Do the Yak

Better late than never, which is the story of my life... Anyway, can anyone tell me the REAL reason why health care reform turned some (not all) opponents into hate-filled liars? I really want to know. Because that opposition sure wasn't based on anything factual or even plausible. I'm talking about the pieces in today's New York Times by Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert . And here's more good MMQ'ing from ElectoralVote.com: lessons from the whole health-insurance reform process . Now if Obama would just LISTEN to us because WE KNOW BEST, dammit. On an unrelated note, here are some swell new emoticons from Hyperbole and a Half : (::::)   "I feel like I am the underside of a pregnant dog." :O&   "I LOVE PRETZELS!!!! NOM! NOM! NOM!" :*(    "You make me cry sparkly tears." {:|     "I am a Frenchman." Q:|   "I'm Davy fucking Crockett." On Sunday we are going to Florida for a week. This is especially n...

The rising damp is a common affliction of houses in England, but now we get to experience it ourselves in our very own home. It's been raining quite a lot lately, and by "quite a lot" I mean "pouring steadily and without interruption since Friday night and it's now midday Monday and still coming down like a bastard." So we knew we'd get water in the basement, because whenever it rains a lot, it sort of leaks through the foundation on the uphill side of the house and trickles across the floor in one or two small rivulets to the sump on the downhill side. Not surprisingly, it trickled in more of a torrent over the weekend, but Ben has a Shop-vac so he kept at it, sucking up several hundred gallons. Then he went to check it out this morning, Day 3 of the Deluge, and found that the manageable rivulets had been replaced by several inches of water with bits of wood floating around and water going places it had certainly never gone before, including perilously ...

And to think I once planned to pursue the broadcast news track while getting my master's in journalism. Good thing I stuck with newspapers. They'll always be a vital and treasured part of our society, right? Yeah, so how's that advanced degree workin' out for ya? * * * Seen and heard (or heard of) on the way to work: 1. A man rubbing his ass against a card reader in a subway station. Because, you know, it was too much trouble to take his T pass out of his back pocket. He just had to get... close enough. 2. The most laughably stupid thing ever done while behind the wheel. On a ride to the subway after dropping off my car for repairs, we were slowed by an accident (clear weather). I remarked that the offending driver was probably texting and talked with the shuttle driver about stupid things we've seen people do while driving. Me: I once saw a woman zooming through the intersection in Brighton center while she was applying mascara in the rear-view mi...

The latest LasVegas hotel monstrosity? A new development for tourists in Bahrain? Nope -- it's the just-launched cruise ship Oasis, the biggest ever built . It has 16 decks, carries 6,300 passengers, cost $1.4 billion, and has seven "distinctly themed neighborhoods, each with its own unique shops, restaurants and bars to keep guest entertained during the evenings and the days where there is no port of call." For kids, there's a carousel on deck, buffets featuring animals carved from fruit, science labs, crafts centers and play theater. You can also get certified for scuba diving, take an ice-skating lesson, ride a zip line, play basketball, spar in a boxing ring, have a massage or see a version of the Broadway show "Hairspray" (see more photos here ). Snatches of conversations overheard on the maiden voyage: "Wow, I can hardly feel the deck moving! This is some smooth sailing." "Well, I can feel it moving... wait -- w...

A beautiful world of salsa... ...and manliness. It's a beautiful world out there somewhere.

They use this glowing red fingertip thingy to monitor blood oxygenation levels these days. Here is a closeup (ignore the puppy with dangerously dilated pupils): Here is the broader view (blurred right hand is waving at the fans): This was during our recent 11:30 pm. visit to our friendly emergency room. Becky went to bed earlier that evening with the beginnings of a cold and progressed at lightning speed to croup so bad she was having trouble breathing and could barely talk. There were some good points, however: When your kid can't breathe, they see her before any of the other malingering lame-o's in the waiting room AND they don't even ask you for your insurance info! At least not right away. The hospital we went to has a whole section just for pediatric patients, with smaller beds and cute itty-bitty pediatric catheterization kits (OK, so I'm snoopy like that). Also, some plastic funnels with a wide mesh-covered opening at the bottom. For, you know, catching t...