Hee--Tom Freakin' Skilling and his fellow Chicago/Milwaukee weathercasters break out in song!

So sorry Barb, that isn't right.

Geez, bad cross-post. I'm so sorry about that, Barb.

Oh Barb! That sucks. Your book I am sure does NOT.

IONonElectionNonNonMonkeyN,

(From (Boing Boing):

Comic Book Resources has a fantastic first-hand account of ordering a live miniature monkey from a comic book advertisment. Jeff Tuthill ordered one for about $25 in the early 1970s. Not wanting his parents to know, he had it shipped to his friend's house.

From Comic Book Resources: MAIL-ORDER FRIENDS: THE COMIC BOOK SQUIRREL MONKEYS

Tuthill continued, “No instructions [were included]. He had this waist belt on, a collar, if you will, on his waist, with an unattached leash inside the box. So I opened the box up inside the cage, the monkey jumped out, I withdrew the box and found the leash. I have no idea where it came from; I assumed it came from Florida. I figured, well, it’s probably near dehydration, so I opened up the cage to put some water in it. It leapt out of the cage when I opened it up the second time! I mean, it was eyeing the pipes that I was unaware of. As soon as I opened the cage, it leapt up and grabbed onto the plumbing up on the ceiling and started using them like monkey bars, and he was just shooting along in the basement, chirping pretty loud. It was heading towards the finished side of the basement, where there was a drop ceiling, and if it got into those channels, I never would have got it. It would have been days to get this thing out of there. I grabbed it by its tail, and it came down on, starting literally up by my shoulder, like a drill press it landed on my arm, and every bite was breaking flesh. It was literally like an unsewing machine. It was literally unsewing my arm coming down, and I was pouring blood. I grabbed it by its neck with both my wrists, threw it back in the cage. It’s screaming like a scalded cat. I’m pouring blood. My friend’s laughing uncontrollably, and my father finally comes in the basement door and goes, ‘Jeffery! What are you doing to that rabbit?’ And I go, ‘It’s not a rabbit, it’s a monkey, and it just bit the hell out of me.’ ‘A monkey? Bring it up here!’ I’m pouring, I wrapped a t-shirt around my arm to stave off the bleeding, carried the cage upstairs, and I don’t know why I bothered sneaking it in, because they fell in love with it, and it was like, there was no problem at all. They took me to the emergency room and I got 28 stitches on my arm.” The young comic reader learned the hard way to never grab a monkey by the tail.

Thanks, guys. It's not as if it should have surprised me or anything. Although would've been nice when they sent the email back in September, if they would've mentioned they'd be sending along official word in the form of an actual letter.

And they're lucky that my former agent actually has decent principles and such, since they sent it to her, even though she hasn't been my agent since May and I'd informed them of that, in writing, back in May.

But I faxed the letter to Agent Kate and she'll be looking it over and cross-checking it against my original contract to make sure everything's kosher.

Deep breaths and onward, right?

And Kathy, don't worry about the x-post-- the weathermen were funny.

((((Barb))))

Obama and the Urkel effect: [link]

Obama seemed cool at first because he uses slang, dresses well and bumps fists. But a lifetime of dangerous undercover work makes it easy for me to spot a fellow nerd. Obama has done a good job passing, with his nice suits, easy smile and attractive wife. But those are just the over-30 nerd trappings of success. Have you seen him try to dance? It's like watching a white guy make fun of other white guys. Sure, he played high school basketball, but how many cool kids play indoor sports in Hawaii? The man is all superego. He never gets angry or flirts with hot chicks by asking them to be his Vice President.

Former TIME reporter Benjamin Nugent, author of American Nerd: The Story of My People, is also worried about the Urkel effect, though he thinks Obama is less nerd than nerd-adjacent. These are the types of terms you have to endure when talking to the author of American Nerd: The Story of My People. "He would be the guy the jocks didn't choose to towel-snap, but he would kind of stand there looking disapproving while they towel-snapped. Whereas McCain would be more likely to towel-snap you, and Sarah Palin would make out with the guy who towel-snapped you," he says.

It's the locker kids argument.

SO FUNNY.

I've decided I'm nerd-adjacent.

{{Barb}}

yay for a belt, allyson.

I think Consuela is upto date on spooks.

Put me in the nervous, but resigned catagorey. Vaugley wondering if revolution is real anymore.

I think Obama's kind of like Ben Browder: geekish, but far too charismatic and socially adept to be considered a true nerd.