Do you know the way to Monterey?

If anybody happens to be in that neighborhood, and stops by the candy store next to the Aquarium, and happens to pick up about seventeen pounds of the chewy cubey liquorice caramels, and then they fell into a box headed here, that would not be seen amiss.

Now that's more like it.

Okay, now, *this* is classic wacky Qaddafi.

Gadhafi accused al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden of being behind the uprising in Libya, in a rambling phone call to state TV. The Libyan leader said the more than week-long revolt has been carried out by young men hopped up on hallucinogenic pills given to them "in their coffee with milk, like Nescafe."

He then urges the people of Zawiya to 'control their children'.

Filament's what's left of me

I don't think I've talked about them before, and Google agrees with me, but there's this magazine that has recently caught my attention, both because it's a small press run title looking to crack itself open a tasty space in the publishing sphere and because it markets itself primarily to intelligent women who enjoy sex instead of printing lots of articles about fashion and diets.*

It's called Filament, and due to it being based in the UK I've had occasional problems getting my hands on issues. (All but issue six, damn it!) Admittedly, I started buying them because my friend was getting published, but now I'm reading it 'for the articles'. And with articles on Japanese rope bondage, female characters in video games, recreational drugs and free trade, capoeria, and interviews with Amanda Palmer and Annie Sprinkle, can you blame me?

They just got an increase in orders from a big US distributor, and it looks like they could use some cash support to make sure this new deal goes smoothly. (As you might guess, advertising is tricky for a magazine that has sexy pictures of people who aren't surgically enhanced women.) After a gentle poke, I was reminded that there are several people on my friends list who just might be interested in such a publication. I recommend Filament, and I think you should go down to the Barnes and Nobles in Anchorage, Campbell, or Emeryville, and check it out. Then I think you should buy a copy. Or go to the website and get a subscription so you never have to live through the arduous gauntlet I have of trying to get a single issue. And then feel free to let me know how you liked it!

*Which is one of the reasons it's having trouble with finances--fashion and diet industry advertisers buy lots of space in women's magazines but in return they demand editorial control.

Some days it's not worth chewing through the leather straps.

While Americans want Washington to focus on creating jobs and cutting spending, the President will have to explain why he thinks now is the appropriate time to stir up a controversial issue that sharply divides the nation.

--John Boehner

It's a good thing that witch-hunting Planned Parenthood in the name of Savin' the Babies has nothing to do with controversial issues that sharply divide the nation.

Dick.