I understand rescue places are trying to make sure the animals are well cared for and all that, but geez! How bout going to visit the other home and making sure all's well there?

This is what makes people think it's just easier to buy from *other* places! This is what leads ND and Kristin to be rejected as kitty parents! (Still bitter about that) It must stop!

x-posted with Bitches

The monkey suit has arrived! [link]

Why would they do that to the poor pooch?

Them's the rules! Which is why poor Ellen was so upset.

Yeah, but....you gotta know that if you're enforcing a rule like that on someone who can go TALK ABOUT IT ON HER OWN TV SHOW, that you're going to get bad PR. (Even though, yes, that was the rule and Ellen should have known it was the rule since she signed a damn paper, etc. -- she still HAS HER OWN TV SHOW. And can therefore turn her breakage of the rules into a Thing. You know?)

That happens here in Austin, too. Drivers also believe that turn signals are a sign of weakness, the speed limit for minivans is 15 mph under the speed limit for the rest of us, merging is a game not unlike Russian Roulette, and it is perfectly acceptable to drive about a foot back from my bumper at 75 mph.

Hee. I was a tad worried about the prospect of driving in Philly, as all the wacky was happening on the wrong side of the road, but I figured if our real estate agent could reach the age he did driving like that, I'd be a shoe-in.

OK, I'm researching how one goes about emigrating to New Zealand.

For some of us, surprisingly easily. Of course, given the number of Kiwis who've come to Australia, I'm not sure if there's any need.

My brother appears to operate on the premise that the most promiscuous women in the world are the ones in his immediate vicinity.

Are women that far outnumbered by men? Or, who are they sleeping with?

Australians. By which, of course, I mean my brother.

At first, sex with robots might be considered geeky, "but once you have a story like 'I had sex with a robot, and it was great!' appear someplace like Cosmo magazine, I'd expect many people to jump on the bandwagon," Levy said.

I think he means to say 'the Bandwagon 3000'.

Monkey!!!

Yeah, but....you gotta know that if you're enforcing a rule like that on someone who can go TALK ABOUT IT ON HER OWN TV SHOW, that you're going to get bad PR.

Well, yeah. I'm pretty sure she didn't name the actual rescue organization, but still.

Timelies all!

That is so cute, gc! A friend of mine is dressing her 18-month old son as a monkey for Halloween, although she's thinking of adding a set of fairy wings to make him a flying monkey.

Yeah, but....you gotta know that if you're enforcing a rule like that on someone who can go TALK ABOUT IT ON HER OWN TV SHOW, that you're going to get bad PR. (Even though, yes, that was the rule and Ellen should have known it was the rule since she signed a damn paper, etc. -- she still HAS HER OWN TV SHOW. And can therefore turn her breakage of the rules into a Thing. You know?)

But it cuts both ways. She could just as well publicize (even inadvertently) their breakage of their own rules, either in the normal course of business of for celebrities. Then they look bad. Viewed from that perspective, I"m not very sympathetic with Ellen.

Rescue orgs do a lot of good work, but there are some out there that've gotten a little, um, overzealous, perhaps? Um, there's working to find a good permanent home and then there is functionally leasing a pet. A friend opted not to adopt one dog she loved because the org wanted the right to drop by unannounced at any point, with no end date. Oh & they were pissy she wouldn't cook the dog's food herself. It was crazy. She ended up getting a shelter dog, who required only that she had a vet who'd talk to them.

Instead of immediately snatching the pooch in Ellen's case, it would've saved them time and money to just check out the new home. As they should in any case where that happens. Instead, they look like crazy dog people who took away the little kids' pet.

The Freakonomics blog predicted what air travel will look like in ten years. BoingBoing discusses:

The Freakonomics blog reached out to a bunch of economists, travel execs and thinkers to imagine what US air travel will look like in ten years. I've said it before, but it bears repeating: the future of high-end air-travel is Ninja Air. The night before your flight, a highly trained ninja sneaks into your bedroom, blowdarts you, packs your suitcase, shrinkwraps you and sticks a routing tag on you. You are shipped, unconscious and stacked like cordwood, to your destination. Another ninja carries you (and your bags) off the plane and checks you into your hotel. Then he (or she) unpacks your suitcase, peels the shrinkwrap off you, tucks you into bed and climbs out onto the window ledge. Silently he (or she) blowdarts you again with the antidote, slipping silently off the ledge and down the side of the hotel, as you yawn and stretch, refreshed and in a new city, with no recollection of any intervening travel.

[link]

Yeah, the Freakonomics prediction might be more "likely" but I'm gonna cross my fingers that the BoingBoing prediction comes true....

When Chocolatiers Attack! Chocolatier resigns after "act of truffle-squishing" in a rival store.

Barry Colenso, chocolatier to the Queen and Prince Charles, the man who created the first billboard made of chocolate, and who has been nicknamed "Willy Wonka" has resigned from his position at Thorntons' after being caught by a surveillance camera as he squished a rival company's candies.

"The master chocolatier was caught on CCTV ruining chocolates worth £63.50 at the Hotel Chocolat store in Nottingham. Staff said he was observed 'handling truffles in a suspicious manner'.

"A quick check after he had left revealed a trail of destruction across the glass unit of the display counter as truffle after truffle had been mercilessly squashed under thumb. 'This was an extraordinary act of truffle-squishing. We can only guess at what provoked it,' said a Hotel Chocolat spokesman..."