It's like crack

I learned from a favorite blog that a friend may apply to participate in the Washington Post Magazine feature Date Lab. You have to check out the archives. Seriously, it's like crack. (Well, not the most addictive form of crack served up exclusively by HGTV, but really close.)

Actually made me miss DC for a moment. Don't worry, it passed.

Shout out: Bumper stickers

I love bumper stickers. It's so great when a particularly witty one makes me chuckle. Today I saw a sticker that read:

Stop Stealing!
The government doesn't like competition.

I happen to believe taxation supports important government services (like, say, fine budget analysis from yours truly, or high quality teaching at certain area high schools). But that bumper sticker is still damn funny. Two other favorites (both seen frequently around the Mac-Groveland neighborhood):

Abstinence Only
No Bush, No Dick in '04

and

Jesus doesn't love you.
And neither do I.

See, I'm chuckling right now.

"Better a bleeding heart than none at all"

I saw that on a bumper sticker recently (next to an Ole decal). For my fellow Mac-ites and other interested parties, here is a Katherine Kersten rant about the alma. I actually agree with her basic premise (it really would be helpful if conservative viewpoints were included in the debate over there), but find it poorly argued and rather hypocritical coming from someone who was hired solely to write a politically one-sided column.

I particularly enjoyed:

• Basing the "good old days" reference on one 60 year-old guy's memory of an event that took place over 40 years ago
• The idea that an American studies department that focuses ("overwhelmingly") on race, gender and ethnic minorities is closed-minded (I'm sorry, has she read standard history texts? It's not like people are hurting for knowledge of white male political/war history).
• The whole sentence: "Religious holidays are still respected at Macalester, but the concept has expanded." Isn't that the definition of open-minded?
• Taking the president's comment, "We work hard to see that the college is a safe place for all reasonable points of view to be expressed" to mean he does not value greater intellectual diversity.

She tried to argue the "Macalester is too closed-minded" point, but really only had support for the unspoken "Macalester is an easy target because it affirms everything I'm paid to write against" point. Anyway, it's too bad she so thoroughly distorted this Peterson guy's valid case for improving academics by promoting intellectual diversity.

Did I mention crazy people seek me out?

I visited the dumpster room this weekend--that dank, creepy place where trash chutes end and monsters go to die. As usual, I left the door wide open to the underground parking area beyond, just in case a dying monster decided to get smart with me. While I was breaking down a cardboard box, a car stopped in front of the door and a scraggly dude emerged.

Scraggly: "IS THERE A SMALLER BOX THAT WOULD FIT A BABY ALBINO SQUIRREL?"

Me: (rapid blinking, stunned silence)

Scraggly: "Here, hold this lid for me."

Without waiting for an answer, he dove head-first into the cardboard dumpster. I just managed to grab the lid before it crashed down on his ass (now at eye-level). After some rooting around, he climbed back out with a triumphant grin and a smallish white box. He chattered excitedly as he jumped in his car, but over the noise of the engine I could only make out snippets:

"...it got run over...right there in the middle of the road..."

"...wouldn't 'ave stopped for just any squirrel, but those albinos are like one in a thousand..."

"...think the Asians were having a funeral..."

"...can't remember if those are the good luck ones or the bad luck ones..."

"...anyway, they're just really special, you know..."

Since the only other exit was up the trash chute, I just stared back until he finally drove away. Overall I'd rate Scraggly as creepier than the guy on the No. 16 bus who repeatedly yelled, "Have you ever seen the blaspheming baby-rapist-whore of Minnesota?" and less creepy than the guy who tried to corner me in the tampon aisle at Cub.

Poetry bug?

I was crabby about the weather today. Crabby enough to whine to myself about it on the way to work. For some reason totally independent of Cyndy's post, I formed the whine into a haiku while I drove. Since Cyndy and Maggie have already shared their thoughts in haiku, I thought I'd mix it up with a cinquain:

Sneezing,
Big hair, damp cold,
Or worse, a moist hot day.
I really hate humidity,
A lot.

Fugly

I rest my case: The go-to blog on pop culture fashion criticism agrees that there is something strangely fascinating about the Pussycat Dolls (including the Search for the Next). I am not alone.

Seriously, if you were too lazy or uninterested to click the link above, here's another one. I've been spending way too much time there. I first noticed the site because it's linked on two unrelated blogs that I read regularly (the wonders of the blogosphere). So now I can hold two people I do not know (well, one I have met once or twice, the other never) responsible for all my time-wasting.

Deal or no deal

While we were enjoying our daily dose of deal or no deal, a colleague recalled a fitting quotation:

Good leadership is the ability to disappoint one's followers at a rate they can absorb.

I did a little googling but could not find the source. Much appreciation to anyone who can locate the actual quotation.