Waterboarding...

Playboy journalist Mike Guy did something I've wondered about: he volunteered to undergo waterboarding to see how bad it could possibly be. I don't mean that I'd volunteer to do this, even as a controlled experiement. I've been convinced from the beginning that waterboarding IS torture, but I've wondered why some of the more outspoken defenders of this "interrogation technique" haven't volunteered to do what Mike Guy did, if it's just a matter of not being a pussy. Mike Guy says in the beginning of this video that he bet he could withstand 15 seconds of being waterboarded, reasoning that anyone can stand anything for 15 seconds. Watch the results. I'm in favor of appointing a special prosecutor.

The Voice of an Angel...Susan Boyle

OK, I'm hooked, and for so many reasons, but the first is her incredible voice. I will certainly queue up to buy her first CD. If by some chance you haven't heard her yet, hit play, sit back, and enjoy. You're in for a real treat.

going Commando?

photo from Google Images

Men's Underwear Sales Reveal Economic Shrinkage
This is the lead story on The Huffington Post right now (I am not making this up!). It seems that there's a correlation between sales of men's underwear and the state of the economy, with any dip in the sales of men's underwear signalling a downward turn in the economy. This is apparently an Alan Greenspan metric, and if you believe it, then I guess it's bad news that the leading global research company, Mintel, projects a 2.3 percent drop in sales of all men's underwear products in 2009...

LOLA

photo from Lola's website

Tonight I took A out for dinner to celebrate his birthday at my favorite restaurant, LOLA.

We each had a glass of glass of white and a glass of red with our dinner, which for A consisted of:

Peeky toe crab with avocado, grapefruit and watercress
Egg yolk ravioli with 72 hour short rib, spinach and toasted breadcrumbs
Lemon sole on a bed of potato puree, sautéed baby spinach and a chive beurre blanc
Riz au Lait, with caramel and almond brittle
Coffee

and for me:

Scottish salmon tartare with cucumbers, gaufrette, capers, dill and sour cream
Two perfectly broiled sea scallops with cauliflower, brown butter and parsley
Duck breast, medium rare, with sweet potato puree, grapefruit, endive, and a burnt honey sauce
Apple croustade made with green apples and topped with whipped cream
Coffee with cream and sugar

All I can say is, I need to start doing this more often.

What I Did Today

1. Drove the horrendous commute to work (of course);
2. Had lunch with a friend who's back from two weeks in Europe;
3. Drove the horrendous commute back home;
4. Stopped at Tom Thumb to pick up a prescription for eye allergies (it's that season here in Texas);
5. Had a much needed manicure and pedicure;
6. Stopped at Central Market and picked up some more chicken teriyaki dumplings...I think I might be developing an addiction to them;
7. Took in a number of baskets and pots of flowers, as we have a freeze warning for tonight, although it's supposed to be 80 degrees later this week;
8. Watched the latest installment of The Wire...I'm definitely addicted to the series.

April 15 is coming soon...

...so I spent today doing my taxes, and Mike's, and Mike's state return, and e-filed everything. Now I just have to walk Chris through his, and I'll be done for this year.

Thank goodness. Maybe next year I'll hire someone to do them again. I hate doing my taxes.

He's My Man...

Tonight I went to see Leonard Cohen at the Nokia Center in Grand Prairie. Cohen is one of those artists who makes an indelible impression; at least that's how it was for me. In the summer of 1968 I heard my very first Leonard Cohen song: Suzanne, recorded by Judy Collins on her 1966 album, In My Life. The lyrics were so beautiful and haunting that I was blown away, and stopped what I was doing so I could completely give myself up to listening to it. As soon as the song ended, I looked at the back of the album cover to see who had written it. Within the week I'd purchased my first Leonard Cohen album, and as much as I liked Judy Collins singing that song, I loved him singing it even more. That was the beginning of a long love affair for me with Leonard Cohen's voice and songs.

All these years later, everything still holds up beautifully. This was an absolutely wonderful concert by an incredibly talented singer/songwriter/musician/poet/artist who, at 74, is still going strong. If you have a chance to see him, do it. He doesn't disappoint.

Unfortunately, Judi...

I stole this from Theresa's excellent blog (which you can check out HERE).

This "Google your own name" assignment one asks you to type "Unfortunately, (your name)" and to take the first ten results (weed out the repeats). Here are mine. My favorites are 7, 9 and 10 (and 9 is accurate!).

1. Unfortunately, Judi's maternal grandmother got sick and died shortly after moving to Amber Valley in 1916.

2. Unfortunately, Judi didn't wake up, so Lyric dialed 911.

3. Unfortunately, Judi died before her exoneration.

4. Unfortunately, Judi is still not back to full mobility and was not able to defeat her opponent in the DE round.

5. Unfortunately, Judi's father passed away during this time and she had a bad host, who wouldn't allow the use of her computer or telephone, even with offers of overpayment of all expenses.

6. Unfortunately, Judi had been feeling ill all day, so we left before the evening performances.

7. Unfortunately, Judi espouses the same brand of leadership and spirituality as a TV evangelist - with a tenth of the success.

8. Unfortunately, Judi will only create the Valentine's extravaganza dessert on the 14th, but tea and delectable sweets are served daily.

9. Unfortunately, Judi made it clear that as far as men were concerned she had one strict rule above all others: She could never date a man who ordered his meat well-done.

10. Unfortunately, Judi hasn’t done much with her fantastic voice since Parkin Zone.

HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY!

I love to laugh, and so I especially love April Fool's Day, and all the creative and wonderful pranks that people come up with. I came across a list on the internet of the top 100 April Fool's Day pranks. Here are a few of my favorites from that list. Laugh and enjoy.


















The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest (1957)
The respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied, "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

The Taco Liberty Bell (1996)
The Taco Bell Corporation announced it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell was housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed, a few hours later, that it was all a practical joke. The best line of the day came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale. Thinking on his feet, he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold. It would now be known, he said, as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

The Left-Handed Whopper (1998)

Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version."

Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers (1995) (hmmm, this sounds like a variation on the Side-Hill-Gougers story that I enjoyed telling to each of my four kids)

Discover Magazine reported that the highly respected wildlife biologist Dr. Aprile Pazzo had found a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. These fascinating creatures had bony plates on their heads that, fed by numerous blood vessels, could become burning hot, allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speeds. They used this ability to hunt penguins, melting the ice beneath the penguins and causing them to sink downwards into the resulting slush where the hotheads consumed them. After much research, Dr. Pazzo theorized that the hotheads might have been responsible for the mysterious disappearance of noted Antarctic explorer Philippe Poisson in 1837. "To the ice borers, he would have looked like a penguin," the article quoted her as saying. Discover received more mail in response to this article than they had received for any other article in their history.

Drunk Driving on the Internet (This is my hands down favorite, from 1994)

An article by John Dvorak in PC Computing magazine described a bill going through Congress that would make it illegal to use the internet while drunk, or to discuss sexual matters over a public network. The bill was supposedly numbered 040194 (i.e. 04/01/94), and the contact person was listed as Lirpa Sloof (April Fools backwards). The article said that the FBI was going to use the bill to tap the phone line of anyone who "uses or abuses alcohol" while accessing the internet. Passage of the bill was felt to be certain because "Who wants to come out and support drunkenness and computer sex?" The article offered this explanation for the origin of the bill: "The moniker 'Information Highway' itself seems to be responsible for SB 040194... I know how silly this sounds, but Congress apparently thinks being drunk on a highway is bad no matter what kind of highway it is." The article generated so many outraged phone calls to Congress that Senator Edward Kennedy's office had to release an official denial of the rumor that he was a sponsor of the bill.