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.