At least they're learning something.

From my alma mater: A Week of Hot Sex. I am proud.

Sure, but the maintenance expenses for my Leer jet really cut into my disposable income.

Check out these astonishing numbers over at Donklephant concerning the Global Rich List.

A taste of the numbers: If you make $40,000 a year, there are 6,411,789,392 people in the world poorer than you. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling pretty fortunate right about now.

How many of us think of ourselves as being among the monied elite?

To Comma or Not to Comma

Today is National Punctuation Day! To celebrate, let's talk about why you should always use the serial comma.

From Strunk and White's The Elements of Style:

In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last.

Thus, write,

• red, white, and blue
• gold, silver, or copper
• He opened the letter, read it, and made a note of its contents.

This comma is often referred to as the "serial" comma.

From Words into Type:

In a series of the form a, b, and c or red, white, and blue most publishers prefer a comma (sometimes called the serial comma) before the conjunction, whether the items of the series are words, phrases, or clauses. The consistent use of this comma is recommended, for in many sentences it is essential for clarity. [...]

In the examples to follow, the use of the serial comma is necessary to prevent misreading. A series of personal names should have the comma before the conjunction to prevent the first name of the series being construed as a noun in direct address.

• "Anna, May and Walter are here." [Might be read as telling Anna that May and Walter are here.]
• "Anna, May, and Walter are here." [Can mean only that three persons are here.]

Now go forth and punctuate correctly.

Thanks to click for the link.

Hangers and Swimming Pools

There are often days when, come nap time, Sophie and Evie chatter away at each other for long stretches of time before they fall asleep. They sing together, laugh together, throw their stuffed animals around together, and in general have a fantastic time before eventually drifting off to sleep. On those days, I'm reminded of my own almost-sister and how she and I would talk late into the night about everything under the sun.

Any time Heather and I were fortunate enough to spend the night together when we were growing up, we were up for hours talking, even if we'd already been together non-stop for days. We never ran out of things to discuss. When we went off to college together and shared a dorm room, it was the same. Those first few weeks, it seemed like we'd never sleep -- our new experiences and new friends gave us oodles of new late-night-conversation fodder.

Heather has always been there for me. She's been my moral compass, my confidant, my role model, my friend, and my sister in every way that counts. I'm a better person because of Heather. I'm so fortunate to have her in my life. Happy birthday, Heather! I hope this trip around the sun is the best one yet.

No Baggins Here

Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin has written a new book about the Supreme Court called The Nine.Kind of makes them sound like Nazgûl, doesn't it? The resemblance is striking: They dress in black, they were once human, and they are the Dark Lord's most powerful servants.

A Rainy Day, A Cozy Chair, and Thee

Another fun weekend assignment from Mr. John Scalzi: Here is my towering stack of books TBR, in no particular order. It's missing a few volumes, but these were all I could carry.

Most of these were gifts for my recent birthday, and last Christmas, and probably the birthday before that ... Well, I don't have a ton of time for reading these days. But I will catch up! I will! Maybe when the twins go to kindergarten.

There was a time when I logged no less than a book a month in my book log, usually several more. Now I'm lucky to get through two books a year. If I'd known birthing twins would have such a devastating effect on my reading habits, I'd have thought twice.

Who Are You?

I've mocked other bloggers (with only the kindest intentions) for assuming they know who their audience is, for thinking the readership of the vast blogosphere is knowable. I'm irritated when other bloggers make snide or unfriendly comments about persons who might actually be reading their blog, unbeknownst to the blogger.

I try my darnedest to avoid that sort of thing on this blog, mostly because it just isn't nice to say mean things about people, and partly because you never know who's reading.

The blogosphere might seem ephemeral and fleeting, with blog posts erased by a click of the "delete" button, but that is a false impression. Site feeds send your every post out to the world, even if you only had it up for five seconds. Archiving sites store every entry for future generations to peruse. The illusion of impermanence might lull us into unwise posting, but the savvy blogger knows better.

I say this smugly from my soapbox, but I have a confession: I, too, am guilty of assuming I know who my audience is. I know most of you by name, I have met (and am related to) perhaps the majority of you, and I can see where many of the rest of you come from via tracking software. (It sounds so Big Brother when you put it like that!)

But the fact remains: I don't know who all of you are. Thanks to RSS feeds (which I love -- don't get me wrong), my tracking software can't tell me who all reads my posts, and even the tracking info I do get is incomplete. I get blog hits from the strangest places, from the oddest search engine strings, and even from nowhere, as far as I can tell.

So today I ask you: Who are you? Leave a comment. Say hello. Introduce yourself. Oh, and lest I forget, welcome! We're glad to have you.

And the Moon Is Made of Cheese

I know this one is all over the Web, but I had to add my two cents.



You've got to be kidding me. ABC thinks this woman is a good role model?? Well, probably not. They just think she's good TV. I guess they're right about that, because people are talking.

For more info, go here.

Robert Jordan, RIP

Sad news: Robert Jordan (aka James Oliver Rigney) passed away yesterday. I know this has been pretty well covered by other bloggers, but I just wanted to mention it here.

I've been a devoted fan of the Wheel of Time series since I was 15. Mr. Rigney had been gravely ill, and his passing, while extremely sad, was not a surprise. Yes, I've made some cavalier comments about how he damn-well better finish the final book in the series before he kicks off because I need closure. However, now that the event has come to pass, I find that I'm just sad for his family, sad for his widow, sad that such a talented (and by all accounts good) man is no longer with us. My thoughts are with his family, as are those of his huge legions of devoted fans.

Rest in peace, Mr. Rigney.

Sorting Satire from Scripture

Phil Plait posted about Christian fundamentalist satire sites such as MarryOurDaughter.com, saying this:

[E]ven with sites like Landover Baptist and Jesus’ General, it’s still really hard to distinguish complete over-the-top sarcasm and satire from real fundamentalist lunacy. When you have people — and I use that term loosely — like the truly evil and sick Fred Phelps, then how can you ever satirize fundamentalist religion again?

But then, the Bible does say you can sell your daughters. But who would ever take the Bible word-for-word literally?

Sigh.

And yes, I know other religions have incredibly foolish notions about arranged marriages, selling women, and the like. I will say this out loud and squarely: any institution — government, religion, or otherwise — that treats women as anything less than men should be derided and humiliated publicly, and not issued a deferment because of any notion of social relativism. Anyone who treats 50%+ of the population — or any percentage, no matter how small — as chattel should be taunted out of existence.

Now that I've excerpted basically his whole post, you should go read the rest of it.

I think it's hard to argue with what the Bad Astronomer says. What say ye?