I saw an advert for this Lord of the Rings Symphony on a bus this morning. Looks pretty neat! Howard Shore himself is going to be conducting. The Snook and I are officially booked in for the Saturday night performance.

Drool. Check out Ethyl. You know, the burger I ate to break the Famine wasn’t nearly that big, but I bet I enjoyed it just as much as that guy!

Jon Stewart’s gave the commencement address at William & Mary this year. Jon Stewart is funny.

Roger Ebert’s been sending daily reports from the Cannes Film Festival… and guess what? He just saw Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. From his review, it sounds more serious and thoughtful than Bowling for Columbine.

Wow. Manly Beach in Sydney has just gone smoke-free. On one hand I think it’s a bit hypocritical of the government to keep smoking legal (and heavily taxed) while chipping away at the places one can legally do it. On the other hand, smoking stinks. My tolerance for being around it has really dropped since we left London. The litter issue is a big one too. There are a lot of signs up in Sydney warning people to dispose of their butts properly (because everything that gets washed down the storm drains here eventually ends up in the harbor), yet some of the beaches really do look like giant ashtrays. It’ll be interesting to see if the ban lasts til next summer.

Update: Well, that didn’t take long. Three more beaches approved the ban today, including the most famous of all, Bondi.

This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while: The Woman’s Day Outer Space Station. In 1978 the magazine published these instructions for building your own Star Wars-esque sci-fi playset. The pictures with the Kenner action figures are especially neat.

“Did Rumsfeld order the Code Red? You’re goddamn right he did.” That’s despicable. We’re supposed to be the good guys. We’re supposed to be the example for everybody else. Good guys don’t approve the torture and humiliate prisoners. Rumsfeld is not a good guy.

Wow. The Snook and I were channel-surfing tonight and came upon the end of Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope. He introduced the last guest as an Iraqi that had maintained on “online diary” throughout the invasion. We were both like, “No. Way.” But yes, Salam Pax himself is apparently in Sydney for a writer’s conference and popped in for an interview. He was chubby and well-spoken, and I was surprised to hear he’s gay. It was a really good interview in which he expressed dismay at the way things have happened but also hope for the future. Denton asked him flat out if he thought the Coalition should pull out, and the answer was a definitive “No.” Sadly, he also spoke optimistically about the governing council and his wishes for peace. A disclaimer before the show revealed that it had been taped before today’s tragic assassination. He’ll be participating in an online chat tomorrow though so hopefully we’ll get to hear his reaction.

Note: Denton seemed to be going out of his way to avoid saying the word “weblog”, which amused me. He kept saying “online website” and “diary”, despite the fact that the guy is known as the “Baghdad Blogger”. He must’ve thought the word was silly. (It kinda is.) Pax worked it in a couple times though.

Curvy women have more faithful partners. At last an advantage for the big girls!

Gay marriages go ahead in Massachusetts. I wish I’d known last July when we visited Boston that the State House we toured (complete with Sacred Cod) would be the scene of such momentous civil rights debate. Congratulations to all the loving couples finally getting legal recognition for their union, and to the Massachusetts Supreme Court for having the courage to make such a stand.