• Click on panhandler's Flickr link on the sidebar for some interesting oil-spill-related photos. And by the way there's a whole set devoted to Emmitt.

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  • Probably you'll either fall over laughing at this or hate it. I fell over laughing. If you hate it, don't let it drive you into a hate spiral. (Warning: profanity) http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/05/sneaky-hate-spiral.html However, I really don't sympathize much with anyone who doesn't like "La Bamba."

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  • Sunday Night Journal — June 7, 2010 I keep a list of planned topics for this journal, and this has been on the list for a while—for something close to a year, in fact, as I just discovered by looking through my email. It was in June of last year that Dale Nelson sent me…

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  • Issues

    I'm not sure when the word "issue" became a synonym for "problem." I know I first heard it when I worked for a high-tech company. In meetings with technical support, we would have a list of "issues" to be addressed. I think it was later that I heard it used to describe personal problems, as…

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  • Weekend Music I’ve been too busy for some weeks now to post one of these; this one has been on my mental list for a while. My friend Anja pointed me to this song by Pekka Streng, a Finnish musician who died in 1975 at the age of 26. The title is something like “I…

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  • I mentioned in the previous post that I would say more about the Alabama governor’s race. You may have seen headlines saying that a black candidate, Representative Artur Davis, was defeated in his run for the Democratic nomination. No doubt casual (i.e. ignorant) observers will see that and think “Well, of course, it’s Alabama, and…

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  • Primary elections are being held in Alabama today. I voted for people with the above names: Huey "Hoss" Mack for Baldwin County Sheriff, Twinkle Cavanaugh for Alabama Public Service Commissioner, and Luther Strange for Alabama Attorney General. The funny thing about "Hoss" Mack is that he looks like an accountant. (Non-U.S. or maybe non-Southern readers: "Hoss," a mispronunciation…

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  • Sunday Night Journal — May 30, 2010 Friday night when I went for my usual walk to the bay with the dogs there was a car, a dark red Ford Explorer, parked in the turnaround at the end of the street. It’s not unusual for teenagers to come down here on weekend nights and have…

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  • It took a second for today’s Arlo and Janis strip to sink in on me. I think it’s one of the most poignant Memorial Day statements I’ve ever seen.

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  • The May issue of The New Criterion contains a typically memorable essay by Anthony Daniels comparing Swift and Johnson, specifically with respect to the deep pessimism about human affairs that they held in common. I laughed at this passage, which describes a psychological pattern with which I am very familiar: That life is a trial…

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