I’ve been waiting all year to post this link.  Warning: NSFW.  There are a few f-bombs in there, but they are artfully lobbed into our midst.  It’s a song I love to sing to Jana.  Please post your reax below.

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It’s an encore post!  I just found my favorite Dave Matthews song.  Not the best performance, but hey, with YouTube one can’t be too picky.  Anyhow, it’s filled with great lyrics like “Bartender please, fill my glass for me with the wine you gave Jesus that set him free after three days in the ground” […]

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John Edwards will announce his exit from the presidential campaign, according to millions of news sources. I was expecting this.
He’s quitting just days before the Super Mega Totally Awesome Giga Power Tuesday of Destiny, in which almost half of the states will hold Democratic primaries or caucuses. The race between Clinton and Obama […]

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At my in-law’s home, the guest room’s door has a beautiful antique Tibetan brass bell hanging from a silk cord over the doorknob. On the inside. It’s not a bell that tinkles gently like the iron one I have outside to catch the wind. It’s a bell that dongs brashly (brassly?) whenever the door is […]

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Here are three Christmas songs to spread the good cheer:
Science Fiction + Christmas = Goodness:

For those of you who pine for those holiday seasons spiced with sprinkle of fear of nuclear annihilation:

I couldn’t quite bring myself to post Mr. Hanky, the Christmas Poo. Instead, here’s the classic Cartman and cattle prod version of “O Holy […]

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Question: is drinking tea considered effeminate in the U.S.? High tea and tea houses seem to cater to women (especially older women), and when I start talking about tea parties my guy friends start looking nervously towards the exit (not really, because now that I think about it, when I get together with my male friends it is generally over coffee).

It seems like there are different cultural contexts for tea as well. Boba Tea seems to be gender neutral, but race-specific (the shops in the LA area are mostly Taiwanese chains). Can you all think of any others? (Mat�, chai, Zen, etc.?)

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In the cultural ecosystem every one of us is a consumer as well as a producer of knowledge and culture. This is as true of a 3rd millenium BCE Sumerian farmer as a 21st century American graduate student. Both may consume knowledge from (religious/academic) authorities, swap jokes and gossip with peers, and pass professional information on to students/children.

The main difference I see between their positions on the cultural/knowledge food chain is

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“All great truths begin as blasphemies” - George Bernard Shaw

1) Jesus:

Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death.

- Matthew 26:64-66, KJV

2) Joseph Smith was repeatedly accused of blasphemy. The following excerpt is

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As the weather turns colder (yes, even here in LA), I’d like to share one of my favorite kinds of tea: chai. Chai comes from many Indian dialects (according to my dictionary, which I checked before just saying “Hindi”) and simply means “tea”. But in English, it describes the way that tea is traditionally enjoyed in India: mixed with spices and milk.

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Just a recipe recommendation this afternoon folks–but what a recommendation! I whipped this tarragon-spiked Lady Grey Iced Tea as an afterthought for a dinner party last month and got more suprised ooohs and aaahs than anything else I prepared that night. The first trick is to not skimp on the tarragon–use fresh leaves! The second secret is to not tell your guests about the herb. It’s unusual but a great pairing with the other flavors.

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