My broadband connection not working properly tonight: first there was no connection at all, now it's there but functioning at old fashioned dial-up speed, with most websites inaccessible apart from MF

v

lunch and dinner today is going to be sub-standard "Roast turkey with all the festive trimming"

The phrase "Straw man argument". Is this very popular in the East Coast of the USA or am I just imagining it?

I quite like that phrase when it's used by someone who knows what it is.

Damn you and your ad hominem attacks or is this a non sequitar? Looks like I am in danger of reductio ad absurdum due to my argumentum ad ignorantiam based on my limited knowledge of Logical Fallacies. Potentially this is a Hasty Generalisation and maybe I should Appeal to Authority befores this becomes a Circular Argument or worse I break into False Analogys.

The wife eating lunch at Jean-George while I'm slaving over a hot MRI scanner.

Not that I was because the bloody subject didn't turn up so I could have gone.

But, then again, she didn't enjoy it very much.

Got frost bite on my fingers while trying to refill windshield washer fluid in Barre, Vermont during 15 degree and snow. Didn't want to ruin beautiful italian suede gloves. So it took twice as long.

Probably ruined wearing snazzy interview suit and snazzy Coach flats in gas station snow muck.

Oh yeah, and exams.

Mortality.

There are truly few things as grim as a bad turkey dinner. (One word: Bisto.)

Multi-Turkey, God what a nightmare. I really don't like turkey (I'm sure that there is a turkey for me, but I haven't had it yet), except with Mlinci* and in this case you could just eat the mlinci and toss out the turkey.

*Mlinci are a southern slavic baked pasta. Freshly made pasta are baken in an oven until brown and blistered, they are then cooled and broken into shards. The shards are covered with hot salted water until softened. Some non-Balic slavs just cover them in butter/pan juices, but my family places them in the baking dish with the turkey/goose for the last 20-30 minutes of cooking.

I love Mlinchi.

I'm in the camp of there's no such thing as good turkey, even those free-range bronze doodads. Perhaps a wild one might be OK in a completely different way?

v

Ungrateful coworker dissed the brownies I made for the dba party tonight.

OTOH, after enough beers everyone will gobble them up anyway.

Turkey does not have to be dry. You brine it for 24 hours and smoke it. Tastes moist and good in small doses.

had it brined- was not overly impressed. But I have not tried it smoked. next time you make it I'm happy to be your taster.

Devil come knocking this morning. “Trade ya?” he says.

Turkey is "Midnight Express" for the mouth.

Speaking of turkeys.... Most annoying celebs. http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2004580...4581542,00.html

Have just had a departmental Health and Safety meeting.

4.30pm, dark, blowing a gale, horizontal rain. And I'm desperate to get out of here before people start arriving for that function that annoys me so much as previously mentioned: fire alarms deactivated, kitchens set up in rooms with no extract, tables blocking fire exits, 17 coachloads of people due - meant to disgorge, de-cloak and be seated at table in 40 minutes flat. A disgrace.

v

I'm willing to be that this particular annoyance will be diminished swiftly by mentioning it here:

I have a client who wants to copyright or trademark the name for their studio/office space complex. I have not the least idea how to go about that.

It's a fairly unique name, and they are spending big money to have signs, web site, business cards, etcetera, created, and don't want someone down the road to come after them and tell them they can't use the name.

She says:

I just learned that she has to trademark it, since it's a word (it's actually a compound of three words, which overlap to form two distinct words, e.g., BedRoomMate).

There is also a design element, but that's not as important as the word.

Thanks.

Being sent to work in Paris for the week before Christmas (trust me, it aint glamorous) and having a return ticket for Christmas Eve. Er, like this is NOT the busiest train of the season - even in 1st class.

French for Brussell Sprouts anyone?

Not bad for Xmas shopping tho'. Choux de Bruxelles.

v

Went shopping yesterday afternoon and bought, among other things, a new pair of pants that I thought would be nice to wear to a party I'm going to tonight.

Put the bag down just inside the back door, in the same spot where the kids put their packed bags when leaving to go to their Mom's for the weekend.

Short story: the bag got loaded into the car with the kids' things and was dutifully transferred to their Mother's car along with their bags.

My new pants are now 150 miles away for the weekend.

Infuckingsomnia.

And the great horned owl who lives by our house.

Add the bloody screeching red-tailed hawk to the list of endangered species on my street.

What are you, some kind of misornithologist? Thanks.

GBK garlic mayonnaise. How fortunate most around here are semi-insensible from an Xmas lunch

v

Very good friends own a shop that sells home furnishings, accessories, etc. They are crazy busy this time of year and from time to time I pitch in and work in the store. Was doing so yesterday when a very feeble man in his eighties using a wheeled walker came into the store with an extremely young (I'd say late teens)woman who was some sort of aide. She entered the store chattering on her phone, left the man helplessly stranded in the doorway (the shop is small and cluttered and he could not negotiate the space with his walker), barked his name a couple of times without ever turning around, made a purchase for him. Still prattling inanely into her phone, this dodo finally realized that the man could not come further into the store . She went back to him to get his credit card and pushed the walker out of her way and away from the man. If my friend had not offered the man his arm he would have fallen over. They exited, she pulling the walker much too fast and still talking on the phone. It was appalling, and several people in the shop commented on it. If there is any justice she will live to be very old and helpless and be taken care of by someone who treats her like a piece of fucking furniture.

Walking down the street, lugging a bag of dry cleaning, it is nine degrees, my foot is throbbing with temperature-drop arthritis, my nose is running, I have a cough, and a bitter wind is blowing about my ears. Somewhere, someone is singing "It's the most wonderful time of the year."

Personally, I think July is not too shabby.

I hab a cold.

This stuff seems to work. At least it did for me. placebo? maybe.

No shortage:

• Stuck at work, bugger all to do
• Tube ticket barriers that enact a pincer movement just before I finish passing thro. Why?
• People that play bleepy games on their mobile phones on public transport
• Fellow worker who coughs and splutters constantly as he goes in and out of his office next to my workspace. He's now compounding this by loud burping.
• Icky wet weather
• No company on this board apart from bogglebot and a bunch of guests

v

Had Christmas work function. Drunken person tells me that no that I have lost weight I look androgynous. Spent the rest of the evening making any women that would listen to me say that I was in fact "hot" and not the least bit androgynous. Stupid alcohol.