Who knows anything about Kyrgyzstan?

I do!

It grows to about 13-15 feet (sometimes as large as 20 feet, weighs in at about 4500 pounds, lives in coastal waters where the temperature stays between 54 to 75 degrees F, can range as far as 12,500 kilometers and can dive up to 4200 feet.

They have rows and rows of razor sharp teeth, and will eat anything that moves, though its typical diet consists of seals, sealions, cetaceans, and large birds and fish. They have to keep swimming constantly, in order to keep water moving over their gills, or they'll die.

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Oh, wait. That's a great white shark.

In random news, possibly my favorite part of our Christmas family gathering was when my one cousin and I started singing "Dick in a Box," (the "one, cut a hole in the box" part) with hand/arm movements, and my other cousin's husband joined in from across the room.

For Xmas my husband gave me a box, with a hole cut in it, and inside were pictures of Dick Cavett, Dick Van Dyke, Dick Van Patten, Moby Dick, etc.

San Francisoites beware! And make sure your license plate is dirty.

Catching parking scofflaws in San Francisco has become easier with the help of high-tech cameras that scan license plates in search of cars saddled with unpaid citations.

A city parking crew operating the new system can almost instantaneously find cars with at least five outstanding tickets. A two-person team roams city streets with two small cameras mounted atop their unmarked vehicle. The cameras can scan 250 or more plates an hour.

And when a match is made, the crew attaches a yellow metal boot to the front wheel, removing it only after the tickets are paid.

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The system isn't perfect. The cameras don't capture all license plates because some are tilted at the wrong angle or too dirty to read.

And why is it that most scofflaws are of the parking ticket variety?

[link]

Been spending the long weekend in front of the Discovery Channel, Sean?

Obviously I knew that Armenians are a people; I didn't realize they had a sovereign nation. Pathetic!

For Xmas my husband gave me a box, with a hole cut in it, and inside were pictures of Dick Cavett, Dick Van Dyke, Dick Van Patten, Moby Dick, etc.

That is so awesome! I have to remember to send the link to my parents, once my father has the new computer up and running. I couldn't get it to run on the old one.

And why is it that most scofflaws are of the parking ticket variety?

Well, especially in San Francisco, parking just sucks far beyond the telling of it, and it's almost impossible to live there without getting a parking ticket.

In SF, parking scofflaws are usually just refered to as "residents."

Been spending the long weekend in front of the Discovery Channel, Sean?

Yes. There has been jack else on the last few days.

Been spending the long weekend in front of the Discovery Channel, Sean?

He's going through Shark Week withdrawl....

Kergistan, is how it's pronounced, I think.

Dear client,

I do not know what to tell you when you call and say, "Someone told me to call this number." I do not know with whom you wish to speak or what service you need. Also, this number rings to everyone's office. Please, in the future, listen to the message someone so thoughtfully left for you (and no, I don't believe you that they didn't leave one) and then call when you know who and why you are calling.

Thank you, Admin.

PS That's Admin NOT A FUCKING RECEPTIONIST!

I do not know what to tell you when you call and say, "Someone told me to call this number."

Ah, this reminds me of when I was a receptionist back in the heyday of pagers. "Someone paged me." Um, do you have any idea who? "No. They called from this number." Yeah, sorry, this is the number for a hundred people. No clue? "Who paged me?"

Question: what do you call a long opiniony piece from the NYTimes magazine? Not an article, right? Because it's not news? "Piece" is the other thing I can think of, but that sounds weird to me.