In my family, we've always thought it was funny in West Side Story when he yells out, "MARIA!!" and only one person answers....

My grandmother (Irish Catholic) named TWO of her 4 daughters Mary. Mary Elizabeth and Mary Joanne. Mary Elizabeth only ever went by Beth, though.

OMG, this is the cutest widdle car evah! Peapod electric car by Chrysler

And it's actually going to be produced, as a 2009 model.

The Peapod has a top speed of 25 miles per hour and a range of up to 30 miles per charge. Battery charge is extended by regenerative braking and recharge time is approximately six to eight hours.

Top speed of 25 mph? Ugh. Yeah, it's only for city driving, but I'd hate to be driving down Western Ave in that, where people usually drive 35-40 mph.

OMG, this is the cutest widdle car evah!

I think Nate has a Hot Wheels car like that...

In my family, we've always thought it was funny in West Side Story when he yells out, "MARIA!!" and only one person answers....

Snerk, but I've seen it in action, sort of -- I knew a family in very, very rural France where the four sisters all had Marie-Something names (Marie-Claude, Marie-Danièle, and two other Marie-????s that I've forgotten), and their mother could just yell out "Marie!" and get a specific sister.

(But I was never completely sure if the Marie in question was really absolutely the one she wanted or if they had just all learned growing up that if you're in hearing range, you are the one Mother wants -- Mother was about 80 and took no bullshit of any kind. Anyway, they all thought there was someone specific being called.)

Schadenfreude from Wonkette:

Poor Wall Street I-Bankers With Jobs Whining About Terrible Crap

It’s not really a factor, but then again OK, it is a HUGE factor, to keep in mind the type of horrific douchecocks that this bailout would keep in business most immediately. Your associate editor recently graduated with an English degree from a college known mostly for its business school and watched many of his… “colleagues” blindly take “safe” & high-paying & evil jobs at Lehman, Merrill Lynch, etc., and has been SO AMAZINGLY HAPPY to watch so many of them lose these same jobs recently. It’s absolutely the best part of this crisis. Because check out what this still-employed Merrill Lynch-cum-Bank of America person has to say: “I was in denial. You see, Merrill has a much better reputation than a commercial bank like Bank of America. I was shocked I would be joining a lower-tier commercial bank. There’s a feeling, ‘I didn’t go through this whole interview process to work at a commercial bank.’” This is the standard. So how about we only bail out these companies if they agree to fire all of their remaining shitsack employees, hmm?

Top speed of 25 mph? Ugh.

I think there is a legal limit for that class of vehicle since it is not subject to the safety standard of cars.

I want a little car!

And a Susanne Vega-- she sounds really interesting.

At my job, they are telling all hourly employees they have to clock in and clock out instead of just typing in their hours. Which makes perfect sense. But they still also need to work exactly 40 hours, not one minute more or less! I feel like they need a +/- 3 minutes or something. It seems like this will lead to a lot of looking at the computer waiting for the clock to turn or something!

We wanted to go with uncommon but not weird names for the kids.

This is what we'd like as well, though our current boy pick isn't that uncommon. I have a gender-bending IRL name that was a nuisance as a child, but that I really like as an adult. It inspires funny shit like the guy yesterday who looked at me with a bemused smile when I told him my name and said, "You don't look like a M****. Do you smoke a cigar and play a lot of poker?" Ha!

Thanks Cash and Theo. Yep, Noah is already exploiting his good looks and is a world-class flirt. It's only going to escalate.

ION - Lucky kid wins Star Wars party.

[link]

It's totally worth clicking on to see look on the kid's face. It's priceless.