I'm on vacation and busy with family and I don't have time to trawl the web, or the threads, but I'm dying of curiousity: What is going on with Sarah Palin?? What is this covering up? Fill me in.

Also, Mom once had a tape of A. A. Milne songs, that she believes went along with "When we were very young". She was singing them to Hawaiian Punch, and all I overheard was something about stopping on the stairs, and this is the stair that I stop at to think. She says that she has looked for these songs many times over the years and never been able to find them, but I would be very grateful if my worldwide army of brilliant and well-read you guyses could find them for her.

I thought this article about the "gay generation gap" between the twentysomethings who have encountered at least some acceptance their whole lives and the thirty and fortysomethings who lived through much more prejudice, not to mention the AIDS crisis of the 80s was quite interesting. I've never heard anything like this brought up by my gay friends, so I wonder how much of this is a widely held sentiment vs. trend piece, although the thesis makes a lot of sense.

These commercials are entrancing. (via.)

Di Kotimy has a post on what's necessary for a real apology; how to sincerely take responsibility when you've done something wrong and hurt someone.

It's good advice, but it left me thinking -- what's the decent way to convey a non-apology apology when that's what you mean? Sometimes, you really are in a situation where someone's hurt by your words or actions, but they're, you know, actually wrong. And you care about them, and wish they weren't hurt, but you genuinely aren't sorry: "I'm sorry you were hurt" or "I'm sorry you feel that way" sum up your evaluation of the situation.

Is there any sincere, non-inflammatory way to convey that -- clearly "I'm sorry you were hurt" is just enraging, so that's not right. "I disagree with you about what happened, but the fact that you're unhappy about it makes me unhappy too, and I wish you felt better about it?" Or is the sensible thing to do, when you find yourself in a non-apology apology kind of situation, to start ducking phone calls and avoiding contact until you think everything's blown over?

Do you like attending events that are hastily thrown together? So do I! You should come hang out with LB, AWB, me, and others (others? I've heard tell of others) this coming Monday, July 6th:

Fresh Salt
7pm

Or, since I feel bad dictating the time and place without finding out what's convenient for everyone, go ahead and use this thread to plan a different meet-up at a time and place of your choosing. Go ahead. Do it. I won't even be jealous if your meet-up ends up being cooler. I promise.

By historical standards, the Obama Administration's response to the recent political upheaval in Honduras is remarkable. I can easily imagine a hypothetical McCain Administration toeing the typical US line: offering (at least) tacit support of the military ouster of leaders who aren't stridently pro-US.

And looking at recent events in both Iran and Honduras, the emerging Obama approach to foreign policy seems to be marked by an overwhelmingly refreshing guiding principle: caution.

I approve of this development.

You're so sucky.

Everyone's all Norm Coleman this and Al Franken that and Filibuster-proof Majority this-that. Am I the only one who's skeptical that the Democrats will be too incompetent to actually corral their 60 to vote unanimously to end a filibuster? Yes, yes, it's incrementally good to have one more vote, but we're still going to be dealing with butthead Democrats and pandering to mushy Republicans. I'm just saying that in practice, there's nothing magical about having that 60th member seated, when you're as ineffective as this party is.

If you've been wronged by a company or received terrible service, is it ever appropriate to say something along the lines of "I will give you one more chance to fix this situation. If you choose not to, I will feel compelled to broadcast my dissatisfaction with your company via Twitter/Facebook/my blog/Yelp so that I may warn others of how much you suck."? If so, how does one do that tactically? Or is expressing that the equivalent of a "Do you know who I am?" -- something that may work in a given situation, but makes you such an asshole that you can't live with yourself if you do it?

There was a time when it would not have taken over two months for someone to point this sort of thing out. I'm sorry we're letting you down.

I should note: it's probably not something I'd go about watching from work.

But this is really captivating! This video that no one saw has every giant star from 1989. I don't think this ever aired on MTV. Embedding is disabled, but you'll feel like a total loser in the thread if you don't seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to click on over and watch Liberian Girl.

Also, a long time ago I went to summer camp with Molly The Artist, who is part of the DC crew, and we were very tight, and I remember her telling me that Michael Jackson scrambled the name for The Moonwalk. That dance was actually called Walking Against The Wind, which makes total sense: it does look like you're walking against the wind. Apparently the real Moonwalk was some big bouncy weightless-looking dance.

Our house is not fly. Rather, our house has flies.

I appreciated the great advice you folks gave when I asked about expanding my garden. (It should be disclosed that said advice was, by and large, passed along to roommates who've been doing a bang-up job on the garden while I've stayed inside hitting the Apple+R keys, with occasional bouts of weed pulling.)

I realized, however, that I hadn't mentioned our plan to have a compost pile. We've got this plastic bin into which we throw non-protein (I'm told this is important?) kitchen waste (veggies, that sort of thing, along with generalized yard waste). We throw in a layer of straw every now and then; something about moisture.

My question, then: are there really supposed to be this many flies? They're getting into the house (which might be a separate problem), and it's annoying but not, you know, the worst thing ever. I'm killing probably three or four a day in the house. Out by the compost pile, they're numerous enough that I'm concerned they'll soon demand sovereignty from our oppressive regime.

(Alternative fly explanation: we just had some plumbers in to fix a not-so-pleasant sewage back-up in the basement. "Hello there, shit!" Maybe it's that?)

Talk to me about storing some rotten stuff, people.

I once again have a regular radio slot! Every Tuesday this summer, from 3 pm to 6 pm Pacific, starting tomorrow, with the exception of the most propitious 7/7, when I will be engaged in convincing my committee that I should be anything but a doctor. That means … starting tomorrow! You can listen to such artists and groups as R. Keenan Lawler, Spaltklang, John Butcher & Gerry Hemingway, David Thomas & Two Pale Boys, MCMS, Steve Lehman, Henry Threadgill, Alamaailman Vasarat, Max Nagl, the Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation, the Dirty Projectors, PopCanon, Takumi Fukushima, etc. etc. etc. Can and should!

Boy do I wish that someone said to me, four times a day, "Boy do you look sleepy. Why don't I rock you to sleep?"

I've really enjoyed logging into Facebook today and seeing which unexpected people have posted pictures from Pride festivals. "Really? That girl from High School? Good on her!"