What's Going On?

That title is not a Marvin Gaye reference, but I am sure Mr. Gaye would totally have grooved* on my blog.

I bought my first linen jacket last week, and I am wearing it today. The jacket, which I got at Daffy's, natch, is a dark blue that’s lighter than navy (one of my most hated of colors) yet darker than royal, and it’s really snazzy. It’s just a wee bit big for me in terms of width, but the sleeves and shoulders are fine. Maybe I’ll get the thing altered a bit so it’s more form-fitting. But I like!

A bunch of us played Descent last weekend, with the full benefits of electric lights, and it was fun. The rules are totally non-intuitive so it’s not a quick game, but I had a great time dropping ice storms on those pesky hellhounds, and others seemed to enjoy it as well. We didn’t all drop ice storms though; the other players were using weapons. In case you were wondering.

The scavenger hunt was a success, despite the distressing absence of VisMajor. We came in a strong first place, leaving the runners-up way in the dust. They sucked. Harsh words but true.

I’m not a huge fan of red meat…except when it’s barbecued. I could chomp through a whole herd of sheep if they came off the grill. We got great BBQ at the Sarcas-home Sunday, and although none of it was sheep I happily stuffed my face nonetheless. There was pie too, and brownies. Oh, the face-stuffing!

New favorite lyric:

“You were born to touch, born to want too much
Let the bodies fall, you were born to have it all”

Song: Born to Have it All
Artist: Katie Irving (Pino Donaggio)
Album: Carrie (Original Soundtrack)

*For some reason I wanted to write "have grooven." It seemed strangely grammatical.

I love this stuff

Here's a bill that truly addresses a burning social need. I wonder if the South Carolina legislature will follow it up with requirements that women send their fetuses a Hallmark card, and maybe hold a "I Just Had an Abortion" party in their honor.

(Anytime South Carolina wants to secede from the union again...why, that's just fine and dandy with me. If they take Alabama and Texas with them, so much the better.)

In case you didn't know, the 16th annual Philadelphia Film Festival's in town, so grab you a catalog and start blocking out your movies. I'm going to do four or five, the names of which I'll email around to interested (and disinterested) parties.

Has anyone played "Descent", the dungeon-crawling boardgame that weights half a metric ton? It's neat. Dan and I lost power last Friday night, so we played by candlelight, raising the geek quotient of the experience by an extra order of magnitude. It was fun. Unfortunately, our heat is electric, so as the geekitude rose the temperature fell. That part was less fun. The whole experience made me realize that people who lived before electric lights must have hated their lives.

An angry proposal

When a Democratic president lies under oath, it’s an offense worthy of impeachment. When a Republican staffer lies under oath, it’s a “non-crime” that “should never have been prosecuted” and is worthy of a presidential pardon. I’m beginning to think that Clinton should have pardoned himself.

I was remarking to someone the other day that everything liberals predicted about the Bush presidency has come to pass. We said Iraq was a quagmire waiting to happen and we were right. We said that the PATRIOT act would lead to flagrant abuse and we were right about that, too. We said that a “take no prisoners” attitude to foreign policy would be produce nothing but alienated friends and more powerful enemies and it seems we got that right as well. Correct on every single issue.

What should we do about this? I have two proposals.

We forgive those Americans who voted for Bush in 2000. Even though the man had a record of non-accomplishment (according to the dearly-departed Molly Ivins, Bush failed upwardly in business), no one could reasonably have predicted he would fuck things up as thoroughly and horrifically as he has. Reasonable people can expect conservative presidents to cut taxes for the wealthy, slash services for the poor and use gays as political punching bags, but with a historically unprecedented and disastrous preemptive war and a massive rollback of civil rights Bush was quite the overachiever.

We set a ban on voting upon all those who supported Bush in 2004. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, prevent me from electing any more presidents until I smarten the hell up. After four years of watching His Fraudulency blunder his way through foreign, domestic and economic policy, always using the destruction of the World Trade Center as a handy justification, these people had ample opportunity to get into their heads what liberals knew from the start. Many of these have repented, and although I welcome their change of heart, intransigence has its price. They helped bollix up the nation, so if they can’t come up with a solution (and so far they haven’t) it’s only fair that they stand aside while the more level-headed among us fix it.

New favorite lyric:

“Caroline talks to you softly sometimes
She says, ‘I love you’ and ‘Too much’
She doesn’t have anything you’d want to steal
Well, nothing you can touch”

Artist: Psychedelic Furs (Richard Butler)
Song: Pretty in Pink
Album: Talk, Talk, Talk

Mmmmm

Heh…I like being vindicated. This is hardly the first study that shows that a majority of Americans want universal health care and are willing to pay for it, but it’s refreshing nonetheless. After years of gaping at widespread public support for the steaming puddle of madness that is this nation’s current foreign policy, it’s nice to see that Americans are sane on at least one topic.

Oh the hurting! I twisted my back in a major way playing Ultimate this weekend, and I’m only now feeling halfway normal. Thanks for the sympathy, but it’s really all my fault; I’m just too damn old to play the way I do. Argh.

True things (I think)

Here's some stuff I've found to be true.

1. Most people make the majority of their decisions emotionally, so giving them rational arguments is like offering ice cream to a Eskimo.
2. Dogs are almost always faster than you expect.
3. No matter how bad you think things are, they can always get worse.
4. People change their opinions when they're ready, not because of countervailing evidence or because you want them to.
5. It's not what you say; it's how you say it.
6. A good leader wears authority not like a golden crown but as a normal suit of clothes. He soon forgets what he's wearing, but everyone else sees it.
7. I don't look good in green.
8. The people who make a point of telling you how straightforward they are usually turn out to be the most dishonest.
9. If you can't explain a good idea in two minutes, it's probably not very good.
10. At least 30% of the corporate world possesses no discernable talent other than a knack for self-promotion.
11. Three Krispy Kreme donuts eaten in the span of five minutes is NOT a good idea.
12. A resolve not to suppress your feelings is not an excuse to be mean to others.
13. Keep your damn advice to yourself. It usually sucks anyway.
14. A knowing smile is one of the surest ways to ruin someone's day.
15. When you start a new job, it's best to use your ears more and your mouth less.
16. Don't carry pens in your pocket. Seriously.

I'll probably think of more later, but this'll do for now.

New favorite lyric:

"I wanna be a big shot and have ninety cars
I wanna have a boyfriend and a girl for laughs
But only on Saturdays, six days to be alone
With just me, myself, I"

Artist: Joan Armatrading (Joan Armatrading)
Song: Me Myself I
Album: Me Myself I