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Meg pointed out that you can now print out your own Anne Robinson mask. Very scary indeed. This reminded me that I saw a promo for the U.S. “Weakest Link” on BBC last night. They’re actually going to show the American version over here so all the Brits can laugh at how stupid we are. I’m telling you, this show has a very dodgy agenda and it has everything to do with enforcing cultural stereotypes.

My sister was just telling me about a court case in our home town involving a man who molested Amish children. Northeastern Indiana does have a pretty sizable Amish population, in case you didn’t know. Apparently this guy targeted them because “they’re very compliant.” What a sick individual. He was sentenced to 66 years in prison.

Roger Ebert’s review of “The Mummy Returns” is hilarious. I quote:

“At one point the action returns to London, and we see Tower Bridge, the dome of St. Paul’s and Big Ben clustered closely together in one shot. This is no doubt to make it easy for the geographically challenged. Perhaps adding a few snapshots from Madonna’s wedding would not have been too much.”

Unfortunately for Eeb, Madge’s wedding took place in Scotland… but I still laughed.

“Crime family.” This is actually a really sweet and funny article about how growing up with nine siblings teaches you foraging and opportunism. I especially liked the bit about the younger brother who wanted to write on the wall with shoe polish but knew he’d be caught if he used his own initials… so he used his brother’s. My sister and brother and I used to do that all the time! (Not with shoe polish – our preferred medium was steamy car windows.)

I was all set to think R.E.M. were being jerks by cancelling this documentary, but then I changed my mind. What does Peter’s recent arrest have to do with the history of a band that goes back 20 years? Why should the other guys have to comment on it? If one of my good friends and co-workers did something stupid and the media wanted an official statement on it, I’d tell them to piss off. If the reporters wouldn’t respect that decision, I’m glad the band cancelled the project. (Thanks to Max for the link.)

Thanks to Mama Snook, who sent us these groovy Australian wool socks. As Snookums felt that the purple ones (with stars and moons) were a bit girly, I got those. He’s got the ones with the little sheep on them.

Snookums figures that Mayor Ken’s plan to stop feeding the “winged rats” of Trafalger Square could have a detrimental effect on tourism, because every time we go there the place is filled with idiotic Americans in fanny packs feeding the pigeons and happily getting crapped all over. So our plan is to replace the bird food seller with a BB-gun leasing office and let the tourists take potshots at the remaining flocks. Just as fun and good for the city, too!

(Note to my tree-hugging hippie friends: We’re just joshin’! We wouldn’t really shoot any little creatures. Although they really are a pestilence…)

Somebody’s invented a tractor beam. Seriously. That is so cool.

London provides so much ample fodder for the tabloids. In addition to the protests, the Tube strikes, the foot-and-mouth outbreak, and the general election, we now have the murder trial of one of Fergie’s former aides. The woman beat her lover to death with a cricket bat and left him lying with a knife in his chest. Then she fled and spent several days sending her friends text messages to make it look like she was innocent. The police finally found her – overdosed on pain killers – in her car in Cornwall. So after she was formally charged and the trial was about to begin, she dramatically announced that it was self-defense and that he had raped her on the night of the attack. Today she was cross-examined by the prosecution about clothing she bought while she was on the run from police: “Why a thong if you had been anally raped? Is that the most comfortable garment to wear?” *shudder*

Weirdness. A girl at Saint Mary’s, my university‘s sister school, claims she was sexually assaulted… by another girl. The accused was cleared by a special advisory board, but the alleged victim still claims she’s going to leave school. I don’t know enough of the facts to state any sort of real opinion on the case, except to note that I knew a lot of Catholic girls on campus who were pretty freaked out by lesbianism. It’s not hard for me to imagine that these girls were at a party drinking all night (which they admit), and that later one of them made a pass at the other. I just think it’s sad that what was probably just a misunderstanding has to result in one student leaving the school and another branded as some sort of deviant sexual predator.