Is it just me, or does Della Reese sometimes look like she has a big hunk of sauerkraut on her head?

Some interesting stuff about movies in this week’s Entertainment Weekly. The “Spideman” poster which shows the Word Trade Center towers has been pulled, even though the buildings don’t appear in the film. Paramount is digitally erasing the towers from the Ben Stiller male model comedy “Zoolander,” and postponing “Sidewalks of New York” with Edward Burns. Indefinitely postponed is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Collateral Damage,” where Ah-nuld plays a firefighter who battles Columbian terrorists after losing his family in a building explosion.

Now, I’m the first person to cheer the lack of another stupid Schwarzenegger vehicle polluting the theaters. But come on, people. Will the sight of the towers in a “Friends” episode cutaway (or even in a Microsoft Flight Simulator flyby) cause us to shriek in pain? Are we that fragile? Are we that unable to differentiate entertainment from reality? I don’t think so. And treating us like children who need to have our eyes shielded from even the most inocuous mention of this tragedy is an insult – especially from a national media that bombarded us with days of wrenching reality footage.

It happens every year. Like clockwork, around this time, I get an uncontrollable craving for candy corn. So I’m in the grocery store, and I buy a bag, like every year. And like every year, I take it home, rip it open, and eat several handfuls. And I feel sort of sick.

After that, I can’t bear to look at or even think of candy corn again. Until next year.

It’s sort of like Lucy and Charlie Brown and the football (which, coincidentally, also happens in the fall). Every year, he thinks, this year she won’t pull the football out from under me. This year, she’ll leave it there. But she never does. I’m Charlie Brown and the candy corn is Lucy. Or something.

Ernie has alerted me that I missed the Pillsbury Kids Bake-Off on the Food Network yesterday. Damn! Sounds like great television.

Following hot on the heels of my photo tips page comes Choosing a Digital Camera. Hope it is useful.

Both Melissa and Xkot are celebrating the anniversary of their respective weblogs: Melissa, one year, and Xkot, two. With all kinds of people putting an end to their personal weblogs, it’s great to see anniversaries of two fantastic sites. Why not take a couple minutes and e-mail the author of your favorite weblog and tell them how much their site means to you? As you-know-who would say, it’s a good thing.

Search engine manipulation
Osama bin Laden. Nostradamus. Britney Spears. Hot lesbian sex. Afghanistan. Jerry Falwell. Justin Timberlake. Miss America pageant. Ann Heche. Enterprise. Lord of the Rings. Spiderman. Michael Jackson. Miss Cleo. Windows XP. World Trade Center. George Bush. Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Harry Potter.

That is all. (Try it yourself – it’s fun!)

I know, it’s another comedy host talking about the tragedy. Well, Jon Stewart is amazing, and what he said deserves to be heard. (via hit-or-miss) I said this before with Letterman, but Stewart’s real emotion and positivity are more useful to us now than hundreds of hours of news coverage.

Online marketing mishaps
Yesterday I got an e-mail ad from Grizzly Outdoors, which specializes in hunting, camping, archery and boating. Someone needs to check their demographics lists. 🙂 And to add insult to injury, they prefaced the ad with an American flag and a line that began “In memory of….” Ugh.

In an attempt to write some actual new content for the site, I’ve come up with a photo tips page. It’s for casual photographers just looking for some basic suggestions on how to take better pictures. It’s also an exploration of the “white” look I’m considering for the whole site. I’m also planning on doing a “how to pick out a digital camera” page, since so many people ask for my help in that area. These “tip sheet” pages might be a good way for me to help promote my web design business as well. Let me know what you think, especially if you have some ideas of some web-oriented tip sheets I could work on.