Hmm. I was reading the SMH this morning at home over breakfast, and I came upon this article about two people who drowned in a storm drain yesterday. I remember being a little surprised that the title on the SMH home page was “Artists drown in drain,” especially as the “artists” in question were spray painting graffiti in a drain. I half-expected the paper to call them vandals. Anyway, it’s two hours later now and it looks like they’ve changed it to “Graffitists drown in drain.” (Archived here for posterity.) I wonder if they had some complaints or something.

Oh, good grief. I was just reading this AskMeFi about South Bend when I nearly did a spit-take. You can apparently buy a entire three-bedroom house there and pay less than $700 a month for your mortgage. I mean, I knew it was cheaper back home… but that’s just ridiculous. (I shouldn’t even post this. Mom’s gonna be all over it.)

My friend Nick (aka “Kenya”) and his wife Sal flew home to Kenya on New Year’s Eve for a long visit. A few days later, the country’s election unrest was all over the news. The Snook and I wondered whether Nick and Sal were safe, and whether we’d hear anything from them while they were over there. This morning Nick posted to his blog. You get a real sense of both his sadness and his anger at seeing what’s happening in his home country. I hope they stay safe!

Check it out! It’s my forthcoming emo band album. We’re called the Donald Danford Plant Science Center and our first EP is “…a kind of death.” We’re very deep. Ten percent of the proceeds from each album sale will go to protect the red-beaked Random Bird and the gentle Random Deer. I expect you’ll be hearing us on Triple J any minute now.

I found this fun meme over at Max’s site. First, you use this Random Wikipedia link to generate your band name. Your album title is the last four words of the last quote on this page. And your album cover is the third photo from this Flickr link. Put ’em all together and there you go.

I has a sad. Awwwww! Cutest lolcat I’ve seen in a long time…

Last night we were watching TV when we caught a commercial for The Bill. “Why the heck do the English call the police department ‘the bill’ anyway?” I wondered. Snookums didn’t know, so he fired up Google. After several minutes, he found this Word Detective column (second entry from the bottom). Turns out it comes from a comic strip that ran during the First World War. It had a character named “Old Bill” who was a grumpy veteran with a big droopy mustache, and the strip was so popular that “Old Bill” became slang for any man with a walrus-like ‘tache. They’re not quite sure how it then came to be applied to policemen, but the speculation is that coppers are/were likely to sport such facial hair. Interesting, huh?

The Magic of Lace Blocking. Very pretty photos over on Claudine’s site…

Hahahaha… This is the funniest, BEST article I’ve seen so far about the MacBook Air. Suck it, haters.

Last night’s culinary experiment was Jamie Oliver’s Lemon Roast Chicken, as inspired by the gorgeous photo on this blog post. (I didn’t get a chance to take a photo of mine before we tore it apart!) I splurged on a free-range, organic chicken from the butcher. In the morning before work, I gave it a rinse, patted it dry, and rubbed it with salt and pepper. (This wasn’t easy. For some reason, whole raw chickens give me the heebie-jeebies. I’m fine with cut up chickens and with other joints of meat, but somehow picking up a whole chicken makes my skin crawl a little bit. I mean, once it’s cooked it’s a beautiful roast and I’m fine with that, but when it’s raw I’m just acutely aware that it’s a DEAD BIRD CARCASS, and I hate birds.) Anyway, I left it in the fridge all day to, I dunno, brine or something. When I got home, I fired up the oven and started cutting up potatoes. I boiled the potatoes, lemon, and garlic as directed, then shoved the (stabbed) lemon and garlic up the chicken’s bum. Forty-five minutes of roasting later, I put in the potatoes and rosemary and tossed them around. I also put a bit more olive oil on top at this point, as the skin on top was looking a little dry. (I would’ve used bacon as in the recipe, but SOMEBODY ate it all.) Another forty-five minutes in the oven and it was done. It ended up being delicious! The meat was moist and I could taste the lemon and thyme in the breast meat. I think when I do it again I might add a little duck fat with the potatoes to make them extra crispy (as this chicken wasn’t that fatty). But in terms of reward for effort, this is a pretty easy way to make a “proper” dinner that will impress just about anybody.