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Bookish Foodish Geekish

"Well, it's certainly uncontaminated by customers."

Dear used bookstore proprietor person:

Yes, you did remember me correctly as the same person who had sat down with a handful of books for roughly half an hour, and then left without buying any the other day. Yes, I was about to sit down with a handful of books again when you told me that unless I were going to buy something, browsing was not okay.

Speaking as someone who owns roughly a metric fuckton of books, I feel obliged to point out (again: yes, I did say something to this effect and I realize you were resolutely unmoved): generally speaking, most bookstores cheerfully allow for, even encourage unlimited browsing. This is not because they are kind generous people; this is because they understand that in bookstores, generally speaking, the people who sit there and browse are repeat customers; and yes, most of them do buy something, if not this time, then next time, or the one after that. For example, today I went and browsed in a different used bookstore, and they left me the hell alone, as they always do, and I ended up buying two books. See how this works?

Well, no, I can see that you don't. Okay. What I didn't say: you may also want to consider that maybe the reason you remembered me was because I was, that time, like this time, pretty much the only person in the store.

I mean, I'm not suggesting your attitude is the only reason for business being slow: the economy's bad, used bookstores aren't necessarily always exactly booming, and also your selection is kind of crap. But yeah, there was one book of food lit/crit I'd never seen elsewhere and I was seriously thinking about buying it. Even with the plastic on the cover and the relatively high price. Still, I'm sure it was worth it not to have to deal with the annoyance of watching someone look at books, in a bookstore, that you run.

You know what would really solve the problem? If you just got rid of all the books. You could have, like, those dummy copies they have in furniture stores, you know? It'd be great. And the customer could come in and be like, "Do you have anything in red?" and you could lead them silently to the back and glower at them until they found the right one to match their drapes, and paid for it.

Addendum: if you were even half this entertaining in your churlishness, I would have gladly let it pass. Sadly, you are not.

Dear political robocallers of various ilk ("live" included):

I am currently registered Apathetic. I am going to vote for (or against, respectively) the people and measures who/which seem least likely to fuck shit over even more than the alternative(s), based on what I READ from sources I trust, and that is It. No donations, no forwarding the emails to four thousand of my best friends, no joining your zombie blob campaign for no remuneration so that I can feel like Lucy with the football when you inevitably break the promises about the issues I most care about.

No, calling me twenty times a day and leaving long messages on my crap answering machine which doesn't fast forward do NOT make me more likely to want to vote for you, much less do anything else. Likewise, filling up my email box with spam about races I have not the slightest interest in/candidates I couldn't vote for anyway on account of I do not live in those places. They do make me more likely wish you into the fucking cornfield. Hope for your sakes I do not, in fact, have that ability. Thank you and piss off.

Addendum: WHY IN THE NAME OF BABY CTHULHU IS THERE A CARLY FIORINA AD TACKED ONTO ALL THE YOUTUBE BLACK BOOKS VIDEOS IS THIS SOME KIND OF SICK JOKE

All you can eat

So apparently the world championship for karaoke singing (you knew there was one, right?) was in Moscow this year. Some guy from New Mexico won (Usher: "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love," if you want to know). The prize: a million dumplings.

It seems wrong, somehow, that the gastroenterologist was only the runner-up.

There's video somewhere, but it's not that interesting. At least not compared to what I was imagining, which was that the guy finishes his song and, instead of applause, he's promptly buried under an avalanche of the entire doughy prize at once.

Possibly this idea was prompted by vague memories of this cartoon.



(If you have ambivalent feelings about Eastern European dumplings in general, perhaps you can relate to the kreplach joke.)

I etn't dead

but, I'm not sure if/where this blog is going at this point. I have some vague thoughts of clearing out the blogroll and redesigning this as a writing/fan blog, with some food, or something along those lines. Maybe.

Basically, I'm busy with real life, and I've been rethinking a few things. I'm not posting about them because, bluntly, in the inchoate form I'm in it'd basically come out as a lot of wank. And, I'm trying to cut down on wank. That kind, at least.

Politically, it's kind of...a combination of laziness and denial, and depression at least wrt U.S. political headlines, which can basically be summed up as something like:

"Republicans: 'NO!! Suck our teabag.'"

That's not even it, though. It's not this subject either, although I thought about a response to this post (and seq. linked) at various points these last few weeks. Briefly. Maybe I will at some point. Maybe.

Mainly though I'm in a different mood, and I would just...like to talk about something...else. Mostly I've been doing that somewhere(s) that's else, but I have a certain reluctance to throw shit away, and I put a lot of energy into this blog. So, we'll see.

Meanwhile: I'm never going to be an adult either, but I need to have this woman's little cartoon children.

HOLY SHIT SOME ACTUAL GOOD NEWS

PROP 8 OVERTURNED. BOO YA.

Spam spam spam spam

You know, if blogger came up with a way to ZOT all the spam comments that have been collecting on my blog like dust bunnies in one go, that'd be ace.

Just saying.

and yeah, I think I *will* buy that Nigerian term paper about Viagra, thanks.

Gender and color survey results the xkcd way

I WILL EAT YOUR HEART WITH A FUCKING SPOON IF YOU ASK ANY MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT COLORS

On a related note:

"Women like pink things, possibly because of berries in a forest."