Quick Stops

Spit-Take Alert:

I wish someone had warned me first about this.
_____

On the other hand, I'm glad I've had plenty of warning about this:

The National Weather Service has issued an unusually dire blizzard watch, calling a storm expected to arrive Tuesday afternoon over much of northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana "dangerous, multifaceted and potentially life-threatening."

All told, forecasters expect at least a foot of snow over much of the watch area. White-out conditions are expected at times Tuesday night, with snowfall rates of at least 2 to 3 inches per hour possible with northeast winds of 25 to 40 mph and even stronger gusts.

Localized totals in excess of 18 inches are possible, especially near the lake.

Conditions are expected to deteriorate from north to south across the region Tuesday afternoon with travel becoming "virtually impossible" at times Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning, according to the weather service. Plows will be unable to keep up with the downfall.

(And, yes -- I changed that appointment.)
_____

Ear Worm of the Day:


_____

One More Thing:
Paraguay! That's a first!

Drive-Bys

I'm still not back on my A-game, but here are a few goodies for you in the meantime:

They've now wrapped filming on the first season of Game of Thrones. Here's a behind-the-scenes peek that has me positively giddy:



I put the tee-shirt (either one of 'em, actually) on my Christmas list.

Now if George would just get back to finishing A Dance With Dragons, I'd be a completely happy fan girl.
_____

Also on my Christmas list:
I got this for a couple of my bosses. They've all raved about it and loaded it up immediately. Now I want one for myself!
_____

Excuse me while I howl with laughter:

Mayoral challenger James Meeks scrambled Thursday to put out a political fire touched off by his suggestion that only African Americans should be eligible for city contracts set aside for minorities and women.

Meeks made the statement on Wednesday during an interview on WVON-AM (1690). It happened during a discussion of why African-American businesses got a 7 percent sliver of Chicago’s $1 billion spending pie through Aug. 31, down from 8 percent a year ago.

“The word ‘minority’ from our standpoint should mean African American. I don’t think women, Asians and Hispanics should be able to use that title,” he said. “That’s why our numbers cannot improve — because we use women, Asians and Hispanics who are not people of color, who are not people who have been discriminated against.”

Hours after making those remarks, Meeks back-tracked by saying he would only exclude white women if elected mayor. The set-aside program currently earmarks 25 percent of all city contracts for minorities and 5 percent for companies owned by women.

Now tell me again who's the racist?

Buh-bye, Reverend Meeks. You just publicly shot your campaign for mayor in the left ass-cheek. (Major style points there, though!)

Update: He clearly doesn't understand the basics of back-pedalling.
_____

It's bad enough when it happens in the movies. When you've paid good money to see a top-notch play and it completely throws the rhythm of the acting off, it's outrageous:

Just before the end of Edward Albee's “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” a cold and brutal dawn rises over New Carthage. The dangerously destructive nocturnal games of George and Martha are subsumed by their mutual loneliness. In Pam MacKinnon's very arresting and intense Steppenwolf Theatre Company production, which takes its audience on an exhausting voyage through some of the horrors of marital codependency, Tracy Letts' George finally puts his hand gently on the shoulder of Amy Morton's Martha. She puts her head back. He is about to sing, softly. Their nonsense song — “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf” — has become a kind of lifesaving lullaby. On Saturday afternoon, the audience was rapt.

“Are you all right?” asked George of his Martha.

Suddenly, from the back of the house, a boppy, perky, electronic tune rang out in answer to that deeply existential question. Letts and Morton froze. Mouths of audience members dropped open. The phone rang on. And on. And on. Freed from its merciful, muffling confines, it got louder. Instead of staring into the depths of a New Carthage exorcism, we were suddenly transported to a pachinko parlor in Shinjuku.

Make no mistake — the moment was gone forever. Letts and Morton gamely paused and then finished the last minute or so of the play, but this was like a fumble with seconds to go. There was no time for the team to recover. And, at that instant, the ringing cell phone of Saturday, Dec. 11, became the most egregiously timed audience-caused interruption of my entire theatergoing career.

When are people going to learn act like grown-ups and turn their fucking phones off???
_____

Giggle of the Day:

Drive-Bys

WTF?

A shooting at a Coast Guard recruiting station in Northern Virginia is connected to a string of similar incidents at military-related buildings, the FBI said Wednesday.

FBI spokeswoman Lindsay Godwin said ballistics tests concluded that the same gun was used in the first four shootings, and preliminary test results also link the latest shooting. The Coast Guard incident was reported Tuesday. No one has been injured in any of the shootings.

No details about the type or caliber of weapon have been released. But investigators previously have said it appeared that the shots were fired from a high-powered rifle.

Five different military buildings in Virginia have been shot at and this is the first we've heard of it???
_____

It's idiotic articles like this that make me want to disown most feminists:

It’s a wise child, they say, that knows its own father. Nowadays, however, wisdom is hardly required; DNA tests can do the job with scientific certainty. For the entire course of human history, men have nursed profound, troubling doubts about the fundamental question of whether or not they were fathers to their own children; women, by contrast, usually enjoyed a reasonable level of certainty about the matter.

Now, a cotton-wool swab with a bit of saliva, plus a small fee, less than £200, can settle the matter. At a stroke, the one thing that women had going for them has been taken away, the one respect in which they had the last laugh over their husbands and lovers. DNA tests are an anti-feminist appliance of science, a change in the balance of power between the sexes that we’ve hardly come to terms with. And that holds true even though many women have the economic potential to provide for their children themselves. [Emphasis mine]

I want to tar and feather this bitch myself for her breathtaking egocentrism and profound stupidity.

Gawd. It's no wonder so many men dislike and distrust women.
_____

For all you people who think only cat people are nuts, think again:

The PAWsitive Therapy Troupe is hard at work preparing to present "A Canine Version of the Nutcracker" in Glen Ellyn and Downers Grove this holiday season. Their 45-minute production will feature 28 dancing therapy dogs and one human, said Becky Jankowski, founder of the troupe, organizer of the show and wife of the human (Don Jankowski).

Some dogs are unleashed for solos, and others perform on leash with their owners in group dances. All are in costume, or as much as a dog will tolerate.

At least cats are smart enough that they'd never put up with this nonsense!
_____

Well, this little piece of news makes me have new respect for Oklahoma voters:

Oklahoma voters have approved a measure that would forbid judges from considering international law or Islamic law when deciding cases.

Republican Rex Duncan, the sponsor of the measure, called it a "pre-emptive strike" designed to close the door on activist judges "legislating from the bench or using international law or Sharia law."

Well done!
_____

Because I just love the guy:


_____

Quote of the Day:

"We've got pigs in there, you've raw meat hanging up...I was there this morning, and it was absolutely disgusting. It smelled foul and looked foul but that's how it should be, so we're happy."

I'm such an idiot fan girl!
_____

Urk. It'll be days until we know who are next Governor will be. I have no idea what the voters in this state were thinking that made the race this close.
_____

The owner of a North Side auto dealership was ordered held on $50,000 bond Wednesday on a weapons charge after police found a gun on his passenger seat and him apparently naked from the waist down inside a Bentley on the Near West Side.

What do you want to bet there was alcohol involved?

Sunday Schedule

Heard about this CD box set on Nick Digilio's show (which, BTW, was an absolute free-for-all at the tail end of the evening) during his interview with Jeff Tuckman last night, and I'm thinking it might just make a dandy birthday gift for my baby brother, who grew up wearing cowboy suits and cowboy boots and carrying cap-gun six-shooters:

This compilation of rare and in some cases, never before seen television programs from the golden age of Hollywood represents the largest assortment of TV shows ever released! Relive your childhood or discover a truly unique brand of entertainment for the first time with 600 Episodes to choose from! Enjoy over 265 hours of family friendly entertainment with over 40 exceptional shows spanning the last six decades!

Shows include: Bonanza, Wagon Train, The Rifleman, The Lone Ranger, Dusty's Trail, The Cisco Kid, Annie Oakley and many more!

Stars include: Roy Rogers, Henry Fonda, Bob Denver, Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Jackie Coogan, Forrest Tucker, Gabby Hayes, Lash LaRue, Clayton Moore, Buddy Ebsen, Tim conway, Chuck Connors, Dale Evans and many more!

What do you think?

_____

And, thank's to Nick's Facebook page, I ran across this NSFW site that will require eye bleach when you're through.

_____

*ahem*

_____

Quote of the Day:

"This is a Last Days type of thing, right? Didn't the Romans reveal a Double Down before they fell?"

Og also has an opinion on the Double Down. Mmmmmm! Gravy!

_____

Hah! I'm fashionable. So there.

(Therefore it's all MY fault?)

_____

Those who know me know I'm not into the whole Green/Global Warming/Sky Is Falling/We're All Gonna Die movement. And I'm not. However, I really hate waste -- and packaging waste in particular. Thus, I think this packaging by PUMA is brilliant:

And I think PUMA's going to make a lot of money off the intellectual property behind that packaging. A lot.

Yup.

(A tip of the cap to those amazing folks at The Awesomer.)

_____

I've got a pot of this yummy rice & bean-y goodness bubbling on the stove. I'm not sharing, either.

_____

It's a good thing I didn't realize old George was going to be at Comic Con to read from A Dance with Dragons... because I'd have probably gone down there, kidnapped him and gone all Kathy Bates on his ass until he finished the damned book.

The man has toyed with my affections for far too long.

_____

Amtrak Auto Train? What an utterly cool way to travel!

_____

You Are Disturbingly Profound

You're contemplative, thoughtful, and very intense. Taking time to figure out the meaning of life is a priority for you. Because you're so introspective, you often react in ways that surprise people. No one can really understand how you are on the inside... and that disturbs them.

Are You Disturbingly Profound or Profoundly Disturbing?

Blogthings: Our Quizzes Weren't Written By Bored 12 Year Olds