Neil DeGrasse Tyson best not diss my Clyde Tombaugh. He can demote Pluto, but DO NOT diss Clyde.

Ha! I should ask him to autograph a photo of Clyde at TAM. I can totally be That Person.

As the one who has been paying the bills through her salary and has been the one who has stressed over our ability to pay for rent, electricity, and food? His plan A is helping support the family he a) chose to build with me and b) is damn well a part of. And he knows it. Which is why, despite hating every minute of it, he spends 11 hours a day, 6 days a week driving a cab. The rest of the time he isn't sleeping, he's applying for other full time jobs.

But I guess I'm lucky in that even though Joe's plan A is being a film maker, he is equally passionate in making sure his family is surviving and he's not deadweight.

You are. You really, really are.

Ask her if the other chick she knows had a moon named after her.

Heh. That is kind of the clincher, isn't it?

So, can someone tell more about the rabid beavers?

I live nowhere near Philly, but for some reason, I am quite concerned about out of control beavers.

I would love to be a Successful Writer and stand up at TED and do a charming talk on Something Important and be the Invited Speaker at someone charity luncheon. That is totally Plan A.

Plan B is being a respected assistant at a world renowned aerospace lab with a couple of books and a few decent essays under her belt while living in a glamorous city in a decent apartment with enough cash on hand to order tasty takeout a couple nights a week.

Plan B is pretty good.

admiring Allyson from afar.

Pft. You da rock star.

Julia Sweeney tells a very funny story about the day her daughter wanted to learn about how frogs had babies: [link]

That's a riot.

She told that hilarious tale when I saw the Julia and Jill (Sobule) show at Yoshi's a few years ago. Had us rolling in the aisles.

Speaking of TED, my organization sponsored a TEDx event (an event affiliated with TED, but done locally) yesterday evening. We had speakers on using cell phones to enable distance diagnosis of things like oral cancer, developing prostheses for amputees, the problems with donating medical equipment to developing countries, and so on. And there was a great Senegal-NC combo band playing before and after the speech parts. Loads of fun. I volunteered to usher, which is probably as close to being a TED talk participant as I'll ever get.

meara, I'd forgotten all about that book. Until now.

And the dolphins - there was a Carl Hiaasen book where, at the end, a bad guy is assaulted by a dolphin and, I believe, drowns in the process.