Afternoon has gently passed me by

Big big news--the (reunited) Police are playing at the Grammys in a couple weeks! Even better are the unsubstantiated rumors of a summer tour--please please do it, and play a venue that I can get to easily!

And the most interesting story with a Juneau dateline today involves a bald eagle making off with a deer head but crashing into power lines, blacking out 10,000 residents of our state capital. Gotta admire that bird's ambition, poor thing.

I know it's barely an hour away, but . . .

. . . why not call 3 friends and play the George W. Bush State of the Union 2007 Drinking Game?

I got nothin' else. Less sleep=less original content. Maybe I can just paste in some beat poetry and call it a day. "I saw the best minds of my generation . . ."

Don't badmouth black licorice.

Seriously.


nataliedee.com

Cats don't want a miniature version of your bed . . .

. . . they want your bed. Just like they want the food you're eating. But anyway, best of luck, makers of the Cat Loft.

Still psyched about the TV victory. It takes me back to '98, when I defeated the mighty University of Kansas bureaucracy.

"'Cause I can kill a man with the jab of my pen"

Well, for anyone who's heard me complain about it for the last few months, the long saga of The Country Lawyer's missing TV is drawing to a close. The short version went like this: I bought a nice new LCD HDTV at Best Buy in Anchorage after the bar, and had it shipped out here--Alaska Airlines Cargo was the only option they gave me. Surprise surprise, the TV got up and walked out of the cargo terminal in Bethel before I could pick it up. Both companies denied responsibility.

I wrote nasty letters to both companies, and managed to get a pretty decent resolution to the whole fiasco a few months later. Woohoo! I love stickin' it to the Man!

It's been in the 20s the past few days, and I've started marathon training in earnest. Cleveland here I come! I love that sore feeling after a good run--if that makes me weird, well it's just one of many things that do that.

Cool, so cool.

I just found out that Channel 5 in Anchorage runs "Democracy Now," albeit at 4:00 a.m. (go TiVo). For those who haven't seen it, it's a very non-corporate news program produced for the Pacifica Radio network. Bravo!

Other stations take heed: you're supposed to air public affairs programming in exchange for using the American people's airwaves for free. And tabloid news doesn't count as public affairs!

"If you know so much about making wise career decisions, how come you're a guidance counselor?"

Lawyers, car salesman, and guidance counselors: some professions just have a bad reputation. Today's "Something Positive" made me fall out of my chair laughing, because it's so close to my own experience. To my high school guidance counselor, who "forgot" to send my transcript to Yale: I got in anyway, sucka! And then I didn't go, because Yale's no Stanford . . .

Harper's Yearly Review

This piece sums up the year that was very nicely. Some highlights:

Thousands of people died in the Iraqi civil war, which was costing the United States $100,000 a minute. U.S. forces began to negotiate with Sunni insurgents, and the Pentagon, short of buglers who can play taps at military funerals, ordered 700 automated digital bugles.

Al Qaeda members were communicating via social networking website MySpace.com, and the Taliban established a “mini-state” in Peshawar.

Yanni was arrested for allegedly hitting his girlfriend, and Keith Richards fell out of a coconut tree.

SAT scores in the United States showed the largest decline in 31 years, and after 15,000 tries a California scientist was able to teach starlings some grammar.

The human population reached 6.5 billion, and scientists found that new infectious diseases were emerging at a faster rate than they had in the past. “These are good times,” said a scientist, “for pathogens.”

Ah yes, THAT'S what 20 below feels like.

Well, I got back early this morning after traveling all evening and night. Vacation was awesome, and long overdue. Being back in the Bay Area made me feel very nostalgic for the 8 years I lived there. I saw lots of good friends while I was there, and did some sightseeing and shopping for those precious consumer goods you can't get up here. And I came home to some real winter weather! It's been over a decade since my last Alaska winter, so it's nice to know I'm still tough enough.

On the Former Soviet front, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, the last dictator in Europe, got all hot and bothered at the Kremlin for raising its natural gas prices, among other trade disputes. Ah, I had such hope for you two--remember 10 years ago, when you were on the road to becoming one slightly larger country?