We have a winner! It's M.


M wins the clever comment award for something she wrote about the latin post. Go visit Ms Smarty-pants and check out her cool blog. It is a very interesting read...and she's got some wonderful pictures. And NM, tell the library book eating Ernest that he's got some blogging competition on M's site. (ooops, did i let the cat out of the bag? Did M not know what someone's been taking over her keyboard?????)

this bumpersticker was on the car parked next to me at the grocery store last night.

Sic hoc adfixum in obice legere potes, et liberaliter educatus et nimis propinquus ades.

I was laughing at it when the driver arrived back with his bags. He looked a bit saddened to learn that I couldn't translate the phrase from lessons, but only recognized it because my old friend Young Tom (who was a whole two days younger than plain ol' Tom) used to have it on his old triumph.

YT's even older volvo sported this one: Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?

I always laughed at both, and am pleased I still recognized the first one. My latin is nil, except for the few things you can figure out just by looking (and guessing.) The second phrase is one you should be able to figure out....if you can't, well you'll smack yourself once you do get it.

1. yes, i did survive another sxsw
2. glasses photos will post soon. I didn't travel with the camera-computer cable, losing that would be a major drag. My card reader isn't compatible with the card in the new camera. So, you'll just have to wait.
3. Dirty's doesn't have the best burgers in town. Sorry Mony.
4. averaging 5.5 hours sleep over the past 10 days doesn't bode well for me.
5. Even though I fedexed (ground, of course) a 20 lb box home, I've still go too much crap.
6. Eyeglasses lost are eyeglasses found. 700 dollars later, of course.
7. every flight out of austin tomorrow is oversold.
8. i'm used to wearing flipflops, but the current dc temps mean i've got to put my feet back in shoes. and socks.
9. borders in austin is not a place to buy books. one goes to book people for that. but borders austin has a much better magazine selection. And it's also better than the one near me.
10. I heard some good music last week. But there's a lot of bad stuff out there, too. Words of wisdom: just because you can make a record doesn't mean you should.

ok, everyone who lost their eyeglasses somewhere in austin, tx today raise your hand! c'mon, surely someone beside me....

More from austin soon, but i just had to share this. From the "Spy" column in the Sunday Telegraph, London. Hmm, now that I look at it again, there are two interesting tidbits.


Spy by Celia Walden
spy@telegraph.co.uk

9 March 2007

In times when matters relating to race and nationality are rightly treated with the greatest sensitivity, the BBC stands accused of dropping an almighty clanger.

BBC2's flagship current affairs programme Newsnight recently carried an interview with a Welshman who was wearing a T-shirt carrying the slogan: "Twll tyn i bob Sais".

To those unfamiliar with the Welsh language, it loosely translates as "A***holes to the English".

Rod's fan

What is it with bloated birthday celebrations? Elton John is doing a gig at Madison Square Garden for his 60th, Philip Green is throwing "the party of the year" in the Maldives next week, while Wall Street titan Stephen A. Schwartzman recently had Rod Stewart play at his 60th birthday in New York.

And one guest was particularly enthused by Stewart.

"Colin Powell turned out to be the biggest die-hard Rod fan ever," says my source. "As soon as Rod started singing Hot Legs, the former Secretary of State got out his camera phone and started recording the whole thing."

greetings from austin, where it's sunny and soon to be in the lower '80s. I've done little today but go through wads of paper, trying to figure out my schedule for the week. Some interviews I thought were scheduled for today are instead scheduled for tomrorow, but no one is sure exactly when! Which means I can't schedule anything else until I get that taken care of.....grr.

You might be sick of me urging you to watch my favorite car boys on the bbc, but the recent comments about alabama in the travel map post forced my hand on this one.

Go here and download the program about their visit to the USA. (it's about 700 mb. but you really need to do this)
Yes, bits might be scripted, and yes, some of their choices were bad ones, but the part in alabama happened. just a few months ago. The end of the program is stunning, and shameful. And gives a glimpse of what others are thinking about the US.

(i'll try to find a smaller file)

and i did. and uploaded it for you. So the least you could do is watch it! go here! Now!! and enjoy!

hey, to the person who didn't ask. Yes, those pictures are mine. Don't steal them. I don't watermark 'em, but still.....

hey, we have a new friend here! Go visit Miss M. Mony beat me over there, and I think you should follow along.


Off to austin tomorrow. Running around like a nut today. BTW, my teeth are wonderful. So says the dentist. Who took less than 100 bucks from me today.

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I opened my daily media update from The Guardian newspaper (mediaguardian.co.uk)


"The cast of classic drama All Creatures Great and Small could be reunited to film one last episode."



Robert Hardy has to be, what, 115 by now? Actually he's only 82, but still working. IMDB shows he had roles in three feature films produced last year, and an equal number of TV programs.

The last original episode of the series was produced in 1980. If you haven't been keeping track, Peter Davison is now 55. It won't be such a shock to see him on the screen, as he's barely stopped working in the years since the program went out of production....between doctor who, campion and other BBC programs, he was always popping up on PBS. But Christopher Timothy is now 66, hasn't been as much of a presence in our imported shows, so....

This would be fun. I hope it happens. Once. And then never again. And don't even think about updating the series any of you TV producers who can't think of an original idea.

Details here.

In case you can't figure it out, the red states are the ones I've visited, the grey are the roads not traveled.

Hmmm. Not as good as I thought. I really believed I only had 4 or 5 to go.

And you?????




create your own visited states map

How does it know? (part 2)

Eerie coincidence? I run out of detergent AND fabric softener at the same time. One load done, one just sitting in the machine, soapless.

In all my many years of doing the wash, that has never happened! I rarely use bleach, but could you imagine the excitement if all three went dry at the same time! A laundry trifecta*, so to speak!!

I was first going to use hat-trick (0r hat trick) instead of Trifecta as my sports anthology, but I wanted to double check the definiation first. Because somewhere, somewhere waaaaayyyy back in my little collie sized brain (that is, brain the size a collie has, not the size of a collie)was the thought that we've mutated the meaning. At least when it comes to hockey. And I was right! "In the Victorian era, the term "hat trick" refered to a common trick by magicians, where the magician used a top hat. At first, they would appear before the audience wearing the hat, which they would remove from the head and put upside down on a nearby table (on stage). Later in the show, the magician would take out 3 rabbits, one after another, from the hat. In modern times, this phenomenon has largely referred to any three consecutive feats, goals, wickets etc. by the same player."*

Whereas "trifecta" may refer to any sequence of three (generally unfortunate) occurrences, drawing on the traditional belief that deaths (and presumably, disasters and other bad things) always come in groups of three.

This was clearly a trifecta, but sad as it may be, it probably made you laugh.



*Wiki goes on to say: "In both field hockey and ice hockey a hat-trick is when a player scores three goals in a game. Although people may consider a hat trick as three goals scored in a row, this is commonly confused with a natural hat trick (below). The term was brought to ice hockey in the 1940s when Sammy Taft, a Toronto hatter, gave free hats to Maple Leafs players who scored three goals in a game. It is not certain whether he picked up this practice from cricket. The term natural hat trick (or Nat-Trick) refers to when a player scores three goals consecutively in a single game. The goals do not have to happen in the same period."

Btw, I see I'm not the only one lusting over an aga.

Mrs. Hamster is, too.

How could you not love something that requires a diagram like this one?

apologies, apologies! Did you think you'd lost me? no such luck!!

I'm back, just scrambling to get everything done before heading out to Austin for my 10th sxsw. Or is it 11? i'd check to see, but I've got a few more things atop my list first. Like finding some warm weather clothes.
A pedicure, of course. This is the traditional first pedi of the season. Regular pedi, I mean. As opposed to a "special" that would get slotted in if i had a warm weather trip sometime between the holidays and now. I think I can save that for Thursday, sometime between the dentist and the massage therapist. And packing.

And there's loads to do around the house: loads of wash, loads of crap to toss out, and loads to clear out of the fridge. But of course I'm online now...