Typos and amusements

I was driving home yesterday and listening to NPR, and the talking heads were discussing Elliot Spitzer and the coming governancy of David Paterson. I heard Michelle Norris say, "David Paterson will be the third African-American in the United States since the American Civil War."

I think she missed a word there.

In a related Spitzer story, Xeni Jardin pointed me at, as she put it, "this excellent sentence:"

CNN apologized today for getting on-air analysis of Gov. Spitzer's legal options from a former U.S. Attorney who resigned after being accused of biting a stripper.

Another wag points to today's CNN headline, "Source says Spitzer used call girl 8 times." I knew Viagra worked, but I never knew it worked that well.

Over the Hump

Omaha and I went to "The Hump" last night, which if you read between the lines is the new dance night at the Wetspot CSPC for those people who find The Grind's techno-rave German-industrial dance music too loud, too young, and too annoying. (I never found the Grind that particularly crowded, so I wonder why they've spread the dance nights out to this new Wed-Thu-Fri Hump, Grind, and Spin sequence.)

When we got there a demonstration on high-frequency electricity (not static electricity, as even the owner of the violet wand claimed) and Omaha was a giggly and willing test subject.

I met two very cute furry boys, one even wearing nekomimi ears, playing with each other and while I talked to them, the one with the ears said, "Hey, he speaks Furry." It turns out they run one of the local furmeets, which I'm totally not plugged into anymore. I hadn't heard of them, and they hadn't heard of me. Sigh. I'm not even a footnote anymore.

Omaha and I danced like crazy, only to learn afterwards that neither one of us was as young as we used to be. My knees were killing me, and she threw her back out something awful. Later, we went into the back room for a little more intimacy, only to discover another couple playing in the swing and the young lady kept shouting, "Yes, daddy, yes, daddy." I understand that some people find that hot, but really, at this stage of my life it's just kinda gross. My issue, I know.

And thanks so much to lisakit for watching over the kids. Omaha and I so needed some adult time together.

Addams Family Values!

Yamaraashi-chan has been having a little trouble at school focusing. While Der Ex continues to rant and rave that there's something serious going on, all of the other people in Yamaraashi-chan's life, like her teacher, her counsellor, and so forth are all basically telling me "It's puberty," which is what I kinda figured. She has no problem being engaged with math; that's easy and fun for her, but the reading assignments have been hard on her.

After ripping through most of the Xanth books last year, the general reading material offered by her classroom just doesn't engage her. (Although when I was speaking to her teacher I spotted a YA novel I'd never seen before, a big thick book about a young boy born of a genetically engineered cow, who learns that he's the clone of a Mexican drugs and arms dealer. He also learns that he's basically walking spare parts, and tries to escape his fate.)

One of the things her teacher has is a bulletin board of "pizazz words," words kids encountered in their stories that were so cool they had to share them with the classroom. A year ago I had angsted about whether or not Yamaraashi-chan should read Lovecraft. I finally decided that she should: the vocabulary, style, and subject all hold her attention. She's gleeful about the hundreds of pizzaz words she's already found: rugose, squamous, scabrous, tenebrous, eldritch. We'll see if this improves her book report scores.