32 cents

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Some days I walk directly from my apartment to the bus stop. Others, I swing through downtown Seattle to pick up my paycheck or do some shopping before hopping the bus to work. Days when I do that, it’s not uncommon for me to stop by the McDonald’s in the Westlake Center food court and grab some food (or at least the close approximation of food that McDonald’s serves). Double Quarter Pounder with cheese and a small Mr. Pibb — \$4.80. Not a bad under five dollar lunch.

Until today, when the price came to \$5.12. At first I thought the guy at the register had goofed up my order, but nope. A manager came over and said that over the weekend, they’d raised the price of their small drinks. Okay, prices fluctuate from time to time, usually upwards, but a 32 cent jump for a 12oz (if that) soda? Yikes!

Bummer. I liked being able to spend less than \$5 to feed myself on the way to work. Now I’m either going to have to remember to keep change in my pocket, resign myself to paying a bit more, or see what other options I might have for quick, cheap, edible, and portable munchies (many of the other food stands in the mall are equally quick and cheap and more edible, but not as easy to munch “on the go”).

Words, words, words

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I’m so set for reading material for the next few weeks — it’s great!

Prairie just got me started reading an old series from Marion Zimmer Bradley, and I just finished the first book — The Inheritor — this morning. Unfortunately, I won’t have anything else in the series until this weekend.

No worries, though. Amazon just delivered Neil Gaiman’s newest work, Endless Nights, his return to the Sandman series.

And, on top of that, I picked up the latest book from Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver, the first book of a planned trilogy called The Baroque Cycle.

So if my posts are a little less frequent than they sometimes are for a bit…at least you know why. ;)

Male contraceptive on the way?

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With a few more years of testing and study, it appears that may finally be an effective male contraceptive.

Scientists have developed a male contraceptive which was 100% effective and side-effect free in trials.

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The hormonal treatment is a combination of an implant under the skin and injections – meaning men do not have to remember to take a pill every day.

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Researchers from the Anzac Research Institute, Sydney, Australia, gave the treatment to a relatively small sample of 55 men for a year – and none of their partners became pregnant.

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However, it will be some time before the treatment is widely available.

Very cool. Right now it’s a two-part treatment: a under-the-skin implant replaced every four months, and an injection every three months. Maybe with time it’ll be simplified a bit, but no matter what, I think it’s great that there’s at least an encouraging step towards something like this.

Poet Laureate…George Bush?

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Did you know that our President is a poet? Neither did I — thankfully, CNN gives us a taste of his lyrical genius.

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Oh my, lump in the bed
How I’ve missed you.
Roses are redder
Bluer am I
Seeing you kissed by that charming French guy.
The dogs and the cat, they missed you too
Barney’s still mad you dropped him, he ate your shoe
The distance, my dear, has been such a barrier
Next time you want an adventure, just land on a carrier.

(via sTaRe)

Would you buy this shirt?

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I’ve had this bouncing around in my head for a while now, and it makes me laugh. I’ve been considering making it into a shirt to sell through this site — the question is, would anyone buy it?

I'm just here to get laid.

Personally, I can see all sorts of good occasions to wear a shirt like this.

Barhopping with friends.

Wandering around town.

Dean meet-ups.

Weddings.

Funerals.

Church.

Whenever.

Any takers?

Update: Okay, the deed is done. I got two “yes” answers by IM just after putting this post up, so I figured it was worth a shot. If this tickles your funnybone — go shopping and buy a shirt!

Dean 'meat-ups'

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Hmmm — seems like I need to get out of the house and go to some of the local Dean meet-ups at some point. Apparently, they’re the newest hot place to meet singles!

Though Wesley Clark may emerge as the boomer favorite among the Democratic presidential candidates, the hipster choice so far is Howard Dean. It’s not just his rolled-up sleeves or down-home oratory style; over the past three months, his events have developed a reputation as de facto singles mixers for young activists on the make.

Many of the events are set up through Meetup.com, a nonpolitical site that lets users arrange events. Most Dean meet-ups (nicknamed “meat-ups” by some) are in flirt-friendly locales like bars and restaurants. There are so many swinging supporters that they’ve formed a group, Singles for Dean, and the campaign recently launched Deanlink, where users post provocative photos alongside their political interests.

[…]

Straight women, meanwhile, have been spreading the word that Dean guys are passionate and cute. “I want to meet some nice, hunky, liberal-minded boys who aren’t apathetic losers living in their parents’ basements,” says Abigail Gullo, 30, an actress and teacher who has attended two meet-ups and a recent fund-raiser at Avalon. Dean guys, she says, are attractive, if not studly—kind of like the doctor himself. “It’s the dorky-glasses, slightly-thinning-hair-but-I’m-really-not-worried-about-it look. They’re hipsters who have given up the ironic T-shirts and are now in refined primary colors and button-down guayabera shirts. But they’re there! And that immediately puts them leaps and bounds ahead of any guy I’m going to meet on Match.com.”

(via Lane)

Advice for clubbers and bouncers

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Having DJ’d for around eight years in Anchorage, and having been a clubgoer for many years both before and after my DJ years, I’ve worked with and seen a lot of both really good, and really bad people. Ogre, the doorman at the Vogue, is definitely one of the good ones. He’s just put up two posts that I loved.

First off, what he looks for when hiring bouncers (which also explains much of why I’ve found him to be one of the best bouncers I’ve met):

I have some hard and fast criteria for the bouncers I hire. Right off the bat i have the three rules:

  1. Talk some serious shit. I’d rather you never even touch the person you’re throwing out. This requires a quick wit, an even temper, and a good understanding of how to read people. I had one bouncer who could get people to leave by saying “Leave.” and then staring at them and not saying anything, so it’s not just what you say.

    And secondly, some generic advice for clubgoers:

Drunk normal guys looking to score with hot death chicks with no frame of reference:\
You suck and should be bludgeoned to death with a street sign.

Metal guys who think that a fishnet shirt will make them goth: Most of us think you’re an assclown.

Much more on each of those links, of course.

Thank God we have Republicans to keep homophobia alive

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From an (admittedly wonderfully written, if one has the brain cells to read between the lines) article about a Wisconsin pro-Bush/anti-Dean rally:

Tom O’Day, chairman of the Republican Party of Dane County, offered a free copy of former Gov. Tommy Thompson’s book, “Power to the People,” and a button to the person who came up with the cleverest anti-Dean poster. The aroma of markers filled the bus, as the students searched aloud for words that rhyme with “Dean.”

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…back on the bus driving through a cold rain, the students were both energized and weary. A good bit into the trip, O’Day stood and said it was time to choose a winner of the anti-Howard Dean poster contest.

“All in favor of, ‘Dean is a Ween, Don’t Bring it to My Bush’?”

No applause.

“Dean Can’t Measure Up, Four More Years”?

Mild applause.

“Dean’s a Queen, Vote Bush”?

Very mild applause.

“I think the queen’s got it,” O’Day said, delivering the Tommy Thompson book to the young woman in the back of the bus who created the poster. She would not reveal her name.

(via Joe Rospars)

John Dean to Wilson/Plame: Sue

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Salon has a fascinating article by former counsel to President Nixon John W. Dean, who uses some little-known information about the Watergate scandal to advise Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame to file a civil suit in an attempt to break the current scandal wide open.

I thought I had seen political dirty tricks as foul as they could get, but I was wrong. In blowing the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame to take political revenge on her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for telling the truth, Bush’s people have out-Nixoned Nixon’s people. And my former colleagues were not amateurs by any means.

[…]

[Nobody] I knew while working at the Nixon White House had the necessary viciousness, or depravity, to attack the wife of a perceived enemy by employing potentially life-threatening tactics.

So let me share a bit of history with Ambassador Wilson and his wife. And, well aware that gratuitous advice is rightfully suspect, let me also offer them a suggestion — drawn from some pages of Watergate history that till now I’ve only had occasion to discuss privately. Long before Congress became involved and a special prosecutor was appointed, Joe Califano, then general counsel to the Democratic National Committee and later a Cabinet officer, persuaded his Democratic colleagues to file a civil suit against the Nixon reelection committee. And that maneuver almost broke the Watergate coverup wide open. In seeking justice from the closed ranks of the Bush White House, Wilson and Plame should follow a similar strategy.

It’s a very interesting look back at Watergate, and forward to where things could go in the near future.

On a side note — does anyone know of a really good book (or books) about the Watergate scandal? While it wasn’t entirely “before my time”, I was extremely young when it happened, and I’d like to know a bit more about it. Recommendations are very welcome.

(via Mediaburn)

Alaskans for Dean

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While I don’t live up north anymore, I know that about half my readership (mom, dad, Stacy, and Kirsten — yeah, that’s about half) still do. For those of you that might be interested in Dean, if you haven’t found this yet, it appears that there is an Alaskans for Dean Yahoo! group, as well as a Fairbanks for Dean Yahoo! group. Not to mention the Alaska for Dean site, though it’s pretty sparse, unfortunately.

(via Jonathan K-T)