christopher hitchens

I love him so much. I really do. I disagree with him on issues of faith, but I respect the hell out of him. His thought processes. His writing. His honesty here.

Plus, to be the giggly school girl for a second, I just love the sound of his voice. It leaves me a little twitterpated. I could listen to him for hours.

A really great interview. (Despite the distraction of Anderson Cooper’s shiny smoothness.)

“I have now succumbed to something so predictable and banal that it bores even me. Rage would be beside the point for the same reason.”

You have to respect his power of thought. You just have to.

I wish him all the best. I don’t want him to go.

snippets

“You’re accusing me of all kinds of MADNESS!!”

“I know who I’m talking to!!”

*****

“‘Low flow toilets for your low flow life.’ That could be the ad. Stupid things.”

*****

“You know, I don’t wanna feel like I need to give my toilet the Heimlich maneuver.”

*****

“Instead of beeping out profanity in songs, the singer could just do a raspberry himself. That would be so much more fun.”

“So you think Eminem’s songs should just go “pfffft pfffftypffft pfffffft pffft pfffypfft “?

“Yes.”

*****
Calling the birthday boy’s cellphone:

“Hello?”

pause …. laughter in the background ….

“Hello.”

“What’s with the weird pause?”

“Well, I thought you were gonna talk in a weird Swedish voice or something, Aunt Tracey.”

“WHAT??? That is SO insane.”

“I KNOW. I can’t believe I thought that.”

“Me either. Weirdo.”

******

“So about these chicks who follow you around at school …”

“Yeah?”

“Do you need a bodyguard or something?”

“Hm. I’ll let you know, Tee Tee.”

“No! Not me! Uncle Beloved.”

“Oh.”

“I’d be no good.”

“True.”

“I’m little.”

“Yeah.”

“And weak.”

“That too.”

“Plus, all I’d be doing is saying, ‘Ooooh, come over here, girls. Isn’t he SO cute?? He’s just SO CUTE!! Don’t you want to date him??'”

laughing …

“Yeah. Kinda the opposite of a bodyguard, Tee Tee.”

“Exactly. So you really have no interest in that?”

“No.”

“I’m hurt.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Hm. ‘Member when you used to love me?”

“I still love you, Tee Tee.”

“Okay. I love you too. Sorry you’re old now.”

“Thanks.”

how i love them

house346.jpg
House and Wilson from House.

How I love this photo. One frame, completely summing up the relationship between House (Hugh Laurie) and Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard). The thousand-mile stare on RSL’s face kills me. And while I adore — ADORE — Hugh Laurie in all things and his greatness as House virtually goes without saying, I think I have an Ode to Wilson in me that needs to be written. Or rather, an Ode to Robert Sean Leonard.

Because House? He’d be squat without Wilson.

Squat, I tell you.

Robert Sean Leonard is brilliant on the show — equally as brilliant as Hugh Laurie — but more subtle, which is why he probably doesn’t get the attention he deserves for his work in this role.

Ack, I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. I gotta write that ode.

baby banshee wants to know

We went up to my brother’s again the week after The Banshee and I completed this groundbreaking work of art.

As we arrived, with greeting and hugs all around, Baby Banshee — all of 2 1/2 — stood off to the side, silently watching me with wide eyes. She was smiling, but she was quiet, a little more shy than usual. She looked at my feet. Then at my face. At my feet, at my face. Then she seemed to reach some moment of inner resolve because she suddenly marched up to me, pointed at my feet, and demanded, “Tee Tee, do you still have that face on your foot?”

Ohhh. I get it now.

I am equal parts thrilled and horrified at the thought that Tee Tee might still have a picture on her foot. I don’t know what to do. I want to know, but, on the other hand, I don’t want to know. I am torn. If I ask, then I’ll know and that might be bad. If I don’t ask, then I won’t know and that might be worse. Do I ask? Do I not ask? Ask? Not ask? Okay. I can’t stand it. I NEED to know.

“Oh! Sweetie, no, not anymore. It washed off in the shower.”

“Reawwy?” Her face fell a bit.

“Yeah. But you know what? It did take a couple of days for it to fade all the way.”

“Reawwy?” She brightened.

“Yep. Really.”

She just smiled her quiet little smile and toddled off to find a game for us to play.

banshees’ song

The final line of my singing birthday phone call from The Banshees on Saturday:

“CHA CHA CHA, OOH, LA LA, PEPPERONI PIZZA SAUCE!!!”

I don’t know how pepperoni pizza sauce fit into things, but I was cracking up at their shrieking little voices. They emphatically wanted me to have a good birthday and for pepperoni pizza sauce to be involved or at least mentioned in some way. It was like they were giving their ecstatic Oscar acceptance speeches and could not could not could NOT neglect to mention pepperoni pizza sauce before the orchestra swelled and drowned them out.

And, you know, I really do think it was the sauce that made it a good day.

Not necessarily the kind they were talking about, but still.

fun brain games

I just found this new site. Sign up for a free account to access the brain games. S’fun! S’addicting!

Click on “games” and then pick the kind of game you’d like to play. I’m currently slitting my wrists over the Face Memory Workout. Seems like it will be easy and then you need to kill yourself.

So have FUN slitting your wrists with me, pippa!

stupid stuff people say

So my BIL has this website up for family and friends to update people on his cancer situation. People can comment and they do. Most say wonderful, warm, smushy things.

Others say totally retarded things like this:

just hang in there and things will get better as they always do,sometime we hit a few bumps in the road but it will be a happy ending

Uhm, distant cousin dude whom my BIL has never met? Yeah. Shut up. He has stage III oral cancer. It’s no bueno. Things ALWAYS get better? I want to live in your world, peaches. In my world, aka reality, they don’t always get getter. Seriously, shut up, Slappy.

Or this, from a close relative — not on MY side of the family. We’re a little more articulate than this:

This is your redneck voice saying tubes in my nose HURT!! I’ve beat up on people that tried to hurt me HALF that bad, and yet you’re gonna hafta PAY them to do you that ‘DISCOMFORT!!!’ LIFE AIN’T FAIR!!!

But we knew that.

If I have to muck out stalls in the horse barn for 4 hours, or 2 days, as long as there is an end in sight, I can do it. I can’t stand in horse-poop up to my waist forever, but as long as I know there’s an END IN SIGHT I can do it for 2 measley days!!! And so can you!!!! AND THEN IT’S OVER!!! Same with the feeding tube.

My BIL went through nightmare after nightmare with his feeding tube post surgery. His oral cavity and throat were so inflamed, they couldn’t get a tube down. He had a tumor removed from his tongue, for God’s sake! When they finally did get a tube down, the process was agony. Literal agony. Then it got coiled on the way down, so they pulled it out which was reverse agony. They tried this repeatedly. The poor man was beside himself. He finally decided not to have a tube and didn’t get nutrition for, oh, 5 days. He was being hydrated, but not fed.

How that is like mucking out horse crap in a stall, I do not know. Call me stupid, but I cannot make that analogy work for me.

The other day I told my sister — who is calling me every day with updates anyway — that I wouldn’t be commenting on the update site because I just couldn’t hang with those people.

She said, “Are you talking about the horse crap comment?”

“Well, that, and a few other wanker comments.”

“Yeah. I know. People don’t know what to do.”

“Well, I get that, but don’t equate cancer with horse crap! People HAVE to know not to do that! My God!”

“Hahahaha. You’re all worked up.”

“It’s not HORSE CRAP!”

“Horse crap would be way better.”

“Way better.”

“People are stupid.”

“So stupid.”

“Someone else keeps leaving me links to inspirational music videos.”

“I saw that. Have you watched them?”

“No! I don’t have time for that. Gimme a break.”

“I’ll watch them and re-enact them for you when I see you next.”

“Okay. Good.”

“People are stupid.”

“So stupid.”

Yeah. I’m now on Day Three of “Oh, Lawd in heaven, please keep me from going on that site and opening up a can of whup ass!”

So far, it’s working, but who knows how long my resolve will hold?

As I’ve said here before: I am occasionally somewhat unmoderated in my behavior.

We’ll see.