Quote O' Teh Day

"...when the chairperson of the Barnard philosophy department, in which I was then teaching, suggested that I take over the course titled 'Seventeenth-Century Rationalism: Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz,' I agreed, mostly because I was a young assistant professor who found it pragmatic to agree with most of the suggestions of my chairperson."

Rebecca Goldstein, Betraying Spinoza

I love dry wit, but you hardly ever get to hear any anymore.

A Friend Of Mine Claims

 It's National Sisterhood and Girlfriends Week and sent me some appropriate messages.
This is the one I liked best

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning the devil says~~"Oh Crap, She's up!" 

Harry Reid Says

health care reform will be done within 60 days by reconciliation.

Yesterday It Was Skating Costumes

today, it's faces.

I Have A Gut Feeling

and you're right.
Tidbit:

The enteric nervous system uses more than 30 neurotransmitters, just like the brain, and in fact 95 percent of the body's serotonin is found in the bowels.

When Last We Saw the Shiba Inus

they were laying around sleeping and eating. Their eyes were still closed.
Things have changed.
I still have embed problems, so here's the link for the live cam.

Figure Skating Costume Hilarity

with snark thrown in. I personally like #7 the best.

George W. Bush Will Say Anything, To Anyone, Any Time

for free.

Here's mine.

Do Not Open Until Friviality Friday

If it weren't for the intertubes, we would not have The 30 Most Important Cats of 2009.

Can't Wait For Friviality Friday

Forget Facebook: Something Else To Do On The Internet

Don't say I never gave ya nothin'.
Here's what the NYT says about "In Our Time."

The Purpose Of High School Has Always Been Murky

and finally somebody's doing something about it.
I can't help but remember Fran Liebowitz's dictum that high school was basically for the football quarterback and his head cheerleader girlfriend and the rest of us were just there as supporting players.
Contrary to other observation, though, there IS algebra after high school.

Remember When

Elvis Presley made his TV debut on The Dorsey Brothers Show?
Who were the Dorsey Brothers, you ask? You're younger than Contrarienne, aren't you?
Anyhoo, the 35 best Rock n' Roll moments on TV forever enshrined on the intertubes by somebody with a whole lot more ambition and stamina than me. Thanks MetaFilter for making up for a slow news day.

Earlier drummer Keith Moon bribed a stagehand to pack extra charges in his bass drum. Whenever the destruction of the Who's instruments begins and Moon kicks his bss drum over, the explosion deafs guitarist Pete Townshend for 20 minutes. This was the last time the Who appeared on an American variety show.

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex

but really, who cares anymore?
Oh, you. Well, then.

R.I.P. Lucille Clifton

I'm right behind ya, honey. Look forward to shaking your hand.
Bio

homage to my hips

by Lucille Clifton


these hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in.
they don't fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don't like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!

Internet: Treasure

Just for you, Free Culture.

My Theory About Dick Cheney

is about two seconds old. It came to me reading this by Andrew Sullivan in reference to this.

(The Taliban’s top military commander was captured several days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to American government officials...His capture could cripple the Taliban’s military operations, at least in the short term, said Bruce O. Riedel, a former C.I.A. officer who last spring led the Obama administration’s Afghanistan and Pakistan policy review.

He's out there pushing disdain for Obama's policies on war and terror because it's been clear from the beginning that they are likely to be noticeably, repeat noticeably, more successful than those of the Bush administration, repeat the Cheney/Bush administration.
And yes, he is a war criminal and deserves to be prosecuted and tried as such. And yes, the Obama administration at some point may have won the war credibility it needs to prosecute him.
In other words, Cheney is running for his life.
Okay, it isn't my idea alone. It's Sullivan's. Sort of.

I Didn't Know That

Ezra Klein posted a recipe for spaghetti with peas and mint today. I don't know what English peas are, but it sounded good. And as another poster noted, anything with butter is usually good.
Another poster noted that mint an chilis are a classic Italian combination. I didn't know that.

Recipe of the day: Last night, I made spaghetti with shelled English peas, torn mint, a lot of pecorino Romano cheese and black pepper, and a few tablespoons of butter. Cook the peas and put them in an ice bath, cook the pasta, combine the ingredients along with a cup or so of the pasta water, and serve. Delicious.

The Child's Guide To American Presidents

and the adult's.
My friend Richard thought this Slate piece was hilarious, and I figured so would you.
Snippet:
The Adult's John F. Kennedy"Jack was chosen 'most likely to succeed' in his senior year, a fact that mystified everyone until they found out he had rigged the election."
—The Kennedys: An American Drama, by Peter Collier and David Horowitz, Page 48

All Praise Pithiness

 "What's worth saying is worth repeating." 

Contrarienne (and somebody else, no doubt)

Someone in Canada found Contrarienne today when googling the name Arturo Albergati  and I am reminding you to remember this little storehouse of pithiness. Just in case you ever need it.

One for the road.

"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about."

- Einstein

Movie Review

Watched Carrington last night, with Emma Thompson in the lead role of the British painter who had a passion for gay Bloomsbury writer Lytton Strachy despite the fact she seemed to have an active sex life of her own.
Since the Brits do these sorts of things so well, it's worth watching, sort of like visiting the reptile house at the zoo. I don't mean they were repulsive reptiles, just terribly exotic, those early 20th Century bohemians.

Erm, About That Stimulus

It's not news that the stimulus was probably way too small, according to numerous economic critics, but that a bigger one was probably not politically possible.
And I haven't seen anything recent that say the Administration and/or Congress will pull something new out of a hat to replace it. It is, after all, an election year.
It's also fairly well agreed upon that FDR made a big mistake in 1937 by pulling back on similar measures to end the Depression in response to political pressure and that it was actually escalated government spending for WWII that saved the economy.
So why do I mention this? Because Krugman went to the trouble of illustrating the stimulus in one of his easy-to-read charts. One look and it's OMG, we f***ked!
 What's so bad, of course, is just conventional wisdom shown in veritable 3-D. Unemployment falls, but not much, stimulus money all gone.


Cheers, Julimac

Computer Engineer Barbie

Does she carry a Mac or a PC laptop, and other related questions.