The husband let out a girly shriek of pure and utter delight when he saw this.

Sigh.

Posted by: Kathy at 03:45 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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"Chip's" adventures in Bikram Yoga conclude.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Robbo is saved from much teeth scraping and poking.

{Insert commitment of this to memory, lest the husband try it on for size when we have kids}

Posted by: Kathy at 10:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Fausta's got it for you.

Posted by: Kathy at 08:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I was working out a reply to this bit of bullshit, but Jeff Goldstein took care of it for me.

Thanks, Jeff. I think I'm going to go and give myself a pedicure.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:51 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I saw this on Fox last night, but it deserves WIDE play, so I'm going to link it---just like everyone else in the blogosphere is doing.

If this turns out to be true---and I don't see why it wouldn't be verified---Kathleen Blanco deserves a horrible fate in life.

And I'm not talking politically here, kids.

UPDATE: Verification (hat tip: martini boy's bartender)

Posted by: Kathy at 01:24 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Have I missed a fashion trend lately wherein it's now cool to wear a little black choker around your neck---with a Masterlock padlock attached to it?

Or is this just what I think it is?

{Insert much blatant winking here}

Because, I have to tell ya, I just saw a lady over at the lake with this little ensemble attached to her neck and it was, well, interesting. She looked like your ordinary suburban housewife out for a run with her kid in a jogging stroller. She even had a matching jogging outfit on. All was well and normal except for the padlock attached to her throat.

If this is the latest thing from Versace or Tom Ford, would please someone clue me in?

And, no, Mom, I'm not explaining this to you.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:03 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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One of the crack young staff of The Hatemonger's Quarterly---let's just call him "Chip"---discovers the joys of Bikram yoga.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:08 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Just from reading this.

I haven't auditioned for anything since high school, but still...{insert shudder of horror here}.

Acting class was much easier. They just assigned stuff to you. It was easier that way. Although, it did bite when your partner for class was a pom pom girl and you were assigned The Lion in Winter for your final piece of the semester. Of course the pom pom girl gets to play Eleanor of Aquitaine and you're stuck playing stupid, naive, homewrecking---did I already write stupid?---Alais.

Kings, queens, knights everywhere you look and I'm the only pawn. I haven't got a thing to lose - that makes me dangerous.

No, bitch. It means you're the most vulnerable piece on the board because you can't defend yourself. Like, duh.

No, really. I'm not still bitter about it. I shouldn't even really be bitter. I got an 'A.'

Anyway, excuse my digression and go read Sheila's post. It's good stuff, Maynard.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:59 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Sez the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Neither an official state funeral nor the devastating aftermath of a cataclysmic storm will stop the music this morning in Washington. There's always time for showbiz on Capitol Hill.

While Washington buries Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist in a solemn ceremony stretching from the Supreme Court to Arlington National Cemetery, Desmond Child will be laying on a little Livin' La Vida Loca in a House office building.

As congressional committees scramble to focus on a federal response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Gloria Estefan, Jimmy Jam and Dave Koz will be headlining a Power of Music show promoted by the folks who bring you the Grammys.

Last week, China President Hu Jintao postponed his trip to Washington to give the White House and Congress more time for disaster-recovery efforts. Not Hollywood.

For the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, it's the first-ever Recording Arts Day on Capitol Hill and, of course, the show must go on, good timing or not. Besides, there'll be an awards event packed with stars and lawmakers alike jostling for photo ops.

According to the academy, the point of the event is to not only stress the power of music but to also "raise the profile of recording arts during meetings with legislators."

Desmond, Gloria, Jimmy and Dave have issues, although no one on Tuesday afternoon could recall quite what they might be.

"The entire music industry is coming together on common issues," said Daryl Friedman, vice president of advocacy and government relations for the academy, after a long day of dealing with star-struck media inquiries on the nature of Estefan's dress. "We want to build a top-line relationship [with Congress]."

The coalition put together by the Grammy Awards producers includes performing artists, songwriters, music labels, distributors and retailers, groups whose best interests often conflict with each other.

"They don't always agree," Friedman said. "But they do agree on the big issues." {...}

Should I go for the cheap shot, here? I mean, really it's almost too easy. I don't suppose it will be worth it in the long run, but the urge is so strong, I can't really help myself.

Are you ready for it? You are? Okedokey. Here goes.

Apparently Gloria Estefan only cares about the survivors of hurricanes when they live in Miami and she can host a PR grubbing concert without having to travel anywhere.

Was that good for you, too? I hope so.

{Hat Tip: Mike at Tech Dirt}

Posted by: Kathy at 04:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Roy Hallums, a contractor who was kidnapped last November, has been freed in Iraq.

Dr. Rusty is, of course, thrilled with this news. As well he should be: he not only broke the story, but kept it alive and running when the mainstream media lost interest. Go and share in his happiness!

Posted by: Kathy at 11:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If you're in need of a little levity in these dark times, I present you, my devoted Cake Eater Readers, with "The Disaster Pr0n Stars of Cable News."

Part I and Part II .

{Hat Tip: Robbo}

Posted by: Kathy at 11:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The husband gets rave reviews. (scroll down to the 9/5 entry)

Or maybe it was just the Cuervo talking.

Heh.

(I'm just screwing with you, Katie.)

And, yes, the husband does indeed look like Russell Crowe. Or rather Russell Crowe looks like the husband. Because I'm loyal that way. Same body type, same hair color, same eye color, same facial shape. They could be brothers. And, no I'm not joking.

Posted by: Kathy at 04:26 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I wish I'd written this.

A small sampling:

{...}Much has been said regarding how much more massive an event Katrina is relative to lower Manhattan. But the fact remains that firemen went up the stairs when people were coming down, and one ordinary group of people on an ordinary flight on an ordinary day defeated the very best that the global terror network could put together. Our ladies junior varsity squad whipped the living shit out of their Super Bowl A-team over Pennsylvania that day, and they did it because for one brief shining moment enough passengers on that airplane went Grey.

And in Louisiana last week the governor cried and the mayor blamed everyone but himself, and half the country bought every single stinking Pink lie about global warming and missing National Guard units and blamed the sheepdogs while the wolves raped and pillaged and looted everything in sight.

Hundreds of New York firemen and policemen never came home, never came home, but New Orleans Police Chief P. Edwin Compass III said, of his men, “If I put you out on the street and made you get into gun battles all day with no place to urinate and no place to defecate, I don’t think you’d be too happy either… Our vehicles can’t get any gas. The water in the street is contaminated. My officers are walking around in wet shoes.”

Well, Chief, IÂ’m sorry your menÂ’s feet are wet, but getting their feet wet is part of their fucking job. New YorkÂ’s Finest arenÂ’t complaining about wet feet or places to pee because they died doing their jobs. They were sheepdogs.

{...}So, on one hand, we have a very blue city – New York – confronted, out of the clear morning of a perfect fall day, with no warning – with a terror attack, and they march toward the sounds of screams and falling bodies and die by the hundreds. One the other hand, we have New Orleans law enforcement – also blue – whining about wet shoes and helping themselves to the happy period of lawlessness that followed an event that had been expected for no less than seventy-two hours.

In New York, we had a governor who got every available resource on the ground as fast as it could get there, and in Louisiana we have a governor who...cried. Governor, your job is to not cry. Your job is to be strong. We have plenty of civilians crying. You want to cry, cry in the car on the way home like everybody else did four years ago. Crying Governors, race-baiting mayors and looting police do not a Finest Hour make.

In New Orleans we have a mayor who left some 400-500 buses sitting fueled and underwater in the Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool saying that evil white conservative America was selling out his people within 24 hours of the catastrophe, from a safe and dry and adequately toileted location, while four years ago we had a Mayor who ran to the site of the disaster so quickly it is a full-blown miracle he was not killed when a building collapsed literally on top of his magnificent, combed-over head.

Now, much has been made of the fact that Ray Nagin is an incompetent, race-baiting black man, and Rudy Giuliani, who was neither, is white. Also, feminists are upset that people dare attack Governor Blanco because she is incompetent, weak, indecisive, and also a woman. And no doubt there are salivating long-haired, short-cortexed idiots just waiting for this to be over so they can sail into the comments section and tell me what a racist and misogynist I am.

Well, hereÂ’s the news flash: Nagin isnÂ’t incompetent because heÂ’s black. HeÂ’s incompetent because heÂ’s incompetent. Condoleeza Rice is black. Colin Powell is black. Ted Kennedy, a man well-acquainted with rising water crises is as white as they come. Kennedy is incompetent; Rice and Powell are two of the most competent people on the planet.

This is about tribes, all right: not black and white tribes, but rather a battle between the capable and the culpable. {...}

Go read the whole thing. It's long, but it's well worth your time.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:56 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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What the hell is the matter with Technorati? I can't get the Cake Eater search page to come up...and haven't been able to for the past two or three weeks! We're experiencing a large volume of traffic right now. Check back later. You know what, dude? I HAVE been checking back later and the stupid thing still doesn't work then, either. It's so highly annoying.

I realize they're trying to expand their business into other realms, but for the love of God, don't screw with the thing every blogger uses, eh? I'd like to know who is linking me if they don't have trackback. It's not that hard. Buy some more servers or something.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:49 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Grab the smelling salts now and keep them handy. I have some news for you, my devoted Cake Eater Readers.

Ahem.

I had a social life this weekend!

I know. Pretty unusual, eh? Tell me about it. But it was nice to actually have not one, but two parties to go to before it starts getting cold and no one leaves their house again until next summer. (Yes. That really is the way things work here in the frozen tundra. Unless you're into ice fishing or somesuch winter sporty crap. Then you probably get out and about regularly. But those of us who despise winter, well...to put it bluntly,we're fucked, thank you ever so bloody much.) On Labor Day, we had an alley barbeque with the neighbors and that was nice, but it was really nothing to write home about. But Sunday night, well, last night was the MOB (Minnesota Organization of Blogs) Bash, which was held at the Town Hall Brewery near the U in downtown Minneapolis. Feeling festive, I threw on some nice strappy black high heels and, with the husband in tow, scooted off to meet some more bloggers!

I'm REALLY bad with faces and names, so I was pretty happy when I recognized Noodles from the last MOB event and he and his lovely wife, Susie, allowed me to latch onto them while I got my bearings. I chatted briefly with Ringer and met Andy from Residual Forces, yet another member of the Kennedy v. The Machine Gang of Four. Another KvM crew member, and a blogger whom I read regularly, Doug from Bogus Gold appeared and it was really nice to finally get to know him. Doug also squired me around and introduced me to many people, for which I'm grateful, because if he hadn't kept asking me "Do you want to meet some more people?" I probably would have sat at our table all night long, waiting for people to come to me. Which wasn't really going to happen as I am not the Queen of the MOB. Nevertheless a few people did come to our table and included in their number was Sandy from M.A.W.B Squad, who is one super duper cool chick, Ben from Hammerswing75 who was smoking clove cigarettes (mmmm) Steve from Giggle Pundit, the Night Writer, and the social butterfly of the evening: Mr. Mitch Berg, who was the host with the most, flitting from table to table, catching what I'm sure was the best of all the conversations taking place.

When we actually got up and started meandering, we were introduced to Dan, the Northern Alliance Wannabe; I had a brief chat with David Strom, who was happy to open up his portable humidor and let me take a peek inside. I was also happy to meet the Nihilist in Golf Pants, who did not have a copy of Sartre's Being and Nothingness sticking out of his plaid pants pocket because---ahem---wasn't wearing golf pants. Now, forcibly DRAG your minds out of the gutter and realize that the reason he wasn't wearing golf pants was because he was sporting an attractive socks and loafer look with a pair of shorts (which were not plaid), hence I believe he left the Sartre at home as it wasn't "summery" enough. I also briefly met Learned Foot and Pinkmonkeybird---who was sporting a hat with his URL on it, which, through the haze of chardonnay, made it really easy to figure out who he was. Thanks, Dude!

Unfortunately, for all the people I did get to meet and chat with, I did not have the chance to chat with any of the Fraters or {insert drumroll here} Lileks, who I am still scared of meeting because I know I will suffer from the worst case of verbal incontinence ever recorded if that meeting should ever occur.

I'm sure I've forgotten someone in this long listing, so if I have it's my fault, not yours and you can verbally abuse me in the comments.

I did have a nice time and I'm definitely thinking I'll have to shoot down to Keegan's one Thursday night in the not so distant future to hang out again with these guys. I heard a rumor of trivia; I shall have to investigate to see if it's true.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:33 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 I'm entirely unsure Mom of two teenagers qualifies for "super duper cool chick", but I'll TAKE it and shove it in the kids faces next time they deem me UNcool. 'Twas a treat to meet and the trivia crowd is just as fun and welcoming, even if you suffer from Trivia Anxiety Syndrome and can only remember that the capital of Thailand starts with a B or are absolutely confident that Costa Rica is in South America, (of course it's central Am.), like I do. See you at Keegan's soon! (However, I was right about the whole no-envelope-licking aspect, so I got that going for me.)

Posted by: Sandy at September 06, 2005 09:23 AM (k5iLc)

2 Yeah, but they did make t-shirts, so I'm thinking they'll nail us with the envelope licking thing soon enough

Posted by: Kathy at September 06, 2005 10:06 AM (QKvIa)

3 I find that my URL cap is a great way to pick up women. If things are going well I get around to asking, "Your URL or mine, Babe?" And since it's right on top of my head, well there's no chance of getting lost. If I have had too much to drink, she can drive me there and deposit me on the front curb. So to speak.

Posted by: pinkmonkeybird at September 06, 2005 03:36 PM (LFOcg)

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That's wonderful.

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Shaq needs to look up this kid and---ahem---learn from him.

(You'll need to download/install Google's video player to watch, but it's painless, so you really don't have an excuse.)

Posted by: Kathy at 11:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Sean Penn's cluelessness gallantry on display in New Orleans

It's good to know Sean can still do comedy, eh?

{Hat tip: LMC}

Posted by: Kathy at 10:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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While there's been some great news about fundraising via the web, there's also been some bad news about phishers, scammers, etc., trying to take advantage of people's suffering via the world wide web. So, it's really nice to have one more good story to add to the lot. The domain Katrina.com has been owned by a web designer named Katrina for years. She's been offered thousands of dollars by not-so-wholesome people over the past couple of days for the domain. She has refused ALL of these offers and instead has set up boards so people can locate the missing, relief information, etc. on her site to help the victims of Katrina. Katrina.com has become a roundup of valuable information because one woman is good.

That's nice to hear.

{Hat Tip: Tech Dirt}

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