Yes I added a Link to Harnn & Thann

I know, there is a link at the top left for Harnn and Thann. Lynn, Ed and I bought some of their stuff in Thailand and I loved it. I finally found it online from Canada (I think they have the rights to the US as well).

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Well, if you ever want some great bath stuff or fragrance stuff, this is the place. And, of course, I get a little kickback too.

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Don't worry I will remove the tag in a few days.

Niece Mejkin

Get 'em early, that's what I say.

I Don't Trust Any Marriage Therapist That Says....

this...

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I love the line in "Notting Hill" where Julia Roberts' character, a famous American movie star, says to the man she's fallen in love with, a man who is overwhelmed by her fame, "I'm just a girl asking a boy to love me."

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(The paragraph from a Salon Article trashing The Marriage Ref, but how good of a therapist are you if you "love" that line. It is faux deep and really as annoying as "You had me at Hello." and "Is it raining? I hadn't noticed."

Department of Jihad? Really?

Turns out Liz Cheney, the straight daughter of Dick, is a lying bitch.

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She was one of the founders behind a new ad that accuses the attorneys that represent some of the Gitmo detainees as members of the Department of Jihad.

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Here is some background: Last week, Keep America Safe, the pro-torture advocacy group that Cheney co-chairs with Bill Kristol, ran a web ad that labeled seven DOJ lawyers who had previously represented detainees at Gitmo -- or simply filed amicus briefs in their cases -- "the Al Qaeda Seven."

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Wow! Many of these same attorneys are military. Some of the people they represent are innocent and found so.

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But forget this particular offensive ad. Think of the underlying premise. If representing an "accused" terrorist makes you a member of Al Qaeda, then follow the logic. Representing an accused burglar means you're a thief, representing an accused murder means you are a killer, representing a party in a divorce means that you are an adulterer bent on destroying our marriage.

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She is evil for linking an American ideal - Innocent Until Proven Guilty - to terrorism.

Scooter Got a Job

I start Monday. Yay!
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It is the job I interviewed for, and I am really happy. It is a smaller Marketing firm working to provide outsourced Marketing Services.

What a Night! John Kander Tribute

Last night was amazing. We went to a Tribute Concert (for the Vineyard Theater) to John Kander (of Kander and Ebb). The line below was at the finale.

Okay, so... starting from the right, this is who they are and what they sang.
David Hyde Pierce (EmCee and sang Ten Percent from Chicago)
Joel Grey (Wilkomme from Caberet!)
Liza Minnielli (The World Goes Round from New York, New York)
John Kander
Chita Rivera (All That Jazz)
Debra Monk (Everybody's Girl (note: we saw her in Curtains with David Hyde Pierce)
Karen Ziemba (New York, New York (also saw her in Curtains)
Julia Mureny (The Money Tree)
Heidi Blickenstaff (Maybe This Time)
Jason Danieley (I Miss the Music)
Mario Cantone (Chief, Cook and Bottle Washer)
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Miss Liza from our seats. The World Goes Round is my favorite number to see her sing live. It was wonderful.
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Liza, whose costume broke, so she came out in a mink, leg warmers and uggs. She pulled off the Mink and was wearing some awful pullover - and she made fun of herself and sang.

Scooter Loves Airburshing

Nice

So I learned how to ski...

This week-end, Eddie and I went up to Aldona an Joe's Condo in Killington (Vermont).

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I took lessons 1 day and then Eddie helped me that afternoon. It was a lot of fun.

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I got off the Bunny Slope to some other places (Killington has a lot of wide runs for newbies).

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I liked it - go figure.

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ps - man am I sore.

Why Lisa Should Like Bobsledding

US Bobsledding Team.

My Official Review is Held for a While

My official review is held for a while becaue the show is still in previews....
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But... if you are in New York, spend the $25 and get your ass to the Access Theater now! Glee Club was one of the funniest shows I have ever seen. It is a "guy show". If you ever had a passive / aggressive gym teacher and/or the only thing that made you feel less terrible is school was someone more pathetic than you - then this show will make you laugh till you get a hernia.
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If, on the other hand, this did not happen to you - then you will just laugh your ass off.
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HE - LAIR - E - OUS
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see it!

Dirty Martini at Michael Musto's Party

A friend posted pictures of Michael Muston's Party on Facebook and there was one of Dirty Martini. .

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This was the stripper, Dirty Martini, I watched "The Jackie Look" with and we had a blast. She is fun!

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Here is that post from last month in case you missed it.

Humm... Apparently History is a Guide - Not Definative, but a Guide

I have,occasionally, believed that history can be an interesting guide to the future. Particularly after the fall of the Soviet Union, I reread some of my old history books. I have a reasonable collection of political books about the 20s and 30s in Europe - written in the 1920s and 1930s. In these I found that "current thinking" of the time was way off the mark - often lead astray by hopeful pronouncements about the "Great War" and how it portended the end of armed conflict.
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But that is really not the point, except to say that "in the moment" people see what they expect and hope.
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Which leads me to this month's article in Foreign Affairs by Niall Ferguson. (FYI - Niall is a professor of History at Harvard and a Professor at Harvard Business School as well (site and bio)).
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The thrust of his article is that maybe our current fascination with the long slow decline of nation states (in particular the US) is wrong. Although Collapse (a GREAT Book), Rise and Fall of Great Powers (a good book) and Clash of Civilizations (an interesting book) speak about the long rise and fall of major powers, they tend to borrow from The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire the idea that a major power fails slowly. Prof. Ferguson argues that there is a lot of evidence that Major Powers, sitting atop a complex infrastructure of military / economic / social powers are more susceptible to sudden collapses.
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His idea is that this infrastructure can cushion many shocks, but in some cases will amplify the exterior influence.
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He uses not only the example of the Soviet Union (the obvious example), but relooks at the actual decline of Rome, the British Empire and China as well. And, of course, extrapolates to the current US position. He doesn't presume we must fail - nor does he project if a decline would be relatively benign (as in the case of the British Empire) or nearly fatal (as in the case of the Soviet Union). But it is an interesting argument.And scary - but that is normal, fear sells magazines.
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What to me is truly interesting is that The Next 100 Years (a current bestseller by George Friedman) looks at this same data and sees exactly the opposite result (an ascendant US through 2100).
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I think history is a guide, but only in retrospect. Which means it isn't a guide at all. It has been a very Vonnegut day.
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As for the picture - if is one in a series (by American Thomas Cole) of the life cycle of an empire.

Ed's Credit

For those of you who wanted to see Ed's Credit - it wasn't on until after the "After Party Show". Here it is.
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(Click to expand)

THE SCOOTER ENDING

Of course I can't blame you if you went to bed early and didn't see the end of the Olympics. I stated up looking for Ed's credit (which I will post soon).
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But if you happened to stay up you saw...
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... you saw... Magic!
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It was if they did a normal closing, then the Olympic guy Jacques Whatever, spoke in 2 of his 5 languages (show-off) and then they turned of over the show to me. And let me design the largest, tackiest good-bye ever!

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The scene at the top, a faux table top hockey game.
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Blow Up Mounties and Maple Leaf Dancers!

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Inflatable Flying Moose! (Those are giant blow up Beavers being rolled around the grounds.
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And to top it all off, Michael Bobbalaa....

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Wonderful.

Killer Soup from Kroger

Lions & Tigers & Onion Soup, oh my!

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In a disturbing turn of events Kroger has issued a recall of 2 Onion Soup & Dip Mixes in many states (full recall data here).

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Quoting from MSNBC we get these details.

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The grocer said an ingredient in its Kroger Onion Soup & Dip Mix and Kroger Beefy Onion Soup & Dip Mix may have been contaminated with the bacteria.

No illnesses have been reported in connection with the products. But eating food contaminated with salmonella can cause salmonellosis, a potentially life-threatening bacterial foodborne illness.

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I have essentially 2 problems with this.

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1) Deadly Soup Mix? Really?

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2) Who makes Beefy Onion Dip? Beefy Onion Soup - sure, but BEEFY Onion Dip. No. That is wrong with or without Salmonella.

Mascot of the Month: Bill Demong (Nordic Combined)

Okay, until this Olympics, I never paid attention to a lot of events that I didn't understand. But sitting in the hotel in Vancouver, where they covered everything, I got into Nordic Combined.
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The first one I watched we got a Silver, but this is Bill Demong who won our first Gold in Nordic Combined.
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And no, I am not impressed only by Gold, but he is cuter than the guy that got Silver ;-).
Bill Demong.
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This is the first 1/2 of the Nordic Combined. You ski jump - and based on your jump, they set your start placement for the Cross Country.
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This is Billy after he won the Cross Country portion and the Gold Medal.
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What the hell is this, you ask? This is Billy Demong working to strengthen his core muscles.
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Oookayyyy....
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With the medal.

My Honey's Team in Vancouver

Isn't this cute! This is his finance team in Vancouer (so mainly the Olympic finance team).

GREAT Article about WorldVision in NY Times...

As most of you know, I support a child through World Vision. It is a Christian organization, but does not require "evangelicalizing" while doing their work supporting children around the world (in fact - in countries where this is against the culture - like Muslim countries- they specifically prohibit evangilizing).

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The NY Times Editorial section has an article by Bill Kristof that is a little too mean to liberals - but brings up some great points.

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Including that WorldVision is now the biggest international organization helping children worldwide with over 40,000 staff members in 100 countries. Without WorldVision to coordinate support much of our aid would fail to reach their targets (in places like Haiti).

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I include here his last points - again an easy shot at liberals (man, I hate they way people throw that word around) but still worth thinking about.

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Some liberals are pushing to end the longtime practice (it’s a myth that this started with President George W. Bush) of channeling American aid through faith-based organizations. That change would be a catastrophe. In Haiti, more than half of food distributions go through religious groups like World Vision that have indispensible networks on the ground. We mustn’t make Haitians the casualties in our cultural wars.
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A root problem is a liberal snobbishness toward faith-based organizations. Those doing the sneering typically give away far less money than evangelicals. They’re also less likely to spend vacations volunteering at, say, a school or a clinic in Rwanda.

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If secular liberals can give up some of their snootiness, and if evangelicals can retire some of their sanctimony, then we all might succeed together in making greater progress against common enemies of humanity, like illiteracy, human trafficking and maternal mortality.

Saw "The Pride" Tonight with 2 very good...

This is the cast of The Pride, a new show I saw tonight. The two guys on the far left are Ben Whishaw and Hugh Dancy. They are very "up and coming" Brits. I included a picture of Hugh from "Adam" because you might remember him.

They were all very good and I liked the show a lot.

This is Hugh Dancy from the movie Adam. He played the guy that loved stars and didn't understand emotion. I didn't see it, the trailer look a little too cute for its own good.

This a photo of Ben Whishaw that looks more like he did in the play than the picture up top. He was fantastic in the show. It was set between 1958 and 2008 and traced the relationships of 2 men in parallel, but very different times. It was really good and quite interesting.

Whaa WAHH (Spoke 2 Soon: Updated)

UCLA Loses to Oregon 68-70 to complete the season at 13 - 15.

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(Queue Debbie Downer sound effects)

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Turns out only our home season is done. We still have to travel to Arizona and Arizona State to finish out the regular season.