How an Australian sees America, post 9/11.

Ah, shit.

From WFSB.com:

Anthrax Found On Letter In Seymour


(Hartford-AP) An envelope sent to a home in Seymour has tested positive for a tiny amount of anthrax.

Governor Rowland says the home is about a mile from the home of 94-year-old Oxford woman who died last week of inhalation anthrax.

The governor says the sample was very tiny. He says it's so insignificant that no one in contact with the letter could have gotten anthrax or even become ill.

Investigators still don't know how Ottilie Lundgren of Oxford came in contact with the anthrax spores that killed her. One possibility under close scrutiny is cross-contamination of mail with anthrax-laden letters sent to political and media figures in Washington, D-C, and New York.

Authorities have been able to determine that a small amount of mail destined for the Oxford area passed through a New Jersey postal facility that also handled contaminated letters to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy.

None of those letters went to Lundgren. But it is possible hermail came in contact with a letter that was contaminated in the New Jersey center.

If the news crews and vans that I had to drive around are any indication, this new "case" of anthrax was discovered 3 houses up the street from me. Back to the rubber gloves and face mask.

Good for our country, or not? As usual, I am not sure; the Guilford Four spring quickly to mind, as does the acknowledgement that it is a long and well-traveled road we find ourselves heading down.

"Most kids, they don't want to be touched by someone else who has the rash because they're afraid they're going to get it," she said. "I just think it's kind of gross."

I'm certainly intrigued.

They finally figured it out.

Zap2it reveals that the aired version of Buffy and Spike's roll in the construction rubble was trimmed by the censors. If what we saw during the 8-9 family hour got through the censors, I want to see what didn't!

[link courtesy ]

I may be jumping the gun here, but I would wager that this will be today's best headline:

Camp for Nude Witches Fights Closing

I am green with envy.

Great review of the past 2 Buffy episodes. At the end of last night's episode Willow swore she would never do it again, "it" being magic. Buffy, Willow's best friend, sat beside her and repeated what she said as if to lend support to Willow. In reality, she was referring to her mind-blowing, house-crushing night of sex with Spike. I wonder if either of them, Willow or Buffy, will have the willpower to resist for long.

Best headline I've read all day:

Robots Birddog Pooping Pigeons

Yoohoo, sir? You wouldn't happen to be heading down to Anna Liffey's on Friday night, would you?

Tom Shales reviews Monday night's Carol Burnett Special. He comes off as a bit crabby (what critic doesn't?), but I have to say that I agree with much of what he says. One hour (actually only 43 minutes) was not nearly enough time. Yes, I was laughing my ass off, but I wanted more - I wanted them to stop talking to the dorky audience and devote that time to more sketches. And Shales' musings about Comedy Central ran through my mind yesterday, almost word for word.

CBS would be better off running 20-year-old Carol Burnett re-runs in place of some of the stuff they have on their schedule - um, "Yes, Dear", anyone? As Shales says, "Whatever the shortcomings, the "Show Stoppers" special is still a must-be-seen for all those who fondly remember Burnett's magnificent beneficent reign. Burnett and friends were like the Light Brigade, and in their prime they made a "wild charge" every week. You wouldn't want to miss a chance to see them make it again. "

I'd have to day I agree with the results reported in this article. A clearly dis-advantaged African-American man, a complete stranger to me no less, approached me on a street in LA and told me in no uncertain terms, "Girl, you so hot, you oughta be on soul train!" The study, however, seems to have omitted an important demographic - stinking-drunk males, who have been known, on occasion, to remark on my great "yabbos".

My horoscope from this week's Onion:

"The lifetime supply of Twinkies you won in that contest turns out to be only half a box, indicating that the Hostess corporation knows something you don't."

Not if I only have one every 10 years or so. And the beauty of it is, a Twinkie will still taste the same 60 years from now.

Here's another link courtesy of usr/bin/girl: the The Pooh-Piglet Psychometric Personality Profiler. Which Winnie the Pooh character are you? I'm a Tigger, closely followed by Eeyore, which I suppose is pretty close. Piglet is my favorite, though.

Are you an e-bore? I only registered slightly above average (at 50%) on the e-bore-o-meter, thank God!

[link courtesy usr/bin/girl]

As I was leaving for the bank about an hour ago, I saw a car from Channel 30 Eyewitness News pull into a neighbor's driveway. I wondered if they were somehow involved in the current anthrax-related death in town, or if there had been another. On the way home I saw that the car had moved on to another neighbor and they were standing in the driveway talking to the owner of the house. Looks like they were canvassing the area for soundbites. Thank God they didn't stop at my house - today is a no shower day.

Jesus Mary and Joseph, what a couple of dirtbags. Excuse me, what a couple of stupid dirtbags.

Site Stuff

If you've been to this site in the past half hour, I apologize for the general spazziness of it all. I purchased an HTML editor yesterday, Homesite 5.0, and I've been learning. I was acquainted, on a very superficial level, with Homesite 4.0, so I at least know my way around the software. I would have preferred Dreamweaver over Homesite, though, because Homesite has no object-oriented or WYSIWYG interface, or scripting wizards, etc. It is just an HTML editor with a built in preview. Beggars can't be choosers, however; $29.00 to upgrade to Homesite 5.0 or $199.00 to purchase Dreamweaver. Hmmm... let me see...

So, here I sit, having to actually learn how to code as opposed to letting the software do it for me. Consider this fair warning!