“What if she filled it in ‘nay’ or ‘WTF’?”

Via Ace’s headlines.

I’m back from my trip, up early due to the time change, actually getting a few things done before 10 a.m., which is nice. Back with fresh grievances against the TSA (did you know that sealed, in-their-original-individually-sized-containers applesauce and chocolate pudding, aka my son’s food during all-day travel ordeals, are liquid and gel, respectively? I didn’t, despite having taken these items on numerous flights before without incident. I do now), back to the usual routine … just back.

Lileks says he doesn’t know anybody who can eat a box of saltines before they go bad. At Chez Anwyn, soup is consumed is vast quantities that mow through a box of saltines in far less than a month. Plus the fact that one of the Bean’s favorite dishes is egg salad on a cracker.

Anne’s daughter Lily wants for her spring break … to stay home. Well, I guess we’ll be doing the same thing since we just took a week’s vacation when it wasn’t actually spring break.

And Rachel Lucas (surprise, surprise, surPRISE!) hates “MommyBloggers.” You mean, like, telling the story about how when I viewed Sunny’s campaign video, my son requested repeated (and I do mean REPEATED) viewings of its predecessor, “Sunny Pesters Digger,” and then proceeded to act it out with me:

Son: “I’m Sunny. You’re Digger.”

Me: “Okay.”

Son: “I will bark at you, and you growl.”

Me: “Okay.”

Son: “Ruff. Ruff. I’m pestering you, Digger!!”

Me: “Growl.”

There you go, Rachel, that one’s on the house. MommyBlogging comes at a premium around here. Son sends his love … for Sunny and Digger.

Goodbye and best of luck, Bryan; hello and best of luck, Captain Ed.

Taking the Bean to see his grandparents for a week or so. Be good.

Ace invokes the Reagan in all of us.

Ace wins Blogger of the Year at CPAC.

Wow.

I seriously considered going to CPAC, but decided what I really wanted was a few days of wandering D.C. at my own pace, looking at stuff both in and out of museums, rather than listening to political speeches. But if I’d known Ace would speak … I’d have been right there.

Congratulations, Ace!

I love to read Anne’s LifePundit blog, so I hope she won’t be upset that I’m picking on her a bit here. As Calvin and Hobbes once ruminated, “Verbing weirds language.” And although verbing words may be a clever shorthand and perfectly understandable, like many things that are at first new and cool, after a while it can seem affected and pretentious. Anne’s use is one of the oldest forms of verbing I’ve observed in my lifetime and has definitely passed over into the “pretentious” stage:

To stay on track, I will journal every day.

To stay on track, perhaps she should write in a journal every day or even keep a daily journal, but to journal every day sounds both mysterious and banal* at the same time, like it’s the current hot fad that she will do because everybody says it will be good for her (and, in fact, a hot trend in all the various levels of schooling plus psychological journeying was indeed, as far as I know, the origin of the verbing of the noun “journal,” at least in its current incarnation). Now Anne’s a writer and she’s not keeping a journal because it’s a fad, but because she understands that this is something that works for her personally, I suspect. So remove the trendy jargon usage from the word and it goes back to being more a serious, thoughtful act of reflection than something she’s doing because she read it in the Oprah magazine. (Yes, if you’re wondering, I crack myself up, even if nobody else laughs.)

There’s the $.02 Anwyn’s Note on verbing. Don’t do it, especially when it’s popular.

Maybe for Lent, I should give up pointing out people’s bad grammar habits.

*I frequently look up words I already understand just to double-check that I’m using them correctly before I throw them up here. I’m going to link definitions when I do that, in case you also want to make sure you know the word or just want to see what kinds of things I find myself having to look up. Fun, no?

…to Slublog, for altering one of the existing FredHeads for Mitt buttons into a size and look that I wanted for my sidebar. I’m fairly clueless at Photoshop, so he helped me out. If you want to put it on your blog, go for it.

I typically would avoid labels like “FredHead.” (See also: Browncoat.) But I think it makes sense, since I had a first choice who I felt was the best choice, to continue to make that known.

Thanks, Slu!

Somebody came to this blog by googling the phrase “how healthy is it to live in oregon.”

Well, it depends. What political persuasion are you, and how high do you like your blood pressure?

I do love to read people who know how to use language with precision, unlike the yammering nannies at modern-day Sesame Street. I give you Fug Girl Jessica (don’t worry about deciphering the Mischa Barton photos, we’re here for the article):

As a huge fan of the seminal tune “I Love Trash,” — truly, it’s neck and neck with “Rubber Ducky” as the best Sesame Street song ever, in my opinion, with honorable mention going to “C Is For Cookie,” which I hear has been replaced by “Cookies Are A Sometimes Food,” which, I sorry, is bullshit, because cookies are an ALWAYS food, they’re just not a MASS QUANTITIES food. Why you gotta play me like this, Sesame Street?

That was only about strike 17 or 18 for Sesame Street, which I’m thankful The Bean never really got into. He watched Elmo’s World mostly for my sake, because I thought it was something babies his age did, and after a while began protesting loudly. I quit turning the show on at all the day it began promoting stealing as a legitimate way of getting people to give you things.

My niece, age almost 15 months, watches Elmo but with a certain amount of derision. When she hears his music or sees his image, she looks around for somebody to speak to and prounounces her review: “Monkey.”

I despise splogs, even if they link back to me when they take my posts and put them up on an ad-filled monstrosity in a truncated and ridiculous manner.

That is all.

Up until a few months ago, when I linked back to one of my own posts, WP would automatically put the trackback on the linked post. No more. Anybody have any idea why it would suddenly quit doing that when I haven’t updated or otherwise tinkered with WP and as far as I know haven’t changed any relevant options?

I have a lot of stuff to blog, but I leave tomorrow for the beach–and not one of the cold, rainy, windy ones that Oregon offers, either. I’ve never been to South Carolina before, so I’m really looking forward to it.

…

Well, of course the beach house has wireless. I’ll still blog, just not in the next couple days or so while we’re traveling.

Meanwhile, turns out that while I still don’t enjoy any Hugh Laurie humor I’ve ever seen except House, Sense and Sensibility, and Friends, is there any limit to the man’s talent? Apparently on top of everything else, he can also play the guitar.