With the bevy of deals available, and America's obsession with shopping and consumption, it was inevitable something like this would happen: Woman trampled at Wal-Mart. The best part is Wal-Mart's response:
"Wal-Mart officials called later Friday to ask about her sister, and the store apologized and offered to put a DVD player on hold for her."
Now that's corporate compassion.
This brief from The Onion is comedy gold:
Hasbro Pledges Additional 30 Marbles For Hippo-Hunger ReliefPAWTUCKET, RI—With global famine worsening, Hasbro pledged an additional 30 white marbles Monday to hippo-hunger relief efforts. "To see those starving, starving hippos just lying there, not knowing if they will ever get another chance to click and clack for life-giving marbles—it's too much for anyone to bear," Hasbro spokeswoman Lisa Reiderer said. "We cannot stand idly by while these sweet plastic creatures slowly die. It is up to all of us to get the most marbles for our hippos."
(links are pictures)
Hooray for turkey. Truly, however, hooray for bourbon whipped cream. On pumpkin spice cheesecake. Hooray indeed. And I managed to stow several slices of leftover cheesecake. I just hope they have been effectively hidden. All in all, a quite satiating meal.
In addition to turkey (which I carved, and not with total incompetence) and dessert, there were mashed potatoes (which I thought were a bit too runny, the result of excessive cream), stuffing, sauerkraut (from which I abstained), roasted green beans, gravy, balsamic grapes (which while tasty, had a disturbing consistency) and cranberry sauce.
Oh, all of it was proceeded by a spinach salad with roasted beets and goat cheese. Yum.
Somehow, the kitchen is not very messy. Perhaps it's a result of the unique cleanup techniques I employed.
Since I have played pingis (thanks Chandra) to the point of complete mastery, I have been forced to switch my time-wasting flash game. Enter the BBC.
This game is a nice way to waste from minutes to hours. (though probably not in one sitting) My high score is a paltry 13 17 31 34. The all-time high score is 3502, which would take about four hours. Some people have NOTHING to do.
Pot: Kettle, you are black.
Kettle: I know.
Finally, I came across a simple body fat calculator, given the gorging nature of this day. By one of their estimates, I have -18.8% body fat (or -23.5 pounds of fat). I'd better finish that cheesecake.
My pumpkin spice cheesecake is cooling safely in the refrigerator, and the turkey is enjoy its evening in the brine on the balcony. I'm a bit annoyed about the cheesecake, since the woman at Williams Sonoma assured me the springform pan would not leak, and it did, in fact, leak. But the leaking was pretty minor, basically turning the crust a bit soggy. The cheesecake itself smells divine, and coupled with the bourbon whipped cream, should be pretty tasty. Of course, anything with as much fat as this cheesecake (3 packages of cream cheese, 3/4 of a stick of butter, 5 eggs, and a cup of cream) better be tasty. Pictures will be forthcoming.
My jetsetting complete, I have returned from my jaunt up north. I'd forgotten (as I think happens every summer) how oppressive the weather is. I enjoy snow, and can even stand the cold. As Anne drove me to the airport, I looked at the snow on the ground, and realized that it might remain there for months. Though the weather wasn't a factor in my decision to move south, I'm certainly pleased that I won't be putting up with another Minnesota winter.
And on Wednesday I was formally offered (and formally accepted) an internship with the Senate Finance Committee. Details about my specific duties (excluding the menial copying and mail sorting) are forthcoming. The goal, in accepting this unpaid position, is that I'll end up with a full-time offer, either from this committee, or somewhere else in the government. Or I'll realize I don't want to work on the hill after all, and can flee to the nonprofit world with a better resume, and in a better economy.
Two pair jeans
Two pair jeansTwo pair khaki pants
Four t-shirts
One long sleeve t-shirt
One fleece
One coat
One tie
Four long sleeve shirts
Five pair white socks
One pair black socks
One sweater
One pair pajama pants
One pair Airwalk shoes
Five pair boxer shorts
One digital camera
One Santoku knife
One mp3 player
Andy Wilson's suitcase
One cell phone charger
Two Ben Folds EPs
A Cook's Tour by Anthony Bordain
I should try and figure out a way to spend a few years of my life eating cheese. The diversity of cheeses would make it a worthwhile endeavor. There would also be ample opportunities to travel around the world. But mostly, it'd be about the cheese. Hard cheese. Soft cheese. Smelly cheese. Melty cheese. Dessert cheese. Breakfast cheese. Cow's cheese. Goat's cheese. Camel's cheese. I could definately spend some serious time getting into cheese.
Do you think they give out MacArthur grants for cheese study?
I'd probably have to learn a few things about wine too...
Weeks turned to days, and now, days almost to hours.
At least I have Aqua Teens to keep my mind occupied. That and The Wire. Good stuff.
Seriously, this filibuster is like crack. Sen. Lautenberg (D-NJ) just finished delivering a slightly rambling (understandable at 2:00 a.m.) talk about what a waste of time the entire 38-hour "debate" is. I'm sure he realized the irony. As tempting as it is to watch the final six hours, I think I need to go to sleep. Otherwise I might start throwing things if Sen. Santorum (R-PA) comes back on. On the plus side, Jon Stewart made fun of him.
Oh, and I forgot this from a wire story earlier this week:
The lawmakers said the Pentagon's Defense Energy Support Center imports military fuel from Kuwait to Iraq for $1.08 to $1.19 per gallon, compared with the $2.65 per gallon that Halliburton charges the U.S. government under a no-bid Army contract.
Here is the full story. Thanks Josh for calling this to my attention.
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) is owning the Republicans right now. While speaking, he used procedure to make a Republican object to passing an increase in the minimum wage, and subsequently an extension of unemployment benefits. He (Kennedy) also looks and sounds really pissed off. Not quite Sen. Byrd (D-WV) pissed off, but pissed off. And rightly so.
On a completely different note, while I love Thanksgiving, the Food Network becomes almost completely unwatchable unless you need another recipe for cranberry sauce, which I do not.
And finally, I'm backblogging old entries, so the archives are slowly taking shape. Hooray for August.
I've been watching the 30 hour Republican spectacle to call attention to the Democratic filibusters of four judicial nominees. I think this move will backfire on the Republicans, but we'll see. The Democrats have been doing a nice job calling attention to all the issues the Republicans are ignoring at the moment.
Flipping between C-SPAN2 and The West Wing has been a bit surreal, since this most recent episode had a storyline focusing on judicial nominations. It's too bad The West Wing has slipped.
In somewhat related news, I think I'm about to be offered a position interning with the Senate Finance Committee. It's just a shame it doesn't pay a dime.
And finally, The Nation addresses dissention among Green Party members about a potential candidacy from Ralph Nader. Here.
Paul Krugman provides a nice counter to all the charges of racism initially facing Howard Dean after his remarks. He's right, but the bigger problem is that this remains a story.
Dowd kicked a lot of ass yesterday too. (thanks Scot)
And finally, Howard Dean is considering refusing federal matching funds for his primary run. I'm conflicted on the issue, because I want a Democrat to win, but to compete against the President's $175 million war chest, limited federal matching funds offer no help. The real answer is serious campaign finance reform, but most curious about Dean's decision is that he's offering his supporters an opportunity to vote on the issue.
Clearly Howard Dean has used the internet in a way we haven't yet seen in a campaign, and his efforts will be studied and modeled in the future. But this poll he's conducting will be a barometer as to whether his internet support actually understands the issues his campaign faces, or is a group of people who signed up for an e-mail list. To put perhaps the most significant decision his campaign faces in the next six months in the hands of his mailing list seems an incredible gamble. The poll will certainly provide an idea of future financial contributions to his campaign, but I still wonder about the wisdom of the strategy. Are Gov. Dean's supporters familiar enough with the nuances of campaign strategy to be the best people to make this decision?
Once again, the Democratic party shoots itself in the foot.
On a night when it lost two governorships, the party held another debate. The major story out of the debate? Perhaps a frontrunner has emerged. Or a candidate presented a plan to energize the electorate. Instead, the prohibitive favorite, Gov. Howard Dean, put his foot into his mouth and dominated the news cycle with questionable (though probably not actually offensive) remarks.
With millions of Americans out of work, casualties in Iraq mounting, reproductive rights being eroded, and myriad other problems exploding in this country, all the news coming out of last night's debate is about the confederate flag.
Also, from every debate, I see a picture of Gov. Dean like this. I like Gov. Dean, and I may vote for him. But he will not beat the President, because he looks like a schmuck in pictures like this. It's a shame the electorate is so shallow, but I really believe that the White House will make him look like an idiot in a campaign, and that the public will buy it. Unfortunately, at this point, there are few alternatives.
Finally, happy birthday, father.
In the park in front of my house, for about 45 minutes, a man was shouting and mumbling something in a language resembling Spanish. It only resembled Spanish, because I'm sure "fucka you moth-[guttural sounds] drink my bitch pendejo!" isn't grammatically correct. Taken properly, this becomes an endearing quality of my neighborhood.
Seeking respite from the ramblings of a drunk, I noticed our neighbor on his roof, with a guitar on his lap pointed upright, chanting something that didn't resemble any language with which I am familiar. He wasn't wearing a shirt, though this is nothing new, as last night I had the misfortune of seeing him playing at his computer while naked. Fortunately his back was to the window.
There's this bar right by my dad's house called the Raven. It's the best bar in the whole world. Any night (or day) I can sit at the bar, drink a beer, and have a conversation with the person next to me.
And last night, this woman was waving her hands in front of her face and saying "cock, cock, cock, cock, cock..." It was pretty funny.
chabel.net sleeps all day
