If you're the praying sort, pray for Molly Ivins, whose breast cancer has returned "with a vengeance" for the third time.
hey people!
If you'd like to participate in Shaker Gourmet and have your recipe(s) featured on the blog, don't forget to email me at: fire.of.psyche (at) gmail.com
Please include clear instructions and a link to your blog, if you have one.
There is no love sincerer than the love of food. --George Bernard Shaw
Inspector Clay is Dead... Murdered. And Somebody's Responsible!
Just in case you were wondering where Shakes is going to be for the rest of the day, she and I are heading up to Evanston to sit through B-Fest, the annual 24-Hour Crap-A-Thon hosted by Northwestern University. You can see Shakes' roundup of our experience last year here.
The picture to the left shows one of the B-Fest traditions; the great paper plate fracas. See, every year, the classic Ed Wood masterpiece, Plan 9 from Outer Space, is shown at midnight. Every time the wobbly flying saucers appear on screen, people throw masses of paper plates into the air... think of the toilet paper gag when people see "Rocky Horror." Of course, the witty B-Movie scalawags have written hilarious quips on the paper plates, so it's always fun to quickly read them before you whip them up into the air in the next flying saucer scene. (The plate in the picture, by the way, reads "what we have here is a failure to communicate." My favorite one of the evening had a large, lizard-ish footprint drawn on it, with the warning, "Gojira!")
One of the tricky things about B-Fest is figuring out when you're going to sneak in a few winks. Staying awake for 24 hours is a bit much for my tired old ass, so usually there's one or two flicks that you don't have much interest in, where you can snooze for a bit before waking up for something you really want to see. (Last year I konked out for most of Gas-s-s-s-s! and Tromeo & Juliet; although I did catch bits of the latter and enjoyed what I saw.)
The problem is, this year's lineup is so incredible, I have no idea where I'm going to get any sleep. Around 3AM is where I usually start to slow down... but I can't possibly miss Street Trash at 4:45! And at 6:15, we have The Hypnotic Eye, a movie that I've been dying to see for years. What to do, what to do?
Invasion of the Star Creatures, a painfully bad sci-fi "comedy" is at 3:15... I actually own this on DVD (shut up), so I'm hoping to get a quick nap in there. But... it'll be on the big screen! Oh, the temptation!
Anyway, we're going to try and get some photos and maybe even a video clip or two of our experience. Have a great non-geeky weekend, and we'll see you on the other side!
UPDATE: Shakes & I will try to get to a computer to add the Virtual Pub this evening; if we're not able to do it, feel free to use this post as a pub/open thread. The virtual pub will run as scheduled; Mister Shakes will be posting it later!
Friday Cat Blogging
space into which they can tuck themselves and be all snuggled up together:
And a special guest appearance today by Kelley's
adorable Miska, who is Tils' and Livs' #1 fan:
Nell Hamm Rules
I want to be Nell Hamm when I'm 65:
Wildlife officials credited a woman with saving her husband's life by clubbing a mountain lion that attacked him while the couple were hiking in a California state park.
Jim and Nell Hamm, who will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next month, were hiking in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park when the lion pounced, officials said Thursday.
"He didn't scream. It was a different, horrible plea for help, and I turned around, and by then the cat had wrestled Jim to the ground," Nell Hamm said in an interview from the hospital where her husband was recovering from a torn scalp, puncture wounds and other injuries.
Nell Hamm said she grabbed a four-inch-wide log and beat the animal with it, but it would not release its hold on her husband's head.Mr. Shakes forwarded the article to me with the message "How cool is this chick? I can totally imagine you doing something like this if I were attacked"—which is totally one of the best compliments I've ever gotten.
"Jim was talking to me all through this, and he said, 'I've got a pen in my pocket and get the pen and jab him in the eye,'" she said. "So I got the pen and tried to put it in his eye, but it didn't want to go in as easy as I thought it would."
When the pen bent and became useless, Nell Hamm went back to using the log. The lion eventually let go and, with blood on its snout, stood staring at the woman. She screamed and waved the log until the animal walked away.
"She saved his life, there is no doubt about it," said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the Department of Fish and Game.
And, btw, I so would.
Geekgasm
Final scene from Star Wars acted out using hands. It's way better than that sounds.
I love that shit.
Via Chris.
It's So Lonely Without You
The Supreme Court's sole remaining woman since Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, misses her departed colleague:
"The word I would use to describe my position on the bench is lonely," Ginsburg, 73, said in an interview with USA TODAY.The story mentions their friendship—that they were confidants and each other's support in times of trouble—but also that the pair moved the court beyond tokenism. When Ginsburg laments that they never "thought this would happen again," she means only one seat on the nation's highest court being filled by a woman.
"This is how it was for Sandra's first 12 years," she said, citing the time from O'Connor's appointment in 1981 to Ginsburg's arrival in 1993. "Neither of us ever thought this would happen again. I didn't realize how much I would miss her until she was gone."
Ginsburg is … disconcerted by the look of her own court. She said with O'Connor, the message was: "Here are two women. They don't look alike. They don't always vote alike. But here are two women." The former women's rights lawyer fears the message now is that a woman justice is a "one-at-a-time curiosity, not the normal thing."Worse than that, I fear the message is that more than one woman justice is not the normal thing—that we're meant to be grateful for our token representation, and not expect more.
A Tale of Two Stories
See if you can spot what they have in common…
Story #1: "Vice President Dick Cheney exerted 'constant' pressure on the Republican former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee to stall an investigation into the Bush administration's use of flawed intelligence on Iraq, the panel's Democratic chairman charged Thursday. … [Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia] said that it was 'not hearsay' that Cheney, a leading proponent of invading Iraq, pushed Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., to drag out the probe of the administration's use of prewar intelligence. 'It was just constant,' Rockefeller said of Cheney's alleged interference. He added that he knew that the vice president attended regular policy meetings in which he conveyed White House directions to Republican staffers."
Story #2: "Memo to Tim Russert: Dick Cheney thinks he controls you. This delicious morsel about the Meet the Press host and the vice president was part of the extensive dish Cathie Martin served up yesterday when the former Cheney communications director took the stand in the perjury trial of former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby. Flashed on the courtroom computer screens were her notes from 2004 about how Cheney could respond to allegations that the Bush administration had played fast and loose with evidence of Iraq's nuclear ambitions. Option 1: 'MTP-VP,' she wrote, then listed the pros and cons of a vice presidential appearance on the Sunday show. Under 'pro,' she wrote: 'control message.' 'I suggested we put the vice president on Meet the Press, which was a tactic we often used,' Martin testified. 'It's our best format'."
Question of the Day
Since I just announced that Michele Bachmann is my new favorite wingnut, I guess an appropriate QotD would be: Who's your favorite wingnut—y'know, the one you just love to hate?
Bachmann Yearner Overdrive
OMG—I Love Michele Bachmann
She is totally my new favorite rightwing extremist.
Not only will she make a ridiculous spectacle of herself pawing the president like Lennie Small going after a newborn pup, but as Shaker Pilotweed reminded me in comments, she's also the dingaling who, in 2005, pushed for an amendment to the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage while she was a Minnesota State Senator—and was photographed crouching in the bushes outside the Capitol, watching opponents rally, after the measure failed.
I had totally forgotten about that. Of course I had to immediately head to YouTube to find some more highlights in Bachmann history—and I was eminently pleased to discover that she's not just a superb Congresswoman; she's also an expert on all kinds of things! Here she is giving her diagnosis of Terri Schiavo:
And here she is talking about global warming:
And evolution (I had no idea there were "hundreds and hundreds"
of Nobel Prize winning scientists who believe in Intelligent Design!):
And on gay marriage—talking points galore!
Wow. She is one smart lady.
Go on with your bad self, Grabby Grabberson!
Here's the video…
…that Spudsy described below as "one of the most disgusting video clips I've seen in weeks. And no, it's not from a horror movie. We're talking real life horror these days."
As Kathy explains, "U.S. troops are required to go to these meetings—even if they have decided not to reenlist." Minstrel Boy also noted in the comments to Spudsy's post: "when i enlisted back in the stone age they were telling me the same things. you'll get training in a career that can last your entire life, all that sweet bullshit. eight years later i walked with a limp (still do) and was well versed in various different ways to kill people and break things. guess what? there wasn't a lot of call for that kind of work back in the world. oh yeah, and my little girlfriend suzy creamcheese? she was with jody."
Thanks to Chet for the YouTube version.
Caption This Photo
Berlin zoo employee Thomas Doerflein plays with polar bear cub Knut in this undated picture, released on January 24, 2007. Knut, born on December 5, 2006, has had to be hand fed by Doerflein after its mother Tosca refused the baby. REUTERS
Why We Don't Like Him
That's what Mannion titled his post today about liberals' feelings about George Bush. He doesn't call it "Why We Hate Him," since he doesn't hate him, at least as of November. That's because Mannion's nicer than I am, which is not a news flash. Mannion happens to be a good friend of mine, and proves with regularity that he is nicer than I am. He even says things like "Neat!" when he's excited and "Darn!" when he's mad. I say "Fuck!" in both instances. And I say I hate George Bush.
In fact, I say things like: "You’re goddamned right if you think I found George Bush an insignificant slip of a man who was unprepared for and undeserving of the presidency, whose history as a drunken dullard, constructed aw-shucks shtick, and careful positioning as the ordained man who would marry religious extremists with neocon corporatists made me want to puke from the moment I laid eyes upon his sneering visage. You’re categorically correct if you think that his leadership shames me, that every heh heh which has emanated from his condescending mouth has made my skin crawl, that I am utterly unable to find the merest shadow of anything to like about him, that I fervently long for the day he takes his leave from governance and retreats to Crawford for good, where I won’t give the tiniest, microscopic shit about him whether he is lost in a tragic brush-clearing accident and his body devoured by wild dogs before the search party arrives, or whether he lives out the remainder of his useless life in good health and happiness—either way, I don’t care, as long as I never have to think about him for the rest of my days. You’re right as rain if you think I hated him from the get-go."
Mannion is much nicer than that. And "Why We Don't Like Him" is an outstanding post, and you should read it.
Cultural Quagmire
We’ve unleashed a beast with thousands of tentacles over there, some of which are yet to reveal themselves. One more finds the light.
Thanks to Spudsy for passing that along.
You're Stuck Here, Suckers
This is one of the most disgusting video clips I've seen in weeks. And no, it's not from a horror movie. We're talking real life horror these days.
Take a look at the video linked to by Kathy.
You might as well re-enlist, because once you get out in the "real world," there will be nothing for you.
Of course, with a President that cuts your benefits and ignores you, well....
(Energy dome tip to Space Cowboy for the pointer.)
