Some of the news that is fit to print

Make love, just not gay love...

This from Slate.com's Today's Papers...

The NYT notices something that is finally bringing together some Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Jerusalem: homophobia. A few leaders from the three religions made a joint appearance decrying a planned 10-day "WorldPride" event slated for the city. "We can't permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty," said one Muslim cleric. "This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem." One fine American rabbi who helped organize yesterday's announcement concurred, explaining, "This is not the homo land, this is the Holy Land."

Hello from Jamaica, mon!

We are here in Jamaica, mon! It is quite nice, although the flights here were nothing short of hell -- small, overly crowded planes. So the flight home looms. Ugh.

Before heading here, we treked to LA -- no, not California, but Alexandria, La. -- which was sprawling and kind of sad. DMV's sister lives there and we have not visited, even though they have lived there for more than two years. [GULP!] DMV's family is great, of course (and that isn't even in-law speak -- they are!) and the new baby is very sweet, but you get the feeling that they are trying to make the best out of a bad situation. It is DMV's brother-in-law's home town -- his parent's live two doors down! And it is a town that was dominated by a former Air Force base that has yet to find its way in the new world. They are hopeful they can be in on the early edge of that trek into the new world. (I just prefer to live in the new world, thank you very much!)

I also managed to get sick somehow. (See mention above about small, overly crowded planes.) I felt awful and slept most of the first day and a half we were here. I'm feeling better now other than a cough.

The Ritz is quite nice. We had seats by the sea today. I'm doing Yoga in the AM. And otherwise getting a lot of rest.

And sorry if the post looks odd. Typepad told me why, but...

CJD out... for a bit

As I mentioned, I'm out of town for the next week with limited access to the Inter-Web. A full report when I return.

How many hours in a day?

My mother was in town this weekend, who I very affectionately refer to as Hurricane Patty because of the amount of energy she has. And let the weekend's events serve as proof:

Friday: Arrive at CJD's office at about 4p. Leave at about 6p to see DMV pick up his new car -- a Lexus GS -- and then dinner at Palena in Cleveland Park. The evening ended up being a tad bit later than expected because it took longer to get seated then we had hoped and then the food took some time. Still, it is a great place to eat.

Saturday: Walk the dogs, go to the gym where I do my super-fab aerobics class and PAM did a yoga class... Come back to get cleaned-up and then off to see a preview of the  Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. (A special thanks to CH for the tickets... Here is the review of the exhibit in the WP and in the DC Examiner.)... Then off to the National Museum of the American Indian on the other side of the Mall... Then off to see Mickey in DC... Home for a quick rest before dinner at the Mendocino Grill in Georgetown.

Sunday: Somewhat quiet morning with the Sunday NYT and Meet the Press, of course... Then off to tour a local house that is for sale... and off to the Phillips Collection to see their amazing exhibit of Amedeo Modigliani... Then back home for a tea party at the neighbors -- nothing quite like getting drunk at a tea party -- and finish up with dinner for nine.

I dropped her off at Dulles International Airport this morning.

My mother is a incredibly fascinating person because she has just so many interests. I'm trying to think if there has ever said that there is something she would not be up for doing, save watching some television program. She just pretty much loves it all. And she is in great shape. She bikes, yogas, runs, reads, writes, sketches, travels... and therefore she is always filled with interesting stories. And she is one of those people who doesn't ever say, "I wish I had time for..." She always says that she has the same amount of time as Albert Einstein, so it is just a question about how you use that time. So it was fun to have her in town for the weekend. But... whew! I'm glad we are getting some vaca next week.

And now, back to work!
This weekend, I get to go to Alexandria, La. Yes, really! DMV's sister lives there -- in fact, she has lived there for two years now and she repeatedly asks us why we don't visit. Um, what? (I figure they are getting the burning crosses ready for our arrival!) All of DMV's family will be there for the christening of their third child. It should be an interesting weekend.

M-I-C...

Mickey is here in Washington -- at the Ronald Reagan building, no less. In celebration of Mickey Mouse's 75th anniversary, Disney created 75 uniquely designed, 6-foot, 500-pound statues. The statues have toured the country, but all 75 have only appeared in a few places -- Disney World, Disneyland, and here in Washington, D.C. They have had different celeberties design the mice, so they are pretty fun. And it will be interesting to see all 75 of them in one place. I'll post photos, of course. I thought these ones were fun.

AI05... 1 for 1

First week among the 12 finalists and I'm one for one. As I predicted yesterday, Lindsey was booted last night. And rightfully so. She had a great voice, but she never found songs that showed off her voice so she always seemed out of place. Actually, our AI pool group did pretty well in this first round. I will say that I was surprised by the final three -- Lindsey and Mikalah Gordon were the bottom two, with Jessica Sierra the third lowest. I really like Mikalah. She is brash and ballsy and fun. Jessica has other attributes that I thought would keep her in longer. I actually expected Nikko or ButterBall to be among the bottom three. We'll see. There are 11 more weeks to go.

American Idol... let the competition begin

We are in an American Idol pool. Yes, you can do that NCAA thing. Whatever! We are focusing on pop singers! This is something DMV and I have done for the last few years and it makes the show so much more fun -- as if that is possible.

This is how it works: Each of us selects who will be the winner, runner-up, and the also-ran. And then each week, we vote who is going to get the boot.

Here is my take for week one.

Who gets the boot: Lindsey Carinale. This was actually a difficult choice this week because so many of them were just so lame. Could we boot five of them? And it is actually a same because I like Lindsey's voice. It has this husky sound to it, but she must have no idea what it sounds like because she ends up selecting songs that are a total mismatch. So, unfortunately I think it is bye-bye Lindsey.

On the positive side, who will be the 2005 American Idol?
Nadia Turner. I just love her. Yes, the air is Simpson-esq and apparently she was on Star Search, but apparently that was good training because she seems to know who she is and she ain't afraid to show it. So go Nadia, go!

Runner-up: Bo Bice. This is one of those unusual circumstances where I am going against my gut because I really don't get Bo. (Kinda like that whole George W. thing.) I'm not really a big rocker guy anyway. And yes, he is good (no -- not George W.!) but he just doesn't do it for me. Why does everybody have their panties in a bunch over him? And he certainly is no pop idol, which is what the show is all about, I thought. But I put him on the list anyway because so many people seem so enamored. (What can I say? I'm still smarting from November!)

Third: Anwar Robinson. Yes, his song totally sucked last night -- what was he thinking? -- but his voice is like budda! But based on last night, I don't think he will make the finale.

Many more weeks to go.

TiVo's future

I wrote about TiVo's tenuous future earlier. Well, it appears that some of the questions have been resolved. As WSJ.com reports, TiVo entered into a long term agreement with Comcast.

TiVo, of Alviso, Calif., said it will develop a version of its service -- which helps viewers easily record television programs onto a disk drive -- that Comcast will offer as an option to its 21.5 million cable subscribers. The service, which will carry the TiVo brand, will be available in a majority of Comcast markets in late 2006.

March madness, the book edition

March brings the big basketball tournament, referred to as March Madness. For those of us less sports minded, read about the Tournament of Books, sponsored by online bookstore Powells.com and the zine The Morning News. The tournament pits books against one another in the search of the best book of the year. The final has Philip Roth's The Plot Against America against David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas.
What a fantastic idea!

Typepad responds

So earlier I had complained about strange formatting on some Typepad items. I sent a help ticket. I'm posting the response in case anybody else has the same problem ever.

Our documentation on WYSIWYG is at http://help.typepad.com/tips/wysiwyg.html and mentions the following:

*Can I paste formatted text from another editor?
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