I'd like to use these various natural events occurring in my native southern Illinois over the next several days as reasons for closing everything down:

10
Clean out bluebird boxes

11
Skunks begin mating

12
Endangered Illinois Chorus Frogs are vocal
in Alexander County the second week of February

13
Dandelions start to bloom

14
Look for earthworms after rains

(from Southern Illinois Natural Events Calendar)

We have another winter storm warning upon us, forecasting perhaps another eight inches of snow. They said it would begin around noon, and now it's half past that hour. I wish that it would just go ahead and happen, if it's coming, at all. It's a bit like waiting for someone to show up for an appointment that you'd rather have never been scheduled.

I've talked myself into thinking that having a sip from that bottle of "Throwback Pepsi with Real Sugar" has given me an incredible burst of energy and that I can now go out front and shovel a few hundred pounds of snow from around my car.

Joe and Stella would probably not be thrilled with a suggestion that they should "Go use that snow drift!" Even so, their litter box is a mess and I have very little fresh litter left in the bag.

I'm sad to learn that Air America Radio has gone off the airwaves due to its financial collapse.

I clearly remember when it launched nearly six years ago in spring of 2004. It was not a good time in my life, and I spent many hours listening to Al Franken speaking hilariously yet wisely in response to the idiocy of the Bush administration. Within a couple of years, Rachel Maddow arrived on the scene there, becoming one of strongest voices for the liberal side of American politics, eventually moving over to host a show on MSNBC.

Thanks for spending several years with us, and goodbye.

LATER: I've done something I don't do often, which is to disable further comments on a post. If you want to talk about how you really don't give a damn that Air America is gone and you think they sucked, do so in a post of your own.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/jd-salinger-91-is-dead/JANUARY 28, 2010, 1:17 PM
J.D. Salinger, 91, Is Dead

By DAVE ITZKOFF
Associated Press J.D. Salinger
J.D. Salinger, the elusive and enigmatic author of “The Catcher in the Rye,” has died, The Associated Press reported. He was 91 and lived in Cornish, N.H.

The A.P. cited a statement from Mr. Salinger’s literary representative, saying that he died of natural causes at his home.

Published in 1951, “The Catcher in the Rye” became Mr. Salinger’s most famous work with its distinctive depiction of its angry, iconoclastic teenage protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Mr. Salinger frequently dealt with the subject of precocious youth in his short stories of the Glass family, as well as “Franny and Zooey,” a collection of two long short stories. He had not published a new work since 1965, and lived in near-total isolation, having refused the attention of the literary world and the news media for decades.

More to come.

I'm so caught up in this NBC late night talk show drama that I'm watching Jay Leno, mostly to see which spots might be broadcast for the soon-to-be-dead Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. I just saw one! It said tonight's show will include "one surprise bear," which I assume to be the beloved masturbating bear.

I'm unhappy to hear that the Republican candidate has won Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat in Massachusetts. It's going to make it much harder to get health care reform passed, along with other important pieces of legislation.

Origins of PHAT.

I've been watching late night talk shows since I was a wee child, memories of them going back to around 1960. That would have been Jack Paar hosting The Tonight Show and, two years later, hosted by Johnny Carson. Although I've gone through phases of years of not watching TV at all, I've at least kept track of most of the guys who walk out on stage, talk for several minutes to studio and television audiences, and then interview celebrities.
( Read more... )

I'm really pleased that Trader Joe's is once again stocking its Thai Yellow Curry Sauce. It's great on hard-boiled eggs and other things you can stuff into your mouth without much effort.

For those of you following the (I think) fascinating mess of late night talk show scheduling at NBC:

Los Angeles Times | Jan. 12, 2010 | 12:46 p.m.

Conan O'Brien is not going to take one for the team. The host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" released a statement this afternoon saying he would not move his show from 11:35 p.m. to 12:05 a.m. to make room for Jay Leno's return to late night.

Since news broke last week that NBC wanted to move Jay Leno out of prime time and put him back in late night, speculation has centered around whether O'Brien would be willing to move his show or walk.

More at: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/01/conan-obrien-tells-nbc-to-take-a-hike.html

stellathecat has started her own LJ. I think she set it up while I was out of the room and had foolishly left Clarice Toshiba open and turned on.

Click to enlarge.
( more stella follows )

Stella is now in my home, minus ovaries, and confined to my fairly spacious bathroom with her very own food, water, and litter box. She and Joe are already sniffing at each other through the crack under the door. I think it'll be just fine. I'll keep her in there at least long enough for her to heal a bit more from this morning's surgery. She's a true beauty, and I'll try to snap photographic evidence of it in coming days.

I can't remember how I got onto their e-mailing list:

Give up lunch monogamy! Mix any two of your favorite Toasty Bullets, Sammies, Small Chopped Salads or Bowls of Soup for just $5* EVERY DAY with my new CHOOSE 2 MENU. With over 250 combinations to choose from, you’ll never need to choose just one item again. One is dumb! Two is TOASTY! *At participating locations.

NOTE: I don't really believe they're promoting polyamory. This is sarcasm happening, here.

From The Writer's Almanac, but not a poem, or even the life of a poet:

It was on this day in 2007 that the man who invented instant ramen and Cup Noodles, Momofuku Ando, died at the age of 96. He'd eaten instant ramen noodles up until the day before he died, as he'd done nearly every day since inventing them in 1958.

Japan was suffering from food shortages in the decade after World War II, and Ando developed the noodles trying to alleviate this problem. He experimented with flash-frying for months to come up with the perfect way to make precooked noodles that would be ready to eat shortly after opening the package. When the noodles first appeared on grocery shelves in Japan in the late 1950s, they were a luxury item and cost about six times as much as a bowl of udon or soba cost in a restaurant. Now, they're one of the most inexpensive ready-made foods in the world.

Momofuku Ando is the subject of a new book, The Ramen King and I: How the Inventor of Instant Noodles Fixed My Love Life (2009), by Andy Raskin. (from here, in The Writer's Almanac)

It's weird to see "2010" showing up here and elsewhere, just as I was finally getting used to seeing a 2 and three 0s in a row.

What will you be calling it? Twenty-ten, or Two thousand-ten?

Not really. Odd notion.

"The Vampire Diaries" has come onto the channel that was showing a rerun of "The Office." It's pretty bad, a bit like Hollywood 90210 with vampires.

While I was watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, Joe the Cat jumped up in my lap and pressed his tiny chest against the back of my hand. His heart was beating rapidly and he settled his chin nervously on my knee as Dave the astronaut hurtled through the vortex near Jupiter, crazy music coming from the TV.