Day: October 25, 2005

It’s officially a Nor’easter tonight. Wilma + Tropical Storm Alpha = a lot of wind and rain.

Medium today was quite good – psychic vs. psychic. When does Patricia Arquette actually have a good dream?

Comedy news is now officially more effective than major news outlets. The embattled NY Times dubbed The Coubert Report (pronounced “Co-bear Ra-por”), a spinoff of The Daily Show, as not “too much of a good thing”. CNN’s Lou Dobbs was Coubert’s guest today. He cited overseas outsourcing and illegal immigration as the country’s biggest problems today. Coubert pointed out that if you outsourced the jobs that the illegal immigrants wanted, you would solve both problems; Dobbs yielded in defeat.

John Hodgman, of Little Grey Book Lecture fame, has put out a bizarre book called The Areas of My Expertise. I like reading the Old Farmer’s Almanac, with its tables of sunrise, sunset, weather forcasts, and random articles of practical knowledge. Here, Hodgman has created an almanac where you have to be always on your guard against what is true, what is entirely fabricated, and what is some persnickity, clever twist that comes out of left field. All of which have very limited practicality, unless you are Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a Yale grad, or someone in need of cultural references. “Lycanthropic Transformation Timetables” adorn the beginning of each chapter, in case you were wondering how much time you had to flee before a human would turn into a beast at the sight of the moon. 700 hobo names. Classes of dramatic situations, including “man vs. man”, “man vs. nature”, and “man vs. cyborg”. The combinations of omens and potents that would bring about Ragnarok, aka Swedish Armageddon. You get the idea. Hysterical, if you can deal with a cross between British humour and David Eggers. If not, you will find it insanely bewildering.

In all seriousness, Rosa Parks, who sparked the modern civil rights movement for not sitting in the back of the bus, passed away at 92. For all of us dreamers, you have our thanks.