Pawprints From Space

Being a wordsmith and "she who eats dictionaries for breakfast" there are a few recent trends in the vernacular that are driving me nuts. "Peeps" is one of those trends. When I think of peeps I think of those horribly sweet little marshmallow things parents put in Easter baskets. They come in obnoxious colors and taste awful. Those are Peeps. The company even has a trademark on the name. "Peeps" are not people. Hangin' with your peeps is not a phrase that makes you sound cool or even "G" (gangsta - and how in the world that term became something to strive for eludes me). You sound as those you slept through English class in the seventh grade. Now I love slang as much as the next person, maybe more since there are fun things that have been done with language over the centuries thanks to the use of slang. And as everyone who knows me is aware I do so like to have fun with language. But you have to draw a line somewhere and frankly I do not want...

Thank You God! Yes indeedy Blago is gone. He is outta there. And yet he continues to act as if he was "railroaded". There have been a lot of jokes but the best bumper sticker I have seen is: Illinois: Where Our Governors Make the License Plates The new Governor Quinn has been sworn in and if he has half a brain he will behave himself through the rest of this term. Of course if Blago had had half a brain he would have behaved too but oh well... It will be interesting to see where the Feds go with their case. Not that Illinois has had problem governors before. We have (I can say "we" even though I don't live there any longer - I did live there for 23 years) had more than our share: Ryan is still in jail being only 2 years into a 6 1/2 year sentence; Walker served 17 months of a 7 year sentence; Kerner served 3 years (he was in the 1960s) and Stratton was acquitted. And we won't even go into all the other politicians who have server or are serving time. Yup, Il...

A friend of mine in Australia has a lovely blog about a wonderful thing she is doing: taming feral cats. Oh I know, feral cats get a bad rap everywhere. There is even a small town nearby whose Council wanted to authorize citizens to shoot them! The cats, not the Council. Although after reading about that idea in the paper I wanted to shoot Council. In any case, read this blog: http://tameferalcats.blogspot.com

Well, he's done it again. Governor Blagojevich of Illinois has opened his mouth and let a whole bunch of nonsense out. So if you didn't think he ought to step aside before, this ought to do it. The latest silliness occurred yesterday when Blago held a news conference and proceeded to give a long roundabout ramble of how he was like a cowboy in the old west being accused of stealing a horse. That maybe he was going to get a trial but the guys in the black hats would hang him anyway and he couldn't bring his six cowboy friends along to testify on his behalf. The reason Mr. Governor that you can't have witnesses testify to matters being investigated by the Federal government at your impeachment trial isn't because those black hats in Springfield are just being well, black hats. It is because the Federal government has told them the impeachment trial can not deal with matters being investigated by them. You can't testify on those matters, your friends can't test...

The folks on television, especially the network Sunday news shows are supposed to be experts in one way or another. They should also be able to pronounce words properly, put together sentences that actually make sense and otherwise sound as if they really are educated people. Today's rant is on the proper pronunciation of the word "ideology" a noun defined by the Oxford American Dictionary as 1. the principal idea or beliefs that characterize a particular class, group or movement and 2. the ideas that form the basis of an economic or political theory, etc. As you can see ideology refers to ideas. The word idea is pronounced with a long I not a short i. According to the dictionary so it ideology. There is no second listing for pronunciation as sometimes occurs but even in those cases the first listing is the preferred choice. This morning on Meet the Press several (I didn't count could have actually been half) of the round table guests pronounced the word with a short ...

Okay, so Ohio isn't exactly the "wilderness" any more but I am reading Team of Rivals about Lincoln's presidency and Ohio was still considered to be pretty far West. Considering the temperature and the way the wind was blowing snow across the country roads today it FELT like wilderness ... or maybe some post-apocalyptic realm that was frozen instead of arid wasteland. I was intrigued by the small eddies of snow as they moved first one way then the other in front of my car. Tiny whirlwinds of light almost ethereal snow so cold it couldn't even stick to itself. We have not had so many days of negative temps in a very long time. The last few winters have been mild enough for flowers to bloom on my porch all through the season. Not even the pansies are considering hanging in there any longer. No, the porch is not heated. I prefer hot to cold. In the cold my lungs protest their very existence. And with them in full revolt it is quite difficult to breathe as you might ...

Well, President Bush just gave his farewell address. It wasn't too badly worded although bits were awkward in phrasing. But hey, wouldn't be him if it was perfect. I suppose that has been part of his charm. The overall theme seemed to be that his intentions through it all were good. He meant well, he had out best interests at heart. He came off to me as still naive. Which is bit sad. And we all know which road to where is paved with good intentions. I do feel for him. Really, I do. To have the "honor" off going out of office with one of the lowest if not "the" lowest approval ratings of any president since we've been tracking this sort of thing is pretty sad. Even if you never agreed with him, even if you never voted for him, even if you never even really liked him... there was a measure of respect that should still have been reserved for the office he held. If you can't respect the man, you should respect the office. Even if you don't think that...

Okay... new year... new computer... new eHarmony membership.... now what? The computer upgrade has been frustrating, exciting and expensive. Thanks to the "joys" of Vista I get to upgrade various gadgets too. For example Palm does not have HotSync compatibility with this version of Vista and only recently got it together for the 32-bit version. So I need to try to find a Bluetooth adapter and see if that'll work. This after significant time online with tech support. Hello! Vista has been out for a while now and a LOT of people use Microsoft so.... now what? New year was rung in quietly with Mom, a pizza and a movie - nothing spectacular, just Get Smart. We were in the mood for stupid. Had LOTS of potential ... missed it by THAT much. So now bubbly, no one to kiss, clock hits midnight... now what? eHarmony. Tried it once a few years ago. Still think it is too expensive but will give it a few months and see (since they had a "special"). So far they keep sending me...