* Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy as a couple may well be the most annoying twosome ever to grace the planet. I imagine that the two of them together suck the oxygen out of any environment they're in.

* My niece Cydney is very sad about Steve Irwin's death, as am I. But as I told her, he lived his life doing what he wanted and was so passionate about, and 44 years of that vs. decades of sitting in an office dreaming of something else...well, I'd take the former anyday. Of course, that didn't stop the vile Bill O'Reilly from saying something like, "well, it's sad, sure, but this is what happens when you try to make wildlife into entertainment." Completely missing the point, as usual, with added unncessary shittiness - you can always depend on Bill!

I'm watching the MTV video awards, and I've been really impressed by the production numbers. They far out-cool all the other awards shows. OK Go did this amazing thing with 4 treadmills that was genius and Panic At The Disco also had an amazing song ("I Write Sins, Not Tragedies") that won best video. But Queen Latifah was just on and I realized that though she's a sizable woman (ie, about 3 repulsive stick-figure Nicole Ritchies), she is GORGEOUS, and you do not hear people ragging on her size or weight. Why? Because she dresses like a woman and plays to her strengths. Whereas whenever you hear about Rosie O'Donnell, there's almost always some comment about how huge she is. She's actually not that huge, but it's because she's dumpy, proud to be dumpy, never strays from dumpy. I think people are much more willing to give different sizes of women a break when they don't try to hide under baggy, dumpy clothes. It's my constant rallying cry about dressing like you give a shit. So here's to the Queen!

I work for myself. I set my own hours and don't have to punch a clock, and noone's supplementing my income (ie a husband). The tradeoff for having a consistent paycheck is very potentially being bored. And what's interesting is that people who have jobs they're bored with will, if you call them on it, become *very* defensive about said job. I had this conversation with a friend recently. She's always saying how she's bored, she wishes she didn't have to work, she wants to just be a bartender or something. and with her income and investments, she could easily actually do that, but she doesn't. She has a *cube* (which to me are just death in an office box), she does the same thing every day and is bored, but makes a lot of $$. She said that her company is always looking to get rid of people, to downsize, so that's always hanging over their heads. She often has to work overtime, and/or eat lunch at her cube (which again, i think is awful). And the whole concept of: if there's extra work to do, you must stay, but if there's downtime and you run out of stuff to do...you still must stay. That seems like such bullshit to me, and why I'm not suited for a 9-5. When i mentioned that I think that's sad, she got very defensive and said she doesn't feel like she's working for "the man", and that everything's rosy, etc. Well, which one is it?? Is everything fabulous, or are you bored?

So...I'm watching "The Office". I get that it's "funny" and clever and well-written and really well-acted. But it's creepy funny, too-close-to-home funny, I-know-people-like-that funny, if-I-had-a-boss-like-that-it'd-take-a-lot-to-keep-me-there funny. And for whatever reason, creepy funny has never appealed to me. Just like "Punk'd" and "Candid Camera" never struck me as funny. Well, in that case, making a fool of someone or duping them has never been funny to me in the least. And for some reason that seems parallel to "The Office" to me. Take some really dopey/jerky characters, supplement them with some normal-but-not-really-interesting characters (Jim seems like the funny/nice/smart guy that can be found in every real-life office, but when he's not a real person but is instead a TV character...he's not that entertaining), and amplify the difference between them.

"a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities"

If you attribute someone's bad behavior only (and not good behavior) to their race or religion, or feel that you need to qualify someone's bad behavior with a racial descriptor, such as "the Jew couple behind me wouldn't shut up" when there's no causal connection between their being Jews and said behavior, you ARE a racist. Own it. And anyone who condones or coddles or keeps their mouth shut in the face of such racism is just as guilty. There are plenty of men who claim to love women who are raging misogynists. One does not have to use words like "kike" or "nigger" to be a racist.

Some people I respect really like Ann Lamott as a writer and I read one of her books a long time ago but it made no impression. I got Bird By Bird recently and am still reading it. I have to say I'm unimpressed. Steven King's book on writing is much better. There's just something about Lamott's style that really irritates me. Consistent use of cliche phrases and unoriginality. So, my mother finished reading Rosie while we were in Greece (she reads really fast) and gave it to me. I just finished it and found it to be horrible, though I did finish it. Treacly, cutesy prose, badly drawn characters who never become more than caricatures. Unlikely outcomes, bad dialogue. All of the characters are unlikeable, even the little girl (Rosie). I am disappointed. I'm missing what's so great about her, because she's not a very good writer. Now if you want to read a truly good writer...

Newsflash: movies that are "so bad they're good" are only that way when the moviemakers don't KNOW that they've made a bad movie (see: "Showgirls"). The creators of "Snakes On A Plane" set OUT to make a bad movie and then market it as a "so bad it's good" movie, but it doesn't fucking work that way. Yet people have bought it. Distressing. Makes me sad there's so many gullible fools out there who will rush to the theatre because they think it will be so "unintentionally" hilarious. No, it's not unintentional, and you just got duped. So if you're going to it thinking, "oh, it's going to be soooo