What could have been a major screwup on my part was turned into a minor one by someone going out of their way. I filed a wrong form with the California tax board. Instead of mailing me, they phoned me to let me know, which gives me time to file the right one. It is pretty routine to mail notifications of this kind of screw-up, so I really give them a lot points for taking the trouble to call instead - especially since I downloaded the wrong form from the internet, so they were correcting my screwup, not theirs.

Huh. Someone in a gov't bureaucracy going out of their way to help someone... weird.

JZ was also the recipient of random kindness yesterday.

After collecting Matilda from daycare she did some shopping at Trader Joe's. All was well until she parked the car in our neighborhood and Matilda had a full on meltdown on the sidewalk, leaving JZ somewhat stranded since she couldn't carry a toddler and two bags of groceries across the street to our apartment.

A random skater dude volunteered to carry her groceries home, which offer she gratefully accepted.

In sum: Huzzah to the extra effort bureaucrat! Huzzah to the random skater dude!

Huzzah to skater guy.

first priority: file the right form. Second priority: thank you email so the FTB guy gets some brownie points from boss.

Incidentally, lots of government workers are good at their job and go out of their way to help people to extent possible. Neither virtue nor competence are exclusive to private sector.

From the "Duh!" department:

Hewitt’s book ‘How Sarah Palin Won the Election…and Saved Amerca’ bites the dust.»

The NY Observer reveals that right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt’s next book, “How Sarah Palin Won the Election…and Saved America,” is unlikely to ever get published:

...

According to Yates, the plan was to finish the book “by a week after the election, and to have it out before the inauguration” and “obviously presumed” that McCain-Palin would win. “If they were to lose the election it would have just been How Sarah Palin Saved America,” Mr. Yates said.

Yeah, that would go over like a lead balloon... flying over a black hole....

The First Moments Of A Palin Presidency

(video)

I'm calling the chapter Home Is Wherever She Is.

aww that made me cry.

OK, anyone know anything about there being a difference between "cancelling" a contract and "terminating" one?

Also, I want to give a shout-out to another Atlantic blogger, Ta-Nehisi Coates: [link] He was at the Washington City Paper when I was obsessed with it, and it's pretty impressive how that whole staff has done. Jake Tapper is probably the biggest "name," but a couple of them are at Time, David Carr at the NYTimes, etc.

I think it's pretty just that James Franco's face wasn't changed much. I think his eyes are just on the cusp of size (unlike that guy from Pearl Harbour that looks like he's squinting all the time).

I'm feeling bad because I'm declining an interview--the place is 20+ miles from here: 30 minutes in good traffic, almost 2 in bad. Which is closer in good traffic than my last faraway job, but much further in bad. And this is LA. It's never good traffic if you're on the road. I just can't sign up for that again, and it's nowhere I'd consider moving.

OK, anyone know anything about there being a difference between "cancelling" a contract and "terminating" one?

I could be wrong, but no. Unless the contract itself specifies a difference.