Ha - so, because of the shutdown, the White House hasn't paid their $5 million water bill, and DC is wondering if they can actually shut off the White House's water. (Answer seems to be, legally, yes, but they probably won't.)

Maybe just shut it off to specific rooms? I have some suggestions.

I like the idea in theory, but I'm against anything that encourages him to move back to NYC.

I had a ride all the way down to RI! Which is actually a pretty easy drive (open highways) and got to listen to some of my favorite radio programs on the way there and back.

I probably heard way too much about the shutdown, but at least they weren't playing excerpts from the "speech." Which never mentioned the shutdown, if I understand correctly.

Theo, is it worth a long ride like that if you have to deadhead back?

Oh man, you guys -- there is a team I work with closely. For a long time, it was basically one person + boss. Then it was two people + boss. Boss position was vacant for a good while, but they've finally hired. But they were still basically understaffed. Now it's three people + boss, and one is on maternity leave. The other one just gave notice (for a very cool opportunity), leaving only the newest, most junior person + boss! And boss has a much larger department to run. Yikes. Yikes!!

Even a little turnover in a small unit makes such a huge difference.

ION, John Lasseter just got hired to run Skydance Animation (which is Larry Ellison's toy). David Ellison hired him with a total bullshit memo about "taking very seriously" the charges against Lasseter's gropey, sexist ways and how Lasseter has learned his lesson.

There's a lot of blowback but I don't think they will give a shit when you've got a guy who can make you a billion dollars. So...sexual assault once again means nothing in the face of profit.

I am subbing this week at an Adult Autism Center and really enjoying it. Today was a trip to a local yoga center to take a class, which they do once a month or so. Some of the students have verbal outbursts. One of them has some outbursts but he also has a total announcer's voice and perfect diction, which I assume he absorbed from TV. So, in the middle of the hushed yoga class in a candlelit room, we suddenly hear "Doctor, this chart can't be correct" in sonorous tones.

So, in the middle of the hushed yoga class in a candlelit room, we suddenly hear "Doctor, this chart can't be correct" in sonorous tones.

Ha!

OMG, the White House water getting cut off for non-payment is cracking me right up. If someone just goes by and sticks a notice on the door that it'll happen I would be so happy.

The weirdest Facebook family drama I've had involved some old photos I posted. There were a bunch of me and my sister and our cousin David when we were little kids. (David is the same age as me.) I asked David if he wanted to be tagged in the photos, and he said no. So I posted one of them with a caption something like, "This is me and [sister, tagged] and our cousin David who doesn't want to be tagged." FOUR YEARS LATER, David's mother called my mother to tell her to tell me that David didn't like the phrasing "our cousin David who doesn't want to be tagged," and that I should have just put "our cousin David," and that this was a horrible breach of etiquette on my part.

Based on previous experiences with David's mother, I'm about 90% certain that he never said a word about what I wrote, and that she had some kind of issue with it and said that it was his issue.