What not to do

When stringing lights on the Christmas tree, don't climb cheerfully onto a stepladder without carefully checking it first to make sure those little metal things on the sides are pushed down securely. Doing so is likely to result in a collapsed stepladder, a tumble onto the family room floor, bruises, an increasingly sore and wobbly knee, an evening trip to the emergency room, a nice visit for Dad with his former colleagues, x-rays, the discovery that nothing's broken but a ligament might be torn, some painkiller prescriptions, and a whole new lease on life for Luke's old crutches and knee immobilizer.

I'm just sayin'.

If you Need to Vomit

Watch or listen to some of Barack and Michelle on Oprah. I've heard bits and pieces. These people have absolutely no class or humility.

Sometime Soon

I am going to reach the tipping point on eco-madness and explode.

If you come to a Fork in the Road,

don't use it to eat your lunch.


You don't know where it's been.

It's that time again

If you've had any difficulty getting into the Christmas spirit, this should solve that problem in two minutes and forty-five seconds, flat.

Merry Christmas!

Who Said This?

"I've always loved the flirtatious tango of consonants and vowels, the sturdy dependability of nouns and capricious whimsy of verbs, the strutting pageantry of the adjective and the flitting evanescence of the adverb, all kept safe and orderly by those reliable little policemen, punctuation marks. Wow! Think I got my ass kicked in high school?"

No cheating!

The cake's all gone, the candles are burnt out . . .

. . . but we still hope Luke had a happy birthday yesterday. Sorry this post is late!

two funny videos

sumo rock 'em sock 'em robots

and

kittens riding a roomba Who can stay on the longest?

"This"

Maybe I've mentioned that my cousin Matt Frey is married to a playwright, Melissa James Gibson. Here's the New York Times on her latest play, "This": " Ms. Gibson graduates into the theatrical big leagues with this beautifully conceived, confidently executed and wholly accessible work, which is not just her finest to date but also the best new play to open Off Broadway this fall."

More on Hadley CRU Data Manipulation Scandal

I know this article is a week old now, but it's the best one that I've found on the "Climategate" scandal:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/11/24/the_fix_is_in_99280.html