Well, if normal body temperature is 98.6, and anything over 99.5 is a fever, than 1 degree is a fever. Therefore if my temperature is 99 degrees and my normal temperature is 96 degrees, don't I have the equivalent of a 101.6 degree fever?

Yeah, three degrees over your normal sounds like a fever to me!

The guy over the wall is eating the most garlicious thing ever. Like, it's interfering with my apple (which is also extremely bland--I can't work out if it's the varieties at Ralphs, even organic, or just Ralphs, but I'm over the Red Delicious now).

Since I eat garlic fries at my desk every Monday, I know I don't have a leg to stand on, but that doesn't mean I'm going to keep my mouth shut. So to speak.

Okay, buckle your seat. I have a rant coming on. This time about Slate.

Slate's articles are just the worst sometimes. I don't know how they can go from really good journalism to bullshit in like 3 seconds. Here's the bullshit, now complaining about Ira Glass:

[link]

So, I get that the complaints are about TAL in 2012, but it would have been nice for more than 10 minutes to be spent on this article and include the Showtime (?) show, the previous theater live show, and the "fame" of other frequent TAL contributors. Because just concentrating on Ira Glass leaves an incoherent narrative.

It seems to me that TAL has become what it is today because there are so many other NPR programs that are similar to it. So TAL (rightly so) has been flexible and experimented with different collaborations (notable: the financial crisis episodes with Planet Money). It seems to me an appropriate analogy is network tv and cable. TAL (when I first started listening to it regularly which was around 1999) was one of the first readily available engrossing radio programs and to stay popular and thrive, they had to do other things and expand. Not unlike the early years of HBO.

Finally, I also am angry that the author didn't acknowledge the very affecting episodes that recently occurred on TAL that did maintain intimacy between the listener and host (if that is the only yardstick by which TAL should be measured). "What Happened at Dos Erres" was absolutely fantastic, "Lights Camera Christmas" and "Little War on the Prairie" were pretty good as well (as notable examples of many in 2012).

grr argh

I don't know how they can go from really good journalism to bullshit in like 3 seconds.

Because reactionary bullshit is clickbait.

That was a weird article. I am a regular listener, and in fact listened to all the episodes from beginning to end in the last year, and I haven't noticed the phenomena. I felt like Fred Armisen didn't do a great voice imitation (I was thinking it would be better if we could see him as well) but it seemed to me not distancing, but like people who were sort of my friends lightly mocking each other.

reactionary bullshit is clickbait.

Yup.

Slate pisses me off about 40% of the time. Another 40% of the time the articles are just kind of meh. The only writer I really trust over there is Dahlia Lithwik, and even she often gets saddled with horrible headlines.

Baby lions! [link]

In the midst of cancelling cable and getting rid of the landline, AT&T proved themselves incompetent and I may not have reliable internet at home until they come on Tuesday to install a thing.

I've got a pile of DVDs, TV episodes, and books to read. I need to declutter, cull my closet, mop the kitchen... I'll probably be okay.

There's a flu/cold decision chart at the end of this article:

[link]

Sue, you are awesome.

goddamit, I have a cold. I still need a flu shot but I'm not feeling well enough to get one.

Well, I do have ADHD. (Diagnosed this morning.) So, um whoo?

But I cannot take the meds because I already have high blood pressure and other indicators of heart danger.

Anyone know a good source for non-medical ADHD coping mechanisms?