.
• Should we worry? Hilzoy reports that China is withdrawing funds from US banks, Christopher at After School Snack talks about Russian cyberhackers almost shutting down Estonia's IT infrastructure, and Ian Welsh at HuffPo notes that, when it comes to broadband, Japan's totally kicking ass, to use some idiot's recent expression.
• Chris longs for pragmatic honesty. I'm not so sure we'll see that until the people currently in power are gone for good. As Atrios-who-needs-the-hits notes, there's a big problem when the guy in charge talks about crying on the sky fairy's shoulder. "The point is that Bush can only cry on the shoulder of, and get comfort from, someone more important than him. The only name on that list is God."
• Lastly, Mike Gold announces ComicMix Phase II. This is the phase in which I am not (yet) directly involved, so please don't ask me anything about it.
Whew! Told you I had a lot of "keep as new" links. Glad to finally get through them, and my blog reading! Next up, feeding the cats, then starting on my ComicMix column for Wednesday...
• Over at Mahablog, Barb has another terrific post among many, this one about how the people currently in power hate government so much that they not only seek to dismantle it but to render it functionally ineffective so they can point and say "See, we were right, it doesn't work!" This makes a good companion piece to Avedon's from last week about how Democrats keep flinging themselves into that same Republican-generated briar patch of fear.
• Speaking of Mahablog, Moonbat posts there and links to a George Carlin video which garners much praise, but the minute I read the Carlin quote that AlterNet chose in its intro -- "It's a big club and you and I aren't in it" -- my reaction was, "what do you mean you and I, kemosabe?" Like Stewart, Olbermann, Colbert, Maher et al, Carlin does indeed speak truth to power, but please, people, let's remember they're all millionaires and stop falling for their faux populism. We don't like it in our politicians, we shouldn't accept it in our satirists, no matter how otherwise beloved they may be.
• Like Michael Palin, for instance. I'm extremely jealous of Space Cowboy at Shakespeare's Sister, who attended a discussion with Palin in between the comedian-travel writer's sojourns. And in the category of what other famous people are doing, Julia Sweeney dishes about Phyllis Diller's outspoken atheism, and Alan Alda contemplates the three minutes he spends daily while microsaving his oatmeal.
• We Are All Meg: Two popular writers of young adult books, Cecil Castellucci and Tamora Pierce, pay tribute to the late Madeleine L'Engle. And Moi pens a very well-worded farewell to Pavarotti.
• Cat's back in Vancouver, and this time he tries the dungeness crab.
• Have you heard of diacetyl? It's a chemical used to make the "butter flavor" for microwave popcorn because it's, you know, just too much trouble to zap a few pats of actual butter in the microwave and pour it over the popcorn yourself. Anyway, popcorn lover Wayne Watson visited Dr. Cecile Rose to find out why he was having all kinds of breathing problems, and she happened to be an expert on this ("she and several colleagues have spent four years consulting with 16 U.S. manufacturers of buttery microwave popcorn or butter flavoring," the article says, "trying to figure out how to keep dangerous fumes away from workers") and figured out that the chemical was the likely culprit that led to his broncheolitis obliterans. Okay, the real culprits actually include ConAgra, another factory "farm" corporation putting lots of real farms out of business while it poisons workers and consumers in the process. Chris at Americablog reports that they promise to drop their use of the toxic chemical, in what must be sheer coincidence, shortly before the release of an EPA study done two years ago and hushed up since then. Not only that, skippy notes the investigations into diacetyl began in 1999 and finished in 2001. But I guess the administration at the time had more important things to ignore...
• Zuzu's back posting at Feministe, but not for everything; she deems some meta-posts like this one best expressed on her own blog. She and Kate Harding, another blogger whose writing I really respect, are also having an interesting discussion about fat acceptance. Go to Kate's post in Shapely Prose to get caught up. Speaking of fat acceptance, Zed is profoundly disappointed in Glamour magazine's retouching of America Ferrera, and the Hathor Legacy's BetaCandy rips apart a Baskin Robbins ad.
• Of course, some ads are worth watching. Terrance invites us to "Name That Innuendo" and see how many double-entendres we can find in the following ad that's run in New Zealand:
I challenge... my husband! King of the double-entendres! At least in this house.
• Congratulations to Mikhaela Reid and Makesha Wood on their wedding day, and congrats to their fellow Cartoonist with Attitude August Pollak for having his 'toons run on HuffPo!
• What can you add to Jedi squirrels in training?
• Like Val D'Orazio, I get the joke, I just don't find it funny. Wishing death on anyone, even in jest, because you don't like the entertainment they provide is so far beyond the pale that it's no wonder fanboys have the kind of immature rep that they do. And as Jill points out, of course we treat our beloved pets differently than we treat other family members. Animals have no agency, and some PETA people who don't get this are as much around the bend as death-threat-sponsoring fanboys.
• When I read things like Digby's marvelous account of anti-racist activism in Knoxville, I think maybe society is finally headed in the right direction. Then I read the Group News Blog's Jesse Wendel on Oakland and GNB's Lower Manhattanite on how little has changed from NC in '93 to Jena in '07 and my heart breaks all over again.
• Should we worry? Hilzoy reports that China is withdrawing funds from US banks, Christopher at After School Snack talks about Russian cyberhackers almost shutting down Estonia's IT infrastructure, and Ian Welsh at HuffPo notes that, when it comes to broadband, Japan's totally kicking ass, to use some idiot's recent expression.
• Chris longs for pragmatic honesty. I'm not so sure we'll see that until the people currently in power are gone for good. As Atrios-who-needs-the-hits notes, there's a big problem when the guy in charge talks about crying on the sky fairy's shoulder. "The point is that Bush can only cry on the shoulder of, and get comfort from, someone more important than him. The only name on that list is God."
• Lastly, Mike Gold announces ComicMix Phase II. This is the phase in which I am not (yet) directly involved, so please don't ask me anything about it.
Whew! Told you I had a lot of "keep as new" links. Glad to finally get through them, and my blog reading! Next up, feeding the cats, then starting on my ComicMix column for Wednesday...
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