I don't know why I started talking with Leonard about a universe in which people can turn into frogs and back whenever they like. But the scenario envisioned (which I hereby invite anyone to use …
Cody's got a phone call from Antarctica a few days ago. How cool! A worker at Antarctica Station called us up, looking for a particular blank book. Evidently Antarctica personnel get free phone calls (I'd …
I'm listening to Ben Folds, "Fred Jones Part II". My parents are in an airport, waiting for their plane. They're leaving for India in a few hours. Only now am I beginning to feel sad.
Zed mentions a spooky experiment. Milgram and and Zimbardo[0] showed us how rough, easy-to-discern external conditions stimulated submission and violence. But here, the subject is hardly aware of the stimulus. And, in the spookiest aspect …
I was looking up my old acquaintance Mike Carns to tell him about Garrison Keillor's upcoming appearance in Berkeley. And what did I find but his wedding plans! This sort of openness just begs sitcommy …
Terrific Cody's Deal: Our Bodies, Ourselves for $7.98. This is the anniversary edition, updated for the nineties, a terrific resource on women's health. Hundreds of pages of useful and entertaining information. The stack on the …
Best way to learn what we stock: standing at the checkout and watching what people buy. Every day I sell things that I had no idea we stocked. The other day I sold an amazing …
Annoying customer habit: approaching a staff member with a request phrased as a single word. "Chess." "Gardening." (At least one staffer regularly replies to such unmannerly requests in kind, with arbitrary words, e.g., "bingo.") Leonard …
Last night I dreamt that His Fraudulency was consulting with Leo from The West Wing. (Leonard's comment, in Leo's voice: "What is this, a satire? This guy is just a thinly disguised Ritchie!") I worry …
The New Yorker article about Condi Rice makes her sound like T'Pol from Enterprise, only not as sexy. (Nicholas Lemann discusses his article in an interview.) My "Certainty! Righteousness!" sirens go off when I hear …
