Consumer report

When we are at the supermarket together, I let Chef Ereck handle the decisions. Meanwhile, I wander around and use my crappy cell phone camera to photograph sights that amuse me. Recent examples:

Any'tizers. You thought chicken fries were best served just before the main course. But you thought wrong. They're best served any'time. Try rousing yourself from sleep some night for a batch of Any'tizers. You won't be sorry.


Pizza-Burger. Who doesn't love pizza? And who doesn't love burgers? And who doesn't love a cheese center? Two things gratify me about this creation: 1) It's a product of St. Francis, Wis. By my count it traveled only 84 food miles! Attention locavores. 2) Reduced fat.


Deeply snarky subhed on the front page of The Sunday Times. "She once said to me that she should never have married into a German family."

Good word

"In 1993, when Bill Clinton tried to do the right thing by allowing gays and lesbians in the military to be themselves, a predecessor of Mullen’s, Colin Powell, directed the embarrassingly public and retrograde rebellion by the generals against it, leading a conga line of heavy brass over to the White House to tell the president not to exercise his authority as commander in chief and order an end to one of the last vestiges of discrimination in the armed forces. Powell helped shape the gutless compromise that those who protect our country must live by a code of honor even while they’re legally bound to be less than honest."

-- Maureen Dowd

Everything's gone in life; nothing is left

Existence was tough in the old West, as was romance.

Like oh my god

It's not dating well, the homophobia of Moon's discourse about her English teacher, "Mr. Bufu," but it makes me laugh anyway.

Police action

Time to introduce a new series to Back With Interest. It's called Stars on 45. It features cover art from seven-inch vinyl records I collected in, oh, 1988, mostly. To ring in the new year, I give you this obscurity.

To everything there is a season dept.

Impressed by Mariah Carey's unsmiling performance as a social worker in Precious, I asked Ereck as we left the theater, "NOW can we see Glitter?" (Answer: Yes.)

The last roundup

Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fitting swansong for Heath Ledger. Read my review.