this ain't no mortuary!

But it is a mitzvah tank! Spotted one Saturday night, circa 11pm... in Chinatown. Sort of a random place to look for wayward Jews, no? (in short, a mitzvah tank is a van, filled with orthodox jews, with a loudspeaker stuck on top. they go in search of secular jews to bully them into being more jewish and doing good deeds. this particular tank instructed the chinese on how to best celebrate hannukah.)

But there are more developments to report. Today I bought a goat! Or rather, half a goat. That brings my collection of half-owned things up to 3, the others being half of a whale and half of a saddle (no, not to be used on the 1/2whale). There might have also been a forgotten half couch and half toaster in there somewhere...

In other news, the current secretary of the treasury went to my high school, and owns a house in my itsy bitsy hometown of Barrington, IL. Well ok, the ritzy part of my hometown. Not sure how this Henry Paulson fella slipped under my radar for a whole 5 months.

And lastly, this quote, attributed to David Foster Wallace, is dead on:

"TV is not vulgar and prurient and dumb because the people who compose the audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests."

That's from some irritating overachieving kid's blog, by way of the awesome and funny Marginal Revolution.

stop, thief!

Things reported missing from Spectrum offices in recent days:

1 set of computer speakers
1 sweater
1 1-gig flash drive
1 John Glenn action figure
1 orange

I, on the other hand, just received very nice coffee accoutrements from Sinterklaas. Dank je wel!



Hier is hij in Haarlem, zonder zein paard. Sinterklaasavonden waren altijd heel gezellig bij m'n ouders, in Overveen.

hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

it's been a day for wonderfully big words.

this began with a friendly email exchange regarding the mark of the beast. I wanted someone to verify that my one-sentence description of the term was adequate. Along the way, I discovered the word hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, or fear of the number 666 (the mark o' beast). I guess I missed a big moment in American history this summer when we safely navigated our way through June 6th, 06. Phew! I had no idea we were in danger, I was busy being censored in China. (umm link may not work. whatever. read the economist. it's good for you.)

And then came http://phobialist.com/
and several wasted hours contemplating fear. Christine avers she is overcoming a case of philophobia and still is afflicted with macrophobia. I may suffer from lutraphobia, not to mention a mild case of arachibutyrophobia. The ancients do continue to entertain.

cute or ugly?

Hard to say.