The real birthday present was dinner at a very fancy restaurant, but Eileene bought me something to unwrap, too. Well, no, not to unwrap, exactly—she didn’t wrap it. But physical objects. Two framed posters, which I liked, and a wild stab-in-the-dark CD of jazz musician Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra, which I didn’t […]
I don’t need to point out that Mitch McConnell’s plan for dealing with the imminent US debt crisis and consequent shut-down of the federal government is a total steaming pile. Others before me have (correctly) identified it as (1)an act of ideology, placing proven failed economic policy ahead of good governance, (2)an act of hypocrisy, […]
For Eileene’s birthday, I got her some short skirts and short shorts. They were a good choice; twice this month alone she’d expressed a desire for skirts that (a) were shorter and sexier, and (b) fit better since she’s lost so much weight. It saves her from shopping for clothes, a task both of us […]
We watched The Adjustment Bureau last nigh on DVD. Ordinary. The reality-bending, head-game-y tone was undermined by some flagrant shortcuts, as such films are prone to. I wouldn’t bring it up at all, but for the peculiar experience of watching it through a particular mental lens. A spoiler alert is in order here. If you […]
Having heard that World of Warcraft is now free to play up to level 20, I took it for a spin last night, a trip down memory lane. It was very much like a return to one’s childhood home: not quite everything the same as I remembered it. Specifically, the gnomes now have their own […]
Apart from the equation of patriotism with militant tribalism, the other thing I noticed at small-town, middle-America Kirkwall was the chicks—more specifically, I noticed which chicks I noticed. I’m a girl watcher. Have been since before puberty; will be after all the relevant biomachinery ceases to function. Actually, girl-watching is a lot more fun in […]
We watched the fireworks last night. Because I was sick with an airport cold, I didn’t feel up to braving the crowd and hike from parking to viewing at the Rockford firework show, so we went instead to the more modest Kirkland fireworks. It was nice, too; gradually it’s dawned on me that the immediacy […]
My folks have a Japanese beetle infestation—not exactly a biblical plague, but enough of a nuisance that they go out and scour the garden, killing them by tossing them into a jar of soapy water. So when I saw on sitting on the edge of the toilet this morning, I grabbed a tissue and crushed […]
When did Cracked get funny? When I was a kid, maybe ages 8-12, I read Mad magazine. Its glory days were long past; Kurtzman’s successors just weren’t as good, but it was still funny, on-and-off—Al Jaffee was just crude, and Dave Berg was stiffly formulaic, but Mort Drucker did silly little things in the margins […]
Ella just returned from her trip to…Costa Rica? I’m pretty sure Costa Rica. Her description of a zipline adventure sounds terrific. Essentially, they rig up a line—or rather, several in series—stretching from somewhere on a mountainside to somewhere lower down. You climb into a harness dangling from the line by a pulley wheel, make sure […]