It’s really pitifully, disturbingly geeky that I got all excited about uploading a file that was exactly 50,000 bytes, isn’t it?
Didn’t snap a picture, but I saw this Dunkin’ Donuts billboard today along I-77 just south of Huntersville that said “STAR coffee for only two BUCKS”. If that ain’t a lawsuit waiting to happen, I don’t know what is…
If I were a parent, I’d thank the Great Pumpkin every day for advocacy groups and lawsuits like this one, which demonstrate a tireless commitment to absolving me and my peers of any personal responsibility whatsoever for how our children are raised…
Why merely turn off the TV or (Great Pumpkin forbid) say “no” to your kids when you can sue someone else into saving you the effort? Or why make your kids do their homework when you can simply sue the school system for a better grade?
Litigation: the top-rated American substutute for parenting skills twenty years running…
Found this on eBay while looking for something else. I have to wonder about the customer who might have been expected to purchase this back in 1910. Frankly, it just seems a bit tasteless to write “Having a lovely time. Wish you were here!” on the back of a postcard showing an orphanage…
Random observations from your favorite web-journalling housewife:
- When people from organizations like this one call my number to do a survey and ask for “the lady of the house”, I never remember in time just to say “this is she” and see how they react…
- Triple coupon day at Lowes is a wonderful thing…
- Daytime TV all in all is NOT a wonderful thing, although I am excited to note that Dish Network seems finally to have added Oxygen, so I can get my Grace Under Fire re-run fix…
Note to anyone who might care in the Los Angeles area: I’ll be a guest on KCRW’s “Good Food” on Saturday 21 January at 11AM. If you miss the show or don’t live near LA, I believe there’s also a podcast available for free download…
Kinkos: The Game (via Rae)…
Ten years ago tonight, as I uploaded the very first version of Planet SOMA — using my brand new 28K modem — I don’t think I realized what an effect the damned thing would have on the next ten years of my life…
The hubby and I spent yesterday afternoon in Winston-Salem. I’ve always liked it there, and I’d argue that it may well be the most attractive city in North Carolina. It has a denser urban feel than many similar or larger cities in the area, most likely because until the 1920s, it was the biggest city in the state.
As I’ve opined many times before, the size of any given city in the 1920s is perhaps the most accurate single predictor of how “urban” we perceive that city to be today. It seems the form and density of 1920s development is what defines urbanism to many of us, if only from an aesthetic perspective. A city can have earlier or later development too, but without a fairly high proportion of semi-dense early twentieth-century residential and commercial areas, it just seems quaint and precious like Charleston or a little sanitized and bland like Charlotte and Phoenix…
Winston-Salem is our own little slice of Pittsburgh, not just gritty and industrial at its heart, but also built on numerous hills and more than a little run-down. Yet there are still beautiful and stable inner-city areas which are amazingly inexpensive compared to their counterparts in Charlotte or Raleigh or even Greensboro.
Yes, Winston-Salem is a really nice place…
Isn’t there someone out there who can make sure that Pat Roberston stays on his medication? Seriously. I’m worried that he may hurt himself one of these days, bless his heart…