Laissez les bon temps rouler! It’s kind of hard to explain Mardi Gras in New Orleans to someone who has never been here during the five final days of Carnival season, commonly referred to (albeit incorrectly) as “Mardi Gras.” Mardi Gras is, in fact, right this very minute only 34 minutes old. It is the…
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I’m a big believer in decadence. So after spending an entire day largely either naked or in my PJ’s watching my West WIng dvd set, I decided to fix a double cup of hot chocolate while watching Celebrity Poker while my oven self-cleans. We’ll divert here for a moment because I think it’s a great…
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I have a friend that, in the past month, has made my week twice–simply by sharing with me a bit of humor she found in the oddest places. I’m not talking about irony. I refer instead to genuine humor. Things people created to be funny that are actually, surprisingly, funny. The first came two days…
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Christmas has always been a very odd time for me and–by extension–my family. Since we hold no particular religious attachment to the holiday, I’ve always marveled at the way Christians choose to celebrate the birth of their savior. (I can’t fathom, for instance, Objectivists erecting trees and buying gifts, even for themselves, on Ayn Rand’s…
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Since Colleen was off work tonight, we decided to give the kids their presents tonight. Tomorrow evening, after she gets off work, they’ll do presents again with the extended family on her side, and then the next day with their dad and his family. I always marvelled at Christmas when I was a kid. A…
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If you had told me what I was facing in helming a magazine, I would have laughed, not believed you. After all, my impression of magazine editing is–sorry–was based solely on the portrayals of Ben Fong-Torres in “Almost Famous” and the guy from TNR played by Hank Azaria in “Shattered Glass”. But let me tell…
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This has been an interesting couple of weeks. Bush won an astounding reelection and I got promoted. Almost as if the Fates were saying “Hey, we know how you feel. So here’s a consolation prize.” This happens in life, it seems. We get down about things not going our way and then they do. Thus…
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Not very many hours left. Praise whatever deity you worship, but tomorrow, America votes to elect the leader of the free world. Now my political beliefs are pretty common knowledge to all of my friends. And if the big banner at the top of the page doesn’t spell it out clearly enough, I’m voting for…
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There’s a nightmare scenario that isn’t being discussed in the media today. And it’s one that is, given the demographic makeup (or breakdown, if you prefer) particular to the 2004 Presidential race, more than possible. So I’m going to explain it here, and reserve an “I told you so,” for later use, but stop short…
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I had lunch with my friends at Azalea Estates today. My friends are a table of World War II vets who, for better or for worse, are retired academics. I find that interesting on many levels–that they fought and won what was perhaps the greatest ideological conflict in the history of mankind and returned home…
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