Our worst nightmare…

So our worst nightmare has happened - two US soldiers have been captured by al-Qaeda. Let's hope that they're treated with respect, as required under the Geneva Convention. Let's hope they're not sexually humiliated, terrorized by dogs, subject to water-boarding or any other forms of torture. Let's hope al-Qaeda isn't that depraved.

National Tartan Day

Today is National Tartan Day according to the United States House of Representatives Resolution 41. Which is fitting as Dad arrived early this morning. So we're celebrating in true Scottish style - with shock and horror.

Alan Black over at Salon has an amusing take on it:

Being Scottish, I am easily insulted. Scotland was recently selected by a group of so-called European experts as "the worst small country to live in." It's top of the charts for manic depression, alcoholism, lung cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, heart disease and yellow, plaque-infected teeth.

At least the they didn't call it "National Plaid Day".

Stumping

Maia saw two men dressed in business suits riding on bicycles today, and she said, "Why are those presidents riding bikes? They look so silly."

We're not so far removed

In his fascinating book, The Moral Animal, Robert Wright states (on the subject of female choosiness),

… male turkeys will avidly court a stuffed replica of a female turkey. In fact, a replica of a female turkey's head suspended fifteen inches from the ground will generally do the trick. The male circles the head, does its ritual displays, and then (confident, presumably, that its performance has been impressive) rises into the air and comes down in the proximity of the female's backside, which turns out not to exist. The more virile males will show such interest even when a wooden head is used, and a few can summon lust for a wooden head with no eyes or beak.

Food for thought when you check out the Shock Absorber's bounce-ometer.

Vely nice

Found in my fortune cookie:

A kind world will warm someone's heart.

It's a knee-jerk reaction for them

After hearing Dr. Andrew Weil say on Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! that dark chocolate is so good for you that you can eat as much of it as you wish, I decided that my one New Year's Resolution would be to acquire a taste for it, and kick the habit I have for milk chocolate, (hereafter to be referred to derisively as simply "candy").

Last year I kept so much candy in my desk that I gained a reputation as the go-to guy if you were jonesing for a snack. But I've cleared out my desk, although people still occasionally come sniffing for treats, as Lee did yesterday.

He thought I was holding out on him and to my surprise I did find a stash in my bottom drawer of M&Ms, left over from Halloween. I grabbed a handful (hey, I'm not completely cured), and gave him the rest of the 52oz bag for his pod, far away from me.

Within five minutes I'd received an iChat from Bryan.

Bryan: did you leave that bag of M&Ms? you chocolately trickster?
John: I told Lee to take it to your pod and get it away from me
Bryan: *sigh*
John: you are very welcome
Bryan: It's in retaliation for the teriyaki sticks, isn't it
John: well, now that you say it…
Bryan: this could mean war

Not that I'm particularly worried. I've seen how lousy Americans are at waging war, so I fully expect to find they've retaliated with a box of Ghirardelli Squares.

Jas, Political Operative

One of my colleagues became a BMOC* on Monday, when his uncle became a Canadian MP.

Sukh Dhaliwal is the Liberal Party's newest Member of Parliament for the riding of Newton-North Delta in British Columbia. Sukh is the second Dhaliwal to have entered Canadian politics, as he follows Herb Dhaliwal, the former Liberal MP for the riding of Vancouver South-Burnaby, who was the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans (during the Chrétien era).

Now when Jas opens a bank account here he gets to answer yes to the question, "Are you a senior foreign political figure or a family member or associate of a senior foreign political figure?"

I've always thought it would be kind of cool to be able to say yes to that question, but so far my relatives have let me down. (Although not from a lack of trying.)

*Big Man on Campus

Having second thoughts

While Julie was reveiwing the details of our freshly minted Will she commented, "So you're giving Anne Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care?"

"You know she will so pull that plug."

Julie's reading Memoirs of a Geisha…

… and I think I can be forgiven for doing a double-take when I walked into the bedroom this evening.

Just shoot us now, please

Thank goodness the vet arrives in April.