Nota Bene: Local Lebanese food company Najat's Cuisine is the nicest. They took time out of their busy day to reassure me that their extra garlic hummus "spices" don't include chilis and won't put me in the hospital ( Read more... )

Public radio story comment threads: engaging in internet duels in aggressively articulate, hyper-competitive intellectual way since 2001.

(To be honest, I'm thrilled that they beat me to the punch in pointing out that incredible glorification of orientalism does not make somebody an expert on Japan. I'm also thrilled that this piece didn't air ( Read more... )

Science news? I got'cher science news RIGHT HERE:

Galileo Galilei's Middle Finger Found
Yes! Be the first to have a reliquary of your favorite scientist [deceased], especially if they weren't able to be buried in a churchyard!

Also, my nation proudly boasts an army of dolphins and sea lions! Be afraid. No, I mean that. Fear us.

Also also, listen ( Read more... )

So you may be wondering why America has this crazypants healthcare system and why it is such a fuss to fix. I know a lot of international folks have said as much (often loudly, in an irritated tone), and I bet there are more than a few Americans who are perplexed at the whole business too. To understand why, we must first understand howThat's where ( Read more... )

It's been a frustrating day, trying to get back into the routine of productivity after the trip (hey, Handmade Arcade applications are now open LET'S JUST DROP EVERYTHING AND DO THAT GOODBYE SLEEP). On top of everything else, I suddenly get the hair-raising feeling that I am being surreptitiously monitored. I look up. On eye level, across the ( Read more... )

This is how my life works:

On Long Road Trip in the North Woods, I turn on the radio and it immediately finds a college station. And so it turns out that this college station is going to have a darling but obscure band that I have great fondness for, live in the studio in five minutes of my turning the radio. And hey ( Read more... )

• etymologyFron the greek for "the true sense of a word." That goes back to when roots showed through a lot more than they do today. But just as you appreciate a vegetable more if you know how it grows, you have a better hold on a word if you use it in acknowledgement of its roots, its background, some of the soil still attatched ( Read more... )

This is to state that I have rescued a hardcover copy of Fly By Night, as recommended by pbprincess, from the annual library book sale. Which is also to say that I hold her accountable for the two shiny nickles I paid for it, should I not enjoy it. Two very shiny nickles, yes.

I have also purloined from the library Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day-in book ( Read more... )

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By day, Mooney is an over-achieving, six year-old girl living with her Grandparents at their junkyard in the forest. By night, Mooney is a member of a secret jazz band with a group of ex-convict animals.
Best synopsis ever ( Read more... )

Today I am grateful for the local college's radio station, and its automated playlist that understands nothing of holiday-appropriate music.

It saves me from another twenty minutes of screaming at NPR, regarding their usage of 'Pilgrims' instead of 'Puritans'.

Also it's been difficult to coax in the ever-awesome WRCT on the wireless lately, so ( Read more... )