Thirty-one happiness

In no particular order:

George, for helping me fill out my "chicks through the years" posts.

Jason, for including me on his email list to friends and family while he is stationed in Saudi Arabia. We don't know each other that well (hardly at all), but it's a chance to see through his eyes more than one world I've yet to experience.

Corey Klemow, for being a pal, and a friend, and a Doctor Who fan...yeah, in that order.

Probably.

Jennifer: For liking my writing and caring about me.

PJ for back-and-forth memes and pharmaceutical advice.

Y'know...this Sarah Palin thing is making me laugh more every single day.

Because every single day it appears more and more that this is the single worst vice-presidential pick of modern memory. If not of all time (I am not a vice-presidential historian, but I think Agnew might have her beat).

You don't even have to get into her politics to make the case, she's clearly the most unqualified nominee we've ever had. So at a certain point you have to wonder: What in god's name were McCain and his advisers thinking?

Well, funny story. Turns out they didn't really think about it very long or hard at all. I mean, I may be jumping to a conclusion, but if you were thinking about it, would you nominate someone as a potential commander-in-chief and not even check what her hometown paper had to say about her?

McCain did.

Random Flickr-Blogging hiatus five

If you've a suggestion, now is the time.

There's a good piece by Frank Rich on Obama

Specifically the difference between the way his campaign seems to be perceived by the people on TV, and by everybody else. Excerpts follow, but read the whole thing:

[The] TV...bloviators ...hadn’t been so surprised since they discovered that Obama was not too black to get white votes, not too white to win black votes, and not too inexperienced to thwart the inevitable triumph of the incomparably well-organized and well-financed Clinton machine.

The main reason McCain knuckled under to the religious right by picking Palin is that he actually believes there’s a large army of embittered Hillary loyalists who will vote for a hard-line conservative simply because she’s a woman. That’s what happens when you listen to the TV news echo chamber. Not only is the whole premise ludicrous, but it is every bit as sexist as the crude joke McCain notoriously told about Janet Reno, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.

After the catastrophic Bush presidency, the troubles that afflict us on nearly every front almost make you nostalgic for the day when America’s gravest problems could still be seen in blacks and whites.

I do not wish to watch the new BH 90210

Hell, in my life, I think I've watched exactly one entire episode of the original.

But damn if this picture of "Kelly" (Jennie Garth) doesn't go straight to my heart.

Maggie Gyllenhaal: Real person as hottie

1. Maggie-Gyllenhaal-23, 2. miu-miu_fw2004_003_maggie_gyllenhaal, 3. miu-miu_fw2004_004_maggie_gyllenhaal, 4. miu-miu_fw2004_001_maggie_gyllenhaal, 5. miu-miu_fw2004_002_maggie_gyllenhaal

The world is a mosaic upon a golden floor

Decided to do this bloggy thing I got from PJ:

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page, pick an image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name? Benjy (it used to be)
2. What is your favourite food? Fruit snacks
3. What high school did you go to? Mid-Peninsula
4. What is your favorite color? Green
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Emma Watson, Evanna Lynch (today)
6. Favorite drink? Fruit Juicy Red Hawaiian Punch
7. Dream vacation? California
8. Favorite dessert? Peppermint Stick Ice Cream
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? An Artist.
10. What do you love most in life? Life
11. One word to describe you. Disappointed.
12. Your Flickr name. benvarkentine

We couldn't find any results matching benvarkentine. Did you mean Bonaventure?

Sure, why not?



1. Benjy and Izzy, 2. Red Apples Glistening With Water, 3. Thinking, 4. Forest Green, 5. GYI0050769087.jpg, 6. Hawaiian Punch Fruit Juicy Red, 7. Persistence, 8. Heaven, 9. Untitled, 10. The active life..., 11. Disappointed, 12. Bonaventure Island

2007:

Emma Watson and Evanna Lynch, as Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood, respectively, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Granted, admiring any or all of their eye-candy-like attributes was vaguely illegal in this country at the time (with Lynch, it still is).

But I was genuinely thrilled by their work in the film, my favorite of the Potter series to date.

All this, and brains too:

Watson...recorded straight As in her three levels.

Or SATs, as we in America might call them. Good, maybe now she can get a scholarship if she can't afford to go to the University of her choice.

Watson and Lynch will return in the cast of Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, the release of which has been delayed, officially for strategic, post-writers strike reasons.

Though there has been tittle to the effect that Warner Bros would like a little distance between their film appearing in cinemas and Daniel Radcliffe's penis appearing on Broadway.

John McGame

Thirty happiness

Robin Williams, for adults:



and for kids:

To tell you the truth, I thought this movie was kind of shallow.

But, "Good lord, Lawrence! Why are you slapping a monkey?" still makes me smile.

(BTW, I would've included Disney's Genie, but I couldn't find a clip I liked)

How reassuring.

In response to criticism that Sarah Palin--John McCain's choice to be, as they say, "one heartbeat away from the presidency," has no experience in national security, Charlie Black said:

(Black is one of McCain's top advisers)

“She’s going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he’ll be around at least that long,”

That same article reminds me of something that struck me yesterday, but which I forgot to say here:

The choice of Ms. Palin was reminiscent of former President George Bush’s selection of Dan Quayle, then a barely known senator from Indiana as his running mate in 1988.

Do I really have to add anything to that?

...well, perhaps just one thing: Per Crooks and Liars, Sarah Palin is even less qualified and less experienced than was Dan Quayle. Does that sound like a good idea to anybody?

Meanwhile, MyDD compares her to criminal VP Spiro Agnew...

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