You know how Newt Gingrich divorced his first wife when she had cancer and his second wife when she had MS or whatever? Here's his explanation:

There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate,"

[link]

Sullivan sez:

On Ash Wednesday, we are reminded that every sinner has a future and every saint has a past. And I don't think the fact of three wives and two divorces should be salient to running for public office. I think the cruelty of two of the divorces is what is at stake. Nonetheless, Gingrich's request for forgiveness is always answered by a loving God if the request is sincere.

But one does not confess sin by finding excuses for it, as above. And it seems to me that someone who has legally had three marriages should not be campaigning against some people being barred from having even one.

Hitchhiker's Guide tattoos

Pretty awesome, IMHO.

Not talking about penile spines...

I am Ginger on neeeeeeding liner notes. I don't care if I've heard the song, I want to check things: length, date written, date recorded, who actualy wrote it, what instruments were used, etc., etc., frakking etc. I tend to listen to albums as a whole, thus my music is still mostly on CD. I have almost none on my computer. I do love Pandora, though. But the cataloging and recordkeeping is nonexistant on Pandora, and it's a random shuffle within a genre, which pleases me. Because I don't get a desire for song, usually, but for an hour of zydeco, or light jazz, or 80s rock. Or ten minutes of R&H before that'senoughofthat and changing the channel.

I'm not good at cataloging my belongings, electronic music files I'm no better at.

BT, you missed your line:

I would marry you.

"Because I'm pretty?"

There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate,"

He blamed patriotism? That's really quite awesome. I can't wait for him to start talking about his warlock brain and how he's on a drug and it's called Newt Gingrich.

"Because I'm pretty?"

Pfft. Like I don't already know the answer to that one.

For all you non-huggers out there, a Slate piece by someone else who does not appreciate the hugging.

I swear to god, it's like that author read my e-mail. That is absolutely, 100% how I feel. Tim gets all my hugginz, my family gets a generous dollop of embraces, and then...people I haven't seen in a long time, that's cool. But I *so* don't get hugging someone I saw 2 days ago and whom I'm going to see 2 days from now. Not to mention the whole personal bubble issue.

Also, if you come at me with a manic grin, arms outspread as if to choke the life out of a grizzly, and I take a step back, DO NOT PURSUE. Jesus Christ, I almost kneecapped that person.

Although -- and this is hilarious to me -- I do have one friend who has social anxiety worse than I do, and we always hug. It's like perverse solidarity. (Seriously, we were at dinner with about 30 people the other night, and he and I were doing rock-paper-scissors to see which one of us got the very end seat so as not to be trapped. He won.)

From that article:

I make sure I'm carrying something bulky, try-but-fail to get an arm free, and get away with a grin.

I try to do that All. The. Time. And yet there are persistent people, who by now should know I hate to hug, who say, "Awww, put that down and come here! You don't get by me without a hug!" ("What if I go the other way?" I asked once. Apparently that is Not Nice.)

"I have cooties. And I don't want to share." Would that be better?

I've always been a hugger and a toucher by nature. I find I'm less so as I get older. I do try to observe body language and judge if there's a no-touch vibe. With someone in distress I'll ask, "Would a hug make it better, or worse?" before doing as they wish. In my case, if I'm losing my shit, a hug just dissolves the last of my self-control, so no. Thanks, but no. And I find I'm more comfortable if we agree to touch by mutual feinting before actually consumating the gesture. There are people I'll swoop upon, unless I'm fended off, and I take no offense if it's a non-touchy day. But there are just some people I don't want to be hugged or touched by. They're just creepy, whether they mean to be or not, and it's sort of dire feeling the need to find a shower mid-day in a public place.

The squirrels at McGill freaked me out. I got a bad rep as a squirrel kicker, but truth was, I extended my foot very slowly, and THE SQUIRREL SHOULD HAVE MOVED. I am supposed to win. No squirrels were harmed in the making of this story, but my rep got...exacerbated for a bit.

In college, a very mild friend of ours named Ted accidentally rode over a squirrel on his bike, injuring it badly -- how DUMB and SLOW was that squirrel?! Darwinism at work.

He -- he was the epitome of logical, yet not wordly philosophy student, very kind, very non-practical, didn't know you had to keep the shower curtain INSIDE THE TUB kind of philosophy student stereotype -- felt awful and decided it was his moral responsibility to deliver the coup de grace with his bike, to prevent further suffering on the part of Mr. Squirrel.

He did not know how stupid an idea this was, as using a bike as a kind euthenasia device is Not Very Practical.

He came in to the union where we all hung out after that, utterly ravaged and traumatized.

Of course, for the next two years, he received many, many squirrel-related items for birthdays from certain people (not me.)

Poor squirrel, and poor guy. It is awful, but it's wincingly funny if you knew how utterly SWEET he was, and utterly naive and unworldly.

So ita, it could have been worse.

From ages ago . . . this morning, maybe

How do people who use earphones transport them?

My fancy noise-canceling earphones came with a little case that I obsessively keep them in whenever they are not actually in my ears.

"There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate,"

Yeah, someone whose name I've forgotten tweeted something along the lines of, "So is Gingrich being faithful to his current wife, or does he hate America now?"