Well, hello

Whoever he is, this Rob Marciano is sure improving my experience of this appt.

I really like that men hug so much now. They didn't use to do that, did they?

I maintain now maybe not-so-wild hope that Bulger trades some kind of leniency for Gardner info, everything's been properly kept and is still in decent shape, and I will one day again spend a birthday afternoon with The Concert. Well, I gotta figure we're closer than we've been in 21 years.  Wish Smith were still alive.

"I'm sure they made him sign a release saying 'If you die, we just won't use the commercial'..." - N, blithely

Jesse Eisenberg just sauntered by. Inevitable, I suppose, when one dines in the WV at an odd hour.

I was hoping he wouldn't show the photos, as (in my thoroughly uninformed opinion) it would only inflame al Qaeda & serve as wonderful recruitment fodder, so the only good reason would be to convince doubters, but it wouldn't even effect that purpose; -- doubters would scoff at photos in this age of photoshop (would have even before it, for that matter) -- would doubt even if the corpse were put into their hands ("It's obviously someone else's dead body with OBL's face grafted on", etc.). 

Speaking of.  On "Happy Endings" last night: an exchange went something like:
Alex: I can't believe you haven't caught that mouse yet.
Dave:  I know! he’s my bin Laden. (pause) Jessica bin Laden, this super-hot Arab girl I went to college with.

The audio on his next line was so obviously erased! - his lips were moving, but there was no sound.  After a few rewinds, I was pretty sure this is what he said, but I knew I had to be wrong, because I'm sure I have no idea why that would be funny.

I can't lie and say I'm sorry the bastard is dead or that the description of the operation didn't thrill me deeply.  God bless those Navy SEALs.  Approve of speech.  I do hope this doesn't just strengthen al-Qaeda - isn't sounding that way according to some of these commentators who say that it was more a cult-of-personality around him specifically.  Hope so.

Naked Cowboy got entirely too close to me just now. Yeeeeeeeesh

Deion Sanders interferes with my work.

Wonderful but you gotta warn a person about something like that. It's too much to take in without advance mental preparation.

It's 7:50 and still light out enough to read. When did this happen? :happydance:

Current Anthropologie season so hideous as to arouse suspicions of practical jokery.

English m*f* do you speak it?

In a store in Paramus, NJ, USA, in 2011 AD, I go up to the counter. Dude looks at me with undisguised disgust and pointedly moves away so as not to have to help me. Smiley woman comes forward, casts puzzled looks between him and me, and offers to help me. I answer. She turns to dude and says, lightly, gaily, "Hey, ---, why didn't you help her?" Maintaining his 3/4-turned-away stance and not deigning to make eye contact with either of us, he responds, "I didn't think she spoke English," and strides away.

I'm not ignorant of how relatively easily my Categories get off in this regard, or indeed of the advantages they sometimes afford me. But this reminded me of Franzen's typically perfect phrase for this kind of thing (in breathtaking cadenza-style riff from within pov of a woman reflecting on consequences of *not* being a member of "the default gender"): "countless petty indignities" (Strong Motion). I suppose as long as we keep insisting on arriving on the planet in visibly different flavors, this kinda stuff will persist, though, I can only hope, ever more fringily (such hope being immediately justified in this case by the woman's bafflement/eventual plain embarrassment at her colleague's behavior). Also enjoying the opportunity to appreciate the (relative) lack of this kind of crap where I live.

Mike Birbiglia likes my aforementioned scarf! Is tickled.

digging out of usual post-Cheshire Cat depression. It goes slowly

No really, Jimmy Fallon, you aren't cute enough already, so I think you should put on a hoodie and leather motorcycle jacket and dash across my field of vision. OK, that'll do. Thank you.

The moment "Undeclared" won me over.

Reminded me happily of two particular guys at Plaza Mayor at 12:01am, January 1, 2000 :) whom I use to this day as such a great example of how people are never more appealing, winsome, fascinating, etc., than when they're COMPLETELY FEARLESSLY themselves.

For obvious reasons it reminded me of this which I also love.

which reminds me of my opinion that men should dance more. which reminds me of my opinion that we should take a page from other cultures and burst into song in large public groups more often.

I have questions

How come no one wants crif dogs on the very rare occasions that I do? What's a little hypothermia when a crazy hotdog is involved?
What does it mean when someone you've never met before declares they love you but then also immediately calls you a SOB?
Furthermore why does he keep calling you "dude"?
How many christmas ales does it take to screw in a light bulb (or in my case change a smoke alarm)?
Park City or Big Sky?
How can I make my dog understand he's mistaken in his belief that he'd like to go outside?

I resent being demanded to produce sympathetic effusions over people's dramas of which they themselves are the sole, direct and proximate cause.

It's like a driving hailstorm. Just have to clutch your jacket in close, put your head down and trudge forward.

Oh yeah, I really liked Lufthansa, and really really liked Munich airport (almost as much as the peerless Schiphol).