Things you won’t read about on ‘words mean things’:

-what I had for lunch
-medical procedures
-the identity of my prom date
-things other people buy at the grocery store
-my favorite ice cream flavor
-my instantaneous emotional state
-boy band news of any kind
-my sexual exploits or lack of same
-my exercise regimen or lack of same
-posts written by my dog (even if I had one)
-what happened in Algebra III this afternoon

This study would merit nothing more than an emphatic ‘Duh!’ were it not so out of step with the right wing’s view that if we don’t talk about it, they won’t do it. Now we just have to get Joycelyn Elders her job back.

Word that must be forced into a tiny ball, covered in gaffer’s tape, sealed in a tupperware container, placed in an impenetrable safe, shot into space and exploded with a tactical nuclear device so it can never be written again: kewl.

It’s been so long since I’ve blogged Salon, even Mr. Mosey must be wondering if I’ve been replaced by a pod person. Other than my “Iranian Supreme Court” post, I looked through the past 100 posts and didn’t find a single Salon link. So to reassure everyone that I’ve not been kidnapped and replaced with an alien simulacrum, I repeat a quote from Amy Reiter’s celebrity column:

“It would creep me out for anyone else to do Lamb Chop. No one could do it. No one else has ever put their hand in Lamb Chop. I would find it hideous.”
–Shari Lewis’ 33-year-old daughter Mallory on why she’s decided to resurrect her late mother’s sheepish puppet herself, rather than pass the baton to someone else.

Me, I’m creeped out by the phrases “do Lamb Chop” and “put their hand in Lamb Chop.” Ewww.

Guilty pleasures:
TV: Crossing Over with John Edward
Movie: The Money Pit
Food: Kraft Sharp Cheddar Deluxe Macaroni & Cheese
Music: The Carpenters

I’m sure I’m forgetting some. What are yours?

Saw “Contact” the other night, after picking the DVD up at Best Buy for $14.95. What a steal. Not only does it have this fantastic movie, but there are several second audio tracks; a mediocre Jodie Foster “what the hell am I doing here” one, and a great one with Robert Zemeckis where he dissects the complicated process of shooting the movie and the many effects shots. I know the movie is Hollywoodized, but it still is one of the best evocations of what it means to explore the universe – a great complement to “The Dish.” (see 5/26) I said at the time and I still say, I would jump into that “mission seat” chair in a heartbeat, without knowing the outcome. We are so earthbound in every way in this culture, and I celebrate anyone or anything that is willing to push the limits of what we know and understand.

Windows on the world

I was browsing through some pictures I took on my trip to D.C. last fall, and I came upon this shot of a window at O’Hare Airport that I quite like. Just thought I would share it – no reason.

I told my father I wanted to be a teacher.
Wouldn’t you rather be a doctor? he said.
It’s a noble profession, and you could become wealthy.
That may be true, I said.
But without teachers, where would doctors come from?

Who would have thought that a bastion of capitalism would provide such an eloquent, simple argument for education? Why can’t traditional educational organizations be as eloquent?

One manifesto I can definitely get behind. (except for 13b)

Photographic memory

My grandfather was quite a photographer, as it turns out. This picture, of my grandmother and her brother, as well as the one of my mother I posted on Mother’s Day, were scanned in from a huge collection of 3D slides my grandfather took from about 1950 to 1955. I’m struck by the different look everything had: not alien, but slightly exotic. This slide is a good example of this, I think. It’s like an alternate universe.