“With no vote to sell, their motto is “couldn’t care less,”

Time was when their plebiscite elected generals, heads of state, commanders of legions:

It is not my intention to lecture you or the average American citizen about exercising your rights or fulfilling your duties within our society. Nor is it my purpose to discuss the decline of the plebeian class in Imperial Rome in its final decades before the fall and how this decline may have hastened the destruction of its empire. Instead I would like to add my voice to the meager collection that is decrying the constant frenzy of media attention on things that are better left alone and their neglect of things that need the harsh light of inquiry.
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The route I like to go on my run (I call it a run, but I’m no runner, really) goes right past the Seattle Hebrew Academy. Today, when I turned down Interlaken, there was a car at the stop sign and in the passenger’s seat I saw kid in a big ol’ fro wig. Later, when I passed the Academy, parents were collecting their costumed youngsters and I remembered, oh, YEAH, it’s Purim!

Just the other day I made a batch of Hamentaschen in case my plumber came back. We had a long talk about the tribe before he set out to snake the common sewer line that’s giving us so much trouble. When I was in Israel, where my plumber lived after he left Lithuania and before he moved here, I learned that Purim was not Jewish Halloween, though they make it out that way in the US. In Israel it’s more like Jewish Mardi Gras. A sort of Jewish “show us your boobs!” holiday.

From the page linked to above comes this directive:

According to the Talmud, a person is required to drink until he cannot tell the difference between “cursed be Haman” and “blessed be Mordecai,” though opinions differ as to exactly how drunk that is.

I can’t recommend the Hamentaschen recipe on that same page, I tried it and the cookie dough just isn’t that good. At any rate, should you find yourself drinking at any time today, rest assured that it’s a-okay with the tribe. Enjoy. I can’t speak for the conflict between this raging party day and Good Friday but since I’m going to hell anyway, I feel okay with my plans to celebrate by going for Chinese food and beer.

Can somebody start a post (from the admin and from the bookmarklet) and tell me if the “allow comment” and “allow ping” boxes are checked? Would be nice to know.

From the amazing blog “The Minor Fall, The Major Lift” comes this inevitable bit of parodic mashup:

Today in Federal court in Orlando, we, along with our whip-smart fancy-pantsed attorneys, applied for a patent to manufacture and sell TUBESTRONG bracelets. They will be pea green, which is, to our minds the color of soft-nutrition.

Like I said, inevitable. It’s sad that things are so bad this is funny. Anyway, TMFTML is a great blog… enjoy it.

If you can’t get your art exhibited in prestigious art museums, why not just hang it there yourself? That’s what Banksy did. (Banksy has been featured here before.)

Hi everyone… I had to flush out the db again this morning and re-import everything to fix a weirdness with the comments and categories. We lost a few comments but everything else seems fine. I’m calling us officially “moved.” Yay!

Get thee to the Arboretum, pronto, before a big wind blows all the lace and splendor away.

..abound on the web today. For your viewing pleasure and natural-historical edification, I’m pleased to present running bats and tiptoeing octopi. As BoingBoing noted, the octopus in the video looks like he took notes from Wily E. Coyote.

Reading this post by conservative blogger John Cole, I realized how serious this issue looms as a watershed for the GOP. Now it would have been nice if a phony war, a deadly “peace” and a bungled reconstruction in Iraq [or, you know, our gazillion dollar defecit] would have woken up the “non-radical conservatives” but thank goodness they are finally rousing. Seriously… read the comments on Cole’s post. After taking so much heat from the Fundagelicals on the Virginia site, it’s heartwarming interesting to see the wingnut wing of the party beat up the slightly-less-insane wing of the party. Enjoy!

As Christians everywhere get geared up for the holiest day of the year, I always find myself pondering the age old question: When Jesus comes out of the cave and sees his shadow, why are there 6 more months of winter?

Oh hell, I don’t know. Go have fun and make a chocolate Jesus Bunny!