One common complaint – too much CG! — has really become, in my view, a crutch complaint that everybody levels against everything nowadays in the movies. — here Sure, the library is an old fashioned concept. So is democracy. So is equal opportunity. So is getting your facts right. — there I had no idea [...]

I’ve had this cup for at least 20 years and haven’t used it for almost that long. It was sitting in a back corner of the kitchen cabinet behind a lot of other cups. Not forgotten, just too inconvenient to get to it. But now everything has been rearranged and I have a better place [...]

These orange fashions are especially for Charles because he’s all about orange these days. I wouldn’t wear any of those fashions, (first link) not because they’re orange but because most would be ugly in any color. Actually the third dress from the left in the first picture isn’t so bad; I just don’t like wearing [...]

Very cool, and such a nice color. see more Crazy Shoes and Cool Accessories

My husband sent the link to this video. Thanks also to Number Two Son for introducing me to the very useful term, “horizontal prayer”. That’s prayer that’s actually intended for the other people listening.

Normally, a trip to the dentist is the most dreaded of our regular experiences but my dentist’s office is one of the most pleasant places I go. The walls and ceilings in the back are painted the same yellow as our kitchen. Of course I don’t know if it’s exactly the same but it’s close [...]

I came across Pati’s Mexican Table on one of our local public television stations recently. At first I found Pati irritating but also, somehow, vaguely fascinating. As I get used to her voice and mannerisms she is a bit less irritating than at first. More importantly, some of her recipes are interesting. Fortunately she has [...]

I mentioned in the comments over there that when I was a kid we kept a gallon jug of water in the refrigerator in the summer. No fancy water-and-ice-in-the-door refrigerators then. We had one problem with the water jug though. The rule was that whoever took the last of the water had to refill it. [...]

The last two posts were rather grouchy but that’s not my mood today at all. It has been a very lovely day. The high temp so far is 95°F, which might seem quite hot if you haven’t been living with daily highs of around 104°. Even better, we got almost a quarter of an inch [...]

The real reason Borders is closing: They’ve been screwing themselves for years. This whole “Borders shutting down” thing and the store closures earlier this year that were supposedly a stop-gap? Yeah, it didn’t just pop up over night. Every article you read out there has someone at Borders talking about how ebook sales doomed them. [...]

Why can’t things just work? Why do gadgets hate me? No, really… they do. They like my husband; they hate me. I can be having trouble getting something to work and he will come along and do the exact same thing I already tried several times and it will work for him. Gadgets hate me. [...]

Some things are worth dying early for. — here (and that’s not one of them) Oh, nothing good can come from this. — there People are nuts. — here

Tortoise gets artificial wheel at vet hospital – What? Is there a such thing as a natural wheel?

A while back I downloaded several science fiction stories and books from Project Gutenberg. Here are some thoughts on a couple of them that I read recently. City of Endless Night by Milo M. Hastings was actually pretty interesting in spite of being outdated. It was written shortly after the end of World War I [...]

7 Obscure Children’s Books by Authors of Grown-up Literature – I had seen the one by Mark Twain somewhere else but before I got around to mentioning it I found this. Of course I feel deprived for not having any of these as a child and I want them even though I’m “too old” for [...]

It’s Okay To Be Takei. Aside from the deep political and social issue, this both pleases and amuses me. This is going to catch on. (as soon as we all learn how to pronounce “Takei”) Seen on George Takei’s Twitter feed.

Disney princesses in historically correct costumes – Nice. Some of them make you wonder why Disney chose to be inaccurate in the first place when accuracy would have worked just as well. To be honest though, I don’t remember all the originals very well. My favorite? It’s a tie between Snow White and Ariel. (via)

When you think about it, this is really rather bizarre. OLD AMERICANS: Give me liberty or give me death! NEW AMERICANS: I’ll put up with anything, if my kid can shake hands with Mickey Mouse. What ever happened to the “power of the people”? What ever happened to “I’m mad as hell and I’m not [...]

I would almost wear these (if they weren’t so large) but I’m not into Tetris, never played it in fact. (Yes, I know. Shut up.) see more Crazy Shoes and Cool Accessories If I was going to wear my favorite game dangling from my ears I would get these. Actually, I was just joking but [...]

The future according to sci-fi movies – A fun chart (via) Blonde’s password – Heh NASA technology for cancer patients Tree bark – beautiful and fascinating Ships’ figureheads and sterns

I’ve been awarded one of those blog award thingys that go around once in a while. It seems I am a Versatile Blogger. Let’s see… sewing, cats, deer, science fiction, making fun of Libertarians, weird things my brain does, the weather… yeah, I guess you could call that versatility. And he said that I’m “endlessly [...]

Referring to something else, [Stephen] King says: “I don’t wish to speak too disparagingly of my generation…actually, I do, we had a chance to change the world and opted for the Home Shopping Network instead.” — here I am chagrined. — there ([sigh] Some things are pretty much the same on both sides of the [...]

I have this fantasy in which a mob of angry Americans barricades all the exits of the House and Senate chambers and refuses to let our lawmakers leave until they come to an agreement on the current debt problem. We not only do not allow them to leave, we do not allow them to have [...]

Pretty but just a wee bit creepy. I want one. see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz! And speaking of cat envy, last weekend the prettiest cat in the world appeared briefly on my back porch. The husband was sitting here at the computer and told me, ” [...]

Whenever they say the name Jacques Ibert on the radio I always think “Jock E. Bear”. (I knew that wasn’t really what they were saying but I did have to look it up on the radio station’s online playlist to get the right spelling.)