When we see someone working those hours, we don't immediately think "wage slave," we think "work ethic."

See, and I think "wage slave."

It's the fact that he chuckled when he said "uniquely American" that raised my (and, it seems, Matt Drudge's) hackles a tad. It didn't seem to me like he was connecting.

I'm with Jesse and brenda. I have certain OC Issues and they are being mean about them.

Baltimore City pays a whole $14/ day! Whooo! And parking will run you $5/day. And get free soda at various nearby eateries. I'm pretty sure I make more per hour. My employer does make up the difference, but I kinda laugh at the paperwork unless I get Horrors! the 4 month grand jury stint. No idea what the law is, though. Probably costs employer more to do paperwork. They should just eat it.

Funky basement/damp cardboard stench coming from where the wall is open behind the stove for new gas lines. I'm presuming it is cause they are repainting downstairs apartment, but....it's all musty. I don't like it. Even ran dishwasher on off chance that was it. I don't like musty basements. They give me nightmares.

Crap. That's right. I have to get out of jury duty next month. I didn't have time to ask my OB for a note on Monday. Guess I'll have to ask at my next appointment.

Plei, you could be evil and fake labor in the jury waiting room...

(normally, I'm against abusing fake girlie-ploys, but dude! You kinda aren't an ideal juror with the peeing and the incipient babyhaving and all else. And it would be amusing for you . Fake, that is.)

I thought of all the people outside of America who need to work multiple jobs, and thought it arrogant and dismissive of him to try and claim it.

That's a whole different objection than even crossed my mind! So I went to look up those stats about Americans working hundreds more hours a year than the French or even the Japanese, and I found that South Koreans work 2400 hours a year to our 1800. I guess that lady is uniquely South Korean. But I also found a Federal Reserve Bank paper claiming it's nothing cultural and all explained by tax rates, so nobody's special.

A nearly 17 lb cat can stand on a keyboard, ignoring the mad dinging and fire up every application in your launch menu.

Just so you know.

A nearly 17 lb cat can stand on a keyboard, ignoring the mad dinging and fire up every application in your launch menu.

A 5-7lb kitten can do the same thing. (And often does, which is why she keeps getting kicked out of the computer room.)

Heh. My 7 lber gets unnerved by the dinging. But she's jumpy.

My laptop sits on my dining room table, so between the food and the paper reading and the fact I leave it on so it is warm....it gets sat upon, open or closed, a lot. I hear there is software that guards against it, but my typing is so funky, I'd be setting it off all the time.

Ruby is not allowed on the computer desk, and pretty much always remembers. I cannot, however, leave any form of paper within her reach anywhere else.

my typing is so funky, I'd be setting it off all the time.

I am always turning on the StickyKeys or the Windows voice reader by accidentally hitting Shift seven times or holding down some combination of keys for ten seconds or whatever. I guess I fidget on the keyboard.