Liar, liar pants on fire...

Ladies and gentlemen... we have another one.


Vivian Gornick shocked about 50 students and staff at Goucher College in Baltimore, when she admitted to taking certain liberties while writing for the Village Voice and in her memoirs.

Ordinarily a Post story like this one (compliments of Where is Raed?) would give me chills. But now I find myself asking - how much of this is real?

And that's a shame.

Some people deserve to be voted off the planet

The day is hot and humid. The sky is overcast, but the rain is slow to fall and offer some relief. It's a miserable August day.

I was a little slow grabbing lunch today. I walked over to Cosi and was surprised by the long lines. I grabbed a salad and stood behind a young mother struggling with two little children and a cranky baby in her arms.

We were inching forward when this prissy cow marches through the front door, brushes aside the woman with kids in tow, and slams a tall cup of something in front of the cashier. In between the baby crying, the mom shushing, the dirty looks and loud comments coming from the people standing behind me, and the cashier explaining that she really had to go to the end of the line - I figured out that all this fuss was over a chai latte (vanilla and not spicy).

I wanted to kick her scrawny arse all the way back to Manhattan. The least this stupid New Yorker could have done was let the poor mom go ahead and take care of her kids.

But nooooooooooooooooo... the world had to stop, the manager had to be found and another grande chai latte had to be poured before the rest of us got any service.

Some people don't deserve to share the air I breathe. If they're going to be that self-absorbed I think they should find their own planet to fester on.

I know the theme of the day has been help thy neighbor... see Adam's Silver Linings and Yeti's Common Humanity.... but I'm not willing to consider that beneath all that hot air shines a heart of gold in that inconsiderate witch.

Poindexter resigns

John M. Poindexter scares the hell out of me. And although he's resigning from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), I know he'll be back.

He's the mastermind of the Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA) System formerly known as the Total Information Awareness Program. The Pentagon changed the name of the program after groups started making noise, raising objections and protesting the idea.

I don't believe the way to keep America safe is to spy on every person in the country.

My privacy is violated everyday (probably much more than I'm aware). There are security cameras everywhere. Each card in my wallet has a nifty little strip that tracks my comings and goings.

Want to know where I was at 7:43 this morning? Oh look... there I am entering the Metro Station. Check the cameras and digital system and you'll find I made an exit at Metro Center. I drink my coffee with lots of cream and sugar - just check the camera at the intersection of 11th and G streets.

Sometimes more (monitoring, tracking, spying) is just dangerous..... to our freedom.

Some people don't know how to take a hint

I checked my voice mail because I'm meeting friends out in an hour and needed to find out where. Well, to my chagrin I listened to a message left by a guy who just can't take a hint.

We were good friends once. I met him at freshman orientation in college. My roommate adored him and for 2 years we went everywhere together. Best friends 4-eva.

To make a long story short ---> I transferred schools, he dropped out and moved to LA, met some shady characters and picked up a nasty little drug habit. Over the next 10 years we exchanged postcards and randomly stayed in touch until he moved to MD. After he moved to town, I introduced him to my friends and we'd meet out every now and then, but the drugs became a HUGE issue.

So last year, I decided to stop hanging out with him. He still leaves messages on my voice mail. And now he's moving into the city -- to my neighborhood. I don't return his calls, don't reply to his messages.... what more can I do? What do I do?

And why doesn't he take my year-long silence as a hint?

I need some help!

I work for an organization with a little over 300 employees housed in 2 large buildings. There have been a lot of complaints regarding internal communications (specifically, the lack thereof).

Budget constraints prohibit the hiring of a new person to work on internal staff communications, yet something is needed to keep everyone apprised of events that are going on, projects and programs people are working towards, etc.

Does anyone work for a company, association, government agency that employs a simple notification system? What do you do to keep everyone informed? How is information collected? How is it distributed? Does anyone know of any online tools that might give me ideas?

All suggestions are greatly appreciated. Everything I've come up with is too time-consuming.

Deadlines

In my real job, I'm fairly good about meeting deadlines. I mean, in the world of 24/7 news when everyone wants everything yesterday, you kind of have to be (unless you want to get fired).

And then there are my *other* deadlines.

I joined this one social group to meet some new friendly singles (everyone turned out to be over 45, married or divorced w/kids and expects ME to bring in the under 35 crowd to the group - that so backfired) and to score complementary (FREE) tickets to the inaugural ball of our future democratic President in 2004 (a would-be grand total savings of about $500).

In exchange for those perceived benefits, I volunteered to layout the monthly newsletter. Which, of course, has turned into the biggest hassle ever.

But I can't get myself to tell them exactly where to go the next time they have an editorial change. They're all older, and lonely, with way too much free time on their hands and well versed in laying "le guilt trip." Of course, the stories provide endless entertainment for my friends late night over drinks.

So here's my point - I was supposed to get the review draft into the head honcho on Friday morning. It's Monday evening and I haven't started putting it together yet. Am I trying to get them to fire me so I don't have to tell them to find some other sucker to lay out the newsletter? (BTW - ditto goes for the group's non-existent website that has a launch date of September).

And this isn't the first time.... I'll learn about some new group that needs help, get really excited about what I think I'll eventually get in return. I'll contact them and ingratiate myself with the group's leaders, getting them to depend on me in exchange for *something* (like free tickets or meeting hot rugby players). Then my interest wanes as more attractive offers compete for my time. And finally instead of quitting like a grown-up, I do something (like miss deadlines) to get them to replace me with someone less devious and more dependable.

(sigh)

How old am I?



Facelifts

And today seems to be redesign day on the web. Check out the new looks of Spoonfed and Corn Smut.

Who ARE these people?

This post is compliments of Jolichat. Can anything be more disturbing?


I'm on deadline but promise to post more later.