Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s is still working to expose Bush – the most recent form of protest is “a 3.7 metre-tall effigy of …Bush with fake flames shooting out of the pants.”
As in ‘liar, liar pants on fire.’
You can even sign up to drive the Pants on Fire mobile, or provide parking while the effigy is in your town.
Modern times
According to the Chicago Public Library, the tenth anniversary is traditionally the tin or aluminum anniversary.
In modern times, the appropriate gift is diamonds.
This seems a little pessimistic – are we to assume that modern marriages have no chance of lasting 60 years (traditionally, the 60th is the Diamond Anniversary)?
Well, Dr. T., if we live another 50 years, we’ll get diamonds. Today, we can line up a bunch of tin cans on the fence and throw rocks or something.
Happy anniversary. (K)
Atonement
Ian McEwan
This is the first McEwan I’ve read (although I have owned Amsterdam for a long time without reading it. I enjoyed Atonement enough to root through my home library and find Amsterdam, but not so much that I’ll do it any time soon.
Census
Current population of our house:
1 4-year old boy (human (reportedly))
1 6-year old boy (human)
1 adult male (human)
3 adult females (one maggie, one mother-in-law, one aunt-in-law, all more or less human)
1 nursing female with 4 babies (raccoon)
Well, at least some one’s using the upstairs balcony
Things I’ve learned while biking
1. “Clunk” is almost never a good sound.
2. If you pull over on the road to adjust something using a screwdriver, make sure you’re not stopped directly over a sewer grate.*
3. If you pull over, chances are that at least one person will stop to offer help – and really mean it. The lovely woman who helped me get my chain sorted out this morning even offered me her rag to clean my hands.
*On a related note, if anyone finds a red-handled Phillips floating in the toilet bowl, please let me know.
Omigod
Stop everything.
Thanks, Vin.
He ain’t heavy, he’s my monkey
Ok, it’s the last day of June, and I’m finally (and somewhat ironically) getting around to the June Monkey.
This time, blork and Martine wanted to know about “the monkeys on your back… you know, those tasks or chores or one of these days items on your “to do” list that you can never quite get to even though you feel like it’s holding you back.”
This post notwithstanding, I do have a few things that have lingered, some to the point of actually festering, on my to do list. Alors, somewhat thematically:
– review my short stories and select one or two to rework
– look into publication of same
– ditto my play, ‘Brawling Women in a Wide House.’
– finish (ten years later) stripping the mouldings in the upstairs hallway
– finish (as above) the giprock in the bathroom
– paint the bathroom
– finally convince Dr. T. that he no longer needs his extremely large amp/PA thingie, or at least propose that if he knows exactly where it is, without looking, he can keep it another year.
– student loan
– mortgage
– find a job slightly closer to home, or get a jet pack for the commute.
I’m sure there are many more monkeys back there, but I’m ignoring them.
Aherm…
So, remember my birthday list? The g-mail account?
I can now invite a friend to start a g-mail account.
Any takers?
Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to vote we go
So the polls are open, the pundits are primed, and no one knows what the heck to expect. Sure, we’ll end up with a minority government, but who? In cahoots with whom? Suffice it to say we’re headed back to the polls soon, mark my words.
One last thing, for those who would vote for the Green Party:
Just because a party calls itself “The Fluffy Bunny Party” does not make it a good party. Similarly, “The heroic white hat wearers” – not necessarily good guys.
The Green Party has a good name. C’est pas mal tout. Yes, the party supports Kyoto, but that’s neither here nor there, since there’s not much to Kyoto beyond a display of global goodwill. The Greens are fiscally and socially conservative. We’re talking Harper in a Greenpeace t-shirt.
Thus endeth the rant.
Go vote!!! For whomever you want, just do it. Remember – no vote, no bitching.
What I got for my birthday
1. Perfume, from Dr. T., proving that he does listen occasionally;
2. A g-mail account from Bill (and inspiration from blork – the address is gmaggie[at]gmail[dot]com. Gthanks, gblork.);
3. Mystic River from Steve ‘n’ Dina;
4. Incense and scented candles;
5. Half a Caesar salad from my buddy who only discovered it was my birthday halfway through lunch;
6. A tree from the world’s greatest mother-in-law, albeit sans partridge; once the massive, horrible, dangerous current (not currant) tree is removed, a new, lovely, flowery crab apple will take its place and all will be right in the world;
7. A Stone Angel, from Mum:
She’s real stone, too. None of this resin crap. Well done, Mum!
Dina believes this means that my mother wants to be buried in my garden.