Jessica, that's AWESOME.

I had a great overheard a few weeks ago but I can't remember. Nelson Mandela is on the cover of the World History textbook and a kid asked, "Why is Morgan Freeman on our book?"

Been asked, hmmm, four maybe five times. Which is a lot, since I never thought of myself as a marrying sort of person. I had a whole annoying "philosophical" rant about it (OMG-- the opinions I had in my 20s on How To Live, and how vehement I was about them. Yikes). Married the third one who asked--ended in lots of unhappiness, but made me who I am in lots of ways.

Then this one. I didn't ask him to marry me, but after 10 years together I did say that I would like to be married someday. A couple of years later, he asked and we eloped. That was a good idea and continues to be so.

Happy Birthday to Dylan and Javachik!!!

Just to clarify - the current bishop is kind of a nonentity, definitely conservative inasmuch as he has any discernible personality at all but mostly an automated platitudinous statement generator who puts most of his passion into fretting about the diocese deficit. The previous bishop was an active and fairly malignant conservabot, very definitely chosen just for his conservabotitude; he replaced the guy who had started out middle of the road as a youngish man and was a wild-eyed leftist by the time he retired.

Oh, how I wish the lefty firebrand hadn't gone and had a heart attack at his desk six years ago. I can guarantee that if the new guy had tried out those same lines in his homily when Father Bill was alive, the dinnertime conversation in the rectory that evening would have consisted entirely of:

Father Bill: So, I overheard you this morning.

New Guy: Uh...?

Father Bill: We're sending the entire planet down the shitter six ways from Sunday, the Gospel today was Mary Magdalene washing Christ's feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair, and you wasted everyone's time whining about dirty pictures and bad words? Are you fucking shitting me?

New Guy: ...

Father Bill: t shoots laserbeams from his eyes until New Guy is reduced to a pile of smoking ash, then picks up his fork and snarfs the rest of his TV dinner in contemptuous silence while everyone else tiptoes away to finish their dinners in another county

oh dear god What happened to Catherine Zeta Jones's face?

Looks like she fell face-first into the 1970s.

automated platitudinous statement generator

I love this phrase mightily.

HA! Oh totally. When Paula Abdul looks better than you at the same event, things are dire.

Interview with Anthony Bourdain on his new book. Well, sort of about his new book. Best line is:

Slashfood: You're sort of responsible for the whole chef/rock star craze.
AB: Don't blame me, man. Don't blame Guy Fieri on me. That's not my fault. That's a radiation accident.

oh dear god What happened to Catherine Zeta Jones's face?

She looks like Lindsay Price? Weird.