Courtesy of spiritualmonkey

If spiritualmonkey still had a Facebook account, his status would say "Pirate is currently weirded out by his cats drooling on the kitchen floor." Well, yeah. That's what happens when you feed them freeze-dried chicken liver. Heh.

spiritualmonkey shared this youtube video about bout one of the most despised men in America. Thank you! 60 Minutes Harry Markopolos Madoff Part1of2 60 Minutes Harry Markopolos Madoff Part2of2 Moveon.ORG "The Right Of The People To Keep and Bear Arms, Shall Not Be infringed."!

You know all those jokes about horrible, critical, interfering, you'll-never-be-good-enough-for-my-precious-son-and-don't-think-I'll-ever-let-you-forget-it mothers-in-law? Completely alien to my experience. spiritualmonkey 's mom, WarmheartedMonkey, has never been anything other than loving, caring, welcoming, and generous to the weirdo Californian her (weirdo) son married. I just wanted...

Pirate took Bella and Penelope to the vet last Monday, partly for their new-kitty-from-the-shelter checkup and partly because one of Bella's eyes seemed inflamed. The vet thought it was an upper respiratory tract infection (quite common in kitties that have been in shelters or kennels, apparently), and gave us erythromycin ointment for her eyes, which we've been diligently applying 3 times a day, as...

spiritualmonkey met me after work on Friday, as he generally does when he's not working, and we hopped the bus up to Rockridge to pick up a book at the Rockridge branch of the Oakland Public Library. We had dinner at a new little Pakistani place on College Ave ( Currylicious — not bad, and reasonably priced), then headed over to Oakland Tech, where we'd intended to go to the Friday performance...

- Table of Contents NEWSFLASH Bay Area headlines for Dec. 12, 200- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: "San Jose murders mirror Hanson carnage" SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER: "SF, SJ task-force to deal with holiday slayings" SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS: "SJPD - No comment on wild animal rumors " OAKLAND TRIBUNE: "Oakland homicide count sets record 3rd year straight" Really Real Bulletin: "Murderplums...

This is the first in a series of short-stories, the idea for which grabbed me several weeks ago after first learning about Krampus, Santa's alpine dark shadow . Comments and feedback are always welcome. These stories (as a whole cycle) involve violence, some sexuality, and fairy-tale subjects on the darker side of the "Bruno Bettelheim" scale, the ones where bad & lazy servants gets tarred and feathered...

If you're not already with them, get a registration with the New York Times . Then, note the author of this Op-Ed piece . Read the piece. Go back and goggle at who wrote it. Then, tell me what you think of the idea. I've only skimmed it. I'll give it a close read in the next hour or so. Also, I was stymied by a slow net connection for the last couple days; I still have research to do regarding...

January first, early in the morning, someone in an Oakland BART station was shot in the back by a BART Police officer while they were (apparently) already submitting and lying face down on the floor. Details are still sketchy and investigations are ongoing, but people are riled up. So much so that yesterday, several thousand people formed a mob outside that station in the middle of the afternoon...