Bah *$?!in' Humbug!

Well, my first mistake, I suppose, was going to Best Buy. (Well, first was probably waiting till the last minute, but I can blame my husband, the master procrastinator, for that.) Then I requested help from an employee.

Me: "Can you check to see if any other stores have it?"
Her: "Sure... Sunnyvale has one, but by the time you get there, they won't have it any more! *giggle*"
Me: "Can you check other states?"
Her: "Other states? You're going to another state?"
Me: "Yes, I'll be in St. Louis on Saturday."
Her: "St. Louis?...(looks at computer screen) We can check Nevada, Utah, Montana, Idaho..."
Me: "It's in Missouri. Can you check Missouri?"
Her: "Um, I'm not very good on my states."

I really hope this chick doesn't go to one of the high schools where I might end up sending my kid...

Shocking.

Most Americans have had premarital sex.

Even more shocking is the fact that someone from the Bush administration spoke conflicting statements!

This from today's article:

Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ... insisted there was no federal mission against premarital sex among adults.

"Absolutely not," Horn said. "The Bush administration does not believe the government should be regulating or stigmatizing the behavior of adults."

Then there's this, from a couple months ago:

"The message is 'It's better to wait until you're married to bear or father children,' " Horn said. "The only 100% effective way of getting there is abstinence."

The revised guidelines specify that states seeking grants are "to identify groups ... most likely to bear children out-of-wedlock, targeting adolescents and/or adults within the 12- through 29-year-old age range." Previous guidelines didn't mention targeting of an age group.

GnR!!

That's right, I was at the Guns n Roses concert in Oakland last night! It was exactly what you would expect from a GnR concert: lots of fights in the crowd, the smell of marijuana thick in the air, and Axel appearing ready to pass out after most songs. There was also a lot of pyrotechnics and even columns of fire ("Yeah, yeah, cool! Heh heh!) that warmed the crowd. Not exactly a big crowd, but, hey. It has been, oh, 15 years since they came out with an album.

Lucky for us, they decided to focus on that new album after this concert date. But we got to rock out in a swanky box close to the stage, thanks to Regan's awesome job! So, no, I did not actually spend money to see Axel Rose and some other guys who kind of look like the original members of Guns n Roses.

Now, at the concert, I thought that the most amusing thing about the event was the fact that Axel needed teleprompters (FOUR of them) placed around the stage, just in case (including the "Hnh!" at the end of Welcome to the Jungle.)

But then, I read this.

It ain't the West Wing, but...

Is anyone but me still watching Studio 60? I wasn't really expecting it to turn into this romantic dramedy, but I kind of like it. Really, how could I not like anything with Matthew Perry and Josh Ly -- I mean, Bradley Whitford?

Also, does anyone find it confusing that Bradley Whitford's character's name on Studio 60 is Danny, and Timothy Busfield's characters name on the West Wing was Danny? At least they made things easy in one respect by naming Matthew Perry's character Matthew.

Barney's Holiday Extravaganza

As cute as Barney and Miss Beazley are, I'm astounded by this... use of taxpayer money.

Weather anomalies

It seems that every time I talk to someone who has visited Chicago, they report having experienced excellent weather -- no rain or lightning, no unbearable humidity. Coincidence? Or is Daley somehow controlling the weather now, too?

Has this man had a surgical chin dimple scoop?

Nathan thinks so. More importanly, he's a tool and his continued employment is an American tragedy....

The fact that Fox allows Joe Buck to do the World Series when Vin is sitting at home is not only a crime but a slap in the face to one of the finest broadcasters of all time, one who has dutifully witnessed some of the greatest moments in baseball.

John Cusack, aka milkshake mofo

Last night we watched The Ice Harvest, an odd, but watchable movie. It reminded me of the milkshake quote, excerpted from this blog, found searching google for the milkshake quote:

I think Chuck Klosterman, in his excellent book Sex, Drugs, And Coco Puffs, summed up Cusack's appeal best:

It appears that countless women born between the years of 1965 and 1978 are in love with John Cusack. I cannot fathom how he isn't the number-one box-office star in America, because every straight girl I know would sell her soul to share a milkshake with that motherfucker. For upwardly mobile women in their twenties and thirties, John Cusack is the neo-Elvis. But here's what none of these upwardly mobile women seem to realize: They don't love John Cusack. They love Lloyd Dobler.

Lloyd Dobler, of course, is the hero from the 80s flick Say Anything. A charming, lovable and sometimes goofy teenager, Dobler uttered one of my favorite movie quotes of all time, in a scene in which he tries to explain his future plans to his potential girlfriend's father:

I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.