First?

18/21 got 6, 19, and 20 wrong. Made a couple of good guesses, but I did know the first Canadian in space question, cause I just finished reading a book about the first twenty years of the Space Shuttle.

Today's Handy Vandal Tip- never use a nail gun to flatten someone's tires. Use a razor blade. Cut the heads off the valve stems. It's silent, it's fast, it's not so expensive if you get caught, and a razor blade is much easier to hide or toss away. Don't ask me how I know these things.

That book cover is hilarious. Gives me the willies (har har).

I think it's kind of interesting that the typeface on the cover is the old "orator" typeball font from the IBM selectrics, giving it that self-published look of back-woods manifestos and such.

Stopped in at The Trail and the comments were not full of hair singeing vitriol. Nicely done.

Good link too.

You know, the scandals of the '90's seem so...naive and innocent, compared to the incompetence we've endured for the last seven years.

My take on Lewinsky: Where in the holy he11 was her MOTHER? If a child of mine had done something as monumentally stupid as Monica did, I would have KILLED her. Cheerfully and with no remorse.

You know, I wish all we had to argue over these days was who's blowing who.

Or is it whom?

I'm so with you on that one, TBG. And of course you would know about the typeface on Willey's book. That's so totally 1975.

Good thing Willey didn't have a tango or entanglement with, say, Bush, because then she might have ended up with a chupacabra skull on her doorstep. The local CBS affiliate here, in a sweeps period just several weeks ago, spent six minutes hyping the lastest chupacabra story--also explaining that DNA testing showed the local beast, whose sad-looking head was shown, to be nothing more than a coyote with mange. What a strange Kit for Friday!

At least the topic of the Clintons provides a nice segue for later this morning to wrap up my comments about the Texas Book Festival. Who wowed 'em, socked 'em, and rocked 'em in Austin? As far as filling every available seat in the House Chamber, both on the floor and in the wrap-around gallery, and having potential audience members, lined up, grumbling and angry after being turned away at the chamber door for lack of seats--why Carl Bernstein talking about Hillary (and Bill) Clinton.

Katherine Wiley:
Lisa Rinna called and she wants her hair, make-up and collagen back.

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Lisa-Rinna-Posters_i1222122_.htm

SCC: Willey. Some sort of Freudian slip there.

My take on presidential BJs. I'd rather a president who gets them in the oval office than is one.

Reposting:

When marzipan goes horribly wrong...

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/071104/ids_photos_en/r24054791.jpg;_ylt=AuMKr6fHCTfchtLkjBCAVLJpaP0E

:-)

Interesting slideshow and comments about a new animal book _Creature_, also a link to a commentary by the photographer:

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/multimedia/2007/11/pl_creature

I must hang my head in shame and may have to turn in my Canadian membership card. 19/21 I choose wrong on my 2 guesses.

Whom, although it's rapidly dying out.

15/21 on the Canada quiz. Does this make me an honorary Canuckistani?

What I can't quite figure out is the business about the nailgun and Willey's tires. It is my understanding that there are basically only two kinds of nail guns: pneumatic, and electric. So in order to put a nail in somebody's tires, you not only need the nail gun -- you also need to have a fairly large air compressor and compressor tank trailing along with you. Or you need an electric gun, and a cord leading to (minimally) a mobile electric generator.

Additionally, either one makes a fair amount of noise, whereas a knife is silent. (Louder still would be a Hilti-gun type of thing, which would require a hammer and reloading time.)

I'm not saying it couldn't be done; I'm just sayin that IF it was done by an nail gun, it took a lot of "infrastructure" and planning to do it. Infinitely easier to just carry a knife of some kind, and slash 'em, or do it the K-guy way. But a nail gun? I just don't see it.

Ditto the animal skull. Are we to believe Hillary just happened to have one laying around the house? Or did she go out, trap an animal, suck the blood from it, skin it, boil off all the flesh, etc., just for this special occasion? What recipe did she use? Did she soak the carcass in brine and bay leaves, perhaps with a cinammon stick? No, I don't see it. I'm not saying it didn't happen; there's always some maroon somewhere who will do weird stuff. But there's no reason to think Hillary or Bill did it.

Only 12/21 on the Canucki quiz. I did get the War of 1812 one right, being a Baltimoron and all.

Nail guns now come cordless, Mudge. Get with the times, dude. As far as the skullduggery goes, the natural history museums frequently skin, boil, and debride flesh from bones, then finish up with time in a dermestid beetle colony to get those hard to reach places, and some sun bleaching to give that nice white color.

And a cat skull? Nobody could get a whole horse's head into the bed? Moonbats are so lame.

My wife can't find her kitchen timer (the little green Fiesta one) and I can't find the two screws to attach my telescope to its tripod.

I'm fairly certain that Bill & Hill had something to do with those incidents too.

21/21. Some of those were pretty hard, so for the Yanks I think getting half of them is pretty good. Well done Omni!

Scotty, isn't that the Michelin Man's second wife?

Spare two minutes this Sunday for those who served and those who died.

When small animal bits appear on one's doorstep the logical thought is to wonder what larger, nocturnal critter was skulking about-not what the president and first lady had to do with it.

Those of you wanting to start your own skull cleaning dermestid beetle colony will want to check out this outfit-
http://www.skulltaxidermy.com/kits.html
The super starter kit looks to me like the best deal, and remember that all these beetles are guaranteed mite-free! Don't forget to view the photos of the little dickenses at work on the bear skull. Thank goodness the Kurosawachick is grown and gone. She would be begging for one these for Xmas.

Unless they're the naughty bits, frostbitten...

:-)

Check out the very cool biohazard suit visual punch line your multimedia-mad image-slingin' blogger just added to the kit.

By the way: If you have a great photo -- less than about 464 pixels -- i could always add it to a blog item.

achenbachj@washpost.com

Whom.

I have a sneaking suspicion I know exactly where that biohazard suit pic came from...

'Cuz I was at that press event, wayyyyyyyyyy back when.

:-)

Dot.com's new columnist could use some good comments:

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/stumped/2007/11/unidentified_flying_candidates_1.html#comments

And actually, Joel, you've provided a Veteran's Day connection with that pic, since those were Marines providing the biohazard suit demonstration.

:-)

To be specific about images, you mean 460 pixels on a side, correct, Joel?

For example, Bogey's 354 x 450 pixels, for a grand total of 159,300...

I'm surprised that Rove didn't suggest that Hillary had the mystery skull just kicking around the Coven, a leftover from a recent Satanic ritual requiring an animal sacrifice...

Speaking of Rove, I think it's pretty cool that he can transmit information in and out of his new Batcave, deep in the TexaVoid. [more info on that here]:

http://www.10thcircle.com/10/?p=195

bc

You're asking for random pictures to include? Man, that's just getting carried away.

I'll look through my collection tonight.

Cheez, *good* comments, Joel?

Some of us don't perform well under pressure.

Fortunately, I don't have that problem. Still, I'll check the new column out, see what's what.

bc

A late good morning, friends. Still hacking and coughing, only this morning, a headache was thrown in the mix. Don't you love getting old? Scotty, I hope you're doing much better.

Gee, Ivansmom, that office sounds horrible. Run.

Did anyone read Eugene Robinson's this morning? I tell you, he definitely has the Decider down pat. You can't make that stuff up. I fear when this administration is over, and the new President is in office, we will find out some stuff that will make one shake his or her head. I hope we can hold on in the mean time.

Mudge, that veto will allow my small village to get some money for updating the water system, I think.

Slyness, I had to laugh at your remark about Monica and your daughter. I always wondered where that young woman's mother was too.

As for Katherine Wiley and a skull on her door, I don't know. She sounded so sincere when 60 Minutes did that interview. I think they did an interview. But I think we have to keep in mind that part of history belongs to Bill Clinton, not his wife. To make the link to the wife is a big leap, and I don't understand how one does that. It has been my experience that husbands cheat, but most of the time wives do not sanction that behavior even when they forgive them. The hurt from such behavior is too deep.

Have a good day, friends. The cable man just left, and left me with the same box. And this is the box that makes a noise like gunfire late at night, and then a couple of channels go out. I can see why that woman took a hammer to the cable office. Of course, I don't want to go there, but I can definitely understand her position. The last three months have been trying to say the least.

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

I like your point about relevance, Joel.

Do we argue about who's sleeping with who and what "is" is?

Or should we argue about who's torturing who and whether that's an appropriate thing for the country that's supposedly the light of "freedom" to be doing?

Or all your other points.

I so wish we could vote with b!tch slaps.

Did anyone see the quote from Dog the Bounty Hunter, where he states he thought he was cool enough with African-Americans that he could make the statement that he did? I have no idea what the statement is, although he has been accused of saying something bad, in the sense that it was racist. Somebody said, does Dog know that he is a white dude.

Quick question for the sci-fi buffs...

There was a novel I read years ago that dealt with an "end of the world" scenario and the main character is one of the very few survivors and goes around with a hammer (not a Thor hammer, but a claw hammer [or maybe it was a ball peen?]).

For the life of me I can't remember the author or the title.

Does anyone remember it? I was thinking of hitting the library tomorrow and that one's been on my mind.

martooni;

that character didn't wear parachute pants and dance a lot, did he?

(sorry, couldn't resist)

:-)

The sex scandals...what does it say that four occurred in the last seven years, and another four in the last 30 years? Is sex getting to be a bigger thing? Surely there have been scandals all along, why are these so big?

The list left out Warren Harding, I suppose his issues aren't significant enough.

I think Joel meant the image has to be less than 460 pixels wide so that it fits in the width of his template.

Alternately, he could always add a width switch to the img tag. For example, in my post about the Beijing Olympics Birds Nest post, I used a 1024 pixel wide image, but used width="512" in the HTML code so that it would fit on the page in most of the pages. That makes it appear on the screen one quarter the size of the actual image. If you click on the picture, the full size image will pop up in a new window.

http://livebythefoma.blogspot.com/2007/11/dirty-birds-nest.html

My blog template is variable width which reeks havoc when I have too many images in one post that are in fixed aligned float positions because they could overlap when readers have their browsers set very wide. That's why I will often alternate fixed right and fixed left images.

That FBI bit reminds me of one of my all-time least favorite shows, "Criminal Minds." This show drives me nuts because they manage to conclude with such certainty things about a person based on, you know, the person's taste in waffles. My wife has banished me from the living room when the show is on.

I get that a lot.

Outa here early today because I'm, you know, special. Up to the in-laws for a long three day weekend. Hope that everybody else has a good weekend also.

Just watch out for those animal skulls. I hear they're everywhere.

martooni, check out this list and see if it jumps out at you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_apocalyptic_and_post-apocalyptic_fiction#Novels

Boodling in haste. Nice Kit, lotsa links I hope to get to, pretty pictures. I just had to jump in and mention that I do, in fact, have an animal skull laying around the house. On top of the rocks in the entranceway planter, along with a bleached empty turtle shell. They go well with the Christmas poinsettias.

I heard the NPR piece last night on my drive home, with the incorrect "information" that she supposedly had not tipped and had not paid at the restaurant (by the way -- what about the statement that the waitress had been punished in her other job by her anti-Hillary boss? That sounds illegal, if true). It got me to thinking -- is there any amount by which Hillary could have tipped that would not feed a smear campaign, if the amount were publicly known at the outset?

(a) no tip -- Hillary is thoughtless and doesn't understand the needs of little people.
(b) 5% -- I would agree that this would be consciously cheapskate tipping.
(c) 15% -- boring, pedestrian, cheap for such a well-paid and well-funded person.
(d) 20% -- a faint, false, affectation of appreciation for the common man.
(e) 50% -- Sen. Clinton, have you really considered how much negative economic impact your visit placed on the Maid-Right and that waitress' hourly income?
(f) 100% -- what, you're trying to buy votes?
(g) 1000% -- yeah sure, I can come around to your campaign hotel at 10:30 tonight. You want I should bring my little sister, too?

The actual tip was $100/$157 = 64% tip. Perfect calibration. That's a nice tip, but reasonable for someone who has spent more than usual time serving a big crowd, talking with them, and providing invaluable political advice. Probably the wisest move was to tip well, but unobtrusively, as they apparently did. There probably are some people who will never forget the false fact that Hillary was too cheap to tip this waitress, but I doubt that such persons ever would vote for her under any circumstances.

I have my doubts about that list of novels. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" is neither apocalyptic nor post-apocalyptic, it is dystopian.

Thank you.

And where is "Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand" and "Dreamsnake" by Vonda N. McIntyre (http://www.vondanmcintyre.com/ )?

Georgette Heye sighting! Oh, Yoki and Maggie O'D., do read this!

BOOK PARAGRAPH, clipped from today's WaPo style section; see this book review of a Michael Dirda book:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/08/AR2007110802203.html

BEGIN QUOTE
Perhaps the most difficult thing about the "classics" is deciding what they are in the first place. Michael Dirda, whose taste is impeccable, has written a group of short essays, arranged under useful headings, about a rather iconoclastic and unusual roster of authors whom he regards as "classic." Some of them -- not many, frankly -- are books and writers almost any educated person would accept as "classic" by definition (if any such person other than Dirda still exists in the United States) -- "Beowulf," Sappho, Petronius, Heraclitus, Cicero; others will raise the average educated person's eyebrows in surprise: Edward Gorey, S.J. Perelman, Georgette Heyer, H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling . . . Well, I'm a huge Kipling fan myself and know whole chunks of it by heart (not that anybody these days wants to hear me recite them), but Georgette Heyer? The author of innumerable Regency romances too genteel and stilted to be classed as "bodice-rippers"? END QUOTE.

This writer, Michael Korda, is so wrong!

SciTim,

It's Wikipedia. Go ahead and add it. And take "Do Androids..." off while you're at it.

I made a bio-hazard suit as my Halloween custome this year. All the way down to a hat with protective mosquito netting. I think I scared the heck out of everyone who walked into my hotel. But I sure had fun. I guess I will grow up when I turn 50........well maybe not.

I'd say don't take it off. Isn't it set in 1992 San Francisco after the "World War Terminus" destroyed much of Earth. It may be Dystopic, but it is also post-apocalyptic.

I agree with your tipping scale. If I were and independently wealthy public figure that was frequently slandered, I would make sure every check had a 50% tip on it. Lavish without being absurd.

CP, this is a MAN talking. You know, the kind of people who think the world of Hemingway...don't pay any attention to Mr. Korda. We'll read Heyer and Austen and Sayers and Christie and Alcott forever. Nobody will remember HIM.

Slyness, I was just going to comment, but you said that so much better than I could have.

Don't know about your implicit sexism there dr and slyness. Jonathon Yardley just wrote a tribute to the Laura Ingalls Wilder books:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/07/AR2007110702595.html

Darn, I forgot Wilder! Thanks for the reminder, yello, and the link. I loved all her books, but These Happy, Golden Years was my favorite.

I tend to get my back up over these things because I had a college professor who turned his nose up at Alcott. He did give me an A on my paper analyzing how Mac Campbell was an Transcendental hero, though. He was a Hemingway scholar. Thank heavens machismo is passe these days.

I'm delighted to see Jonathan Yardley discussing Wilder, and saying that Little Women is a better book than Little Men. IMHO, Little Women is the best book Alcott wrote. I have them all. In fact, my copy of Little Women completely fell apart and I had to replace it.

Just had a forehead slapping "duh" moment when I realized I could "ask the boodle."

If you had $6,000 to spend on 5 PCs and monitors what would you buy? Some background info.
The computers are for a community tech center/library.
We want to take advantage of wireless technology wherever possible because the tech center may move multiple times in the next two years while the building is renovated.

Suggestions please.

Well, if you're asking those of us who work in Washington, frosty, what we'd normally do is just embezzle the $6,000 amd blow it on Neiman-Marcus, booze, and/or call girls. But hey, that's just Washington. People elsewhere might do something else.

Mudge-thanks. The next time I'm whining about city council members asleep at the switch, and lack of fiscal oversight, I'll remember we'd have to climb our way down to reach DC levels. A spew alert wouldn've been appropriate though.

SCC: would've not wouldn've (which students have tried to argue is the appropriate contraction for "would not have")

frosti, new or used equipment?

bc

frosti, With the promotion package I received, the desktop including monitor is around $500 or less, and a reliable laptop is also about $500. With the big names like HP(Compaq), Dell, Acer(Gateway), you can check the website for educational discount or bundling package deal. Call them up with toll free numbers. With Christmas shopping near, there are lots of discounts available.

Frosti my latest PC at work is an ACER as is our Laptop, I have not had any complaints and the price was very good.

frosti, Also check if they waived the shipping and handling fee. Some vendors do this in the promotion during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season. That's another saving of $50-90 for each order.

Frostbitten;

I'd go with desktops; more processor and hard drive for the buck, even with having to add a WiFi card. Don't forget the wireless router and the security suite, of course.

:-)

We are buying new and can get the discount rate from Dell and Gateway that they give to the Midwestern Higher Ed. Compact.

Looking for suggestions on brand, must have vs. not worth the $ configurations. If you could spend up to $1200 for computer and monitor what would you buy? (If they turn out to be cheaper we'll just buy more)

Also, check to see if they have any of those new "green" computers that run on ethanol, saw grass, or cords of split oak firewood. Maybe also those pellets thingees.

About today's kit, this phrase sent me into giggles:

But her resurfacing is a reminder that all that 1990s stuff...

put me in mind of this:

But her skin resurfacing is a reminder that all this 1990s stuff can be acid-washed away...

More seriously, how will they be used? Doing any RAM-intensive graphics work? Do you need larger (17-inch or more) monitors? Or just "the usual"? What software will you be running? I'd guess just the basic Office suite, plus various library databases. Should require too much special add-ons.

I don't think I'd spend more than $700 or $800 or so for each system.

As scotty says, save some of the money for software, wireless set-up, etc. What about printer(s)?

I'm guessing the five computers would be networked to a common server?

Mudge-we are seriously looking at stationary bicycles as power generators. Mr. F has all the technical specs and parts lists left from when he was going to have Frostdottir earn her TV time.

SCC: Shouldn't require too much special add-ons.

frostbitten, before I went to Dell or HP, I'd talk to CompUSA or a similar computer supply store and find out how much it would cost for them to build them. You might be suprised that the price is not much higher than buying off-the-shelf at, say BestBuy (don't do it!), and you can negotiate a extended maintenance and service plan (which, face it, you'll need it). Imagine having real people coming over to fix your computers, rather than a friendly help desk person on the other side of the planet advising you to "run a diagnostic program."

I just gotta ask. That's Dana Milbank in the background, but who modeled the "legs" for that WaPo photo?

Wow! Frostbitten, have you EVER received such fast service on ANYTHING?

re: my last post. I was commenting on the many and quick responses to frostbitten's questions.

I'm going back to work now. Tah!

Good questions Mudge. The problem is we're not sure. We've had our Comm. Tech Center open since early May with school district owned computers (4 limping PCs and a dozen old, old iMacs). What we do at the Center thus far has been determined by what the computers are able to do. We know we will want to be able to run a lot Internet based educational stuff, some of which is very heavy with graphics.

Frostbitten;

I totally agree w/CowTown on seeing what the office stores can build for you. The major chains often cram lots of crap into the preconfigured PCs.

:-)

Thanks for the office store tip CowTown and S'nuke and everyone for suggestions and super swift response. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions later.

frosti, I don't have anything to add to what's been posted already.

bc

OK, that's all taken care of. Let's get back to the meaty, existential stuff: whose legs are those?

C'mon, people: FOCUS.

'Mudge, considering the scandal angle, those might be a man's legs.

Jes' sayin.

:-)

Should add this about CompUSA:
I think all of those in and around DC have been closed within the past year or so.

Nearest open store is in Colombia, MD, which is closer to Baltimore than DC...

Personally, I don't think their long-term prospects are very good.

bc

Kerric has advised me whatever you do, make sure you have 2 gigs of ram, and not less. The chip size, hard disc size, those things, he claims that whatever is on the market will be fine, just make sure your RAM is 2 Gigs.

Oh and do desktops. For your use, a laptop will be too protable which means they have a greater chance of walking, and desktops face the blue screen of death a lot more often than a stationary system.

The last is personal observation, but laptops seem to die at the drop of a hat.

That's just too horrible to contemplate, scotty.

dr's 3:36 is right. Besides, laptops cost $300 to $600 or more for the same thing, and you're paying for features (small size and portability) you neither need or want.

Winona Ryder as a Vulcan mother...

http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=283451>1=7701

Yep, I can see that.

:-)

I do believe Horrible Contemplation is available as a Boodle handle.

:-)

Snuke, do I remember correctly that Jane Wyman played Spock's mother in the original series?

AND

Laura Ingalls Wilder is a writer dear to my heart. I don't care who wrote them. The set of books has its own shelf in a place where no books can have their own shelves. I've often thought that some of my love for all things hand done comes from there. But its not sexism, yellowjkt, but for the 'MAN' part (which any woman can tell you...I digress).

The Heyer books are exactly the same as the Wilder books in that they reveal of past times. Clothes, manners, patterns of speech, way of life long gone, these are the things these 2 writers put us in touch with.

You know the part in Big Woods where the dad is butchering a hog? I always wanted to give the bladder ballon a try. Dad was reluctant as is mr dr.

Just think, you could try it and be the first dad on your block...

You do indeed remember correctly, Slyness.

:-)

Heinous SCC alert.

Laptops FACE the Blue screen of death more. LAPTOPS.

What picture? Whose legs? Help me out here; I'm barely keeping up. I'm still back on the skulls and the nutcase.

And I LOVE the "profiling" comments. Let's talk about unhelpful experts and unreliable witnesses, shall we? On second thought, nutcase politics and skulls are easier to take on Friday afternoon.

dr, my copies of Little House are so old, the price on them is $.95. That's right, ninety-five cents.

And in The ST movies.

Sorry, ivansmom. The Wapo home page is intermittently running photos to accompany the Dana Milbank piece on locations of famous Washington scandals ("The Capital of Scandal"). In one of them, Milbank (in trenchcoat) is standing in a blurry background, and in the foreground are a woman's legs, in high heels.

I am certain these are NOT the legs of Gene Weingarten or Joshua Bell. But if they were outside the L'Enfant Plaze Metro Station on a busy morning, more people would stop to look than stopped for Joshua Bell. A lot more.

Also of note for notebooks or laptops is the higher repair cost average. This is due to the time it take to take the little buggers apart, and the fact that if something fails (which happens quite often) everything is integrated into the motherboard, so it gets replaced for most repairs.

Also like Cowtown and Scottynuke stated avoid the big names if price and warranty are the same, as they tend to flood the initial setup with pointless programming (anyone ever had to try and get rid of the google desktop eula?)

Joel writes:
By the way: If you have a great photo -- less than about 464 pixels -- i could always add it to a blog item.

I may take you up on the offer, Joel, and hold off until Monday writing about the Texas Book Festival. Loomispouse's new plaything is a digital camera, and he was practicing with it at Austin last weekend. He got lots of good snapshots of Bernstein (taking some through the crack in the corner of the dais when Bernstein was seating before rising to address the crowd), so many that he joked about creating a Carl Bernstein screensaver.

So, it's highly likely that we'll put the photo and text in an e-mail to you on Monday. "By adding them to a blog item," I'm not sure if you mean a Kit or a Boodle comment, so I'm assuming the latter?

Frostbitten, I would suggest that you scrap the PC concept and go with the Mac mini. Yes, I know that I'm biased, but there are good reasons.

(1) You say you are doing internet-based stuff. That means remote computing or Java, so you are not committed to any particular hardware platform, anyway.

(2) WiFi is built-in. Browser is built in. You have your choice of at least 5 widely available browasers that are completely free (Safari, Firefox, Mozilla, Navigator, Explorer -- actually, isn't Explorer discontinued?).

(3) The Mac is committed to backwards-compatibility, at least for a longer period of time than PC's. My spiffy modern Mac is still running a contact-manager copyrighted 1992. Show me a PC that will do that without special efforts. My data are collected by a Mac manufactured in 1994. My observation is that the reason you see old Macs still in use for so long is because they CAN still be used for a lot longer than PC's. PC's are cheaper to start with, but you are forced to buy a new one much sooner. Penny-wise, pound-foolish.

(4) Macs really are easier to learn to use. Most people coming to a community-center are computer-ignorant. Apple expends considerable resources on thinking about HOW people use a computer, and how they WANT to use it.

(5) Apple hardware is designed better. Meaning, it is impossible to plug a device into the wrong port, it is easy to get to the appropriate slot to install more memory or replace a hard drive, and so on. I have had some experience with the computer+monitor packages in the PC world. I have found that there are some rather startling oversights in the hardware of the monitors, things that other manufacturers figured out 10 years or more ago. I have found monitors that work with my Mac, but require special hardware set-up with the PC. It's just plain easier on the Mac.

(6) And, most importantly (drumroll please): IT security. Let me see, how many virus problems have I had on my Mac in 17 years. Hmmm, thinking, thinking... Oh, yeah, I remember: zero. Not one. Not on my work computer, not on our home computer(s). Not on my colleagues' computers. Back in the mid-90's, I think somebody once got one of the MS Word macro viruses. Quickly eliminated. All anti-virus software, and Word itself, now routinely screen out macro viruses. Even the Mac versions of Outlook and Entourage seem to be free of the Viruses that are daily life in the PC versions of these programs.

A basic Mini will set you back $600. Get an LCD monitor of decent size, that's another $400. Keyboard and mouse for $100, and you have a complete highly-capable package for $1100. Set-up consists of plugging in the parts and turning it on.

Give some thought to the manpower available to police and maintain these machines. The manpower to maintain a stable of PC's will offset any savings you get by purchasing a cheap PC. My IT department consists of me. About once per year, I have a question for our IT staff, that takes about 2 minutes to deal with. That's it. You can get the same expertise with a phone call to an Apple store.

I'm not sure that Winona Ryder can play the Vulcan mother of Spock since it was his dad that was Vulcan and his mom was human. I vulcan hate it when vulcan nitwits get the vulcan Trek trivia wrong. What a vulcan bunch of vulcan losers.

Wyman was completely unable to master the split finger "Live long and prosper" Vulcan salute and the crew had to tape her fingers together to achieve the effect.

"Ads by Google
$700 Round Trip To India"

Clever Google knows where the "support" folks are located.

Dang, k-guy, I can do that with both hands!

Wasn't it the lady playing Tapau (spelling anyone?) that had the finger issue? In fact IIRC, that is the first episode where the split fingers are used.

I'm going to have to bring the books to the office. Wonder what the boss will say.

My thoughts, too, YK....Jane Wyman was earthling mommie with Marin St. Landau the intense Vulcanic daddie.

Oh DR, if we could only knit and read Heyer at the same time......joy.

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However, there is a gigantic difference between Jane Wyman playing Spock's mother, and Winona Ryder playing Spock's Vulcan mother: Spock's mother was human. Unless you go with the story-line of the spin-off novel in which Spock is the result of laboratory work to combine human and Vulcan genetics, in which case it might make sense for him to have a Vulcan birth-mother, and which makes a heck of a lot more sense than direct reproduction between species that evolved on separate planets.

Now that we are talking trek, I will tell this: long ago and far away I saw three albums on display at the WhereHouse record store in CA, circa 1978:

William Shatner singing/speaking as he covered some hits, including "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

Leonard Nimoy -- folk songs of some sort, not to be confused with Leonard Cohen.

Rod McKuen -- very earnest spoken poetry mixed with Cole Porter songs.

Notable exception to the idea of Apple superiority is that it took them TWENTY-TWO FREAKING YEARS to get away from the one button mouse.

CP, have you tried a cookbook stand? I have a really quality stand (paid bigger bucks than I want to reveal for it - mr dr may be reading, and Kerric sure is) and it works just fine. My problem is that I have to sit so close to read that it impedes my knitting and vice versa.

I have thought seriously about the books with the big printing. Audio books give you someone else's interpretation not your won.

CP, I have heard the Shatner and McKuen albums, and we ain't talkin' Trek, we're talkin' dreck!

Rod McKuen, now there's a name from the past that should STAY in the past!

K-guy, my dear dad used to buy Rod McKuen things to touch my poetic mother's heart. She could not bear to tell him that she could not stand it.

Dreck is right.

Oh, DR, I am such a juvee knitter. I must look at the needles! I knitted today in class while my students reviewed some documents and re-wrote some of their earnest dreck.

omni... that link did the trick. Thanks!

"Earth Abides" by George R. Stewart.

Frosti... see if you can get the machines without an operating system and then buy or download a Linux OS -- that'll save you big bucks on the software side and the "Open Office" suite is compatible with Microsoft's Office and behaves much in the same way (minus the hourly crashes and ignorant little "Clippy" bugger).

I personally run Fedora Core 6 (http://www.redhat.com) on an older Compaq with a Pentium 4 chip and even Mrs. M. can't tell the difference. I told her I upgraded Windows and she's none the wiser. It's also an easy install... just feed it the CD's and you can install one copy on as many boxes as you want. FC6 does a pretty good job of picking up appropriate drivers for all your attached hardware -- I just installed a new Brother laser printer here the other day and it was fairly painless. There's the added benefit of having a very secure system -- nobody can install anything without the root password and it's got built-in firewalling, multi-user file protection, blah blah blah.

And yinz just thought I was a woodworker.

There are other flavors of Linux out there besides Fedora, but seriously, I'd check several of them out. Considering Windows + Office can run into the hundreds per seat, you might be able to afford another PC or two with the software savings.

A low moment in Mr. Nimoy's career:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC73PHdQX04

You know, thinking of books which reveal times long past, there was a book, called 'Mrs. Mike' which I first read for a book report in grade school. I've gone through several copies of it over the years.

If you have not read it, it is an amazing tale of the north in the very early minutes of the last century. A girl from Boston goes to live with her uncle in the foothills near Calgary, and marries a mountie. She goes to the Northwest Territories with him to his postings, and follows through much joy and sorrow. It reads like fiction but is a true story. If you have not read it, do.

Slyness, I'd search long and hard for some of those. My oldest is a copy of Farmer Boy from the 60's, and I have a 70's copy of Big Woods. The rest are just paparbacks. Wanna trade?

...but did you BUY those albums, CP???!!

Jeez, Rod McKuen. Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows. The height, the epitome, of 60s seduction poetry, when you needed (desperately) to convince that certain (female) someone that you had a sensitive side. Read "Stanyan Street" or "Girl" to her, and ...and...

*sigh* So good. So awful.

Re Linux, several students report great success with SuSe. I cannot get this to work on a very old machine and am playing with Ubuntu...but you may need a Martooni-consultancy to get this all going. Open source is very cool, however, and I am sliding that way as money and time permit.

Huh, I thought using a roach clip was the sign of sensitivity.

Hey, William Shatner did a song, I Can't Get Behind That, that is really funny. The eponymous album is also funny, and much of it is apparently intended to be that way, too. You can find the title song on those online music places which I don't understand, but Ivansdad and the Boy navigate daily.

No, Mudge, I did not buy the albums. But you are right about the seduction poetry. There are related wares, like a poster of the Desiderata on the dorm wall instead of Farah Fawcett Majors, or an open copy of Khalil Gibran's _The Prophet)_ fanned out on the desk....I don't know what students do now, they are so deconstructed as to not need poetry or a recording of Bolero.

Check out TBG's photoshop work, now added to kit.

Hey! Nice one, TBG and Joel! Earl the Dead Cat - we have one of those. I gave it to Ivansdad before we were married. It is the only cat he's ever liked.

TBG -- hilarious and where did you find that crushed velvet kitty?

What a way to start the weekend. Thanks.

LOL! Excellent work, TBG!

I hope you never do that at the beginning of a day, boss.

I don't know who first linked to Arts and Letters Daily, but thank you. Man, do I like that page.

All kinds of interesting stuff.

K-guy, believe it or not, Stanyan Street was pretty much pre-roach clip. It was 1966-- and grass was just slowly creeping into the college culture, only about a year or so earlier. That was back in the extreme --and I mean EXTREME -- paranoia days, when you closed the blinds, double-bolted the door, and told NOBODY what you were doing.

IIRC, the aphrodisiac of choice (amongst we sensitive-but-sophisticated males, anyway) in that memorable year was a bottle of Mateus rosé. Yes, indeedy, folks. Mateus. In the funny bottle. It showed you "knew how to order wine" in a restaurant.

Now, the other all-important vintage was Ruffino chianti, because when the wicker-covered bottle was empty, you'd put one of those multi-colored candles in it that was designed to drip and make a "colorful" addition to one's boudoir of seduction (Room 368 in Alumni Hall, Your College USA, overlooking the quad, or wherever it was). Light up one of those babies (two, if you need more light to read McKuen by), slip Feliciano's "Light My Fire" on the ol' stereo, slip a glass of Mateus, and let the magic happen.

Rugburn City.

[He probably thinks I'm makin' this up.]

Yes, well... anything to avoid real work, right?

Thanks, boss!

Brilliant TBG. Best laugh of the day.

Boss, if I'd known that's what you were looking for when you mentioned sending pictures...

I still couldn't have offered anything half as good. Great work TBG.

Does this mean the kit will change throughout the day every day and be like, you know, interactive?

SCC: Nope, "Light My Fire" was 1968. Co, "Bolero" didn't become widely known as seduction music intil the movie "10" came out in 1979.

No, for 1966 the music was probably "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme." Probably the key tune was "For Emily, Whenever I may Find Her." With "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" a suitable fallback.

Many a guy owes a debt to Art Garfunkle.

Ah Mateus. It was the first wine that could be had in our small liquor store at the back of the hardware store that did not come in bottles. Well perhaps that is not true. You could always buy Manishewitz Kosher, and Chateau- Gai white.

Everything else came in gallon jugs and was named exotic things like Four Aces, and Double Jack.

Mudge, you did have the red and white checked table cloth over the top of a box or other fake furniture to serve your fair lady dinner off of, or to recline upon, whilst whispering sweet nothing in her ear right?

I killed it again, didn't I?

Not dead, dr... just watching last night's "30 Rock."

Thank god.

> Texas Book Festival

I gave 'em a hundred bucks and didn't win the Mercedes. Pfeh!

There are 3 people left in the building. Its always like this Fridays. We support staffers remain to support but everybody who can come up with a lame excuse to have a 'meeting' leaves by 3.

We're going to race to see who has to set the alarm.

Great work TBG.

I have a picture of a party my parents held when I was very young. They turned our basement into some sort of European cafe, complete with checkered table clothes, Mateaus bottles, some nifty candle holders and my mom dress like the female lead in American in Paris (sorry I have forgotten her name). I cannot think about Mateaus without that image coming to mind.

dmd... reading your description of your mom and her party makes me smile. Thanks for sharing that.

I went to Wikipedia for that list, trying to help Martooni, as I am a major SF reader. No luck. A hammer, eh? I can't help. But I saw there a statement that Walter Miller had written a sequel to Canticle for Liebowitz, called, get this: "Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman." Oh man, I was SURE this was vandalism of the site. And kind of amusing, too. To my surprise, I find it's true...

The battery-operated nail guns, while common now, were pretty rare when all that Clinton business happened. But it sounds wrong. Someone professional enough to use an advance model of nail gun not in wide use, but bizarre enough to use it when as is pointed out, it is certainly not the most efficient way to flatten a tire. Sounds fishy.

Hillary should have just punched him on nationwide TV. A full bore, lean-into-it knuckle buster. Right in his big nose. Alas, I think the time for that has passed. Heck, I'd vote for her if she'd done that.

Rove was right about the Democrats. If they were effective, they would have impeached Bush and Cheney by now, and took their pants off, along with Rove's as well, and dropped them all off in downtown Baghdad sometime this last summer to fend for themselves.

I also respectfully submit that this is probably not the best place to get informed opinions on Dog the bounty hunter, except that I, Jumper, after watching his show for 5 minutes once and not again, can say that all I know is that he seems to be aptly named. (With apologies to Willbrodog!)

CP and Mudge... the "Bolero" references almost caused me to spray Paisano all over my keyboard and monitor.

Since we're down to one 'puter here, that could have been disastrous.

Or a serendipitous strike to increase my productivity in the shop (which is very cold, by the way).

When "10" came out, my parents ran out and bought a Ravel cassette with the infamous "Bolero" on it. All I can say is that even though it's a wonderful piece of music, I can't listen to it without my brain adding squeaking mattress springs to the mix and reaching desperately for the inner eye bleach.

Parents are just not supposed to *do* those kinds of things (especially when their son's bedroom is right below theirs).

And people wonder why I am the way I am...

BLEACH! BLEACH! PLEEEEASE!

btw... add a new country to my global fairy door business's reach... got one going to Australia tomorrow.

Already shipped several to France, Germany, the UK and Canada (I have to check my records, but I think one went to New Zealand already, too).

This is just too cool.

I keep humming that ZZ Top song, "I'm ba-ad.... and nationwide". Except I'm international, so that would be "nations wide".

Jumper... it was definitely "Earth Abides".

The hammer played a central role -- the main character found it very useful as not just a tool, but a weapon and talismanic thing, too. He carried it with him everywhere and IIRC, passed it on as a tribal symbol when he died -- almost like it was a scepter.

I really got to get to the library tomorrow.

*Faxing martooni some bleach left over from the last time I mentioned to my son that he was breast fed.*

LOL, TBG. He'll outgrow that reaction about the time his first child is born.

I went to the restroom after dinner this evening, and there was a mom with a seven-week-old sitting on the bench. I oooed and aahhed a little, but the baby was ready to plug in, so I left them alone to do their business. When I was plugging mine in, I covered up with a baby blanket and didn't bother to go to the restroom.

Knew a lady who told the kids she was "pulling a splinter out of their dad's finger last night."

The fact that the Wiki apoloyptic entry had no J.G. Ballard references was extremely disappointing. The Crystal World alone is a great Greene/Conrad knock-off/tribute. Required reading.

Dr, if you're into little house stuff, you might like Caddie Woodlawn by Carolyn Brink (which actually won a newbury award), as it is heavily biographical. I like it better than the Little House series.

I also like the Herriot series for the same period "color".

Unfortunately I must be a young Canadian, I got 10/21 on that quiz. Some of it I might have known if I had been older and lived it a bit more.

But as I keep saying, Americans need to study a little Canadian history on the side anyway. Like, our books mention France and England, but when it comes to Canada it might be a small footnote in the French and Indian war, and how we tried to take Quebec and failed during the revolutionary war. (And in the war of 1812, which I also guessed at.)

(1) I have a colleague who is a big fan of Ubuntu. You don't want to know what else she is a fan of, but trust me -- you won't find it titillating.

(2) yellojkt, I apologize for coming in late after your comment about vulcan idiots who don't know their vulcan Trek history. What vulcan morons, man.

(3) but Spock's father, Sarek, was played by Mark Leonard, not Martin Vulcan Landau. Mark Leonard also played the Romulan commander on the first Romulan episode of Star Trek: The Actual Series. Sadly, I have forgotten the episode's name.

(4) crc comments that it took Apple 22 years to package the Mac with a more-than-1-button mouse, and views this as finally correcting a major oversight. crc is dead wrong:
(a) Apple still packages the Mac with a 1-button mouse, only.
(b) This is not a defect. If your keyboard had an unlabeled key, whose properties change from place to place and program to program, wouldn't it annoy you? Why is it better to put an unlabeled key, that must be differentiated from another unlabeled key, on the mouse?
If you want it, it has been possible for you to put a multi-button mouse/trackpad/pointing device on your computer since, like forever. I got a 3-button trackpad in 1994 and I had a 3-button trackball for a year or two before that. It was unnecessary. The MacOS is designed so that you basically never need more than one button on your mouse. The mouse button means "Do whatever the thing that you are pointing at is supposed to do." Frankly, what more do you need? I think it's compensation for having a small... you know. "CPU."

SCC: apoloyptic = apocalyptic

Oh, BTW, apparently the fifth column has teeth in Pakistan. Internet is making a modern-day totalarian control over media rather tricky.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071109/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_tv_fights_back

ScienceTim,
I've been contemplating Mac Minis for a while. But I think a monitor upgrade comes first. A super-cheap 22-inch monitor from last year's Black Friday showed the benefits of having lots of space, so now I'm willing to contemplate something a bit grander.

I was at home napping all day, thanks to what appears to be a gout attack in a knee. No idea why that's caused such intense sleepiness.

In the yard, obedient plants (Physostegia) proliferated over the past year, and there's a sizeable patch of purple flowers.

Just catching up...

Er, *Tim, the late actor who played Sarek (amongst many other roles in the various ST TV series and movies) spelled his last name 'Lenard,' not 'Leonard.'

And I believe that episode where Lenard played the Romulan Commander was the classic "Balance of Terror," IIRC.

A subtle WW II/Cold War parable... about as subtle as a brick to the temple. Still, it's one of my favorites.

bc

Any late night boodlers up may be interested in Hitchcock's "the Birds" which just started on AMC.

I'm kinda astounded a train derailment over the Anacostia, where the bridge itself may have been in poor repair prior to the accident, and where you have coal and stuff spilling into the river (although that might improve the river chemistry, ya nevah know), only rates a short piece on the inside of the Metro section.

This grammatical nightmare brought to you by the magical coffee bean.

*long weekend Grover waves* :-)

*insomniac waves*

*dog walker waves back*
Got two blog posts to write this morning. I have to explain why Maureen Dowd didn't lose the election for Al Gore and announce that my son got accepted to Georgia Tech.

Mark Leonard played a Romulan Commander who conducted the incursion of 2266. He remained unnamed. The episode name is Balance of Terror. And, in his days as Sarek on the TNG episode, he melds minds with Picard, not Troi. My bad. No internet search required, just had to hit the books. I'm embarrassed on occasion at how much I retained about Star Trek.

Way to go Son of YJ. clapclapclapclapclapclapclapclap

Good morning, all.

Hate to Boodle and run, but there it is.

bc

Obviously I am skipping posts, and missed bc's note.

On the upside, my internet accelerator service is fighting with my virus program, and I'm getting the intermittent message 'Error on page'. I take a great deal of comfort in that.

Congrats to son of yello.

Norman Mailer has passed away. He lived a full life, that's for sure. This is an excellent obit:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/10/AR2007111000518.html?hpid=topnews

Congratulations, yellojkt and family! Enjoy that sigh of relief and that magical period between acceptance and tuition payments--it's the best of times.

RIP Normal Mailer. I told me husband I thought Mailer was already dead and he said, "Yeah.. Naked and Dead."

Congrats to son of yellojkt, who may also be known henceforth as yellojkt, thus adding confusion.

Congratulations to son of Yellow and the Yellow family - big celebration planned.

We at dmd house celebrated the selection of both our kids of the monthly Principal award, for their classe. The award is more for their character than acedemics but it has long been a goal for the older child and there was much excitement.

Mornin' all...

Let me add my congrats for yellojkt's son. I used to drive past GA Tech every day to work when I lived down that way and knew quite a few grads from there. I hope he doesn't get too distracted by all the fun stuff to do in Atlanta.

I don't think I've ever read Mailer, but I hate to see artists and authors pass away -- even if he did make it to 84. Sounds like he was a real bugger -- almost Buchowski-ish.

I'm off to the shop... orders are literally piling up and I'm about to start pulling out hair (I still refuse to cut it). The goal is to make 8 doors today, but it's a wee chilly out there. Even with a heater my fingers go numb (or am I getting carpal tunnel?).

Peace out :-)

Martooni -- great about the fairy door bonanza. Today, I WILL figure out how to turn my heat on.

I also indulged in a rent-a-roto=tiller and will plant about one hundred daffy bulbs and about fifty Hyperion day lilies. My self-diagnosis is a gentle madness for blooming.

New kit, Saturday boodlers.