Dear woman in the cafe:

When you have to attach a one-page explanation of your costume to the back of your shirt, it's not a good costume.

When the explanation is in 11 point type and virtually unreadable by my bad-vision eyes, it's really not a good costume.

In looking at it a little bit, it appears to be moderate and principled.

It sounds like he's whip-smart and isn't going to kowtow to Scalia, which is kinda how I feel about Roberts, too.

At least he has his own brain and isn't going to legislate from the bench the way Scalia and Thomas have tried to.

So, Scooter Libby wrote a novel back in '96. Whitefonted for those who don't want to read Scooter's writings about sex:

Crimes against good taste: Lloyd Grove at the New York Daily News has a quick overview of Laura Collins' New Yorker summary of Scooter Libby's fiction debut, the 1996 novel "The Apprentice." The story is a thriller set in turn-of-the-century Japan, but Collins writes that "certain passages can better be described as reminiscent of Penthouse Forum." For instance: "The main female character, Yukiko, draws hair on the 'mound' of a little girl," and the "brothers of a dead samurai have sex with his daughter." Collins says that "other sex scenes are less conventional," and quotes one longer passage: "At age 10 the madam put the child in a cage with a bear trained to couple with young girls so the girls would be frigid and not fall in love with their patrons. They fed her through the bars and aroused the bear with a stick when it seemed to lose interest." A suspiciously enthusiastic reader review on Amazon writes: "Libby's story builds and builds and builds until it reaches a crescendo of sexual and political tension. What a great read! Hope he is working on something new." (Also worth quoting is the opening image in the Daily News item: "The last time I saw Scooter Libby, he was trying to persuade Maureen Dowd to join him in doing tequila shots at the celebstudded Bloomberg party after the 2003 White House Correspondents Association Dinner.") (Lowdown, Amazon)

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The story is a thriller set in turn-of-the-century Japan, but Collins writes that "certain passages can better be described as reminiscent of Penthouse Forum."

Supposedly he wrote the novel over 20 years, mainly at his vacation house in Aspen. (Note the "aspens" reference in the Judith Miller letter.)

"The last time I saw Scooter Libby, he was trying to persuade Maureen Dowd to join him in doing tequila shots at the celebstudded Bloomberg party after the 2003 White House Correspondents Association Dinner."

Now THAT sounds like the opening line of a great novel.

My Halloween costume: Guy Who Forgot To Wear His Deodorant.

I think it was 2000.

It was! Happy anniversary!

Thanks! Gah. Is this home, now?

I think so.

And dude. Who'da thunk? Five years.

There was another terrible quote from that book on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me this weekend, too.

Grrr...

Why must cow-orkers forward me e-mails based on an urban legend so well know that it has, in fact appeared in the movie 'Urban Legends'. I was to send everyone a snopes email, but it is probably bad form as this person is my superior. But really, it is the one about a man getting into the backseat of ones car while filling up gas, as part of a gang initiation.