Oooh, Scrappy's in MA? Not coming further eastward, are you?

For a ceremony at the time of the funeral or near to it, I would use "memorial service."

I guess a funeral or memorial service connotes a personal ceremony, for the whole person, while a commemorative ceremony would be for the deceased person's public achievements or public persona.

Thanks, Raq. I'll forward this to him.

Kermit waves at Nilly.

Timelies,

Gronk. Have not been able to fall asleep lately. Didn't help that I was on a roll writing last night and didn't finish up until after 11 and then was coasting on the writing high for about a half hour after that before I finally started getting tired and then it still took me over an hour to fall asleep. Ugh.

Kermit waves

A foreign student who does his PhD here is from East Germany. As I discovered today, he's hardly ever heard about the Muppets before. I think I didn't shut my mouth for ten minutes straight, telling him how much I love them and how great they are and "not just for children". Lots of "Kermit was my first tv love!" mentions were interwoven in between. Then he talked about his first tv love, which was from a Russian puppets show. Then he asked whether I wanted to marry Kermit. At that point I started talking about "The Storyteller" because one of the stories there seems to be Russian (it had the tzar (sp?) in it).

Which means, um, hi right back, Frank! How are you doing?

[Edited because as much as physics may be difficult, I still didn't see anybody who "dies his PhD".]

Frank! How are you doing?

Not bad. The weather has gotten really nice since the inferno that was Saturday/early Sunday. Work's craxy, but that's per usual. Once I get through this week, things should be a bit better, and I'm hoping to take a few days off next week.

Did you know they've started releasing complete seasons of The Muppet Show on DVD?

It was cool enough this morning that I put on a sweatshirt when I went downstairs! And the cat stayed on my bed all night, instead of wandering the house in search of a mythical cool spot.

From Salon:

Illinois Man Says Rabbit Saved His Wife

August 16,2005 | PORT BYRON, Ill. -- An Illinois man claims a $10 pet rabbit saved the life of his pregnant wife. Ed Murphy said the rabbit was unusually noisy one night, banging and jumping up and down in her cage.

Murphy tried to ignore the racket by putting noise buffers on top the cage, but the pet would not let him go back to sleep.

Murphy then noticed his wife seemed to be sleeping heavily with her eyes wide open, so he called 911.

Darcy Murphy was quickly taken to a hospital, where she remained five days for treatment of gestational diabetes, a carbohydrate intolerance during pregnancy.

Murphy's obstetrician, Dr. Anita Pinc, credits the rabbit with telling Ed Murphy "Wake up, wake up. Something is wrong with your wife."

Murphy delivered baby Brenna on June 13.

Huh.

Oh shit

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - A West Caribbean Airways jet travelling from Panama crashed in Venezuela on Tuesday, killing all 153 passengers and crew on board, officials said.

The aircraft was en route to the French Caribbean island territory of Martinique when it went down in a mountainous area near Venezuela's border with Colombia after suffering from engine failure, Venezuelan officials said.

An Illinois man claims a $10 pet rabbit saved the life of his pregnant wife.

We've come a long way from killing rabbits to do pregnancy tests.