I'm looking good, tonight

My big sisters got together and bought me a new hat for my birthday. It's a Stetson Temple Fedora, the equivalent style and color as my last one (the styles and pallet of Stetson have changed some over the years, so it isn't exactly the same). It arrived in the mail today. Looking snazzy and needing to take it out for a test ride, I walked up to the store and bought a some Q-tips, an job interview shirt, and a battery for my watch. I'm ready for anything. Except snake attacks (note to self: stock up on forked sticks).

And, I don't want to hear any cracks about Fedoras. This is my seventh one. I've been wearing Fedoras since before most hipsters were born or imagined.

Our long national nightmare is over

The final Glenn Beck Show just aired. Of course he still has his radio show and the Glenn Beck Shopping Network (or what ever it's called), but neither of them gives him as big of a stage as Fox News did. Anyone want to place bets on how long it is before he declares himself a prophet and becomes a full time televangelist.

History begins right now

In journalism, it's important to say something quickly, even if what you have to say is stupid. On CNN.com just now:

The decision, issued by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco, is an initial step in what will likely be a lengthy legal fight over California's Proposition 8, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Um, I think the lengthy legal fight began some time ago.

I was wrong... about bacon

For months, I've been warning anyone who will listen that we've reached peak bacon; the bacon bubble is about to burst. If you want to keep your hipness cred with the kids, it's time to get out of bacon find the next big thing. And zombies or sulky, sexy vampires are not it; they've also peaked.

I'm still right about zombies and vampires, but it looks like I was wrong about bacon. Bacon still has a few tricks up its tasty, tantalizing sleeve.

Technology has given us a lot lately. The car. TV. X-rays. The refrigerator. The Internet. Heck, we even cured polio. But what have our envelopes tasted like for the last 4,000 years? Armpit, that's what.

Really, people? If we can't overcome this kind of minor technical challenge, it's only a matter of time until some super-advanced race of aliens with lasers, spaceships and a delicious federal mail system comes down and colonizes the world. And nobody wants that (except for the aliens, of course).

So, after thousands of years and kajillions of horrible tasting envelopes licked, we're happy to report that J&D's Bacon-Flavored Mmmvelopes™ are here to save the day. No longer will envelopes taste like the underside of your car. You can enjoy the taste of delicious bacon instead.

That's right, bacon. It's not real bacon, mind you, so you won't have to start storing your envelopes in the refrigerator. But it really does taste like bacon. Which is what you really wanted in the first place, isn't it? And it only took us 4,000 years to get there. Eat that, alien invaders.

Bacon - not dead yet (source)

Arlen Specter is a Democrat

I'm surprised this didn't happen earlier. Republicans have been threatening to punish caucus members who break Party discipline for years. Everyone is pointing out that once Franken gets seated the Democrats will have a supermajority. It's really only a theoretical supermajority; you never know when Lieberman or one of the bluedogs will go the other way. Still, even a theoretical supermajority might be enough to make the Senate Republicans start negotiating in good faith. Nothing could make the the House Republicans do that, but the Senate Republicans are less insane (except Jim Inhofe). In the short run, I predict exploding heads on Fox News and a redoubled effort to keep Franken from taking his seat.

Heads a poppin'

That happy sound you hear is the explosion of conservative heads as they check out the news and discover that Paul Krugman just won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, better known as the Nobel Prize for Economics. If any of them were in doubt that the Nobel prizes were a liberal, old Europe, anti-American conspiracy, this should lay those doubts to rest. I expect them to be calling for airstrikes on Stockholm any minute now.

Free at last

Orac just made the final payment on his student loans from medical school. He has asked for others to share their stories of loan repayment. The numbers mentioned by some of the medical students are truly amazing. But medical students aren't the only ones to finish school in debt servitude. My degrees were in History. Although my debt was much smaller than those of a medical student, my earning potential was also an order of magnitude smaller. I finished paying off my loans a few days before my 49th birthday.

Whether or not you have a story to share, you should go congratulate Orac.