That sounds messy and complicated and really the kind of thing your mom should have just thought about and never actually said

That would be our mother in a nutshell. The hilarious part of it all was, the name failed the Julia Goulia test. Even if it had been the Best Name Evar, all pristine and lacking associations, it still wouldn't have been a worthwhile name. Get with the program, mom!

I used to joke with the Starbucks people about how their biggest size was Italian for "ginormous." That was before the introduction of "venti." Since I can't think of a single reason for Starbucks to sell the Super Big Gulp, I reverted to small/medium/large, or in a pinch the actual number of fluid ounces in each size.

(I never had anybody get snotty with me about not speaking Starbucksese, but I have had lost-in-translation moments, when nobody explains what a "misto" is. I expect it's gotten worse, with everybody from Dunkies to ABP selling variations on the coffee slushie in summer, and all names Frappa-cappa-whatsis-occhachino. Starbucks got hoisted on its own in-lingo petard, there.)

Don’t you know the Republicans promised to shrink big government? Just small enough so that it can fit in your bedroom.

Actually, just small enough to fit in your vagina.

But, Diana isn't very good -- and she can be very annoying.

U.S. OUT OF MY UTERUS!!

Actually, just small enough to fit in your vagina.

NOTHING should go in our unmarried vaginas!

You hussy.

Allyson, I'm so sorry for your loss. You'll be in my thoughts.

The pre-Katrina video was on the front page of the Times-Picayune one of the days I was down there. There was much cursing and yelling in the house of C that morning.

Also in answer to Fred Pete.

Also, Daisy Jane, what did you think of the situation in NOLA? Is recovery happening?

It's patchwork. The Quarter looked pretty much fine, Uptown, Irish Channel, parts of Kenner, then there were some other places where it looked like a bomb went off. Our cab driver on the way in took us around the 9th and through Mid Cities. Seeing blue tarps actually started to seem a good thing. My cousin has a picture of a roof on the ground where its house used to be, a dining room with nothing but two walls. Under a lot of the highway overpasses there are hundreds and hundreds of abandoned rusting cars. We have pictures that look apocolyptic.

But then, we have pictures of Krewe d'Etat's fun, satirical floats, and people dressed as "Caught up in the Red Tape" with nothing but red g-strings and red electrical tape on, a big vodoo guy with a Bush vodoo doll, Queen Katrina, "The Mold and the Beautiful" and it feels better to know that even though so much didn't make it, the spirit of the city certainly did.

On being a regular: I tend to gravitate toward familiar places, so unless I'm with other people, I pretty much exclusively go to places where I'm a regular.

Leif dressed himself this morning:

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Honestly, I don't know WHO I would have chosen. Other than Nick or Andrae. Maybe Zulema. MAYBE.

Leif is stylin'!

For all you grammaristas out there--The Adverb is Dead; Long Live the Adjective! Love this bit:

Lately, it seems the adjective has been creeping ever closer to the verb in what can only be described as a nasty, aggressive manner; its nefarious intent, obviously, is to completely displace, if not outright murder, a useful and descriptive part of speech.