I think somebody at The Onion lives in Northern Indiana. This article is just too “local” to be believed. University Park Mall? Yeah, that was my college mall. (And yes, they have a Marshall Field’s.) Glenbrook Mall in Fort Wayne? That’s where my sister shops.

The Wind Done Gone

I have to say I disagree with Max about the new “black version” of “Gone With the Wind” that’s about to be published. Don’t get me wrong, I love the original book too. But don’t you think that this story (told from the viewpoint of Gerald O’Hara’s mulatto love-child with Mammy) sounds incredibly interesting? Beyond my curiosity, I also like the idea of this woman re-interpreting a supposedly “sacred” text and expanding it to include herself. (Mental cross-reference: that artist who pissed off Guiliani by portraying herself as a nude, black, female Christ.) And besides, it’s not like this is a new concept. Jean Rhys retold “Jane Eyre” from the point of the madwoman in the attic in her novel “Wide Sargasso Sea” and earned critical acclaim. Why should this case be any different? Is it because “Gone With the Wind” is still a cash cow to be milked? I’m just thinkin’ here…

This is a really cool web application that maps the distribution of your surname across the United States. Not surprisingly, Kentucky is the jackpot as far as “Howards” are concerned.

Huh. I was just reading an article at Fametracker that mentioned the actress Bijou Phillips, who was in “Almost Famous”. I just finally saw that film on the airplane back from Australia, so I went to the IMDb to see which groupie she was. Imagine my surprise, then, to be reading through the trivia section and see references to a section of the movie (a near plane crash?) that I didn’t even see. I guess they must’ve cut it so people who don’t like flying wouldn’t get freaked out. Have you seen the movie? What happens in the scene?

McDonald’s

Salon’s article about McDonald’s and mad cow disease really turned my stomach. For the past year and a half I’ve been congratulating myself on not giving in to paranoia and fear (I bought some hamburger just last night to make chili… yum!), but even I begin to crack when faced with phrases like “mechanically recovered meat.” Tell me again why I should be a vegetarian, Brigita?

Snookums and I were discussing this experiment at AOL London today. Apparently all clocks and watches were covered up to see if people would work more efficiently when they weren’t stressing about how much time they had to finish their tasks. Unfortunately I don’t think such a thing would work for me. Ever since college, I’ve had a pathological inability to get anything done unless I have a deadline staring me in the face. (Which reminds me, check out my new watch!)

I was just chatting with my mom on IM and expressing my disgust at the fact that Dubya is apparently going to give this year’s commencement address at ND. She responded with the perfect encapsulation of what I hope 50% of the American public are currently thinking:

    Mom: yeh, well, he’s kinda turning into a weenie or else I was pretty blind before

Ahh, the remorse of the Republican voter. Is it too early to start chanting “Gore in ’04”?