I printed out my schedule for this week, so I'm feeling all kinds of accomplished for this morning. Next I call in to Unemployment to tell them that I looked for work this week....

They're open on Sunday?

TV Squad's Comicon Whedon Panel report (should this go in - various places? Movies, Other Media, Buffy-Angel thread?)

Hah. I just got another text message which reads simply: 'Ripper'.

David! The Memphis Flyer just namechecked your Oxford American review of Mike McCarthy movies.

I am freshly back from the Ozarks, which I can now prove to be magic mountains because:
(1) I drove up a winding mountain road behind a slow-moving truck and instead of grinding my teeth and swearing, I relaxed and enjoyed the scenery.
(2) I had no internet connection for the better part of 2 days and was fine with that.
(3) At the only point in yesterday's drive down the mountain wherein I encountered more than one oncoming car, a herd of deer crossed the road as we converged. And then turned around to watch us from the tree line as if amazed by the presence of more than one person.
(4) The restaurant at the Ozark Folk Center has cured bacon that tastes better than regular bacon.

They're open on Sunday?

They have an automated call-in system that you annoyingly have to wait through long paragraphs of "yes, I made three contacts this week" and so on before you hit the 'yes' button. And they stagger what day you call in so that it evens out and doesn't put a burden on the system, so my day is Sunday....

Security priorities are seriously out of whack at my house.

Five-pound terrier walks down hall, as it has done several times a day for the past year: Furious, enraged barking. SAfe.

Helicopter hovering outside for the past ten minutes so close I can barely hear myself think: Dog does not even look up from the paw she's grooming. This could be serious! Hasn't she seen Red Dawn ?

There's this guy in Evanston who drives a custom van. On the side in the back, beneath the windows it's got a smaller window that's just big enough for a medium-sized dog's head to stick out. So he drives around with the dog sticking its head out the window, and the dog is just barking continuously at everything it sees.

I once saw a woman driving a car with a sunroof, and her dog had its head out the sunroof and the dog was looking in all directions and barking at everything.

I wonder what these dogs are thinking. "Reality - it moves. Must bark at it!"

I saw a Yorkie run through an agility test once -- he did excellently, actually, which is hard for a little dog, because for instance he had to run all the way up to the end of the teeter-totter in order for his slight weight to tip it down.

He BARKED the entire time. At the top of his small lungs. So I guess it's like breathing for some dogs.

Erinaceous is this week's On Language guest columnist, and as usual is made of awesome.

I remember seeing an article once that posited barking as a marker of arrested development among dogs as it is a youthful play behavior that wolves grow out of.