Happy Birthday Tommyrot!

It seems the Sen. David "Hookers" Vittner is too important to pay attention to airport security.

[T]he Louisiana Republican arrived Thursday evening at his United Airlines gate 20 minutes before the plane was scheduled to depart, only to find the gate had already been closed. Undeterred, Vitter opened the door, setting off a security alarm and prompting an airline worker to warn him that entering the gate was forbidden.

Vitter, our spy said, gave the airline worker an earful, employing the timeworn "do-you-know-who-I-am" tirade that apparently grew quite heated.

Happy Birthday, Tommyrot!

Happy birthday, tommyrot!

have you decided whether you're going to give yourself a scary-link-posting holiday

Just because it's my birthday, doesn't mean there's still work to be done....

Hi, tommy! Hi, JZ!

I'm supposed to be working right now to coordinate lessons for the science-for-girls project I'm sorta becoming the go-to-girl for, but after teaching for 6 hours straight (my class has their first exam tomorrow, so I thoroughly solved last year's exam with them), and considering it's the sorta-second-day of a holiday here (Purim. It's a holiday in Jerusalem today, and was a holiday for the rest of everywhere yesterday), all I wanna do is play online.

Um, I'm sorry that you're probably sorry to have asked.

Hi, Nilly!!!!

Happy Purim!

Happy Birthday tommyrot!!

Remember the Icelandic elves?

Elf Detection 101

An article on Iceland's de facto bankruptcy in the April issue of Vanity Fair notes that a "large number of Icelanders" believe in elves or "hidden people." This widespread folklore occasionally disrupts business in the sparsely populated North Atlantic country. Before the aluminum company Alcoa could erect a smelting factory, "it had to defer to a government expert to scour the enclosed plant site and certify that no elves were on or under it." How do you find an elf?

With psychic powers. According to a poll conducted in 2007, 54 percent of Icelanders don't deny the existence of elves and 8 percent believe in them outright, although only 3 percent claim to have encountered one personally. The ability to see the huldufólk, or hidden folk, can't be learned; you're just born with it. To find elves, seers don't really need to do anything—they'll just sense an elfin presence. The Vanity Fair article says that elf detection can take six months, but it's usually a quick process that can last under an hour. And although the magazine claims that a "government expert" had to certify the nonexistence of elves, the Icelandic Embassy insists that these consults are performed by freelancers, not government contractors.

...

Elf-spotting is an intergenerational phenomenon in Iceland, although more children than adults report seeing huldufólk. Indeed, it's thought that many who are born clairvoyant lose the ability after the age of 8 or so. Furthermore, it's not just Icelanders who have this capacity—theoretically, anyone, from any country, can have the power to communicate with elves. Clairvoyants see elves year-round, sometimes in their own backyards, but Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are considered especially good occasions for elf-spotting. That's because according to some legends, these holidays are traditional moving days for the huldufólk. Elves often dress in old-timey, 19th-century outfits like homemade-looking ankle-length skirts, and they come in all sizes. There are thought to be at least 13 types of elves, some of whom are as tall as humans. Others, like the Blómálfar, or flower elves, are just a few inches tall.

Happy birthday, tommyrot!

I'm working from home today. For some reason my cat has decided this means he should fish all the used tissues out of the trash and then shred them. I'm glad he wants my attention, but couldn't he get it by curling up on my lap and purring madly? Or does that just not get enough squirt bottle action to keep him happy?