You are cordially invited to the party in my (second-hand) pants.

I am still in Cambridge, I am still procrastinating, and I am still easily entertained (maybe even a tad more so than usual).

Hence, recession-inspired pick-up lines.

The NYT's 2008 Buzzwords are also enjoyable.

The News from My Bed

A surprisingly cheery hello from Cambridge, where the snow has finally started falling and it's beginning to look at least a little like Christmas. For those who didn't get the text, FAS offices closed about two hours ago. I'm sure you were all disappointed. Hooray for snow days!

Anyway, since I'm here for semi-inexplicable reasons, procrastinating on the four papers I should be either editing or writing, I figured I'd pass on some links that I found featuring varying degrees of political relevance.

First, despite the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights happening last week, there continues to be quite a bit of debate over gay rights (not just marriage but actually the right to be homosexual) over at the U.N. After an attempt to draft a statement calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality led by France and the Netherlands, a rival statement was created. With almost equal signature counts, the documents will change little. But they do represent an important first step toward de-stigmatizing the issue, discussion of which had previously been taboo.

Next, for all of you who have been partying a little too hard in celebration of winter break, here a couple new hangover cure methods. The NYT suggests either boiled cabbage a la the ancient Greek poet Amphis or sex. For those of you who either hate vegetables or are single, National Geographic offers cow stomach or ...more beer. Who knew the Dutch were such fratstars?

Down south in Florida, the state will purchase 300 square miles of farm land from United States Sugar to be reclaimed as wetlands. Holla, Everglades!

That's all for now. I should get back to the papers.
Hot chocolate and warm fires,
Marianne

p.s. I, for one, am proud of the unusual amount of html used in this post. Unusual for me, at least.

p.p.s. You knew this would happen eventually...

Middle school can be really rough

So to keep Brian Kaufman from making a third consecutive post with his name in the title, I am attempting some hastily-constructed defensive blogging.

Apparently, in Florida, you can get arrested for farting (which is somehow related to turning off computers?).
Luckily for the contingent of the Harvard population which subsists solely on tofu & squash, that doesn't seem to be a law in effect in Cambridge.

This has little to nothing to do with politics...

BUT

Apparently, there is an unusually high population of pirates in Yemen these days.

Zoom in, click around, you know the drill.

My diary, too?

Dear Diary,
Today I read the contents of the 7-page questionnaire which is required of anyone who wants to work as a higher-up under the Obama administration.
Courtesy of question number 14, it seems I'm going to have to burn you.
Just try and remember the good times (read: those that aren't quite embarrassing enough to warrant Obama's impeachment if they are ever made public).
And tell no one.
Farewell.
With a whole lot of love, but even more ambition,
Marianne

One-upping CNN

As pointed out by Lena Chen, over at the Crimson, it's all in the timing.

That's a solid hour and twenty minutes before everyone was even done voting. Impressive, if a little cocky.

I also appreciate that the sub-heading in the print version left out the "First-term Illinois Senator" part and just went with "Harvard Law School Graduate". Clearly, HLS is the more relevant part of his resume.

Finally, I know, I know McCain lost and Palin is being shipped back to Alaska where she can be a reasonably safe 5000 miles away from D.C., but I cannot help but pass on this.
(That second Sarah Palin tag was only added because it was already in the tag history and seemed too good NOT to use)

UPDATE: Apparently the Africa thing was a hoax after all. How unfortunate!

Lighting does strike

Just because you're "more likely to be hit by lighting twice" than for the election to come down to your vote, doesn't mean you shouldn't. You may not be Kevin Costner but we need everyone to add their drop to the bucket.
Find your polling place here and get to it.

And to reiterate what Eva said, if you're reading this, you can help.
Talk to someone. Pick up the phone. Make a difference.

Historical Mixtapes

I'm writing a paper on the Office of War Information (OWI), the US WWII propaganda department. While doing some research this evening (why yes it is 1:30 am on a Saturday night), I came across this quote:

The memory of the earlier agency, the Committee of Public Information, haunted the OWI through its three years of life. The CPI had been so unreasonable that people remembered it with embarrassment. It specialized in stirring up hysteria so effectively that unthinking Americans demanded that the German language be banished from the classroom and did such silly things as rename sauerkraut "liberty cabbage" and hamburger "Salisbury steak." So one war later, men of sensitivity were determined not to repeat such crudities.

--Edward Fischer in a review of Allan Winkler's Politics of Propaganda: The Office of War Information 1942-1945

I'm glad we've thoroughly left that part of our history behind us...

Unrelated: A certain Dems-alumnus-in-Iowa-for-only-another-week-or-so sent me a link to an Obama playlist which is pretty sweet. And although I personally know very little about this kind of stuff, I am told that it will download faster if you get it from here. So check that out.

Yes We Carve

From this NYT Campaign Stops blog post Steven Heller mentions the site Yes We Carve where you submit photos of the Obama-themed pumpkin that you carved.
WHICH MAY OR MAY NOT BE THE MOST AMAZING THING I HAVE SEEN DONE WITH MERE PUMPKINS.

But, it is this video, which is a spoof of this video, which is definitely my favorite.

This is almost enough to make me want to plan a pumpkin carving study break...if it wasn't for that pesky election coming up that we keep having to go to New Hampshire for. Shame, really.
But if any of your decide you want to host one yourself, let them know and they'll add you to the list of BYOP--bring your own pumpkin.

Open Question on Sustainability Week

I've been wondering: Can anyone explain to me why the posters for Harvard's Sustainability Week which are meant to encourage us to "Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. RETHINK." are approximately 4 times larger than any other poster I've ever seen on campus?

Just curious.

In other news, hooray for Al Gore speaking tomorrow!

Palin Pollin'

Apparently, something is wrong with this poll from PBS because at 10:34 am, the results to the question "Do you think Sarah Palin is qualified to serve as Vice President of the United States?" were exactly split between yes and no.

49% yes
49% no
and
0% didn't know

Am I missing something here?

Take 20 seconds and do your part to set this right.

Well, only because Famous Person said so...

So I was pretty sure that Sarah Palin did an exceptional job during the debate last night--an exceptional job at making sure that every question could be related back to the two topics that she knows anything about: taxes and energy.

But then my brother sent me this ad and all that changed:


Apparently, she killed last night.
And Famous Person said so.
That's enough for me! I don't even care which famous person. As long as someone out there who may or may not be in the public eye thinks she did a good job, I'm totally on board.

Thanks, McCain, for once again overestimating just how dumb we really are.

UPDATE: The Washington Post blog "The Trail" just wrote this about the ad. Apparently Peggy Noonan actually said it.

Track? Trig? Not only found at your local high school...

Now you can find out what your name would be if Sarah Palin was your mother.

I would've been Snooker Hinge Palin.
Phew! Dodged that bullet.

You would think he would get it after 7 years...

But no.
The Huffington Post points out that Bush can't always figure out how the American flag works.
I mean, it's pretty complicated. Almost like rocket science. Only without the rockets. Or the science. Mostly just with the observation skills...

Pound it!

In a glorious combination of all things Obama and bro, I give you, courtesy of IvyGate, Brobama.org, a site dedicated to answering the question "What does Barack Obama mean for the common bro?"

I've been wondering that myself. And since I can't actually understand real news sites due to excessive beer intake and high fiving of other bros, I'm stoked that I now have this site to fill the gap left by the "startling lack of apbropriate brocabulary in the mainstream media today."

Thank god some kids up at Dartmouth felt this was just what the world needed. Because it is.

P.S. Anyone else notice the trend to post blogs only during hours when I'm sure we're suppposed to be working? This weekend there was a single post and it consisted entirely of a youtube video and a two word title. Valiant.

P.P.S. Unrelated newsflash: Michael Phelps could not outswim a barracuda.
And why, yes, I am at work. What gave it away?