Boviosity!

Joplin-Blogging

Well, whatta ya know, it turns out today is the birthday of Scott Joplin, at least according to some sources.

If you're a musician or a music lover, you undoubtedly have some of his stuff lying around. I play his music all the time and I can't recommend it highly enough. I'll be playing some tonight in his honor. Won't you?

Thanksgiving

What I'm thankful for, and a thing my thankfulness for which renders all other thanks superfluous, because of how it makes all bad things bearable and all other things beautiful: Music.

Music has never failed me. Not once.

I'm thankful for Music. Music is The Best.

Comments Disabled

My hosting company has disabled all comments on my version of the blogging software, and I don't blame them. I receive 30-50 comment spams per day (on a light day!); multiply that by the number of blogs they must be hosting, and something needs to be done. I've put out a call to my Blog-Midwife for help. Hopefully this will be quick but I'm relying on his free time and his willingness to help, none of which anybody has in unlimited supply.

UPDATE: Verve seems to have enabled comments again. How long it will last, I do not know.

Bye, Daddy!

Annie, age 5, saying goodbye this morning. Warning: huge image, I haven't the heart to crop it right now.

RIP Margaret Hassan

The brother & I walked down to CARE headquarters here and I was somewhat surprised to find only a nearly invisible tribute to that lady. (Link is to a person who expresses the outrage of this whole thing in much the same terms I was doing on the way down there):

Ellis Street, visible to the right of the frame, is one way coming toward the camera, and the area is decidedly devoid of walking destinations and unwelcoming besides, so it's unlikely many people will see this.

UPDATE: I intended to photoblog this, but had to leave my camera so my wife could take pics of my daughter's ballet rehearsal. Thanks to commenter Chris for the reminder.

Beagle Blogging

As God is my witness, I am not responsible for this:

That's my dog Bailey (Farmer Joe, in case you're keeping score, this is a new one.) The sweater came with her, I swear. Say, does Kate do dog sweaters? Because if she does, that's just wrong.

Lileks Nails It

In today's Bleat:

It is helpful to remember that if 9/11 had never happened, and we had never invaded Iraq, these people would be bringing the same level of ire and outrage to the presence of irradiated beef on school menus. They are the squeaky wheels shrieking for grease.

Well, perhaps he overstates. But not by a whole lot.

He has other interesting observations about the divide in this country between people who want to win the war on terror and those who want to take away soldiers' cigarettes. I can say that, when I was a soldier, sometimes a cigarette was exactly what the doctor ordered. I mean, consider this, smokers: you know the times when you've lit a cigarette and it was just precisely what you needed right at that time? Add to the equation being bone tired, thousands of miles from home, cold and scared. Mmmm...I might start smoking again if I ever find myself in that situation again.

Update Below

Update to "Getting Into The Act" is below!

Thanks to Jim Treacher and Tim Blair for inspiration.

Help Is On The Way!

What's that you say? You need to comment on a weblog post but don't have the time or energy to generate a response that hits all your talking points (and ignores the weblogger's?)

Fear not, gentle troll, Sean Gleeson has you taken care of! Comment away!

Little Rock Barely Beats Out Atlanta

Oh well. There's always next year.

Atlanta Ranked Second "Meanest" Toward Homeless

The National Coalition for the Homeless, based in Washington, D.C., issued the report which looked at local ordinances, law enforcement and community practices of 179 cities nationwide to compile the top "meanest."

Little Rock, Ark., led this year's list because of policies that included plans to remove homeless from camps along the banks of the Arkansas River[...]

No fair! Our river doesn't really attract bums. It would be kind of neat if Atlanta showed its willingness to accomodate "the homeless" (read stinking panhandler dope fiends) by relocating them to the river. See if next year's top two awards can go to two cities with directly opposing river/bum outreach programs.

UPDATE: Great minds...(you'll have to scroll, as the Talkmaster's permalinks are permahosed)

A Modest Proposal

Not Swiftian, though.

A mailing list I belong to has started a Meat Loaf Recipe thread. This has given me an idea.

I think we need a National Day of Meat Loaf within the next few days. How about Sunday? All Americans take time out from their partisan sniping and bickering over the election, the last 4 years, the war, that fascist Hitler Bush, etc., and have a nice meat loaf dinner, either with your family or friends or enemies or even all by your lonesome. Everybody will feel better for those few moments and maybe we can all calm down a little.

Then on Monday, we can start back.

But I can't promise not to accuse someone of not having had their meat loaf.

Vegetarians, choose your own comfort food.

Getting Into the Act

Everybody's doin' it, I don't want to ruin it:

UPDATE: Well, the sorryeverybody site finally managed to stay up more than 15 minutes (these people wanted to run the *country*?) and so I submitted my photo. We'll see if I join the ranks of those taking this effort less than seriously.

Takin' the vow

Jim Treacher gives marching orders for the weekend.

STAY OFF THE INTERNET FOR AT LEAST 48 HOURS. THAT IS AN ORDER.

I think it's a good idea. For a lot of people.

Apparently neither hateful, gullible, selfish, or sheep

The party of love, super brains, altruism, and, um, non sheepitude shows the true way of love.

Funniest gloat ever

From Iowahawk:

Let the Healing Begin
I guess I'm pleased by the outcome of the election, but it comes with some mixed feelings. Frankly, it's hard to celebrate knowing so many other ordinary Americans -- like the posters at Daily Kos, Democratic Underground, BartCop, SmirkingChimp, IndyMedia, and CruSHruBusHitleRethuglicaNazis -- are suffering another bad case of the 'Wednesdays.' Today should not be about gloating and victory laps, it should be about about good sportsmanship and moving the country forward. So if you're on the other size of the political aisle, I'd like extend my congratulations for a hard-fought battle, and offer a few tips to help you get through the next four years.

First, keep in mind that this was a very narrow defeat, and could have gone either way with the right breaks. John Kerry would be planning his inaugural today if his campaign had not made a couple of strategic blunders, such as not getting people to vote for John Kerry.

Read the whole thing.