I'm sitting in the corner with Typo and Scrappy. There are so many very substantive issues on which to go after Palin; this is ludicrous/creepy/no better than the "Obama's terrorist grammar school" rumor mongering that any progressive with a grain of intelligence ought to shout down and shut out.

Vortex, I am so sorry. I cannot imagine the loss. You and your family are in my thoughts. My heart is just breaking for you.

JZ - I agree with you, Typo and Scrappy.

There are plenty of political reasons to be up in arms about this choice - we don't need creepy internet rumor reasons.

(Is Seattle the only state in the lower 48 that routinely reports on Alaska politics?)

No. But sometimes I think we're just a suburb of Seattle, so maybe yes.

Not actually a suburb but we certainly seem to be when it comes to the news and the reporting of said news.

Random factoid of the day: in the Israeli release of the movie Little Nicky, the line "Popeye's Chicken is the shiznit" gets translated in the subtitles as "Popeye's Chicken is better than schnitzel."

I'm glad about the proactive preparation for Gustav but man, the difference from Katrina is that much more disgusting.

ION, my in-laws are in Alabama. My MiL called and said they got a "killer deal" on a cruise. They're leaving from Mobile tomorrow.

*facepalms*

"Popeye's Chicken is the shiznit"

This reminds me that my weird-ass, highly unprofessional co-workers* have taken to calling each other "Shiz." When I heard it, I asked them where it came from, and one said, "Short for 'shiznit.'" I told them yeah, *I* know where it's from, but did they even know what "shiznit" means?

They didn't, of course, so I told them.

One was *appalled* and embarassed that she had been saying such a thing without knowing what it meant (and I thought, honey, do you just walk around saying things that you don't even comprehend? what planet are you from?), and the other one -- who started the "Shiz" thing -- said, "It doesn't mean that in South Carolina!"

To which I said, "This is *Ohio* -- you know that, right?"

They stopped the "Shiz" thing that day. I work with crazy people, who I think are literally unemployable anywhere else. It's like Big!Boss runs some kind of last-chance workplace for the unemployable.

*(The co-workers who BEAT ON THEIR DESKS in some kind of rhythmic drumming thing they've got going on, several times a day, literally every day, and yes, they've been asked to stop but apparently think that their fun is more important than disturbing the rest of the office.)

They're leaving from Mobile tomorrow.

Well, the cruise company doesn't want that expensive ship tied up and helpless, and maybe they're headed for Panama?

that their fun is more important than disturbing the rest of the office

I want the CSR girls to stop doing choral singing late in the day when they're bored. Yes, they can carry a tune, but I'm trying to work! And some of hte people in my office are working with clients on the phone!

I want the CSR girls to stop doing choral singing late in the day when they're bored. Yes, they can carry a tune, but I'm trying to work! And some of hte people in my office are working with clients on the phone!

This is our problem, too. When 3 people who are 30 feet away start pounding on their desks in some rhythmic drumbeat, I about jump out of my skin.

(My specific department was made to sign documents saying that *we* -- the 4 of us who sit near each other -- wouldn't listen to the radio or iTunes or make/receive phone calls at our desks, because "the Editorial department's needs are different from the rest of the comapny and require minimal distractions." Hand to god. And yet the continual distraction of the cretins on the other side of the glass wall who beat on their desks is allowed to continue.)