James is...

A couple of my fellow bloggers performed Google searches on their names with the word "is" added to the search criteria, and posted the top ten results on their blogs.

Here's what I found out about myself when searching "James is."

• James is still employed by the Red Sox


• James is apparently fat, old and ugly


• James is good


• James is sympathetic both to the idea that the universe is something we can...


• James is at pains to deny that


• James is the Sidney Crosby of hockey blogging


• James is publishing denegrating info about us on his website


• James is currently working on a book


• James is also an official curry monster


• James, is adaptive and functional

This Year's Oscar Picks

Chuck and I have posted our Oscar picks for this year.

You can see them, and the results, here.

Traveling with Style

I will confess that my daughter has more style than I do. She is always on the go, jetting across the country earning more air miles in a year than I accrued during the first 35 years of my life.

She is pictured here at the Atlanta airport, having disembarked a commuter plane and on her way into the terminal for a connecting flight to Seattle.


Jumper and crew neck shirt by Gymboree. Luggage by Ruff Ruffman.

Images from the Past - Toonces

After a day of flea-marketing, Jolly picks up a kitten and names it "Toonces." The kitten lived with Jolly and Terry and me for a while. Then Toonces lived with me and moved to Seattle.

Once, Toonces became entrapped in the tuned port of one of Terry's giant custom-made stereo speakers.
Left to right: Toonces, Jolly, George and Alan.

Today's Kitchen Tip

My daughter reminds us all to make sure you label all your frozen foods.

Pictured: a frozen steak in a Ziploc freezer bag carefully labeled by a six-year-old.

Got a Book 123

Though not officially tagged by Rickwell, I picked up the top book on my table after reading these words from Rick's blog:

• Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
• Find Page 123.
• Find the first 5 sentences.
• Post the next 3 sentences.
• Tag 5 people.

This is what I read on page 123 of Mere Anarchy, beginning with sentence six:

Touched by this request for some measure of genuine coin of the realm, Pepkin terminated his treatment, and on the advice of some shyster he plays eight ball with sued me for malpractice.

Unable to handle the sudden downsizing and the hardship that accured when Bergdorf's amputated her charge account, Foxy Brietbart exchanged me even up for an anorexic four-eyed pipsqueak whose computer-chip parent catapulted him, at twenty-five, seven notches above the Sultan of Brunei on a certain list in Forbes. Meanwhile, I was left with a trunkful of sheet music with titles like "The Earthworms of Tuscanny" and "At the Speleologists Ball."

Zen and the Art of Not Caring About the Super Bowl

Huh. I should try not caring more often. Not investing myself emotionally in Sunday's Super Bowl led me to cheer for New York by default, and I ultimately enjoyed the upset. A great final quarter.

Oh - and despite my previous post, I did, as it turned out, have an interest in the coin toss. I had the Giants to win the coin toss, the Patriots to score first, that Brady would not throw and interception, that the Pats would give up the game's first turn-over, that the cameras would show Peyton Manning, I had the Giants making the most field goals, and New England up at the half.

All in all, a nice time was had by all.

And Mitsuru never came home.

Super Bowl Sunday Here Again

Super Bowl Sunday has come round again, and we return to the Mid-Yo's for our annual Super Bowl gathering. I whipped up a cauldron of creamy home-made clam chowder and some artichoke crab dip (my wife reminded me I forgot to add the garlic -- oh well) while listening to the foreboding score to There Will Be Blood (a fantastic movie, by the way) on XM.

My daughter asked me who we are rooting for in today's game. Seattle is out. The Packers, out. Any other team I have an inclination toward, out. Since I don't like the Pats I am pulling for the Giants by default, so I told my daughter, cheer for New York. They have the blue helmets with "ny" printed on them.

It's too bad I don't care about this year's game. The Seattle-Pittsburgh match-up of two years ago made for a good gathering, particularly in this town. And last year, having been in Chicago in the weeks (and week) leading up to Super Bowl XLI it was a no-brainer going for the bears. But seeing as I have a tendency to pull for the underdog (and eventual loser) I suppose that even by my reluctant support of the Giants they are doomed to failure.

I have no bets on the game, though these days you can place bets on the coin toss, on who scores first, and so on and so on. It's crazy. At least I have the commercials to look forward to.