Fun, Fun, Fun 'Till They Take Your License Away

Some people want to up the driving age to 17 or 18.

I get the idea. Teens become better, more responsible drivers as they age. But doesn't that also include practice? A sixteen year-old who's been behind the wheel twice doesn't know how to handle herself as well as an eighteen year-old, who has had a lot of experience. So won't that just mean the eighteen year-old will drive more like the sixteen year-old?

Also, I know my parents would've hated carting me around everywhere. Maybe most kids go to school five minutes from their house and live next door to all their friends, but that sure wasn't the case for me.

For? Opposed?

(Oddly enough, I also had a dream that I'd been pulled over. Huh.)

Crying and texting and hummus

If you enjoyed the adventure with Little Red Riding Hood a while back, then you're bound to like this morning's video.

Ms. Kate McKinnon doing a little bit for Offensive Women (in general funny and worth checking out) on the pitfalls of a lesbian comic meeting a heteronormative audience.



She's just an eensy bit dirty. I like that. Besides, anyone calling out the absurdity of Next gets points in my book.

He'll Make You His Mare!

Felicia Day (aka Penny from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog) gets Bad Horsed!



Oh how I wish we could all be friends!

Hot off the Presses

Gawker wants to kill the college newspaper.

The argument is that college kids all have access to the internet, so why not just run an online edition? And college papers don't really make money, so what's the point. And even harsher:

"Print editions of college papers are either fully subsidized by advertising (which is getting harder, obviously), or they have some kind of endowment, or the university kicks in money to help them pay their expenses. Why not take that money and hire some laid-off journalists to teach these kids journalism? This way another former journalist would find a job, and janitors would have fewer things to pick up after entitled college kids, thereby cooling the simmering class war on campuses, leading to fewer administration buildings takeovers by young leftists channeling their rage into fair wage campaigns for university employees."

Ouch. Sure, university papers aren't going to rival the New York Times or the Washington Post for readership. Sure, young people aren't even reading those papers, much less their own. So why keep them around?

Um...SUDOKU?

Maybe at some schools all the kids take their laptops to class, but I sure didn't go to that school. In my day, we still had our pens and notebooks. And that meant you could be doing the crossword while your professor lectured about Beowulf.

Furthermore, a college newspaper is relevant to the particular people at that particular school at that particular time. While it might be just a "training ground," that doesn't mean the college paper doesn't add to the entire college experience overall. Online or in print, it's exciting to read a real newspaper about the issues that literally surround you alongside news about the outside world.

In defense of print, there's just something about the physical entity that I like. (Quoth the blogger.) I always check news online, but I prefer browsing a real newspaper.

The only real argument I'd make against the university paper would be that it's greener not to print so much paper. But I could also make that argument against the copy-shop packets I have to buy for classes every semester.

Frankly, I don't know what Gawker has against the college paper. Maybe it's not the best journalism or financially beneficial, but they provide students with an outlet to write/make art/share their opinions in a professional-looking environment.

And honestly, where would Rory Gilmore be without the Yale Daily News?

Welcome to the Real World

This week's webcomic of the week is My Life in a Cube. It's like Dilbert but about a thousand times better. In single panels, Shane Johnson conveys how strange it is to be working in a tiny, almost-public space. From weird coworkers to daytime procrastination (4:00 is the worst time of day), it's all there, and so succinct. It's pretty new, but it's already a favorite.

Watch out for Hammer Pants

As I said just a couple weeks back, the 90's are coming back. I don't claim to be all that cutting edge when it comes to fashion, but I've been seeing this coming for a while. I remarked to a good friend not that long ago that I just knew I'd loose it right there on the street the moment I saw someone trying to bring back the hammer pants.

Well my friends, we are officially one step closer. The picture right here is straight of the runway of the DKNY Spring 2009 show. In case you can't see what I'm talking about, I put a stupid little exclam-arrow right there to show you. It's the flippin' pants! Look at them. Those baggy little puppies are mere degrees away from being 2Legit2Quit. This means it's only a matter of time -- probably a very short time -- until I will, in the midst of walking down my block, be thrown into a fit when my eyes happen upon someone in a pair of hammer pants. I know it will happen, and I will have none other than DKNY to thank for it.

Let me remind you all just why that is bad.

Pray. Pray to whatever God you believe in. Pray that the hammer pants do not come back, because no good can be had from hammer pants.

He Who Must Not Be Published

JK Rowling wins again!

She wins at everything. And I love her for it.

"Rowling issued a statement after Monday's ruling, saying, 'I took no pleasure at all in bringing legal action and am delighted that this issue has been resolved favorably.'"

She's also benevolent. So cool!

(I saw her at Harvard. We were in the same field! There she is!)

McCain gettin' BarackRoll'd

Too funny. And one reason to thank all those protesters who kept shouting during McCain's speech, because where else would they have gotten all those shots of him looking so uncomfortable.



Yet another thing to thank the internet gods for.

It was one of those Sundays

I felt a little like this.

They Forgot "Add to Your Blog"

Workplace procrastination Flowchart. It's like it reads my mind. (Click the picture for the larger view.) (via geeklikeme)

Not Ugly...

...but still cute!

Plus more zoo babies!

Who's the boss?

"There's 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, and it's about to start raining shards into the hearts of the American people."

TIME TO VOTE FOR UGLYCUTE

That's right folks. You can see the poll up there, it's time to vote!

Review the choices.

Also, feel free to use this space to comment or debate the pro's and con's of the ugliestcutest.

Read your Bible

Dear Sarah Barracuda,

Before you get too self-righteous about being all more experienced that Obama, just remember...

"Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor."

Just something to keep in mind, lady.

Sincerely,
LadyFaces


a note to our readers: LadyFaces has chosen Sarah Palin as our new focal point for derision. Why? Because she's an easy target. But don't worry, we won't leave out Walnuts.

Ladies, Gentlemen, and their Tea

George Orwell is a man who knows his tea.

Here's his essay from the January 12, 1946 issue of Evening Standard, which gives the Tea Rules. You can't just drink tea willy-nilly. (My first year in college, after I admitted I missed making tea a professor suggested that I just make it in the microwave. I hope wild dogs ate him in the parking lot after class.) Making tea isn't just about getting a hot beverage. It's not a precursor to tea, it's part of the tea experience itself. Some things about which I agree with Orwell:

"Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. "

"Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water. "

"Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water."

And some points I'd like to argue:

"Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly. "
(Geez, what are you, some kind of Viking? I want tea, not a bushel of leaves in my cup!)

"Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one's tea is always half cold before one has well started on it. "
(Okay, I do like a good mug for tea--especially while writing/reading--but a teacup is a work of art and perfect for company since you get to pour multiple cups of tea.)

"Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round."
(Ew, cream/milk and tea. Remember when you were so hardcore about the leaves, George? Leave the milk out and take it like a man.)

Even while George and I disagree about points, I like the seriousness with which he takes tea. Sure, I'll ask for a grande tea at Starbucks, but nothing beats making a right pot at home.

Some favorite tea places:
http://www.tealuxe.com/
http://www.teavana.com/
(Any favorites you'd like to share?)