Here, there, and everywhere

Mmmm.... half-day off....

Suzette of Cripes, Suzette! was almost right. She sent me an email suggesting that my library sessions would be smoother if I gave the gift of crullers to the librarians. It turns out people like crullers, but regretfully decline them because of the unholy trinity of carbs, sugar, and fat. That leaves me with a half-dozen slowly-ossifying crullers and a cup of joe I can't drink while I'm in the library.

But ah, the wonders of the web!

ITEM - like roaches slowly crawling back into the room, the "blame the West" crowd comes out to say "we were asking for it." Mr. Adams is particularly fun there, claiming in his national news column that all the stuff he's talking about won't be reported. It makes one wonder why he bothered, except that it was an opportunity to whack the anglo piñata.

At Tim Blair's place, someone called 'cuckoo' drew a great parallel:

My lefty friends, peace be upon them, all talk about terrorists the way primitives talk about their gods... If you do something to offend the Terror God, he will blow up your skyscrapers and undergrounds, and even though you don’t know what your tribe did to offend him, be sure of one thing: it was your tribe’s fault.

That's the idea - terrorism is inscrutable and implacable, and you must listen to me, the shaman, to quell his anger. This probably involves human sacrifice, and as shaman, I already serve him, so let's get to volunteering, chaps! What Mr. Adams and his fellow geniuses fail to grasp is that in all such cultures, one has to keep sacrificing fresh victims, and it does nothing to address the real problem - your sacrifices are meant to tell the Terror God that your tribe belongs to him.

Some people are quite sick of this. I'm more inclined to believe Hammorabi, blogging from the first row, aisle seat, than I am to believe Mr. Adams' dispatches from the bar of the lobby.

update, 7:45 pm - 'cuckoo' strikes again:

Every time [Australian PM] Howard fronts the ABC/SBS, some punk-ass kid is demanding he “rule out” something or other. Why don’t they front a few imams for a change and demand they “rule out” one of their congregation turning into a human grenade?

Someone get that man (?) a blog!...

ITEM - Pop-up ads are a pain in the patoot, but there's something that tickles me about loading up a Sports Illustrated page and seeing nothing but ads for ESPN's Espy Awards show. Even more ticklish is the magazine apparently giving out spoilers for their own broadcast by saying that certain people have already won awards.

ITEM - I said it before, and I'll say it again: Joel, thanks for using the word "debarked." True wordsmithing is a joy. And while I'm at it, thanks for the kind words about Crappy New Jersey™. Check out the other posts, too, folks, as Joel has been posting frequently of late.

ITEM - a friend shared with me that she'd stopped reading for a while. I thought it was lack of new content, but she said that she felt I was just griping too much.

Me, gripe? Well, yeah, I guess. About the Met bullpen. About frustrations and daily miniature annoyances. About tinpot busybodies and terror apologists. The world is gripeable. I think this is just poor choice of subject matter on my part. I'm not genius enough for glowing essays on how lucky I am. But if I don't say so enough, I am, indeed very grateful for my life. I have great friends and a wonderful family. I spent two hours on the phone with my brother just yesterday, gabbing about everything. (He's doing well - just got a raise at work - thanks for asking.) If I complain, it's not from thinking that the world owes me better, but from frustration that some people have it worse, and they ought not to.

ITEM - progress on the PC front... Dell will be shipping in a week, or so they say. I ought to have my own rig by the 25th. Or so they say. It's odd, but while I was saving, and figuring out what I wanted, and how much I was willing to spend for it, I was fine. But now I've actually spent the money and can do nothing but wait - and it's getting to me. Part of my mind can't help thinking, I cut them a check, they should hand me a box. I have to remind myself that it's not so bad - I can't work on my writing but I can still read, surf the web, and occasionally read my email.

ITEM - I've been lucky to be included in the Jersey Carnival of Blogs (see the button at the bottom of my right-side bar). Last week's cleverly-constructed roundup is here; next week, Sluggo forgoes his nap to host. The full schedule is here. [PS - you guys misspelled my name. =)]

More later, including the first-ever guest column in Hive history...