Brand new Did You Bring Bottles. Been working on it for much of the weekend and I’m beat. That’s all I have to say tonight. More soon…

It strikes me that, on the rare occasion that I publish a bit of email on this page, it may look like I trash everyone who contacts me. I don’t. I think I tend to publish email which is negative simply because it looks a little self-absorbed to publish all the “you rock” and “I love you” messages. In fact, I rarely publish any of it, positive or negative, unless it strikes a chord related to something I want to write about.

I’d imagine that most people don’t really care about my email one way or another, but I’m sorry if the quotes I use roughly once a year make me sound particularly nasty toward readers or anything. I usually only respond harshly or sarcastically when someone is either:

• Really idiotic or obnoxious to me first (in which case I have a really short fuse), or…
• Seriously overreacting to some passing reference (which causes me to do pretty much the same thing they did), or…
• Taking something competely out of context after reading one page of the site (like assuming I’m a right-wing straight homophobe when I’m, in fact, a queer homophobe with leftist sympathies).

I love it when my babies go live…

What I don’t like today is department stores. I didn’t think it would be a major achievement to buy a box of plain white handerchiefs as part of my dad’s borthday present yesterday. I was wrong.

Macy’s had no hankies at all. Neither did Neiman-Marcus. Nordstom had nothing but a rack of oddly-colored things which looked more like ascots than something for expelling snot. If I’d had time, I would have gone to the Mission. If they’d been options, I might even have visited Target or Sears, which don’t really count as department stores, I guess, because they sell actual useful items.

From the mailbag:

I stumbled onto your “Jack London” page, and was taken aback by your “diss” of my employer, Spaghetti Warehouse.

Unlike numerous competitors, who use frozen, canned, and pre-cooked products, we cook all of our pastas and sauces fresh every day. Sure, we have recipes we follow, so there is an element of consistency, but we are not a paint-by-numbers establishment. There is a fair amount of creativity given to each restaurant, and we are always developing new menu items. To call us “generic” is a stretch, since we go to great expense to provide freshly-prepared food.

Please save the “generic” label for establishments who don’t even cook their own pasta and sauces (can you say “Olive Garden?”)

My apologies for “dissing” this poor, defenseless corporation. My apologies also that I still prefer Kelly’s Coffee Shop to an exciting and unique place like the Spaghetti Warehouse.

Sites worth looking at today:

• Making the Macintosh (thanks, Sarah…)
• Schoolhouse Rock (thanks, Adric…)