Oil Shook Up

What scares the crap out of me is when BP says that some plan isn't working so they're going to try something else. Hey, the first thing they try is the thing they think will work best, right? So the next thing on the list is something they don't think will work as well as the flopola they tried first. We're in a world of hurt, folks.

Any Port In a Storm

Mother's Daze

Had to share a delicious story that was in this morning's L.A. Times. Seems a bank was robbed overnight after a policeman gave cups of drug-laced tea to the security guards. "The policeman," the story concluded, "is missing." Duh.

Wordplay

Oil Alone

A half century ago a gusher was a good thing. Now its another milestone on humanity's plunge toward extinction. Oops. did I say that? I meant enrichment. Or not.

The Way the World Spins

Having a Ball

The Blame Game

Another milestone has come and gone. Today's post is The Fool's one thousand three hundred and first without missing a day. That's a lot of pencils and pens.

Immaculate Destruction

Which brings up the question, what according to Miss VerPlanck would be an acceptable reason for beating up on Leonard?

Gone With the Wind

Three deaf men met up. "Is it going to be windy tomorrow?" the first asked. "No, Thursday," the second replied. "I'm thirsty too," said the third, "let's get a drink."

Whine Appreciation 101

Keep In Touch

In the Cards

Undo Others Before They Undo You

Wagging the Tale

Guilty Pleasures

Inside the Box

We take it for granted nowadays that public figures can be misinformed dolts, but it's a matter of faith that "great men" from the past were fonts of knowledge and wisdom. And then I read that Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: "The first farmer was the first man and all historic nobility rests on possession and use of the land." The second man, I guess, was a warrior whose nobility rested on taking away someone else's land.

The Art of Fine Whining

A Little Ow-ie

It's All In Your Head

Sea No Evil

Hilarity Is the Mother of Invention

Art For Pete's Sake

Casting Cull

The story goes that back in the 50's Dick Cavett, then an aspiring actor, was auditioning for a Broadway play. As he walked onstage the director, well-known as a star of London and New York theatre, called out from the darkened auditorium, "What's your name?" "Dick Cavett," replied the man who would later become a host of talk-radio. "What's yours?" "Maurice Evans," the answer came back, in a chilly and clipped British accent. "Next."

Money Makes the World Go Round

The news this morning is filled with accounts of yesterday's stock market meltdown and partial recovery, but to me the even bigger news is that scientists have now determined that, contrary to previously held convictions, Neanderthals and our early human ancestors intermingled, the result being that today most of us carry around Neanderthal genomes. I find this thrilling, not because it might explain some of my more boorish behavior but because it's something I've always been convinced of.

A Dirty Story

Psycho-ceramic (sy'ko-ser-a'-mick), n, a crackpot.

Thanks For the Memories

"All men seek the society of those who think and act somewhat like themselves." William Cobbett, Advice to Young Men, 1829. And, so, for that matter, do chimpanzees.

Open Wide

"If you mean to keep as well as possible, the less you think about your health the better." Oliver Wendell Holmes, Over the Teacups, 1891.