Top Five Fridays: trivia edition

Maybe there will be a prize if I trust you enough to believe you didn't cheat.

5) Where did Elwood get the car he used to pick up Jake at Joliet?

4) What was the score of the game when Rooney visited the sports bar?

3) Where did Ray Kinsella go to college?

2) What was the date on the check the Dude wrote for 89 cents?

1) Complete this line: "Stewardess, I ____ ____."

This about sums it up.

Paul Krugman hits it on the head.

Did you hear about how Barack Obama wants to have sex education in kindergarten, and called Sarah Palin a pig? Did you hear about how Ms. Palin told Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks” when it wanted to buy Alaska a Bridge to Nowhere?

These stories have two things in common: they’re all claims recently made by the McCain campaign — and they’re all out-and-out lies.

Dishonesty is nothing new in politics. I spent much of 2000 — my first year at The Times — trying to alert readers to the blatant dishonesty of the Bush campaign’s claims about taxes, spending and Social Security.

But I can’t think of any precedent, at least in America, for the blizzard of lies since the Republican convention. The Bush campaign’s lies in 2000 were artful — you needed some grasp of arithmetic to realize that you were being conned. This year, however, the McCain campaign keeps making assertions that anyone with an Internet connection can disprove in a minute, and repeating these assertions over and over again.

Take the case of the Bridge to Nowhere, which supposedly gives Ms. Palin credentials as a reformer. Well, when campaigning for governor, Ms. Palin didn’t say “no thanks” — she was all for the bridge, even though it had already become a national scandal, insisting that she would “not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that’s so negative.”

Oh, and when she finally did decide to cancel the project, she didn’t righteously reject a handout from Washington: she accepted the handout, but spent it on something else. You see, long before she decided to cancel the bridge, Congress had told Alaska that it could keep the federal money originally earmarked for that project and use it elsewhere.

So the whole story of Ms. Palin’s alleged heroic stand against wasteful spending is fiction.

Or take the story of Mr. Obama’s alleged advocacy of kindergarten sex-ed. In reality, he supported legislation calling for “age and developmentally appropriate education”; in the case of young children, that would have meant guidance to help them avoid sexual predators.

And then there’s the claim that Mr. Obama’s use of the ordinary metaphor “putting lipstick on a pig” was a sexist smear, and on and on.

Why do the McCain people think they can get away with this stuff? Well, they’re probably counting on the common practice in the news media of being “balanced” at all costs. You know how it goes: If a politician says that black is white, the news report doesn’t say that he’s wrong, it reports that “some Democrats say” that he’s wrong. Or a grotesque lie from one side is paired with a trivial misstatement from the other, conveying the impression that both sides are equally dirty.

They’re probably also counting on the prevalence of horse-race reporting, so that instead of the story being “McCain campaign lies,” it becomes “Obama on defensive in face of attacks.”

Still, how upset should we be about the McCain campaign’s lies? I mean, politics ain’t beanbag, and all that.

One answer is that the muck being hurled by the McCain campaign is preventing a debate on real issues — on whether the country really wants, for example, to continue the economic policies of the last eight years.

But there’s another answer, which may be even more important: how a politician campaigns tells you a lot about how he or she would govern.

I’m not talking about the theory, often advanced as a defense of horse-race political reporting, that the skills needed to run a winning campaign are the same as those needed to run the country. The contrast between the Bush political team’s ruthless effectiveness and the heckuva job done by the Bush administration is living, breathing, bumbling, and, in the case of the emerging Interior Department scandal, coke-snorting and bed-hopping proof to the contrary.

I’m talking, instead, about the relationship between the character of a campaign and that of the administration that follows. Thus, the deceptive and dishonest 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign provided an all-too-revealing preview of things to come. In fact, my early suspicion that we were being misled about the threat from Iraq came from the way the political tactics being used to sell the war resembled the tactics that had earlier been used to sell the Bush tax cuts.

And now the team that hopes to form the next administration is running a campaign that makes Bush-Cheney 2000 look like something out of a civics class. What does that say about how that team would run the country?

What it says, I’d argue, is that the Obama campaign is wrong to suggest that a McCain-Palin administration would just be a continuation of Bush-Cheney. If the way John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning is any indication, it would be much, much worse.

blech

I have been generally feeling blah and annoyed today, and I'm convinced that it's because I so miss diet pepsi. Donald Rumsfeld really needs to die a slow, painful death.

In my search for a replacement, however, I may have found a winner: Owater Infused with Caffeine and Electrolyites; basically Gatorade with caffeine (which they don't make why???). It tastes pretty decent, is pretty low in calories and has a reasonable amount of caffeine.

Obama gives condoms to five-year-olds

Comprehensive sex ed for all!

Oh, you mean we don't have to use this much water?

This study is one of those that anyone with an IQ over 100 could have figured out without the benefit of researchers and data: California farmers could save lots of water and lots of money if they would just buy a freaking clue.

About 75 percent of the water used in California is used for agriculture, and the large farms, which grow most of our food by a wide percentage, are very wasteful when it comes to water. Most of this state is in desert-like conditions for most of the year, yet God forbid you should suggest someone shouldn't water their crops or they lawn any idiotic time or way they feel like (yeah, landlord across the street, having your sprinklers go off at 11 a.m. every day, I'm talking to you!).

Why don't people get that we don't have infinite supplies of water? We can't just dump it out everywhere willy-nilly!

Then there's this:

Just one of the proposals—watering crops only when they need it—would save enough water to fill Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park 10 times over...

WATERING CROPS ONLY WHEN THEY NEED IT?!?!?!?!? What the bloody hell are they doing out there? Do they not have to pay for water at all?? It's just mind-boggling.

Oh, and how dare someone suggest that the farmers grow crops that actually thrive in our environment, instead of RICE.

Top 5 Friday

Top 5 Moments at Lebowskifest opening party:

5) A couple coming up to us to tell we had the "best costumes," because we were wearing bathrobes.

4) Guy stopping me as I walked through the crowd to tell me his ringer was kind of empty and asking if I had any spare whites.

3) Extra Action Marching Band wardrobe malfunction.

2) As we walked from the venue back to our car, we heard a crash and then came upon a smashed TV on the sidewalk, and a crazy guy on the fire escape of the hotel a few stories up. As we decide to cross the street, another object crashed down behind us. Many cops congregated as the crazy screamed.

1) Our friend making out with Jeff Dowd.

Liar, liar, maternity pants on fire

If this is true, then it is quite something.

Top 5 Friday: Predictions

5) Obama wins election

4) Measure W passes

3) Final 3 at Bryant Park: Korto, Leanne and Joe

2) NL Rookie of the Year: Geovany Sotto (yeah, going out on a limb, I know)

1) WS: Angels over Cubs in 7 games

The pop

In case you're wondering how I've been doing on my quitting pop experiment, I'm doing OK. Yesterday was my first day without any pop OR caffeine! I took some aspirin for a headache in the morning and crashed hard while the boys napped. Today I had some Diet Pepsi with lunch and had considerably more energy in the afternoon.

Eventually I want to get to the point where I don't drink pop at all any more, mostly to keep my kids away from it. I don't really have a problem with using caffeine occasionally, but addiction is never good.

Ha ha!

More prizes ready to go out to whoever catches the gag! (It's even more obvious this time.)

Top 5 Friday

5 questions I have

5) Why aren’t there “exact change” lanes at the toll booths?????

4) How did he get to be president again?

3) Why do so many baby gear items require two hands to operate?

2) Why do so many people (mostly men) feel the need to say “got your hands full!” when they see a mom with more than one kid?

1) When does the choke start?

Top 5 Friday (late because I'm sick)

Top 5 Questions I have about this season of Project Runway:

5) Does Jerrell need to cry every week about the person who gets Auf'd?

4) Will Stella ever actually design something that's not biker-bar wear?

3) Are any of these people actually likable, or are some merely not annoying?

2) How crowded is Mood during regular business hours with ProRun groupies? (If I ever go to NY again, I would totally go on a shopping spree there; though SF seems to have something nearly as good in Britex)

1) Who wants to put bets down now on the final three? (My guesses: Suede, Jerrell and Keith)

"Mr. President, want to?"

I'm quite sure this is the first time I've actually felt sorry for George W. Bush. Not because of the Costas interview (he deserves whatever Bob throws at him), but look at him in that pic, with his arms frozen at his sides. But wait, it gets worse:




As Jon Stewart put it, this is probably the best decision of his presidency.

So bitter

This was not a good day. I woke up this morning and got on the scale and I was 3.5 heavier than I was a week ago. Gaining three pounds a week is not acceptable. Nathan thinks it's water weight because I'm not consuming so much of a diuretic. But this says caffeine really isn't a diuretic. So who knows. Then I got some kind of coffee drink at Starbucks. This was the first time I had ever ordered a drink at Starbucks (they do have good pastries). I told the chick at the register my story (need something with caffeine, but no calories, and that doesn't really taste that much like coffee). It took a while but she recommended the skinny-something-or-other. Of course, since it was a coffee drink, it taste like ass. But less like ass than plain coffee. Coffee simply is not tasty. You people can keep telling yourself that it is. But you don't drink it because it tastes good, you drink it because it has caffeine and no calories. Eventually you get so used to it that it seems to taste good. But maybe that's true of NutraSweet, too.

Anyway, I continued to have headaches this afternoon despite Excedrin in the morning and my ass drink with lunch. Nathan thinks it's because of NutraSweet withdrawal, since there's some evidence that's an addictive drug, too. I did have a can and a half of Fresca, though. Anyway, I'm starting to wonder if all this annoying crap is worth it.

Top 5 Friday

Nicknames I Have Had

5) Kiddo

4) Blondie (even when I *didn't* dye it)

3) Chicago

2) Little Buddy

1) Mayor of McGarvey

A special prize will go to anyone who can name the assingor of more than one of these (hint: four are at least somewhat newspaper-related)

Oh yes, there are headaches

They tend to be at the base of my skull, and into my neck. Seems kind of random. The only caffeine I had today was Excedrin first thing in the morning. I had aspirin a little after lunch and some more around 7.

It'll be a week tomorrow, with just one slip off the wagon: some Diet Coke with my soup-in-a-bread-bowl at Boulanger yesterday. It actually didn't taste that good...

Roasting

Maybe I should try to develop a taste for coffee. There are a small number of teas that I like to drink in the winter...

day 4

This morning I had a does of Excedrin (two pills = a cup of coffee = two cans of Diet Pepsi) and then a caffeinated Gu while I was riding my bike around 2. And three cans of Fresca. I'm hoping that aspartame will start tasting bad to me.

3 days

It has been more than 72 hours since I had any cola. No Diet Pepsi, no Diet Coke. Just a few cans of diet rootbeer and some Excedrin to ease the transition. I've only needed 2 or 2.5 doses of the Excedrin each day. I hope to back off that starting tomorrow. It's not so much the caffeine that I'll miss, I think, it's just the sweet taste. I simply love love love the taste of Diet Pepsi. Flavorful and no calories. Oh yeah.

I have gotten so bad at this

The Brew Crew the Cubbies did sweep

But against Pitt on Friday, no peep

But then they prevailed

Lilly and Johnson, fans hailed

And up in the standings they leap

Top Five Fridays

Top Five Things That Are Not OK:

5) Shutting down a lane of 17 between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

4) Crying on national TV because your ProRun teammate of three days got Aufed.

3) Scoring less than two runs when you have the bases loaded with no outs.

2) The Cubs getting shut out by the Pirates at Wrigley.

1) Calling yourself Suede and referring to yourself in the third person.

Pop

I've finally decided it's time to stop drinking diet soda. There's the drug addiction, the probable cancer-causing agent (though what doesn't cause cancer?) and now the osteoporosis. One of these taken on its own wouldn't be enough, but all taken together, plus the fact that I don't want my kids wanting to drink pop, and I'm actually ready to quit. And I'm excited about the reduction in my carbon footprint, fewer cans and bottles circulating, etc. But I'll miss you, diet pop!

I finished the Diet Pepsi that was in the fridge this morning, and now I'm done. My last one was consumed in the car on the way to Santa Cruz around 10 a.m. I'm using Excedrin to ease the caffeine withdrawl.

Llama drama

Believe it or not, I was at the Peoria Zoo a week ago today. Peoria, Illinois, as in, "will it play in Peoria?" A llama is about my height, apparently. Just as I was reading on the sign near the llama pen about how "when llama's are angry, they spit a foul-smelling liquid," the llama ambled up to me and practically stuck its face in mine across its fence. As I nervously backed away, the llama suddenly sneezed and I felt a bit of llama snot fly onto my hand. I shrieked like a girl and ran away. It was quiet a moment at the Peoria Zoo.

Late note on the All Star Game

Just in case you were wondering, the Cubs are officially not going to win the World Series this year. I know that's a shock to you all.

And my reasoning on this is even better than the usual goat or black cat: Since the NL lost the ASG, the Cubs would not have home field advantage in the unlikely event that they actually got to the WS. Since they have a losing record on the road, I think it's safe to say they won't be winning a whole lot of post season games not played at Clark and Addison.

Slow cell phone death

You know you're going to die of cancer, right? We are all going to die of cancer at some point, unless some a-hole in an SUV runs us down first, because of all the crap in the air and our food and our walls and household appliances. I, personally, am going to die of either skin cancer or breast cancer. Genetics, you know. So here's just another item to add to your list of toxins that are feeding your future tumors.

Top 5 Friday

Top 5 things I did for the first time on our trip to St. Louis:

5) Hung out in Peoria

4) Saw Suzy's zoo

3) Caught Matthew dozing in church

2) Got sneezed on by a llama (more on that later)

1) Went fishing (and actually caught one! -- more on that later, too)

Top 5 Friday (EARLY because we're going away)

My 5 favorite things about St. Louis (see how I'm trying to be all positive?) :D

5) They have this really cool scrapbooking store

4) The Bowling Hall of Fame (I've never actually been there, but I bet it's cool)

3) The City Museum

2) My dear inlaws and bro-in-law live there in their fabulous home, which they generously open to us any time we want

1) When the Cardinals lose

Musica

My friends have informed me that I am incredibly out of touch because I recognized maybe three of the songs on Rock Band. I told them that I knew this already and didn't see it as much of a problem, but they insist I would be a better person if I would get a clue when it comes to modern music. The problem is that I can't listen to the radio, except NPR. The commercials, the DJs and the wading through the crap to get to the good stuff on commercial radio stations is too annoying and too much work. So, I ask you, reader, what should I listen to? Here's what's on my Walkman (which I like, btw):

Lots of classic rock (Aerosmith, CCR, Queen)

Lots of 80s (Bananarama, Bangles, Madonna, Huey Lewis)

Some alt-country (Wilco, BR549)

Every album ever by Mellencamp, Sheryl Crow, and Led Zeppelin)

The only tracks I would consider "current" are about four by Bowling for Soup and one each by the Killers and the Foo Fighters.

Also, Regan already pretty much did this, but with books, so I'm ripping her off again.

Did anyone get it?

If you spotted the gag that was on this blog yesterday, you get a prize.

Best haircut ever

I am the anti-Regan.






Poor Regan. I have the best hairstylist ever. She works miracles. I todl her I wanted to start growing out my hair, and this is the magic she worked. No other hair stylist has been able to actually make my hair look good. I love her. For you locals, her name is Dana Wisdom and she works at Headlines in San Carlos. Did I mention I love her?

Top 5 Movies of all Time

Top 5? Fridays, right? Oh yeah. Kinda forgot about that for a while. Here's an easy one:

5) The Blues Brothers

4) American Beauty

3) Raiders of the Lost Ark

2) Field of Dreams

1) The Big Lebowski

Mountain lion attack

I might be concerned about this, if I were allowed to enter Foothills Park.

I'm Number One!

...at least when it comes to hating Terry Gross. If you search for "Terry Gross sucks"on Google, you will find this post of mine at the top of the list.

I love it when like-minded people comment on this post after finding it when performing this search.

Flip flop flip-flop

This article about flip-flops causing foot problems caught my eye because wearing flip-flops caused foot problems. For me. Last summer that was all I wore. Hey, I was pregnant! And it was summer! Sure, I also wear flip-flops during the winter, but still. So the ball of my foot and my Achilles tendonitis (flare-up from my running days) started hurting. Podiatrist said "wear real shoes!" (And use Superfeet.)

So Tuesday I was at Happy Hollow and noticed that pretty much everyone (at least all the moms) was wearing flip flops. Of course, it was about 98 degrees. And there were these:





I was being a good girl and wearing my walking shoes, Superfeet inserted.

Cleanse?

One of my Baby Boot Camp clients recently told me about this blog and how the blogger was doing this insane "cleanse" diet where you can't have sugar, gluten, caffeine, alcohol, or animal products. Seriously. What the hell do you actually eat? Well, it made her horribly sick, which made me crack up. I'm pretty sure I could do each of them separately for a day or a week, depending on which one it is.

Yesterday we went to this wedding where all the food was vegan. I could do vegetarian (I did for a while, with the exception of the occasional In-N-Out burger) but not vegan. I need some cheese and milk and eggs.

But the cleanse story got me thinking about trying to give up one of the things for maybe a week at a time. Meat one week, alcohol the next, sugar would be good. Caffeine would be the tough one. I don't think I'd even want to try the gluten, though I know some people who swear by their gluten-free diet.

ouch

Zambrano has aches in his shoulder.
We Cubs fans must stop getting bolder.
Some thought we might win,
but I think it’s a sin
to assume that the Cubs won’t get colder.

Limericks

Once again I'm stealing a blog idea from someone else, this time from a friend and not just some random person. However, I'm adapting it to a format I have some more experience with. Some former coworkers and I used to write limericks to amuse ourselves during slow newsweeks.

Oh, about what should I blog?
Sometimes when I write I get bogged
down thinking of idees
and I just churn out cheese
Then think of how I miss our dog

As you can see, I'm out of practice.

Top 5 Questions about the Lost season finale

5) How were they planning to explain Desmond's presence on their life raft if it hadn't been Penny on the boat?

4) What happens to the people Farraday was ferrying from the island to the boat? No boat, no island...

3) Did the polar bear escape from the weird alien bunker?

2) Why did they have to lie to "protect" those "left behind" when the point of moving the island was to protect it?

1) Who killed Locke, and why (if he is, in fact, actually dead)?

Random comment: The commercial during the last half of the show was my favorite moment. 2nd favorite: Ben "Dick Cheney" Linus: "So?"

Lost

WOW this show is stupid. I just finally watched the season finale (why would I waste my time watching this drivel when I could be watching the FIRST PLACE Cubs??). This is officially beyond ridiculous. There's some kind of crazy alien stuff going on? From now on, I'm only watching the first and last episodes of each season. Those are the only episodes where anything happens, anyway, except maybe one or two during Feb. sweeps.

Top 5 Fridays

Five situations that just should be:

5) You should be able to back out of your driveway and have faith that no one will be coming down the street at twice the speed limit.

4) You should NOT need a flashlight to retrieve something from your closet or cabinet.

3) A person running for president of the US should have the insight to understand when he or she is out of the race.

2) A person who is president should NOT have an IQ under 100.

1) A national park should be free of environmental degradations such as, oh, I don't know, DAMS.

Books, books, books

Regan wants to talk about books:

Total number of books I’ve owned:
Not that many. I don't really believe in buying books, except used. I'm big into libraries.

Last book I bought:

Lama Lama Red Pajama

Last book I read:
OK, the last book I finished reading? Let's see, I started reading this Bill Bryson book (I've started lots of his, but never finished one). So I guess it was Saving Fish from Drowning, which was good.

Five books that mean something to me:
I’m not going to pretend that all of these books are great works of literature. Heck, you might have even read one of them and hated it. But to me they are special for some reason or another.

Where the Red Fern Grows

Shoeless Joe

I'll think of some more later...

New MP3 player

A couple weeks ago some punk relieved me of my iPod after noticing that my car was unlocked on my driveway. This sucked, especially because it happened during NPR's Pledge Week. But it did mean that it was finally time for me to get an MP3 player that doesn't suck. So my wonderful husband got me a new MP3 players for Mothers Day. Yay! I'd been doing some research and thought about a few different ones, but we went to Best Buy tonight and the Sony Walkman seemed to have the nicest UI. I'm sure it will take me some time to get it up and running, but I will surely be reporting on my experience. Stay tuned...

Top 5 Fridays

On Sunday, as usual...

Top 5 Things I might do this weekend if I could (i.e., if I didn't have babies to take care of)

5) Get a good start on my next quilt

4) Plant something in the back yard

3) Go for a 40-plus-mile bike ride

2) Go on a big, long hike

1) Sleep

Top 5 Friday

late because of the Beer Bus.

Top 5 (well, only five) ingredients in Beer.

5) Barley

4) Hops

3) Yeast

2) Water

1) Love

Top 5 Fridays, late because we were in Yosemite this weekend

Top 5 Arthur quotes from our weekend in Yosemite:

5) "Birds talking to each other." (at the butt crack of dawn on Sunday, laying in his sleeping bag)

4) "Wanna touch the big tree."

3) "Wanna touch the big rock."

2) "Big river noisy!"

1) "Big waterfalls!"

Top 5 Fridays, late because I'm a slacker

Top 5 Rules for the bike ride Adam and I did on Saturday:

5) It's OK if we don't finish. (we did)

4) No rushing -- especially on hills.

3) It's OK if we don't finish.

2) Lots of sunscreen.

1) Most importantly, no making fun of my crazy cataract sunglasses. These, along with other measures, will hopefully prevent me from getting my typical mile-40 raging headache,

Why do people live there again?

Right now in my home town it is 33 degrees. Farenheit.

Top 5 Fridays, late because I had to host a baby shower Saturday

My two-and-a-half-year-old's five favorite things:

5) Lady bugs

4) Trains

3) Seeing his speech therapist, Didem (pronounced DEE-dum). Arthur says "Go see Dee!"

2) Big airplanes

1) "Big waffles" (he means waterfalls -- and he's going to go bonkers when we take him to Yosemite in a couple weeks!)

Dumb and dumber

According to two of the popular stories on the New York Times web site, teenagers don't know much about his-tor-ee and our president -- yes the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA -- appeared on a game show hosted by Howie Mandel.

Top 5 Fridays 3, three days late

Top 5 surprises from the Cubs so far this season:

5) Reed Johnson coming from out of nowhere (Toronto actually, but same diff) to fill in at leadoff and become one of my new favorite players. All hustle, that guy.

4) Ryan Dempster's success moving from the bullpen to the starting rotation.

3) Kerry Wood's success moving from the rotation to the bullpen.

2) Zambrano hasn't hit a home run yet

1) Their actually, um, kind of, ahem, good.

Marty Brennaman calls Cubs fans idiots

The Reds announcer (whose son, Thom, is one of the best in baseball, imho) wasn't far off with his comments. But then, he had to go and say this:

"[Compared to Cubs fans] Cardinals fans are hands down the best in baseball. They respect the game. They don't go to the game to do stupid stuff. …" Um, how about picking fights with 12-year-olds? Threatening Cubs fans in San Francisco?

that said, here are some comments from the Trib story, which I pretty much agree with:

I have been a Cubs fan all my life, but you know what? Brennaman is right. I was at the game on Tues. night in the bleachers, where I have typically sat since I was in gradeschool (in the 80s), and the people there were the worst I've ever experienced. They were more interested in razzing Corey Patterson than they were in the game; they cared more about their beer and getting wasted and talking on their cells phones than the game. The latter behavior I've gotten used to. But the former? Why does everyone have to "suck"? Why do we have to shout profanities and rude names at opposite players? Is that maturity? Is that even sportsmanlike? Is that a fan? I think not. I'm a fan and I would never act like the idiots in the crowd on Tues. night. Yet another reason to stay home and listen to the game on the radio. Wrigley as an entity is becoming a joke. How sad. Sad for Chicago. Sad for the Cubs. Sad for baseball. Posted by: dib | Apr 18, 2008 12:46:48 PM

---

yeah, it is disrespectful. the fans even throw a "substitute ball" making it more obnoxious...I always thought that throwing ANYTHING on the field was grounds for ejections --it is in every other ball park. If you don't want the ball --give it to a kid... just wait until a player gets hurt by one of those balls.... not to mention when they litter their "shrine" with garbage when they do not like a call. For Piniella to say "They get into the ballgame" is a joke. half of them have no idea what is going on , they are just there for the Frat party

Posted by: Johnny B. | Apr 18, 2008 12:50:16 PM

---

I believe the majority of cubs fans are good fans. You just never see them at Wrigley because it's filled with idiots who go there only to drink and don't really care about baseball. The problem is, the highest concentration of idiots are in the most visible part of the park: the bleachers.

Two-wheeled Wonder

From the Sierra Club:

Bicycles are not for everyone, and they're not for every trip. Cars do many things that bicycles cannot easily do: carry heavy loads uphill, protect riders from the elements, and cover long distances quickly. But a surprising number of car trips could easily be made by bike. Nearly half of all trips in the United States are three miles or less; more than a quarter are less than a mile.

...

Short car trips are, naturally, the easiest to replace with a bike trip (or even walking). Mile for mile, they are also the most polluting. Engines running cold produce four times the carbon monoxide and twice the volatile organic compounds of engines running hot. And smog-forming (and carcinogenic) VOCs continue to evaporate from an engine until it cools off, whether the engine's been running for five minutes or five hours.

Top Five Fridays 2

OK, obviously I totally forgot about this, but I'll try to start it up again...

Five worst things about being sick:

5) No bike riding

4) After dragging your sick, exhausted self to the doctor, dragging your sick, exhausted self to the pharmacy to get your meds. (Why oh WHY can't they just give it to you at the doctor?!? Can ANYONE tell me????)

3) Constantly wondering where your next tissue will come from.

2) Having to get out of bed and walk 20 feet to the next room where your meds are.

1) Trying to figure out how to take care of a toddler and a baby while you feel like you are going to die.

Pro-Choic Evangelicals?

About a third of white evangelicals say that abortion should sometimes or always be legal, according to the Pew Research Center—a number that hasn't changed in a decade. In recent election seasons, however, these moderate voices have been drowned out by hard-line shouting on both sides. In the past, an evangelical who might condone abortion in the case of his ailing wife or 14-year-old daughter would never say so in public. Now, the abortion rhetoric has faded somewhat as evangelicals turn their attention to other things: AIDS, the environment, Darfur. In 2004, megapastor Rick Warren announced that abortion was a "nonnegotiable" for evangelical voters. This year, he's been silent. What's new, then, is not that a pastor like Hamilton would take a softer approach to abortion, but that he would feel comfortable enough to say so from the pulpit and in print.

Football and politics

Is it really possible for a football coach to endorse a candidate for president?

You mean, it really wasn't Bartman's fault?

Thanks, Moises, for clearing that up.

I can't believe we're still talking about this.

And apparently Bartman isn't the only one who wants to move on. Says Aramis Ramirez:

"Like I've said before, he probably had a shot to make a play, but the ball was in the stands," Ramirez said. "Any other fan in that situation would have done the same thing because they all do that, every time. I don't know if [Alou] was going to make the play or not, but he had a shot to make it."

Why are we still talking about this? Oh, that's right, because it's the closest the Cubs have come to getting in to the World Series in 63 years, except for the time when Leon Durham pulled a Bill Buckner two years before Bill Buckner did it...

Bush booed before throwing out first pitch

I don't really feel a need to comment on this.

That about sums it up.

From the Trib:

When Kosuke Fukudome hit a three-run homer off Milwaukee closer Eric Gagne to tie the season opener in the bottom of the ninth inning Monday, fans all over Wrigley Field held up professionally made signs with English words on one side and Japanese on the other.

It was meant to be a two-sided version of the phrase "It's Gonna Happen." But something got lost in translation, and the Japanese side read: "It's An Accident."

I'm officially sick of 1908

And tomorrow is only Opening Day.

Do these editors think they're the only ones to realize it's been 100 years or something? Originality? Hello?

In other news, thanks the Good Lord, they are finally tearing down the gigantic ash tray that is Shea Stadium.

Top Five Fridays

This is a really good idea, which I will probably steal.

OK, My five favorite things about baseball:

5. The strikeout

4. The double play

3. Tight uniform pants

2. Red Sox fans

1. "Dad, do you wanna have a catch?"

Opening Day is a week away

How much snow do you think there will be on the infield?

While we're at it, any bets on how many times broadcasters will mention 1908 this year?

Why, TV, why?!?

The most ridiculous show on TV gets more ridiculous. The most satisfying show with the most dreamy guy is screwed by the writers strike until next year. And the best comedy currently in production has no second season in sight. Why do we bother even having a satellite dish? Oh wait, I remember: so I can watch the Cubs not get into the World Series for the hundredth year in a row.

Lust

looks like this.


If I had a whole extra $1000 laying around, I could also go for a pair of these and a couple pairs of these.

Pink Ladies

Pink Lady apples are by far the most superior kind of apple there is. I just ate a Granny Smith, which used to be my favorite, and it was like drinking a can of Bud after spending a week in Europe drinking fresh Czech beer on tap in squares in fabulous cities.

Trader Joe's still sucks

Here's another reason to hate TJ's: too much packaging. Why the hell do they need all this styrofoam and plastic to sell squash?? Stupid, stupid Trader Joe's.

"Just when you thought the Cubs were done being so Cub."

Gotta love this from Steve Rosenbloom:

On second thoughts: Soriano should heed the fifth

Cubs manager Lou Piniella says Alfonso Soriano will bat second, the
one spot that he seems least equipped to handle, what with the need
for plate discipline and sacrifice. In fact, Aramis Ramirez is better
equipped to hit second than Soriano is, if only because Ramirez
doesn't strike out nearly as much.

If Soriano's constant leg problems mean he isn't a threat to steal
bases, as the Cubs believe, then he is simply a power hitter who
strikes out a lot, which sounds like he should be hitting fifth. The
rumored No. 5 hitter Kosuke Fukudome, meanwhile, comes with the
scouting report of being a hybrid of Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui
-- you know, all the skills you'd want for a guy in the 2-hole.

But no.

Right now, manager Lou Piniella has it the other way around. Just when
you thought the Cubs were done being so Cub.

I'm concerned

I'm concerned. I'm concerned because George Lucas is a freakin whack job. He bought a bunch of land that's pretty much in a national park, and he might be part hyena. Most concerning is what I read in a recent issue of Vanity Fair, which I don't normally read, but was given to me by my friend who subscribes and noted the article about the new Indiana Jones movie, which she knows I would be VERY interested in. The article says that Lucas came up with some nutty idea for the plot to the new movie, which no one else (Harrison Ford, Spielberg, etc) liked. But Lucas insisted that it was this plot or nothing. And they were like, well, ok. So that concerns me. I'm also worried that he's going to CGI the shit out of it and ruin it that way. Now there's a new trailer out. Which I had to read about in the freaking CHRONICLE, for pete's sake. I have kids; I go to two movies a year! Throw me a bone!

Also, this kid who plays his son looks like kind of a dork.

But on the bright side, Karen Allen is going to be in the movie, which can only be a good thing. It's my belief that the strong female lead is key to the quality Indy movie, along with worthy adversaries, i.e., Nazis. In this case, Commies. Which might be sufficient.

There are a lot of countries

45

This is interesting, especially because it requires that you be able to SPELL all of them!!

Road Rage cards

This is a great idea. Of course, I came up with it years ago! It's a bit of overkill, though. You really only need three:

GET OFF YOUR PHONE
USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL
LEARN HOW TO DRIVE

Buh-bye, Merc

Well, we finally did it. After almost nine years of continuous subscription -- and about two of me agitating to dump it -- we finally canceled the Mercury News. I convinced Nathan to let me do it a couple weeks ago, and I finally got around to calling yesterday. Finally, we're free from the tyranny of all those ad inserts and crappy Dennis Rockstrah columns!

Seriously, with the MediaNews buy-out and preceeding and resulting cuts, it was becoming a lousy newspaper. Yesterday's new version of the real estate section just reaffirmed our decision. Now, the only thing we'll really miss is the Fry's section.

TGIED

Now that the day has finally arrived, my phone will stop ringing! My husband's "independent" status has elicited at least a dozen phone calls over the last two weeks from everyone from Barrack Obama to Bradley Whitford (couldn't they get Martin Sheen?), but mostly Obama volunteers, telling him he can request a Democratic (their word, Pete) ballot and vote in the primary. (Yesterday's two calls from Hillary Clinton are what I believe woke my son up from his nap.)

I think I'm going to turn my phone off in mid-October and tell our friends and family to call our cell phones or send us an email instead.

It's back

And what happened? Very little. Let's see... Locke is nuts, Hurley's in a mental institution, Kate ping-pongs between Jack and Sawyer, Claire's annoying. New season, same ole shite. Why are the critics raving?

Plastic bag makers sue Oakland

For the sake of our oceans, please, judge, do the right thing....

Sublime. Or subliminal

On Sunday afternoon, my last on a Hawaiian cruise ship, I got on an exercise bike, flipped through the channels, and the movie I found on TNT at that moment was Titanic.

Probably not the year

"A fairly large body of evidence exists that suggests this isn't going to be the year. In fact, the body of evidence overwhelmingly suggests that something bad will happen, with the very distinct possibility that it will be spectacularly bad."

There is, indeed, no reason to believe the Cubs will do anything of note this year. Morissey knows what he's talking about.

Larry Ellison

Around noon we were driving down Woodside Road and saw a convertible Bentley (Nathan noticed it because it had a soft top and not a folding hardtop, which apparently is the new way to go in luxury convertibles). The guy driving it looked a lot like Larry Ellison. Was it him? Well, I thought, surely not. Why would the richest guy in the US be driving himself around? But Nathan said he heard that Larry does, in fact, drive himself. So since he was on his way from Woodside, where he lives, toward 101 North (Oracle is about 10 minutes north), it seems like it very well could be Larry.

So I would put the odds that it was Larry at slightly less than half.

But on the issue of Larry driving to work in his Bentley: why? If I had even a fraction of his money, I would have a driver. Driving around is such a waste of time! I could see if he was driving his fancy car up on Skyline or over to the coast, but on Woodside (traffic light hell) to 101
(ugly billboard hell)?!?

7-year-old defied redneck dad, sources say

Just your run-of-the-mill dumb Cheesehead story. Then, I saw the headline on the video.

"Child tied up for allegedly not wearing Packers jersey"

Donut experiment, part I

Monday I pulled a donut at random out of the freezer. Yesterday (Wednesday) I let it get to room temperature before eating it. Turns out it was the chocolate frosted cake. It tasted like a good donut, but not the "unmmyow!" of the fresh Dunkin.

My first-ever missed connections post

To the woman driving a Mercedes on Campus Drive this morning ...

around 11:30 who told me “I really think you should be on the sidewalk":

a) That’s just, like, your opinion, man.
b) According to the Vehicle Code, cyclists are allowed on the street, no matter how slow they are going, no matter how narrow the lane, no matter how many pounds of kid they are towing in a trailer behind them.
c) I didn’t know the construction was going to end the damn bike lane and trap me between a concrete wall and big old median.
d) It’s Sunday, for Pete’s sake. Will you just, ah, take it easy, man??

State parks on the chopping block

Apparently California is broke. And somebody decided shutting down a bunch of state parks was the answer?

An actual leadoff man?

This would be quite something. I can't remember the last time they actually made a bold trade. And I think the last real leadoff man they had was Bobby Dernier.

Andre Dawson not heading to Cooperstown

Let's just set the record straight on Andre Dawson. He is a choker. But, you might say, he won the MVP when he was with the Cubs in '87! Yes, but the Cubs finished in LAST PLACE that year. Once again bringing up the point that it really isn't for the mpostVALUABLE player, but the one with the best stats, and they should just call it that. In the '89 playoffs, he choked so hard that CPR instructors use footage of his performance in their classes.

So I don't want to hear anyone going around lamenting the fact that Andre *%!?ing Dawson isn't in the Hall of Fame.

Shopdropping

"Otherwise known as reverse shoplifting, shopdropping involves surreptitiously putting things in stores, rather than illegally taking them out, and the motivations vary.

Anti-consumerist artists slip replica products packaged with political messages onto shelves while religious proselytizers insert pamphlets between the pages of gay-and-lesbian readings at book stores.

Self-published authors sneak their works into the “new releases” section, while personal trainers put their business cards into weight-loss books, and aspiring professional photographers make homemade cards — their Web site address included, of course — and covertly plant them into stationery-store racks."

What a cool concept. Now I just have to figure out something I can shopdrop. Any suggestions?

More on outsourcing birth

I say “feels like” and “look like” because I can’t quite bring myself to the point of saying “is.” And in this, I think, I am right in the mainstream of American thought on the topic of surrogate motherhood.

As one of the 150 commenters pointed out, it's not up to Judith Warner to decide what Indian women do with their bodies. Besides, who cares what her shrill, sanctimonious self thinks?

All that aside, I still can't get over the intense irony of teens getting pregnant "accidentally" while millions of women will do anything to have a baby. I wonder if there could be some program where these women could "adopt" pregnant teens or young mothers while they're waiting for IVF to work or for their adoption paperwork to go through.

Childbirth outsourced to India

This story is another case of the reporter feeling obligated to look for some dissenting voice in order to have a "balanced" story -- in this case, this Lantos joker from Kansas City (red flag, hah hah). The whole deal really sounds like a win-win to me.

After spending about $20,000 -- more than many couples because it took the surrogate mother several cycles to conceive -- Sodhi and her husband are now back home with their 4-month-old baby, Neel. They plan to return to Anand for a second child.

...

Suman Dodia, a pregnant, baby-faced 26-year-old, said she will buy a house with the $4,500 she receives from the British couple whose child she's carrying. It would have taken her 15 years to earn that on her maid's monthly salary of $25.

Dodia's own three children were delivered at home and she said she never visited a doctor during those pregnancies.

"It's very different with medicine," Dodia said, resting her hands on her hugely pregnant belly. "I'm being more careful now than I was with my own pregnancy."

Patel said she carefully chooses which couples to help and which women to hire as surrogates. She only accepts couples with serious fertility issues, like survivors of uterine cancer. The surrogate mothers have to be between 18 and 45, have at least one child of their own, and be in good medical shape.

...

if commercial surrogacy keeps growing, some fear it could change from a medical necessity for infertile women to a convenience for the rich.

"You can picture the wealthy couples of the West deciding that pregnancy is just not worth the trouble anymore and the whole industry will be farmed out," said Lantos.

Oops, she did...oh, forget it, too easy

"The Spears news was actually a welcome development. It's generated a lot of hand-wringing, heartfelt but ultimately misplaced, over what message the fallen role model sends to tween fans. Sorry, but I don't imagine a lot of 16-year-olds, in the grip of hormonal urges, thinking: Gee, Jamie Lynn did, why not go for it? But they might think: Whoa, birth control."

I'm not quite so confident in the intelligence of the average 16-year-old, nor their ability to reason that this is a lesson they can learn from. Unless Jamie Lynn does the right thing, coming out intentionally, publicly and saying something to the tweens and teens of the world like: "I messed up. I made a bad decision and it's going to affect me for the rest of my life. Please learn from my mistake. You're better off not having sex -- it's the only 100% effective way to prevent pregnancy -- but if you must have sex, use condoms, the pill, or both!"

Time to freeze the donuts

The only thing I miss about the Chicago area is Dunkin Donuts. So last night as we were waiting to board our plane at O'Hare, I bought a half dozen: two Jelly, two Boston Creme and two Chocolate Frosted Cake. Those are my three favorites; I got one to eat now and one of each to freeze. Call it the Great Donut Experiment of 2008. I wrapped each of the three donuts separately in foil, sealed them in their own container and put them in our freezer, which reads 0 degrees F. Check back in a week or so, when I'll thaw the first of the precious discs of doughy, creamy goodness and find out if it's possible to enjoy them more than a day or two back in California.

2007's rant of the year

Nursing bras: they all suck. What's going on here? A woman wants her bra to be three things: supportive, flattering and comfortable. With a nursing bra you're lucky to get two out of three (flattering is never one of those), which is still bad, despite what Meatloaf says. I've tried dozens of nursing bras, priced from $12 to $50 and none of them are satisfactory. They ride up too high or too low or the straps show. Why can't someone come up with a decent nursing bra? I love nursing my baby and want to do it as long as I can. But I don't think that should force me to wear crappy underwear for a year...

"Automatically becomes portable when carried."

That was the statement printed on the cardboard surrounding a CD case we saw today at Big Lots. I really should have taken a picture.

Sobering stats on teen pregnancy

The rate of teen pregnancies went up last year for the first time in 15 years. No one knows why yet. A guy from this org was on NPR the other day and was asked, predictably, if abstinence-only education could be blamed. He said abstinence-only had been pushed for at least five years, so that can't really be the main reason. So it's a mystery until experts can delve into data on contraception rates, abortion rates, etc, among the teen pregnancy groups.

Beyond that here's some old but still staggering news:
* Half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned. Yes, HALF. You read that right. HALF! One out of every two!!!! Sadly, 40 percent of these end in abortions.
* Three in ten females will have had at least one pregnancy by the time they turn 20. Again, yes, you read that right: 30 PERCENT. THIRTY!! Three-zero! Nearly a third of these end in abortions.

Yeah, this is what we need

"The FCC has never attempted such a brazen act of defiance against Congress," said Democratic Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. "The law does not say we are to serve those who seek to profit by using the public airwaves.

"The law says we are to serve the public interest," Adelstein continued. "And the public has repeatedly told us they are not interested in further media consolidation."

One in five Americans...

can't point out the U.S. on a world map? I know a kindergartener who can name all seven continents!

foo-koo-DOUGH-may

Well, this has been quite a week: The Cubs signed a splashy free agent for the second year in a row. They finally said good-bye to Mark Prior. And Sammy Sosa wasn't accused of using steroids.

Aerosmith's actually making news!

And the sex appeal of Steven Tyler continues to elude me (see comments).

What I want for Christmas

A combination GPS, heart rate monitor, cyclecomputer, cell phone and MP3 player. Might as well throw in a 2-mp camera. Of course it would upload all my ride data to some web software to track my routes, speed, calories burned, etc.

Holiday madness

Here's our holiday party schedule:

Today: an afternoon open house with our friends in San Jose
Tomorrow: "glugg" (some kind of authentic Swedish beverage) fest at our
friends' house here in RC
Tuesday: auction/holiday party at Open Gate
Thursday: hubby's company party
Dec. 15: the mothers' club annual holiday extravaganza (games, crafts,
cookies, pics with Santa, etc)
Dec. 17: playgroup cookie exchange

We're contributing to the madness by having a NYE party at our house, but only so that we don't have to find a babysitter.

13-6

There hasn't been a melt-down like that since the Cubs were in the LCS.

MABNXYR

That was one of the most pathetic displays I have seen. And in 25 years of Cubfandom, I have seen some pathetic displays.

On the plus side, I won't have to worry about changing my license plate.

0-2

It's not like the Dbacks are THAT much better than the Cubs. They only won five more games this year. The Cubs could have done that if Zambrano had taken Barrett out for a beating in April instead of June. It would just be nice if it looked like they were at least trying.

The Cubs are, um, in the playoffs?

Yes, it's true. The Cubs have, uh, won the NL Central and are actually going to play in October (and not in a terrorist-attack-extended season). No, I can't believe it either. Right now I don't feel in a position to predict the outcomes of any of the games, or the series. But I do believe that it will go to five games, and Derrek Lee will not let a ball go through his legs ala Durham/Buckner.