Absolute best blog line of the day

. . . sometimes crap is unavoidable. . . it gets delivered to the door, Federal Express, and you are asked to sign for it.

--The Tenured Radical

The One-Minute Writer: Today's Writing Prompt: Name

The One-Minute Writer: Today's Writing Prompt: Name

Hah!

Simply,

Change

Looking over a new employment contract: It's harsh.

Simply,

A Word to the Wise

Got some feedback yesterday from a coworker to the effect that I am "too spontaneous," risking (or perhaps actually) being indiscreet. In the guise of asking my advice about how to deal with someone else, she gave me what my mother would call "a word to the wise". Ouchy, but unarguably accurate.

The rest of that expression is, "... should suffice" but I'm not sure it's anything I can change: I've been trying to zipper my lip for 50 years now, without more than sporadic success. If it wasn't my Dad, it was my second grade teacher who first told me essentially the same thing: "You talk too much!" Except that Mrs. Jones tactfully called me "enthusiastic".

Then, in practically the same breath, my coworker asked me to participate in an interesting ongoing project of hers.

All in all, a weird conversation.

Simply,

Miss C

#1. There's no evidence that I can see that says Miss California only got runner-up because she thinks marriage should be between a man and a woman. Maybe she only placed second because (a) she's way too skinny, (b) those boobs don't look real, and (c) she shook them at the cameras before she answered.

#2. Wouldn't it be ironic if it were true? I mean, that the ultimate patriarchal farce has judges that are pro gay rights??

#3. Who gives a rat's ass about the Pageant or any of the tools that participate in it anyway?

#4. Shit. Are they still doing that thing? I had no idea.

Simply,

Denial of death

I attended a memorial service today, for a woman I did not know. (I went in support of someone who did.)

As always, I was struck by the need some people have to believe that the one who died is not dead, not really. This was a particularly Jesus-y sort of service, with the minister saying he would be "amiss" if he did not inform us all that as long as we were 'born again' we wouldn't ever die either.

As far as I can make out, dead is dead, so I never find this kind of thing particularly comforting, although apparently some do: I could see some heads nodding as he spoke.

Simply,

Dickhead of the week

My husband spotted this one in the paper today:

It seems that back in 2004 one Frederick Lee Gude was indicted in Fulton County, Georgia (USA) on charges he murdered his girlfriend by stabbing her more than 30 times with an ice pick. He has yet to come to trial, for a variety of reasons. But he is not the dickhead of the week: This all happened back in 2004, after all.

This week's prize winner is one of his attorneys, Thomas West, who said in an interview, "We contended it was cruel and unusual to seek the death penalty in a case where you are just accused of killing your girlfriend and not something more heinous."

Un-effing-believable. In what universe does Mr. West live in which stabbing somebody 30 times is not "heinous"?

Simply,

So today I came out as bi to a whole roomful of college students. Odd venue to pick for the first revelation: I've never even said it to my Nigel.

Simply,

Bag Lady Anxieties

Last night I kept dreaming that bill collectors were calling my office. I'd wake up having an anxiety attack, calm myself down enough to go back to sleep and dream about yet another call: the entrepreneurial/professional woman's version of the fear we all harbor deep down that one day we too could be living under bridges.

Simply,