When I got my cell phone, I "ported" the phone number from my apartment in what was my Dad's house in New Hampshire: gives me a local phone number if I ever get up there, keeps that specific number for sentimental reasons, it's the number that appears on my checks for my account at my NH bank, etc ( Read more... )

I came pretty close to dying last weekend. I'm finally at the point of confronting that statement as what it is: fact.

Many of the people reading this will already know, but others won't. I was driving home from the airport in Houston Sunday night, having spent the weekend in DC on ATHE business. About halfway home, i.e., just south of ( Read more... )

Today's entry in the "I couldn't make this up" sweepstakes:

On page 105 of the brochure for this year's Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference, there is a listing of all recipients of the "ATHE Execellence in Editing Award." Yes, ladies and gentlemen, "execellence." In editing.

I was dialing around the channels last night and found that someone (TNT, probably) was playing "The Wizard of Oz." It was the scene in which Dorothy first meets the Scarecrow ( Read more... )

Some of you will already know part of the Great Money Exchange Saga (full rant, in my mulcher4 persona, here), in which I learned that a). my bank doesn't do currency exchange or sell travelers checks, b). no other bank will do so unless you have an account there, and c). the rationale for this (latter) singularly stupid practice is, of course, 9/11. (Why ( Read more... )

One of John McCain's most important advisors is named Orson Swindle.
One of Hillary Clinton's most important advisors is named Harold Ickes.
One of Barack Obama's most important advisors is named Austan Goolsbee.
Somewhere, Charles Dickens is smiling.

In my last post, I listed my current location as "grading hell." Click on the icon and you'll find that Google Maps has 8,169 locations for "grading hell." That number seems a little low.

"its" is not the same as "it's."
"their" is not the same as "there," and neither is the same as "they're."
"definitely" is not the same as "defiantly."
"lose" is not the same as "loose."
"a part" is not the same as "apart."

"Document your sources" does not mean "Document a few of your sources if you feel like it."

From our friends in the East comes this story about a civil servant who was demoted--not fired, mind you, demoted--for registering 780,000 hits on pornsites on his office computer over a nine-month period. My reading of this is that you have to reach a million to get fired, and under, say, a couple hundred thousand isn't a problem at all ( Read more... )

Today was the best day all semester for cool names in Theatre History:

People: Pina Bausch, François Billetdoux (Frankie Love-letter), Dario Fo, Heiner Müller, Franca Rame
Theatres: Caffe Cino, La Mama ETC, Mabou Mines, Wuppertal Dance Theatre
Titles: Adulto Orgasmo Escapes from the Zoo, And They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers, Tchin-Tchin... Hell ( Read more... )