Iowa Schmiowa

Although for all of our sake, I usually refrain from political commentary on this light-hearted and rarely controversial blog site, I decided to make an exception today due to the fact that we are in an election year and today was the very important first step in the process of electing a new American President. I am going to give you...wait for it...the official Cum Grano Salis position on all things political.

1. All political candidates are liars and flatterers. The few candidates who may actually posess principles will more than likely be corrupted by the intoxication of power within a month of taking office, and if, by some fluke, they actually try to accomplish anything they had promised to do, they will be thwarted by Congress and the bureaucratic red tape of the American political system.

2. Any Republican loser who wins the nomination would be less horrible than Hillary Clinton.

3. Of the Republican losers, Mike Huckabee is my least favorite because he taking advantage of evangelicals. I am equally unimpressed with evangelicals who are going along with it.

Now you can forego all political commentary between now and November and vote for the guy with the nicest tie on Election Day.

Back in the Game

I have always been a big Caedmon's fan, and I've always taken it for granted that everything they put out in stores would be great.

A recent Google search of music review and CC fan pages made me aware that I seem to be one of few fans who still feels this way, after the past several albums which apparently have been poorly received.

However, Overdressed brings back Derek Webb, as everyone who has been within 10 feet of this CD already knows. It's a great project that has brought fans both loyal and disenfranchised back together in love and adoration of what I consider to be the greatest band still recording Christian music.

Buy it.

Mmm, facts

I love knowing stuff. I'm not determined enough to accumulate knowledge that is actually complicated, like quantum physics or microbiology or fourth-dimensional mathematics, but I do love to stuff my mind with simple, fluffy facts. I am pretty good at Jeopardy (depending on the category), I am almost always smarter than a fifth grader, I can get the pies in Trivial Pursuit, and I could hold my own in a discussion with a member of the paparazzi regarding celebrity comings and goings. (This last wealth of knowledge is because I've recently become hooked on a celebrity gossip blog that is often trashier than my old standby, People magazine, and almost always funnier.) Oh, and I always know the right answers on "Jaywalking."

I've recently been challenged to employ myself in more scholarly fact-gathering than what I happen to glean from quiz shows or late night television. Here are my three inspirations:

1. We are living in a house with an incredible study. It is a room with a big window on one wall that lets in natural light. The other three walls are filled with built-in bookshelves, which are full of heady books, some of which do not interest me (The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Yugoslavia as History), some of which I wish had a movie version or Cliff's Notes (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Vols. 1-3, A Manual of the Writings of Middle English), and some of which I like to pretend will interest me some day (all the works of T.S. Eliot, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and most other authors of note).

The pile of things that I brought to read while we were living here includes In Her Shoes, Harry Potter, and my Real Simple magazine. It's a little humbling for a person who imagines that she is smart.

2. We just spent a weekend with my friends John and KarenD. John is the type who reads Wikipedia and listens to NPR for fun, and we could always count on him to revive a lagging conversation with his favorite words, "You know what I just read/heard?" This question was always followed by some sort of trivia usually concerning fractals, technology, or what small percentage of the brain is utilized by the average human. As if I needed mathematical proof of how mentally lazy I actually am.

3. I am totally digging my latest book, as I've listed in my "Recent Reads." The Know-It-All is a surprisingly hilarious memoir of a guy who decides to read the Encyclopaedia Brittanica from A-Z. The first chapter is titled "A," the last chapter is titled "Z," and it's a witty commentary on the funniest, most random, or most interesting facts that he stumbles across along the way.

The story begins when the author, who is wanting to become a parent, pictures himself being asked a question like "Why is the sky blue?" by his child, and he realizes that he doesn't know. Now for a man who imagined himself to be smart and well-informed, it is sad and shocking to realize that that he could have told his child the names of Julia Roberts' children, but that he could not satisfy little Junior's first query about the world around him.

This story really hit home for me, and when I have not been waking Stephen up in the middle of the night by laughing out loud at this book, I've actually been contemplating delving into the EB myself. So if you call me and I don't pick up, or you notice that I'm a little slow to blog, it's probably because I'm engrossed in a scholarly article about the use of symbolism and irony in eighteenth century French literature. Unless I'm reading up on which celebrities attended the Beckhams' "Welcome to America" party. It would be a tough call.

A Sweet New Tea

Empowered by my newly comment-less blog, I made one more change: I removed my endorsements from the sidebar. Now any time I'm particularly thrilled about a product, I'll just give it a little mention in a post. Here is the first one:


I am always on the lookout for tasty things to drink other than soda, which I'm trying to cut back on. I tasted something yummy and new yesterday: Lipton Raspberry White Tea. As I am lazy, I bought a bottle of ready-to-drink tea, but it also comes in powder packets you can add to a water bottle.

It's light, sweet, and refreshing--just right for a hot and sticky summer day.

L'Love my L'Legs

I think that I am the only person in my school who still wears panty hose (even among the middle-aged Talbot's women I have talked about before). Hose have been made into symbols of feminine oppression by many, but I cannot ditch them completely. Here is why:
1. When it is cold outside and I want to wear a skirt, I like some covering on my legs. Yes, even if the covering is only a scanty layer of sheer nylon.
2. When by "oppression" you mean sucking in my tummy with a control top, I'm all about it.
3. When I want to wear a knee-length skirt but have not shaved my legs in a couple of days, hose still gives my legs a smooth, presentable texture.
4. When it is REALLY cold outside, I even like to wear hose under my jeans or slacks for an extra layer of warmth. It's not just the placebo effect, either; it helps!
5. It just looks WRONG to go bare-legged with certain skirts and shoes. Yes, it does...Yes, it does.

The one thing that I will concede is that hose seem to be about as durable as tissue paper (oh wait, I can use that more than once). It ticks me off when I get dressed and get out my favorite pair of hose and discover as I am putting them on (three seconds before I need to be rushing out the door) that they have a giant run in the leg. This happened to me this morning, but I refused to change because I was in my special Open House professional outfit. Hose were essential, and I didn't have another pair. And besides, the run is just barely peeking out. It's 4:00 and no one has noticed yet...Unless some pervy dads show up and show unnecessary attention to my knees (unlikely), I think that I am home free.