Barcelona

One of my all-time favorite conversations (a colleague's office, 1984):

BOB HEMLEY: "Hey. You know you have a hole in your shirt?"

ME (examining a small hole in my shirt front): "Oh. Yeah. Burned. A dragon did that."

HEMLEY: "A dragon."

ME: "mmmHmmm."

(pause)

HEMLEY: "Where was this?"

ME: "Barcelona."

15 albums that made me what I am

15 records share (one of those infamous time-wasting Facebook memes)
Here's the original instructions:

Think of 15 (ahem, or so) albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of, musically shaped your world. When you finish, tag 15 (or so) others, including me. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill. Get the idea now? Good. Tag, you're it!

McCoy Tyner - "Sahara"
Procol Harum - "A Salty Dog"
Mothers of Invention - "Uncle Meat"
Chick Corea - "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs"
Pink Floyd - "Dark Side of the Moon"
Joni Mitchell - "Blue"
Beatles - "Magical Mystery Tour"
Crosby Stills & Nash - "Crosby Stills & Nash"
John McLaughlin - "Extrapolation"
Herbie Hancock - "Maiden Voyage"
Talking Heads - "Fear of Music"
Led Zeppelin - "Houses of the Holy"
Miles Davis - "Bitches Brew"
Alanis Morissette - "Jagged Little Pill"
Cat Stevens - "Tea for the Tillerman"
Capt. Beefheart & His Magic Band - "Trout Mask Replica"

Twizzler haiku

I wrote this in response to something Joey Novick posted:

Morning sun, ahhh joy
Lush red, on my Twizzlers jar.
This I can afford.

Goat legs

If you sleep in a funny position, you wake up and your leg's rubbery and numb. Well, that happens to goats too. Who'd have thought that?

Obama's first election night

...thinks the sad part is that Charles Mingus didn't live to see this night.

Margaret and Helen

This is -- hands down, people -- the most essential blog in America.

Some Things I Didn't Know About Alaska

I've been looking at the numbers (online, and in an entertaining book called "Schott's Miscellany," which I keep in the bathroom). Here's what I've learned so far about the state where Palin has been Governor for coming up on two years:

- It doesn't look even remotely like any other state, demographically, with the possible exception of Idaho. Anchorage is the biggest city, about the same size as Newark, NJ, which makes it the 65th largest in the US. It's the only Alaskan city in the country's top 260. The population of the entire state, at 667,000, is roughly that of Charlotte, NC. Some 19 US cities are more populous than Alaska.

- Despite being by far the largest state in land area, while having only one real urban locality, Alaska is ranked the 8th most dangerous state in the US in terms of a complex composite of crime figures; purely in terms of violent crimes per 100,000 population, at 632, Alaska ranked 6th in 2007.

- Alaskans consume more energy per capita than the population of any other state. It's #1. (High-five.) Now, Alaska is a cold place much of the year, so a major chunk of that has got to be heating oil consumption, but still...it sort of helps explain Alaskans' lust to get that oil up out of the ground as fast as they can, and damn the torpedoes and snail darters or polar bears or whatever's getting in the way.

- Alaska's unemployment rate in 2007 was the third highest in the US (after Michigan and Mississippi).

- Alaska ranked a respectable 15th in the US in average annual salaries...and 42nd in the US in home ownership as a percentage of households.

- A publishing house called Morgan Quitno publishes a variety of state by state rankings -- it has Alaska as America's 46th "smartest" state. I presume this is a composite of several education stats, but I haven't been able to find out what this actually means. I'm not sure I like the sound of it, though. It seems fair to assume 46th smartest = 5th dumbest.

- A handful of fairly desolate little islands that are, technically, Alaska are pretty close to some also fairly desolate terrain that is, technically, Russia.

A lot of heat and stomach acid has been generated over the question of whether two terms as mayor of a little burg called Wasilla and two years as Alaska's Governor constitutes preparation to be Vice President of the United States. It's an unanswered question. What I think I can say, though, is that Alaska does not sound like America in microcosm. It might be just my east coast urban bias, but I'd be more confident in Palin's experience if she were running for Mayor of Charlotte.