Gas Is Expensive; Irony Is Cheap

I intended to start listening to the audiobook version of the dead and the gone yesterday, but I was too engrossed in the Hurricane Gustav coverage to begin. Today, I'm too amused by Sarah Palin (did you know that for two years she was a member of the Alaska Independence Party, which, according to the NY Times, "has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede") to want to focus on all that dead and goneness.

I did spend a couple of days going through my outside storage closet, planning to cull all that sentimental attachment stuff that I haven't looked at in four years. It turned out I was sentimentally attached to each and every item, including two identically warped fliers for a Milli Vanilli concert. Then I took all my old movie magazines out of the storage closet and piled them on the top of my bookshelf in the den. But I didn't like them there, so I emptied out a cabinet in my bedroom, by putting what was there in the outside storage closet, and moved the movie magazines in. Just think of it as the circle of life.

Remember how I got interviewed by Susan Raab at ALA? Well, Susan Raab and I remember. Okay, maybe Susan has forgotten, but I remember. What Susan Raab most likely does remember, is that she interviewed fifteen other people as well. Here's a link to all sixteen interviews (mine is accompanied by a very very old publicity photograph):

http://www.tne.uconn.edu/RECESSInterviews.htm#chinni

I'm always sensitive to assertions that the science in Life As We Knew It and the dead and the gone isn't quite as scientific as it should be, so I should be even more defensive to discover there's a thread on the subject at the Bad Astronomy And Universe Today Forum. But if I hadn't written those books, I never would have known such a place existed. So for the astronomically inclined amongst you, here's the link:

http://www.bautforum.com/small-media-large/78057-book-plausible.html

Here, from the Books For Kids Foundation newsletter is an item that has nothing to do with me but is well worth noting:

New Library Completed with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Books for Kids created a library for the Lincoln Park Community Center in
Maryland as well as worked on a special home project for ABCs hit show,
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. On Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,
a deserving family receives a brand new home. The episode featuring
BFK, which will be aired at 7 PM ET on Sunday, September 28th, is the
2-hour season premiere and not only includes the home project but also
our work with the community center’s library. The Lincoln Park Community
Center does very good work within the greater community, and also
served as a special haven for the wonderful family appearing on the
show. Be sure to tune in!

I'm off to google Milli Vanilli and see where they stood (and lip synched) on the Alaskan Secession issue. What a vice presidential candidate they would have made!