Hard Hitting News

The top three most emailed stories when I checked the BBC website this morning:

1. U.S. Cat Predicts Patient Deaths

2. Unusual Car Purr Was Stuck Kitten

3. Tabby Cat Terror For Black Bear

Because obviously kittens are today's most pressing global issue. Save the kittens! Or damn the kittens! Or something!

Speaking of, I was deeply amused to note that this article in the NYT Magazine managed not to mention the real reason for the item's popularity. Look, I know this is supposed to be a family-friendly paper and all, and that implying that masturbation causes your deity of choice to kill something cute and fluffy is kind of edgy, but come on! If the premise of your article is that this particular product, never marketed to a U.S. audience, became popular through its use in silly photoshop jokes, then you have to talk about the original photoshopped piece.

...okay, apparently kittens are something I want to read about in the news. Nevermind then.

Miscellany

1. This article just made it onto the NYT most-emailed list; how many copies of it do you think I will receive in my inbox today? I'm betting at least four.

2. "I tried to find more Nixon." was one of the best lines of last night's movie. More Nixon is the next More Cowbell.

3. SPOILER: despite the name of last night's movie, I don't think they ever actually made it to New Hampshire.

4. Me: So is it more horrifying to you that I really liked the movie Contact and saw it multiple times or that my greatest musical regret is that I never saw Aqua in concert before they broke up?
Friend: *look of utter disgust*

5. Query: is the phrase "meet me on my vast veranda/my sweet untouched Miranda" so unbearably stupid that every time you get to it (in what is otherwise an excellent song) you have to stop whatever you're doing just to marvel at the awfulness? Y/N (circle one)

Technology Brings Us Closer: Great Messages I Have Received This Week

an email (excerpted):

Random thoughts on [wedding] vows/ceremony

Things that must not be included:
Nursery rhymes
The word "love" --Seriously, I will throw up.
No mention of souls. They don't fucking exist. We are not "two souls joined into one."

a voicemail (excerpted):

Hey, it's your dad. I was thinking of sending a text message so I thought I'd give you a call and ask you how. Give me a call back if you get a chance.

How was your day, P&G?

Productive:

We are such dorks

Friend 1: So do you want to do something tomorrow night?
P & G: I'd like to, but I might be having a dinner party.
Friend 2: Might?
P & G: Well, we had definitely planned on having one sometime, but we could never find a time that worked, and then everyone went on vacation, so I sent an email that I would be eating dinner tomorrow at 7, and if anyone wanted to come they were welcome, but otherwise I'd have my book to keep me company.
Friend 1: It's like Schroedinger's Dinner Party!
Friend 2: You may or may not have dinner guests, but you won't know until you serve dinner!
P & G: ...I knew there was a reason we were friends.

N.B.- Some, but not all, of the guests attended tonight's dinner party. Does that mean the cat is terminally ill?

This Is Totally How I Felt About Math In School

credit due

Vacation Pictures

Palace gardens in Marrakech.

Spice seller in Marrakech.

Tannery in Fes. Mmm, smelly.