It's pretty perfect, really.

I just had to several conversations where I came off like an asshole, because I just didn't get that a process was different this year than it's been in the past. Oh well. Bygones.

This Dear Prudence (in Slate) has gotten me really curious: Murder Among Friends? My college pal supposedly killed himself, but I suspect foul play.

Dear Prudence,
When I was a freshman in college, I had a tight group of friends. Two of them got together and married last summer. We three were close in college but less so since we graduated. I found out from mutual friends that the groom recently committed suicide. Since people in the group hadn't heard from his wife, I was put in charge of contacting her. She said there was nothing to talk about and asked me not to visit. I then contacted her brother, who had been close to them, and this was the first he'd heard of her husband's death. She apparently had a closed funeral and told no one, because she said that is how he had wanted it, even though he had many friends and was always outgoing and happy. His college friends are distraught and don't know what to believe, especially since there is no record of this in any of the area newspapers. Also fishy is a rumor that he got one of his female friends pregnant. I checked—she is pregnant and says he's the father. His parents live overseas, and his wife never got along with them; as far as we know, no one has contacted them. How can his friends be sure he died, so we can come to terms with everything? I have a crazy idea that maybe she found out about the other girl and killed him in a fit of rage. What is the polite way to make sure our dear friend is resting peacefully and not locked away somewhere?

—Mediating Mourning

Just Five Red States Left?

Gallup is in the midst of releasing a series of data from the more than 350,000 interviews that it conducted over the course of its daily tracking in 2008. The first data they've released, on partisan affiliation, contains some sobering news for Republicans:

[see map thingie]

That's right: just five states, collectively containing about 2 percent of the American population, have statistically significant pluralities of adults identifying themselves as Republicans. These are the "Mormon Belt" states of Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, plus Nebraska, plus Alaska. By contrast, 35 states are plurality Democratic, and 10 states are too close to call.

Of course, there are caveats, but still....

Does anyone have a really good recipe for masa dough for tamales? I made some last night for the first time, and the recipe I was using was way out of proportion - the amount of water they wanted me to add yielded a bowlful of corn flour soup. I managed to tweak it into something usable, but it still didn't set up the way it should have. So my tamales were yummy, but mushy.

There are a ton of recipes online, but most of them involve 10 lbs of masa harina and 4 lbs of lard. I don't mind the lard, but I'm looking for a recipe that will serve 2-4 people.

The Pain sums up a computerless week.

Does anyone have a really good recipe for masa dough for tamales?

I don't but I can check with my best friend who makes the most yummiest tamales ever (served w/ pumpkin butter OMG so good!). She does usually makes them for big parties though.

Dog story:

Mr Peabody recently took to sleeping on my pillow, which is not particularly good for my allergies, so I had started roughly making the bed. Last evening, I heard a scrabble scrabble in the bedroom, and finally went in to see what he was doing. He was sleeping on my pillow, after having pulled back the bedspread.

Man, I missed an entire day's worth of Natter - how did THAT happen?

Given that twins do run in families (the tendency for embryos to split OR tendency for some women to release multiple fertile eggs) all you need is a couple related families that have lived in a town for a couple generations and you'll see a statistical uptick. And since there may be unexplained environmental triggers for twinning....

I thought fraternal twins ran in families but identical were considered unexplained?

There are a ton of recipes online, but most of them involve 10 lbs of masa harina and 4 lbs of lard. I don't mind the lard, but I'm looking for a recipe that will serve 2-4 people.

They freeze beautifully. You might as well make a bunch! (Well, maybe not that big a bunch).

Mr Peabody recently took to sleeping on my pillow, which is not particularly good for my allergies, so I had started roughly making the bed. Last evening, I heard a scrabble scrabble in the bedroom, and finally went in to see what he was doing. He was sleeping on my pillow, after having pulled back the bedspread.

Dallas has started doing the same thing!! Now not only do I have to make the bed every damn day, I have to spread the pillows around in a rediculous looking fashion to thwart her.

Heh -- last night Neil DeGrasse Tyson was telling Jon Stewart about receiving hate-mail from 3rd graders about Pluto being demoted from a full-fledged planet. So it starts early....

Well, that's understandable. Who's going to stand up for Pluto if not the eight year olds? Besides, they might be right. When we were eight we all knew pandas were bears -- eventually science caught up with us.

They freeze beautifully. You might as well make a bunch!

Dude, my kitchen is in NYC. You think I have freezer space for 10 lbs of anything?