possibly in a brocade smoking jacket and fez.

I think it's got to be an extra-special challenge to be a ne'er-do-well sponge if you're wearing a fez.

The -ma works so well that my annual review turned out to not BE an annual review. Turns out that's not til January and this was a fakeout. Awesome!

I think it's got to be an extra-special challenge to be a ne'er-do-well sponge if you're wearing a fez.

It'd be all bespoke and shabby and attached to an elderly relative who was also cut off by the family and sent it to him in a plain brown box in dead of night, or maybe it'd have a Shriners logo on it and he'd have a story about poking around in a pawnshop, unable to afford to get his leather jacket out of hock, but he could afford the fez and was helpless in its thrall. He'd have a whole elaborate tale about it; it'd cost you an omelet or a pack of cigarettes or something, but it would be very diverting and you'd say goodbye to him and walk away thinking, "Huh. I should feel totally cheated, yet somehow I don't."

For the price of a sandwich with fries and a Coke at the local Greek diner, you got long elaborate tales about the awesomeness of you, interspersed with anecdotes from his crazy Old South family and tales of his weekend adventures in Greenwich Village.

I would consider that money well-spent.

ION, I have stumped PayPal customer service. Go me? PayPal Australia recently sent me $20. For no reason, and with no email to contact them. I did all the anti-phishing stuff (didn't click any links, checked my paypal account in a separate https window), and yeah, the money is in my account. I just don't know WHY. Turns out, neither does PayPal customer service.

If this is the start of the universe randomly giving me money, I won't complain. Be confused, yes, but not complain.

Young, genteel raconteurs used to do quite well in olden days being the "extra man" at dinner parties and such.

Jilli, it's your iconness. And a Chrismukkwanzah miracle.

Jilli, it's your iconness. And a Chrismukkwanzah miracle.

So I should go buy a lottery ticket?

I've only had one friend who was a trust-fund baby (her grandfather was Dubuque, the meat packing company), and after she got her fun-but-not-very-practical Art degree, she was able to get by with a part-time job in a gallery after graduation and still live in a really nice apartment in Milwaukee right on the lake (there were some Bucks players living down the hall). Definitely a different life than mine!

The Ultimate Zoom-out, from the Himalayas to the horizon of our Universe and back

It's the total perspective vortex!

I was struck by the light time from Earth and the fact that just the goddamn Milky Way galaxy is HUGE. It makes me feel better about the fact that all the explorations in Star Trek were only in "the galaxy" and not the rest of the universe. The galaxy is big!