One Word Ticket Stub -- On Friday night, I accompanied Nat to his second viewing (in the same theater, after eating dinner at the same restaurant while the Red Sox were again playing the Yankees) of the ludicrously awesome Brit-cop comedy HOT FUZZ. Making up for our foolish failure to see Shaun of the Dead on the big screen, we were pleasantly doubled over at the nonstop onslaught of quippery, explosions, and homages to American action classics. The entire A+ experience can be summed up thusly: "SWAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

"If the facts weren’t so horrible, there might be something touching in the Governor’s deeply American belief that “healing” can take place magically, without the intervening practice called “treating.”" -- Following my policy of only posting once about enormous and/or tragic news events, here's Adam Gopnik's bitter commentary from The New Yorker, addressing the outrageously persistent American question, Whither gun control?

The cleverness and geekery, it burns! -- Only three months to go until Pottermania kicks off this July, so until then feast your eyes on this customized HP-themed chess set. Yes, that's Snape as the Black Knight. LEGO wizard Miss Mary Potter has more fun at her Flickr page. Accio awesomeness!

Cheesus Saves! -- Nice, dry, snappy NYT piece on the latest internet fadsite, Cheddarvision: "Seeing the film is a poignant reminder of the ravages of time, similar in effect to watching, say, all the movies of Robert Redford or Nick Nolte in quick chronological succession." Ouch.

It's a rainy Patriot's Day here -- the reenacted battle o' Lexington & Concord has been cancelled, yet the marathoners run on. While the schoolchildren and office workers and academics of Boston lounge around at home in their pajamas....grrrrr.....I sit in my cube and contemplate...a nice long meme:

1.What are your initials? I was EKD, now I go with just EW.
2. What is your favorite thing to wear? Black yoga pants...is that so wrong?
3. Last thing you ate? Breakfast: honey puffed rice cereal and a banana
4. Nastiest thing you've ever eaten? I bit into a moldy grape tomato recently...hurk.
5. I say 'Shotgun,' you say? Knock yourself out.
6. Last person you hugged? The Hubster!
7. How many U.S states have you been to? 32. Wow!
8. What state did you dislike the most? I don't think I'd ever move to Connecticut.
9. How many of the U.S states have you lived in? For more than a couple weeks, 4.
10. Does anyone you know wanna date you? Let's hope it's just my husband. :)
11. Name something you like physically about yourself. Being tall, it rocks.
12. What is your favorite romance movie? The English Patient -- "I hope you're watching the clothes, Elaine..."
13. Who is your best friend? I always hated this notion. I'll say, myself.
14. Why are you still up? It's not naptime at the office yet.
15. Who/What made you angry today? My ineffectual umbrella and raincoat.
16. Favorite type of Food? I could eat Thai or Korean food anytime, or a good dumpling of any origin.
17. Favorite holidays? I love Halloween. I just wish we had more than 6 holiday days a year at work!
18. Do you download music? Indeed -- I bought a Decemberists compilation from iTunes, and my frail elderly mind could barely keep up with the speed and the variety, oh my!
19. Do you care if your socks are dirty? Not as much as, say, my shirt. I tend to ignore my feet.
20. What age did you start noticing the opposite sex? I'd say around 4th grade. In 1st and 2nd my best buddy was a kid named Donald, and neither of us thought it was weird (although our moms and teachers made constant jokes about it, nice). By 4th grade Valentine's Day, though, I had a "secret" crush, and left him a chocolate heart in his desk!
21. Have you ever cheated on a test? Honestly, I don't think so.
22. Has anyone ever sang or played for you personally? Nope...and I always harbored a fantasy that John Cusack would show up in a skinny white blazer and bust out a sax solo...
23. Do you love anyone? Absolutely!
24. Do you like Bush? Oh dear.
25. Have you ever bungee jumped? Nyet.
26. Have you ever gone white-water rafting? I have been canoeing and tubing through Class 1 rapids, which is to say, no.
27. Has anyone ten years older than you ever hit on you? Unfortunately, yes.
28. How much money ya got in ya pocket? US$20.86, AU$0.20.
29. Have you met a real redneck? Hell yeah.
30. How is the weather right now? Ridiculous.
31. What are you listening to right now? "Like A Prayer" is playing very softly in the next cube.
32. What is your current favorite song? I like the latest Shins song.
33. What was the last movie you watched? Shaun of the Dead with commentary = brilliant.
34. Do you wear contacts? Yup.
35. Where was the last place you went besides your house? To the fabric store! Also Whole Foods, and on a driveby of some houses for sale in Lowell, MA.
36. What are you afraid of? Getting into a car accident.
37. How many piercings have you had? A dull set of 4 on the earlobes.
38. How many pets do you have? One large and awesome cat, MAX.
39. What's one thing you've learned? Don't waste time feeling insecure or self-conscious -- people are far more self-absorbed than you think.
40. What do you usually order from Starbucks? A TAZO tea -- I am not a coffee person.
41. What's your favorite book? Please. I am on a P.D. James kick lately, and just started this, so far so good.
42. Have you ever fired a gun? Nope.
43. Are you missing someone? In a way.
44. Favorite TV show? Now that Extras is over, I am back to The Office. Gervais hardcore!!
45. Do you have an iPod? No, despite their sometime siren call.
46. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celeb? Yes, the "celeb" herself.
47. If you had a daughter, what would you name her? I like Margaret, Caroline, or...Clementine! Or maybe Daisy?
48. Who would you like to see right now? How about Eric Bana with a glass of wine and a folding massage table? ;P
49. Favorite movie of all time? I could watch Raiders of the Lost Ark repeatedly, ad infinitum.
50. Do you find yourself loved? Yes!
51. Have you ever been caught doing something you weren't supposed to? Oh my, yes.
52. Favorite flower? I like hydrangeas, the really dark blue ones.
53. Butter, plain, or salted popcorn? Mmmmm, melted Olivio + paprika + salt.
54. What magazines are you reading? God help me, Rachael Ray!
55. Have you ever ridden in a limo? A couple times, for funerals. On my wedding day, I rode in my own car, my dad's Element, and a rented white Pontiac Grand Prix, sweet!
56. Has anyone you were really close to passed away recently? Not recently, no.
57. Have you ever been on stage? Indeed! I made my debut as Gretl Von Trapp in the 1979 production of The Sound of Music at St. Patrick High School.
58. What's something that really bugs you? Traffic jams -- I get unreasonably huffy about the wasted time. Yes, I am a control freak!
59. Do you prefer scary movies or comedies? I guess overall comedies, although I like both to be smart.
60. Do you like Michael Jackson? He puzzles me. The hits hold up, though.
61. What's your favorite smell? Sourdough, woodsmoke, lavender, the spring wind, and onions cooking in chicken fat. Seriously.
62. Favorite baseball team? Whither Varitek goest...
63. Favorite cereal? Mixed Berry Cheerios...boring!
64. Have you ever milked a cow? Nope, not even at the MN State Fair!
65. What's the longest time you've gone without sleep? I think only about 20 hours, I become insensible quick.
66. Last time you went bowling? Too long ago! Though my all-time high score is like 60.
67. Where is the weirdest place you have slept? I used to fall asleep floating on a big raft in the pool, does that count?
68. Have you ever cut your own hair? NO.
69. Last time you were at work? Uh...moments ago?
70. What is the closest orange object to you? A Crayola marker and a Post-It.

"The fire would have been just under your buttocks." -- That's not what you want to hear from your toilet manufacturer's customer service rep.

Maryland rejects the Electoral College -- and Mass. might be next. State legislatures are taking up bills to end-run around the E.C. by giving the states electoral votes automatically to the winner of the national popular vote. Innnnteresting....

"Conservative credentials rose, while prior experience in civil rights law and the average ranking of the law school attended by the applicant dropped." -- Just substitute "government" for "civil rights law" and cross out the word "law" from "law school," and you've described President "C Average" and his whole cadre of monumentally mediocre flunkies. This Globe article on the politicization of the Justice Dept. -- that is, how the doors were flung wide by the Bushies to conservadrones from the nation's weakest law school, the one where they talk about "sin" in ConLaw class -- makes the J.D. in me burn with irritation. It's Delay and Abramoff and Brownie all over again -- all this administration cares about is loyalty, not competence. Nobody's driving the bus, folks.

UPDATE: Bill Maher provides the zinger of the year with his take on this whole mess -- "It's not just that this president has surrounded himself with a Texas echo chamber of war criminals and religious fanatics. It's that they're sooooo mediocre. This is America. We should be getting robbed and fucked over by the best." Hear hear!

"And to them I say, nobody can eat fifty Creme Eggs." -- Ugh, one is enough for me, and frozen, please. Check out this cautionary tale from Salon, and have an eggy Easter weekend...

It's a lovely April day, raw, grey, 40 degrees, with sleet in the forecast -- so while you're hunched over your mug of tea, check out the underwater photgraphy of David Doubilet. Feeling the sand on your toes yet?

For a chiffon-wisp of a movie, we have a whisper of a TicketStub:

* Blades of Glory -- Rounding out Will Ferrell's Anchorman/Talladega "trilogy of humbled arrogance" is this gentler, sillier comedy on ice. Without the raunch factor of the first two, this movie made us feel a little old for it, which was enhanced by the 95% teenage audience. But come on, two dudes in sequined Lycra? Comedy gold! Cleverer than it deserved to be, yet deftly skirting homophobia in favor of timeless nut gags, it's an 85-minute prescription for the end of a long workweek. Then again, I'd pay to watch Will Ferrell reading the phone book. (B)

"And it's why they can't stand McCain even though his views are actually more doctrinally 'conservative' than Giuliani's -- because McCain doesn't seem to hate liberals viscerally enough and seems to believe in some (very minimal) limits and restraints on what the Leader can do." -- Read Glenn Greenwald's essay on Rudy Giuliani's recent musings on Presidential authority, and then ask me why I'd rather have Mitt Romney in the Oval Office any day. This one's for you, Michelle! :)