Ass. Press

What annoys me about this isn't the Palin stuff, although it's telling.

My problem comes in knowing a hard-working, incredibly talented friend was laid off this week by the AP. All he did was spend five-plus years pumping out a few well-written stories EACH DAY about what was happening in Michigan state government.

I can get creative with what the "A" stands for in AP, but I'm positive the "P" doesn't stand for priorities.

More Frosting, Please

One eye on the camera... another eye on the cupcake.

Is There A Doctor In The House?

So far, a lot of the arguments on one side of the health care debate or the other have seemed a little abstract to me. Meaning, the real world implications of what Democrats and the President have been pushing for, dividing the American public, have been limited to the rhetoric generated by those for or those against.

Until now.

This new announcement regarding annual mammograms and the age at which women should begin them points with some apprehension as to how health care decisions might be made should the system be federalized. A similar recommendation recently came out regarding prostate cancer.

I'm no doctor, clearly, but what happens if health care goes the way of the Post Office and a government-sponsored panel says one thing about an important medical question and the doctors in the field say something else? Really. I'm asking. Does anyone know?

Either way, my confidence in Congress or the President to provide an answer is less than high.

UPDATE: Here's one possible answer. Like I said: confidence, not high.

#lovelansing *

It wasn't long ago that our favorite local public radio station - and by writing the phrase "favorite local public radio station" I've aged myself 15 years, easy - abandoned its all-jazz format for a mostly-junk format. It's not that the music they play now is bad, it's just not what you ever really want to listen to while in the kitchen, making dinner, feeding a toddler, having a cocktail or all of the above. It's just not a station you'd be drawn to listen to... and we don't.

But tonight... mark it down, Nov. 15... I put 2 and 2 together and got goodness.

My iPhone has an application that connects to hundreds of public radio stations from all over the country. You can listen to all of them just as if you're sitting in a living room in Albuquerque or Albany.

So, I am. Right now, I'm listening to the station from New Orleans. Plugged it right into our kitchen radio and it's like the station was a block away. And, no offense to my friends at Lansing Community College, but the jazz coming from the Big Easy is just a tad better.

Wanna live in a cool city? Don't worry, there's an app for that.

* An explanation for non-Twitterers. "#lovelansing" is known as a hashtag. The author of a tweet on Twitter can label it with a hashtag, i.e. #lovelansing, so that others can search for all the tweets with the #lovelansing hashtag and discover all the wonderful things about living in Michigan's capital city. Unfortunately for Lansing, however, the things to love about it are greatly outnumbered by the things to complain about. Hence, the sarcasm.

Oh, and for people who like pictures of O... here you go.

Tip It

It's opening night of the Indiana Hoosiers basketball season.

Hoooooosssssssiiiieeerrrrrrrsssss!

Dunk!

Having whacked a few bats out of mid-air with paws and brooms respectively, Pepper and I stand in awe of Manu Ginobili, a star guard for the San Antonio Spurs.

From a game on Saturday. This is amazing.

October

Had an idea a few weeks ago, just as the trees in the park across the street started to turn: take a picture a day from my front porch for the month of October and see what happens.

Here you go, with music and everything.

Happy Halloween!

From the "scary" ghost...