web-goddess

Aussie underwear maker Bonds is launching a swimwear line. Cool. I really hope they do an underwire bikini top.

How did I miss this? National Corndog Day is next Saturday! “Celebrating 12 Years of Golden-Breaded Goodness…” HA! I was always partial to mustard on my corndogs, but some plain ol’ Heinz 57 is good too. The only problem with throwing my own corndog party is… no corndogs! They don’t really exist here. Hmm, you can make them from scratch, right? It’s just basically a cornbread-type batter on a hotdog. Maybe I’ll have to try it.

Addendum: The Snook informs me that corndogs are available here! They call them “Dagwood Dogs”. (No idea why.) He says you can only get them from greasy takeout joints though, so I still might try and make my own.

Lite Brite online! Fun.

“Cleaning your face is different from cleaning your… oh, let’s say, ass. You shouldn’t just soap it up and rinse it off. You need to know that the skin on your face is special and different and when you treat your face like your ass, no one’s happy.”

HA! That’s from Lance’s Guide to Man Grooming, Part One: Facing Facts. Now I just have to print this out and slip it under the Snook’s pillow…

I spent a good portion of the afternoon today in the office of Dr. Karl Baumgart, an allergy specialist. He was great. Not only did he finally identify the stuff that’s making me feel crappy, but he also managed to explain a lot of random secondary symptoms I didn’t realize were related. After talking to me for a while, he brought out the skin prickers. Basically there were these four plastic things, each of which had six metal spikes on them (like cleats). He dipped them all in my suspected allergans and then stuck them into my forearms. Within minutes I started swelling up and itching intensely. It turns out that I’m severely allergic to dust mites, with minor allergies to three different kinds of Australian grass. He also told me that I have a touch of “allergic conjunctivitis”, which I was relieved to learn does not mean I have pink eye. (It means I have itchy, watery eyes and dark circles.) I don’t have a food allergy as such, but certain things (like the preservatives in wine) will irritate my sinuses and bring on a reaction. I have to use allergy pills and spray for four months, boil all my bedding, and get hypoallergenic mattress and pillow covers. Then I have to go back for a checkup. If I haven’t improved, I have to get a “scan” of my sinuses to see if I need surgery. Then we’d begin “desensitization” treatment, which (as I understand it) involves them injecting me with the stuff I’m allergic to. Yeah, I want to try to avoid that.

But at least I know what I’m up against now! Dust mites are my arch enemy.

Hey knitters! Debbie Stoller is taking submissions for a sequel to her Stitch & Bitch book. Sounds pretty cool!

Pauline Hanson is pissed off that the Red Cross won’t take her blood because she’s been in jail. Boo frickin’ hoo. In the past five years I’ve been denied on the basis of an ear piercing, a tattoo, and the fact that I ate beef in England. Rules is rules. At least you’re not gay…

Remember Murder by the Dozen? It was an Apple game in the 80’s, sorta like a choose-your-own-adventure, where you had to solve one of twelve mysteries. I used to love playing it at our local library. My favorite part was the revealing of the solution, which you could only read by holding a piece of red plastic up to the book. I don’t think I ever had the patience to play a whole game but I just thought it was so neat and high-tech.

I was reminded of that game tonight while the Snook and I were watching our new favorite show: Crime Team. It’s a reality program from England that features two celebrity sleuths trying to solve an actual historical London murder in only three days. They can only use means that were available to the police at the time. (It’s currently airing in Australia Thursday nights at 9:30 on the ABC.) Tonight’s episode had a radio personality and an investigative journalist trying to uncover the mystery of several dead babies that turned up in the Thames in the 1890’s. It was fascinating, not just the crime solving aspect but also the hidden history of London that I never knew. (Shepherd’s Bush was a thriving center for “baby farming”?) It’s also interesting to see the tenuous leads that police back then were forced to follow (without recourse to DNA testing, modern forensics, etc). Tonight’s killer was convicted and hung on the basis of the way she tied her shoe. I really recommend the show if you can find it.

In a MeFi discussion of whether it’s appropriate to equate American religious fundamentalists with the Taliban*, somebody wrote an excellent parody of “The Candyman” called “The Taliban Can”. Pretty catchy!

* For the record, I don’t think comparisons with the Taliban are that far off. Sure, Bush and his cronies haven’t suggested that we stone adulterous women to death, but are their policies towards the lower classes and minorities really that much more compassionate? Both groups want to enforce their own insane religious beliefs on everybody else and unfortunately have no hesitation about using government to do it.

Harvard has just eliminated tuition fees for students whose parents make less than $40,000 a year. That’s awesome. I hope more schools will follow their lead. (I have to admit though, I can’t really see ND doing it. They’re tightasses.)