utenzi

Don Adams died earlier this week. September 25th, to be exact. The phrase "I asked you not to tell me that" came to mind. And that got me to thinking of other catch phrases from the show, like "I missed him by that much" or maybe "Would you believe...." I was quite surprised at the richness of my memories of Get Smart when I read those phrases. It's like I could hear them again as I did when I was a kid. Bob Denver's death last week didn't affect me very much but maybe that was because Gilligan's Island wasn't nearly as interesting a show. Get Smart ran for 5 seasons and began in 1965 when I was 4 years old so I was 9 when it ended. The shows I remember so well were probably all from the last couple of years. At left are Agent 86 (Max), the Chief and Agent 99 (whose name is never given on the show). HBO is supposed to be releasing DVDs of the shows in 2006 but they aren't being shown on television now. At least not nationally ...

Ole Jed's a millionaire, Jed move away from there! and you know the rest... Since the high cost of gas is uppermost on so many people's minds I thought I'd post a bit about oil and how it works in our economy et etera. I suspect most people figure we get the majority of our oil from the Middle East. Actually we don't. One of the reasons that Pat Robertson threatened to have Hugo Chavez (President of Venezuela) killed is that Venezuela is our largest supplier of oil--and Chavez is starting to play hardball with the major oil companies. In addition to Venezuela, which supplies us here in the USA with just over 1.6 million barrels of crude oil a day, Canada and Mexico supply us with almost 1.6 million barrels a day each and Saudi Arabia clocks in at 1.5 million barrels a day. In fifth place is Nigeria with a bit under 1.1 million barrels a day. Perhaps another thing that bothers the Rev Robertson is that Chavez supplies some countries, mostly in Latin America, with oil ...

Down here in the South saying President Davis usually has a different meaning, but this time I'm referring to the new show on NBC . Geena Davis plays Mackenzie Allen, the vice president to a GOP president in Commander in Chief . In the first episode VP Allen becomes President of the United States despite political opposition from within the administration starting with the former President and going right down the line. I just finished watching this a few minutes ago having time-shifted it until after midnight. I think Geena Davis comes off as quite presidential--far more so than a certain other person I can think of. That said, the show never-the-less bothered me. My take on the show is that the creative minds behind the show lean more to the left and are using the show, as has been done effectively on West Wing , to push forward liberal ideas. I have no problem with that since I identify more with the left than the right. However the central piece in this first episode was Davis...

Congratulations to Bobby Cox and the Atlanta Braves 14 consecutive seasons of making it to post-season play

How I met Your Mother (Monday) Summary: The show is a series of flashbacks as related by a father, in 2030, to his kids about how he met their Mother. Analysis: I didn't erase the first show from my DVR because I'm going to watch it a second time. I really, really liked the show. The only logical problem I had with it is that the guy that plays the dad ( Josh Radnor ) was able to find a woman to be interested in when his best friend is involved with and about to become engaged to Alyson Hannigan . Obviously there's no way anyone else could compare. Right? 2nd show: Big letdown from the first episode. Still good but in a very typical tv sit-com way. Generic laughs and situations that never would happen in real life. Still worth watching just to see Hannigan's adorable face but the writing is starting to appear on the wall. And it's only the second frickin' episode! Radnor was very likable in the lead and he's the weak link so obviously the acting talent h...

I've seen a few movies on DVD over the past two weeks and read 3 books. Here's the reviews of the books, the movies might follow later tonight. BOOKS The Rule of Four : Written by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason this book has a great premise that is somewhat reminiscent of the promise that The Da Vinci Code holds at the beginning. I think the book resembles The Celestine Prophecy more in the way it is written but it has elements of both books and it's written a lot better. Unfortunately it never really gets moving and as a result it's quite dull. There's a huge amount of research interred in this book--and that is the word I want to use. LOL It's not enough to write well, you also have to have a plot that moves along, and this one doesn't. In fact, there's more action in the last chapter than in the rest of the book--and it all happens off camera, as it were. You can only make assumptions about the climax that the entire book was building up to becaus...

Nothing cohesive today, though I'm not so sure I ever really think in a purely linear fashion. Yesterday I was discussing Decartes and the mind-body problem in a superficial way in another blog and oddly enough that very topic popped up in the book I'm reading, The Rule of Four . It's odd when that happens, especially when the synchronicity involves something as unusual as a 17th century philosopher. I'm not quite done with the book--the section I'm on now involves Girolamo Savonarola , a 15th century Dominican monk, and I came online to do a little research on him before reading any further. I mentioned my lack of talent with sewing a day or so ago. Here's some proof of that: It looks pretty bad but there is a history behind it. This all started out with an iron-on patch on the inside, then another had to be added a few months later. Those two held for about a year then the cloth just got too thin and then I added the big iron-on patch to the outside. That...

Marie , a newspaper photographer living in the mountains of NC, has posted a wonderful picture of a Praying Mantis eating a bug . It's very impressive.

It's not easy to take pictures of your own throat with a digital camera. If nothing else, the flash just doesn't work well in tight spots like that. I've mentioned a few times of late that I've had a sore throat this past week. While it's not as annoying now, it's still red and a little sore. Witness the exhibit below: I didn't say "ahhh" in this one and now I see why doctors insist on that silly word. It really makes a huge difference in what you see. I took these two pictures before work on Friday. I suspect that my throat was a lot better by then but since that was the first time I looked at it, I'm not sure. It's kinda gross when you look at that fleshy stuff--I don't see how those medical personnel do it all the time. The two people I work with the most at my job are both surgeons so they see this crap all the time. Gives me the willies just to think about it! This picture is more of the general throat and not just the area that is...

It's been a while since I've posted pictures of bugs so to rectify that lack, here's two pictures I took a few weeks back. I hope you like the fellers. This is a grasshopper. Duh! I guess that was pretty obvious. I color corrected it to the point where it's no longer correct but I liked this look better than reality. This guy is pretty small. It was crawling near my back door and I took a few pictures. It was too small to easily get the camera to focus so only 2 shots of the 14 I took came out okay. Partly to blame was the white backdrop which made it harder for the camera to focus.

13 Super Sweet Morsels about Utenzi 1. Morsel is way too 'cute' a word and makes me squirm in annoyance but that's the way Leanne wants it (the word not the squirm) 2. I work in science research doing molecular biology exploring drug effects on breast cancer 3. I don't exercize enough but when I do it's usually mowing my lawn--1 acre so it takes a while--but I prefer hiking or kayaking 4. I enjoy reading most of all but eating potato chips and watching television isn't far behind 5. My favorite tv show from last season is Lost and so far my favorite this year is How I Met Your Mother 6. I've been sick the past week with a sore throat and that's making me sleep nearly twice the 5 hours I usually get 7. I only play one computer game-- Age of Empires --but I play that way too much 8. I don't like doing RT-PCRs very much but lately I've been doing a lot of them 9. Both my truck and my computer are around 6 years old and they're...

This is a very sad day. Heather " Dooce " Armstrong has sold out . So sad. Jealous? Who me??

File this one under "there are some weird folk out there" and apparently one of them is me! I didn't set out in life to be a porn provider but now I'm not so sure. Today my site got a hit from someone that did a search on, and I quote, female biology anuses I mean Ewwwwww! I had to try this myself and I did the search in Google and didn't come up with my site, at least not in the top 100 results. But the original search was on the UK's version of MSN search so I tried it there. And this page was listed as the #7 match! I'm providing chick porn. This is nasty! I try to have a family friendly page. I really do! LOL Maybe I just shouldn't ever see how people get to my page. It's not good for my mind to see things like THAT !

It seemed to me that Blogger was having some serious troubles last night. Several times I tried to access my blog here and couldn't and that was true also for dozens of other blogs I tried to read. Only ones on Blogger though. Other blog providers like Typepad were running fine. I didn't see any notices about system maintenance or anything. Any thoughts?

I'll repost this in a few days when I see more shows. Right now it's Tuesday and I've only seen three of them. Bones (Tuesday) Summary: Forensic Pathology show that's a mix of the CSI shows and the old Quincy, ME TV series. Loosely based on the books by Kathy Reichs who's also the show's producer. Analysis: Read the books. LOL This show is so very bad. I bet a lot of people will like it but it's banal to the core. In the very first scene a PhD takes off her shirt to get the attention of a clerk in an airport. Just to ask the arrival time of a plane. The show got better as it went along, but it could hardly have gotten any worse. The plot problems were the only reason I kept watching after a while and there were HUNDREDS of them. For anyone analytical, the show is a train wreck. Threshold (Friday) Summary: Some kind of alien(s) or objects thereof interfere with a ship in the North Atlantic. Ship's crew goes crazy, some missing, others dead. A cover...

I wrote most of this yesterday but fell asleep before posting it. Music is the shorthand of emotion. ~Leo Tolstoy There is no truer truth obtainable By Man than comes of music. ~Robert Browning While I'm feeling a lot better today than I was this past weekend I called in sick since I'm still having annoying hot flashes from my fever. The sweating is irritating and I figured getting more sleep and lots of fluids would be a better approach in the long run. It's very annoying that this is all due to a silly sore throat. I'm assuming it's just a cold or some other virus causing it. Damn viruses ! I mention this because I've been napping and listening to music today and that's gotten me to thinking of how our limbic system is wired into our nervous system. Like William Congreve once said, Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast. By communicating directly to our limbic system music has the ability to change our perception of our surroundings without our ...

Didn't get into work today. Still sick from that sore throat. Annoying bugger. Got a few things done but not much since I am sleeping so much. I did a bit of sewing which is funny since I totally reek at sewing. Made two batches of those no-bake cookies I posted about last week. Did two loads of laundry, which being a single guy, means I'm set for at least 2 weeks. More likely 3! Now it's back to sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzz.

I was at a site last week and the meme was to post 5 songs that had titles that were questions. I wish I could credit the site but I have no idea where I saw it. Sorry! Anyway, I'll post 13 titles of songs that I particularly like with questions in the titles and you can follow up with more titles of songs. 5 would be a good number but anything you want to add is fine. I'm not going to tag anyone with this but it's okay with me if you do! "What Have They Done to My Song, Ma?" Melanie "Am I Losing You?" Jim Reeves "Who Do You Love?" George Thorogood and the Destroyers "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" Mitch Miller "Do You Believe In Magic?" The Lovin' Spoonful "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" Chicago "Have You Seen Her?" The Chi-Lites "What's Going On" Marvin Gaye "Have You Never Been Mellow?" Olivia Newton-John "Is T...

I took these pictures last week when I woke up early and it was still dark out. It's unfortunate that Morning Glories are at their prettiest before I can appreciate them. Often by the time I rush out the door to go to work they're already starting to close up shop and avoid the sun. I'm feeling under the weather this weekend. I got sick on Friday though I didn't realize it right away. I had these bouts of sweating in my office and didn't realize it was a fever coming on. I'll probably be calling in sick on Monday since I'm still under the weather but will hopefully be back at work on Tuesday since I need to get in at least 2 RT-PCRs and a Western blot this week. The weekend came just in time since I've been able to sleep A LOT! Which is unusual for me, except at times like this when I have a fever. I'm posting these pictures mostly because it's easy and I'm feeling lazy. LOL They are pretty but I got carried away with the second one and screw...

I usually subscribe to at least 6 magazines at any given time. I get them from Internet offers so they're very cheap and since you often can't renew at that price, the list of magazines is always changing. Right now one of them is Popular Science and I really like their The Goods section. It's about NEW TOYS! Here's 4 toys that I liked though I don't think any are quite interesting enough for me to buy, but I am tempted! The next toy I'll probably buy is a new digital camera. The one I have now is 3 years old and it's been dumped into lakes 3 times while kayaking. It's living on borrowed time! This first toy is a toaster that also does eggs so you can make a one-stop egg sandwich. Here's the spiel from their site: A multi-function appliance, the Egg & Muffin Toaster can simultaneously: 1) toast two slices of bread, English muffin, bagel, croissant, etc., 2) cook an egg (poached or steam-scrambled), and 3) warm a pre-cooked slice of ham or s...

We have very mild winters here in North Carolina compared to what I grew up with in upstate NY. But we do get snow. Typically a dozen times a winter though only rarely is there ever more than 2 or 3 inches on the ground. Here's two pictures that illustrate how nice it is to get mild temporary snow. All I can say is that I'm not going back to the winters I grew up in--this is a lot better. Pretty pink blossoms in snow. So lovely. This was taken on the UNC campus. This was taken in front of my house. I think it was around 10am and only one person had bothered to leave to go to work. Since I was taking the picture, it obviously wasn't me! There's so little snow removal equipment down here that the streets don't get cleared of snow very quickly--we count mainly on the sun coming out eventually. LOL So you get snow days at work when only a few inches falls. You gotta love it!

Here's a little game. What kind of hair do you like? While most of us have all sorts of preferences which result in a confusing jumble of so-called favorites some trends often emerge. Personally I like full curly hair that is either brunette or red. So let's generate lists of favorite hair, okay? I'll start! LOL As for length--the list, not the hair--let's just arbitrarily make the length 5. Feel free to do shorter or longer but as Dr. Perry Cox ( John McGinley ) would say on Scrubs : Try to at least get to 5, Bambi. Willya? Drum roll please.... 1. Minnie Driver : No doubts here at all! 2. My girlfriend : I'm not stupid, you always include wives or girlfriends on lists like this 3. Debra Messing : Red hair with lots of body. Wow. 4. Jane Rutter : Australian musician with Irish roots 5. Jennifer Aniston : Against my 'type' but beautiful and depends so much on her hair ...and an honorable mention to Yaeli and her new tresses ! So what's your list?

The first new show of the season that I was going to watch was on tonight. Bones . My girlfriend wasn't impressed with it but I've not seen it yet. I might watch it a little later tonight. Instead I was fooling with my Blog Template. It seems that my counter, which I had through Blog Patrol, just wasn't working right and it was pissing me off. It might have just been a temporary thing but I couldn't even log in to check on things. So I switched over to Sitemeter . Of course I lost all my statistics but I set my counter to the same hit number so that didn't change. I've still got the javascript for Blog Patrol in my template but it's commented out. This leads to a question. What counter do you use, if any, and are you happy with it? So far I like Sitemeter a lot more than Blog Patrol. It's got a very nice analysis section, especially for a freebie. I don't get a lot of hits. Typically 25-40 a day during the week and if I'm playing the Weekend Meet...

I mentioned this bug in a post a few days ago. I've named the pictures "rocker-bug" because for some odd reason the close ups of the face remind me of some rock singer from one of those critter named groups back in the 60s. The Beatles, Animals, Trogs, Crickets, et cetera. Maybe it reminds me of all of them ! Be sure to click on the picture to get a nice close-up view! In a very odd, offbeat way it's cute. However I'm very glad it's only an inch or two long. Something like this that was a few feet long would really be a nightmare--or that fellow your daughter at college is seeing and that she just insists you'll love. LOL I can just see it: Mom, meet Edgar. Just feed him sugar water. Go light on the pesticides. In case you want more info, in this first picture he's snacking on nectar. His proboscis , or whatever it's called, is down inside the flower. This is a side shot taken the next day. It might be Edgar, or maybe a sibling. I didn't want...

One of our staff scientists, Beena (pictured below), is moving on in her career and leaving the lab where I work. She will be sorely missed. No longer will we be able to continue the betting pool on when she'll bother to drag her sorry butt into work. And I'm not saying that just because she called in sick today when she was supposed to go to lunch with Tach and me. Well, maybe I am! This is the home environment for lab rats such as I. It appears to be very messy--mainly because it is very messy. Or cluttered, at least. Since we do so many things and research can change the directions of our assays on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis--we have all sorts of things on hand for use. You never know what you'll need. Lately we've been doing a lot of qualitative and quantitative PCR but Westerns are in the near future. Fortunately we've gotten the kinks ironed out of our RT-PCR project but that's just to confirm the results of our DNA microarrays. Next we'll be g...

This guy was crawling across a window screen yesterday when I was reading the Harry Potter book out on my deck. Once I noticed him (or her? Can a Daddy be a her? LOL) of course I had to go take a few pictures. Most were out of focus since the spider was covering too small an area to focus on but I did get lucky (?) in two shots. It's a Daddy! I love the eyes on this bugger. (click on the picture to get the full effect) There's a certain soulfulness that is so often missing from spiders--and undergraduates too, I've occasionally observed. And the 'face' being in focus and the legs coming toward the camera going out of focus is a neat effect. Gotta love those durn bugs! The screen is also interesting looking from this perspective. Bugs get a great view from their positions--but there's also the disadvantage of being stepped on or swatted.

These are the cookies I mentioned in a previous post . They're very easy to make and use inexpensive ingredients. Here's the list: 2 cups of sugar 1/3 cup of Crisco 1/4 cup of dry milk 1/2 cup of water 3 cups of rolled oats 1/4 cup of cocoa 1/2 cup of peanut butter 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla (or almond) extract First assemble all the ingredients and the measuring cups you'll need. Also make sure you have the recipe on hand. Here I have mine leaning against a electric skillet to make it easier to read. It's a tad stained since I've used it many times over the 20+ years since I copied it from the one my mother had. The recipe, not the frying pan! Now here's what you do: Mix sugar, shortning, milk and water in saucepan. Heat until it boils, remove and add other ingredients. Mix well, drop onto wax paper to cool. Store in tight container. The following pictures illustrate the instructions above. First you combine the sugar, milk and Crisco in the saucepan. Then...

Just reading out on the back deck this afternoon. It's in the low '80s and I have the shade drawn over the deck to keep it from getting too hot. I've finally gotten around to reading the latest Harry Potter book and have got about 100 pages to go. So far it's been pretty good. Very much in keeping with the rest of the series. It's good to see that the extra time between books isn't hurting Rowling's concentration and focus. Celebrity has screwed up many an author in the past! Back to the book...

These are some tomato seedlings fondly looking out on my backyard. That's where they want to live when they grow up--but for right now they'd not handle the wind very well so they're staying in the shelter of my deck. Still, they do like the look of the garden area surrounding the storage shed you can see in the distance. Maybe that'll be their future home. Just off of the deck you can see the flowers that I've been photographing the bees on. It's amazing how many bees, hornets, moths, and even the occasional butterfly has been spending time there.

This post is about my reactions to the new Fall Lineup . Y'all probably don't care but it'll help me think it through and get ready to program my DVR since there's no way I'm going to sit through commercials. There are few things I love more than the auto-skip commercials function on my ReplayTV unit. Thursday: Returning shows are ER , Joey (yes, I actually like it though it's kinda dumb), and Will&Grace . As for the new shows, I'll give Reunion a try though I'm not very optimistic. And also Everybody Hates Chris . I can't stand Chris Rock's voice but everything I've heard points to this being a wonderful show so I'll endure his voice! I've not seen the last 3 shows of ER from last season but they're sitting on my ReplayTV hard drive so I'll watch them before the first show of the new season... Friday: I was one of the few people that liked Numbers on CBS so I'll probably watch that along with Malcolm in the Middl...

My apologies to readers outside of the USA and Canada. I doubt this will pertain to many of you... This post is about my reactions to the new Fall Lineup . Y'all probably don't care but it'll help me think it through and get ready to program my DVR since there's no way I'm going to sit through commercials. There are few things I love more than the auto-skip commercials function on my ReplayTV unit. Sunday: I watch 60 Minutes and Cold Case and now they're moving The West Wing over to the 8pm time slot to compete against Cold Case . Bastards! Only one new show, The War at Home , and I have no interest in it. Monday: Not much here. I watch Las Vegas and that's on at 9pm. There's two possible new shows that I'll try out, both on at 8:30pm. How I met your Mother on CBS and Kitchen Confidential on Fox. Neither strikes me as interesting but the reviews have me curious. So I'll give them a two week trial. And in the case of the Met your Mot...

I know some people don't like bugs but these shots aren't quite as 'gruesome' as the pictures I posted a few days ago of spiders . I took a bunch of pictures and the most interesting ones revolve around that weird bug in the middle top of the first picture. I'll post more pics of it tomorrow. I have no idea what kind of bug it is but it was very territorial--chasing bees away when it wasn't sucking up nectar. However once it started getting nectar it would not stop for a set period of time. Around 30 seconds, I think. This picture has 2 bees on top of the flowers along with their aggressive friend in the middle. There's also a very small bug on the extreme right side flying toward the flowers. It's kinda small. There was very little activity around these flowers until a week ago and since then the bees and moths have been hanging around like crazy. Apparently this is some tasty stuff. Here's one solo bee just chilling out and getting a drink of his ...

I was visiting a few random blogs today when I came upon an interesting quiz on Charles' site , the Searchlight of Insight. Give it a try if you'd like. Here's how I did: You scored as Natural Causes . Your death will be by natural causes, though not by any disease, because that is another option on this test. You will probably just silently pass away in the night from old age, and people you love won't realize until the next morning, when you are all purple and cold and icky. So be happy, you won't be murdered. Natural Causes 80% Suicide 67% Disappear 67% Stabbed 60% Posion 53% Eaten 47% Bomb 40% Gunshot 40% Drowning 33% Disease 27% Suffocated 27% Cut Throat 20% Accident 13% How Will You Die?? created with QuizFarm.com I'd just as soon not get stabbed to death but since all I did was answer some questions, 32 I think, I doubt there's any huge amount of accuracy with this test. But at least there's only a 27% chance of suffocation. I sure hate the idea ...

Yet another non-Katrina post and slipped in just under the midnight wire. The upcoming television season is about to hit here in the USA. I'll probably post about the new shows in a day or two so in the meantime I'll start this off with a post about favorite shows that are currently on television and favorite ones from the past. To the left here is my favorite new show from last year. Lost which is on ABC. Here's my list of my favorite 8 former shows: M*A*S*H Northern Exposure (with Joel) Friends Cheers (without Kirstie Alley) Family Ties Rockford Files Bob Newhart Show WKRP in Cinncinati ...and I guess I'd better add Frasier to that list. I'd forgotten it had finished its run. Here's my list of current tv shows that I usually watch: 60 Minutes Cold Case West Wing CSI: Miami Las Vegas NCIS The Amazing Race Lost The 70's Show Veronica Mars ER Malcolm in the Middle Probably tomorrow I'll put...

There's been a little too much on one topic lately so I'll introduce something that isn't Katrina or bug related. Protest songs! I'll dedicate this one to my girlfriend, still working that hippie vibe, and Liz at Library Tavern , who obviously is still feeling those protest blues. There's something very uplifting about feeling morally superior to others and protest songs are great for doing just that. So here's your chance. Nominate 5 of your favorite protest songs. These don't have to be the 5 best ones--just the 5 that hit you where it counts. I got my songs from List of protest songs on Wikipedia. It's a pretty good resource though a few of them are long shots at being protest songs. At least they don't seem to be protesting much to me. I can't say I enjoy this one but there's few that cut to the bone more: "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holliday In any case, here's 10 of my favorite protest songs of the moment: " I...

I'm no fan of the Bush administration. Didn't vote for him the first time and had nightmares when he was elected the second time. However his nominee for the Supreme Court, John Roberts, surprised me. I didn't find him all that objectionable. Now he's not the one I'd have picked, of course--but we are talking about the Bush White House here. I don't see how you're going to get a better Justice for the Supreme Court out of them. That said, I still can't believe Bush is nominating Judge Roberts for the Chief Justice before he's even on the Supreme Court. And Roberts, though very experienced in a number of ways, has only been a federal judge for 2 years! Is President Bush nuts???

Hmmm? No, it's not this bug that is bugging me. This was hanging out near my office at work on Friday and so I got a few pictures of it 'cause I thought the green on the body was quite interesting. I believe it's a cicada though when I asked the bug about that subject it didn't say a thing. I guess while they can make a shitload of sound , they can't talk. What is really bugging me is how much of the national focus is being placed on the people of New Orleans that stayed in the city. What some have mentioned is that many other areas in the Gulf of Mexico region were hit hard also, but weren't as densely populated. What seems to be escaping attention is that something like 1.2 million people evacuated the general New Orleans area and have no homes to return to for weeks at best, more likely months. Do these people have money to stay at hotels? Not for long. If I needed to get money fast I'd probably get a home equity loan. But what bank would loan money base...

G, over at Library Bitch , has a great post today about the Katrina/New Orleans situation. If you don't mind some karping at the Bush Administration, give it a look. Read it with the theme of Mission Impossible resonating in your head...

The US government is chartering three of Carnival Cruise Lines' ships for up to six months to provide shelter for approximately 7,000 people displaced by Hurricane Katrina, presumably mainly in New Orleans. My first reaction was that this was a wonderful idea since it'll be easy to get the ships close to where the people are and cruise ships are the perfect place for very compact living conditions idea for refugees. The cruise ships will also have facilities for medical care, eating, recreation etc that are often missing at other places. My second thought was that this was picture perfect for small families since everyone in a 2 or 3 person group can stay in one stateroom and be together with privacy. And also that people that know each other can cluster together to help ease the trauma that they've been through by having familiar faces around. Soon after that I considered the thought that the people that engaged in violence, rape and looting in New Orleans would quite l...

First of all, here's two sites with more pleasant Katrina connections: Katrina from Katrina and the waves . Second of all, there are no, I repeat NO links to the Red Cross here. I think having 2 million of them on blogs already is enough. Maybe even overkill? Is anyone else tired of the reporters whining on air about how horrible the conditions are for them? We all know they fight over getting 'hot' assignments like this. At least they've been very sensitive to the needs of the stranded people from what I've seen. There's some suggestion that global warming is at the heart of the more destructive hurricane season this year--if so, does it make any sense to rebuild a city that is already below water level? Speaking of global warming--when the ice cap in Antartica melts enough are the oil companies going to drill there for oil ? Is the rumor true that the GOP is going to offer a few thousand Mexicans US citizenship if they move to New Orlea...