Dumb dog

This dog has a rogue foot! Really funny video.

Tai Shan meets the press

Here's a great video of the baby panda at the National Zoo.

Ginko vomit berries

So, ginko is supposed to be good for your memory. Well, the only way it helps my memory at the moment is by reminding me all day that when you step on the trees' berries, your shoes smell like dog crap and vomit all day. I can't imagine what it must be like to process ginko into little tablets. I wouldn't touch one of those things if you paid me. Granted, the trees are sturdy and the leaves are beautiful, especially when they turn into canary yellow little fans in the fall. At the moment the leaves are completely carpeting the muddy path through Rose Park that I walk through to get to work. So, that would be nice except for the fact that those little vomit berries are hiding under the beautiful carpet of greenish-yellow leaves! Those sneaky bastards! They are especially sneaky because to avoid the berries people tend to plant all male trees... but the trees will change sex if you do that! Every other one! There's a street near us that I know to avoid when walking the dog around this time because the sidewalks got completely covered in vomit berries. Every few years they tie warning signs to the trees that say something like, caution, we will be spraying these trees at such and such a time. Spraying means, I think, attempting to stave off the berries by killing them or something. So I'm not the only one who hates the vomit berries. I'm just the only one who has them all over her shoes today.

traveling books

This site called bookcrossing.com tracks books that are "released" and "captured," i.e. left somewhere and picked up by someone else who checks it in on the website. It reminds me of a literary version of Where's George. I think it's a nice concept, but I am too lazy to register any books on it. Plus, I have of late been selling anything on Ebay that I think I can get a buck or two for. So, I'm more likely to sell books than "release" them if it's not going to be to a friend or family member.

"International Marriage Symbol" (horrible!) 

My Life (Clinton)

I am listening to My Life by Bill Clinton on my iPod. I just got past the MOnica Lewinsky part. I like how he says "I did meet with her alone after that for about 15 minutes." If he thought "sexual relations" didn't mean sex, what the heck does he think "meet with" means? Heh. "Mr. President, you have a 2:30 meeting with..."

65 on November 29

We turned the A/C on last night. It's downright balmy out there. In the Traverse Record Eagle (the "wretched eagle," according to a woman whose sale-by-owner house we looked at this summer) there are photos of kids sledding and playing in the snow on Thanksgiving. I told Ben this, and he said he thought that was great, and that he thinks he looks much better in his winter clothes than his summer ones!

McScrooge

A Christmas tree went up in the lobby of my building yesterday, along with a very large wreath. In public spaces in DC, decorations are going up, too. Gold bows on lampposts, lights, etc. Maybe it's due to the fact that I converted (this will be my second "Jewish Christmas") and am exposed to a more negative outlook on Christmas, or the fact that my family is not having family Christmas this year (having something to do with me?), but I am not enjoying the Christmas explosion. And this year it started the day after Halloween. Christmas toys and decorations went on sale at CVS, other businesses started playing carols and decorating. Ben likes to remind me of how much he hates Christmas, especially because of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and I try to remind him that it's nice with my family. He agrees, but we don't even get that this year. We are the family McScrooge.

Moving to Timbuktu

I should point out that Timbuktu is actually a town in Africa. One of the countries that my friend Katie is in at the moment. See my previous post. But anyway, the point is, we are still seriously considering moving to Traverse City. Which, I guess, qualifies as "Timbuktu." Last night, as we were entering DC via Route 50/New York Ave., I mentioned that a girl in my French class had gone to the big warehouse club there, now called LOVE, and I said to her, "oh, you mean the place with all the stabbings?" She was surprised, but I wasn't. So my husband says he's not surprised either, and then after a pause, the question again.

"So, do you want to do it? Do you want to move?"

I said, "Yeah." I used to go through this turmoil when we talked about moving even just outside the city, into Virginia. Which is why we don't live in VA now. But yesterday I just felt a sort of absolution/resign/relief. I do have some serious concerns about what our future kid(s) will or will not be exposed to there. My brother noted the fact that there is virtually no diversity in schools there. And, though luckily there are two small Jewish congregations in town, they are both reform and I doubt they do services or hebrew school in hebrew, which I think is a really great thing for kids to learn.

But I also wonder how kids survive in cities... if we had a child in our apartment, ignoring the fact that we couldn't fit in the apartment, who would its friends be? This may be a product of the way Ben and I live, or my being mostly completely unmotivated to meet people, or the fact that our neighborhood is populated mostly by gay men and very few twenty-somethings or young parents, but in the past three years I have made just one new friend that I talk to on a regular basis. Luckily this friend lives in DC and is having a baby in January, so if we were to stay I'd have her, but she's not in our immediate neighborhood. Getting together involves cars. But, funny enough, she is just as attached to Northern Michigan as I am, having spent all of her summers in Charlevoix. So, if we moved to MI, I would probably still get to see her.

So, why even live in the city if the conveniences don't apply? We do regularly go out to eat in Dupont or U Street, but all of our friends (the "rugby crew" who started out as Ben's friends) live in VA. And most families live outside the city. And my job has undergone changes that I am trying to deal with but am not exactly loving. So, it would make sense to attempt my freelance thing now, and in a place where the cost of living is low relative to here and other big cities.

Technical Issues

This video is really funny.

Katie in Africa

I hope she won't mind my posting her email here, but seeing as it was a mass email I don't think she will (except that she says she likes to read about ME on my blog). So here is an email from my wonderful friend Katie about her final weeks in Africa before coming back to the states and to DC!! I've hotlinked things here for a geographical reference (hey, she said get out my map...):

Ok kids, get out your maps!
So, i am no longer a Peace Corps volunteer and I am about to depart on a 5 week trip around west africa. Some people think I'm crazy for doing this by myself ... .I just hope I don't fall down too much :)

Today I fly from Dakar to Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso. Tomorrow I'll spend some time exploring the city, and then Thursday I head east. I'll be traveling through Burkina to Northern Benin (Nattitangou to be specific).

I'm going to explore Samba country and then head south to Abomey, Cotonou, and Ouidah. From Benin I move on to Togo. I'll spend some time relaxing on the shores of lake togo in the south and then move onto Kpalimé in the hills on the border with Ghana. (I'm skipping Lomé for both my dislike of african cities and fear of political unrest. . . all though that really shouldn't be a problem these days). So, I'm going to spend a day or two hiking in Togo and then cross the border into the Volta region of Ghana. The volta region is full of lush green mountains and waterfalls. I'll stay there for maybe 3 days of hiking and biking and playing with monkeys before I head south to Accra.

From Accra it's on to Cape Coast, Kumasi, and then up north to Mole National Park where I should land around christmas. From the park (where I hope to find Elephants and Giraffs) I move to Wa and the border with Burkina Faso.

Then I head back into Burkina to the city of Bobo Dilasso for a day or two, and then it's on to Mali.

I'm meeting my friend Marielsie in Sevaré and we will head straight to Dogon country. The Dogon people live on the edge of a giant plateau/escarpment and have built their villages into the side of the cliffs. Trekking through Dogon is the can't miss activity of West Africa and is sure to be a highlight of the trip. I've been wanting to go for 2 years now!

From Dogon it's basically a race back to senegal. we'll be traveling long distances, stoping in Segou, Bamako, and Kayes along the way. We'll hit the border of Senegal at Kidira, hopefully around the 13th of January. Marielsie will head back up north to her village, and I'll make my final trip to Dakar!

I fly out of Senegal at 2:30am on January 17th and arrive in New York around 3:30pm!

In homage to Clare and Ross's baby names

I was reading the Onion this morning and found a little snippet that made me laugh, especially because of the most recent posting on the Bucky Blog (see sidebar). Here it is:

All Of Pregnant Woman's Favorite Names Used Up On Cats
November 23, 2005 Issue 41•47
EUGENE, OR—Seven months pregnant with her first child, veteran cat lady Claudia Beck, 38, said Monday that she has already used all of her favorite names on her cats. "I've got Madison, Emily, Tyler, Jonathan, Claudia Jr., Dakota, and Todd," Beck said. "Then there's Smokey and Midnight, who are strays I feed." As of press time, Beck and the baby's father, animal-shelter assistant Rich Delgado, were considering naming their child "Boots."

Even funnier is the fact that I had this thought myself when thinking about what I might, in the far future, name my child. I like the name Sadie, but used that up on my cat when I was 13. In fact, when I named her, I thought I had made "Sadie" up out of nowhere. I hadn't heard the name before, and when I told my mother, "I'm naming her Sadie," my mother said, "Oh, that's nice, like 'Sadie, Sadie, married lady.'" I was bummed that I actually wasn't being original. So I understand why Clare and Ross don't want to talk about their list of names.

And I just Googled "Sadie, Sadie, married lady" and found that even THIS POST and MY CAT are not unique. See the cat who beat me to it. Whatever, my cat is better. I just haven't shared her with the ephemeral e-world (she's not the one in the photo below; Sadie lives with my parents).

In any case, I actually still might consider the name Sadie except that I have a girl name I like better at the moment. Though, if I had a Sadie and she asked where we came up with the name, would she be offended if I said she was named after my cat?

Rare glimpse of the elusive cyclist Jen

This is a photo taken by the photographer for the Hero of the Day AIDS charity bike ride, September 2004. I am dragging a bit in this photo, but I really did keep up with those strong boys in front of me, for three days and 250 miles! A cycling goddess, if you will. Well, they did pull me a lot, but still it was the best riding I ever did.

Glen Lake, Michigan

So, I'm feeling in a photo-like mood today. Here's a photo my brother took (also available on his blog site, see sidebar). He took it from the front yard of our family place up in Michigan. It's a great example of the sunsets we get there. We will literally interrupt dinner to run outside to see sunsets (for those of you out there who don't love food, interrupting dinner is a pretty big deal for us!). 

What happens when your cat thinks she's a person (this is a nightly occurrence).

The cat has taken to sleeping under the covers between me and Ben. God forbid I might want to snuggle with my husband, because the cat is there and oh yes, she will kick me. Or bite me. Or, in some cases, will unprovoked decide to lick my armpit (I sleep in a more contorted way than Ben displays there). When she's not trying to push me out of bed, she's snuggling up next to me with her head on MY pillow, or on my arm. Last night she was spooning Ben. A few nights ago I witnessed the process by which she gets under the covers; she backs up to them and kicks them with her back feet, then when she's created a little cave, she backs in under the covers between us. I really only thought burrowing animals did this. Rabbits. Prairie dogs.

A take on deadlines

"What I love most about deadlines is the whooshing sound they make as they go by."

-- Douglas Adams

Movie review(s)

I saw a whole bunch of movies recently.

Last week I saw (NETFLIX) "In America," about an Irish family who moves to New York so the father can get acting gigs. They're very poor and move into what is basically one step up from a crack house with their two young daughters, and life is hard, but it's less about the fact that they're living in squalor than the fact that the family is trying to get over the death of their son/brother Frankie. The daughters befriend a scary withdrawn artist neighbor from downstairs who is dying of AIDS, and the whole family is sort of healed by him. It was good; I watched it by myself while Ben was teaching, and cried. A lot.

I also watched by myself (NETFLIX) "Ponette," a French film about a little girl who gets into a car accident with her mother and her mother dies. The girl is four years old and I have absolutely no idea how she could act so well! She was really good, and apparently won a best actress award in I think an Italian film festival. A wonderful movie. Ben might have watched "In America" with me, but not Ponette, since it was subtitled. I watched the movie with the laptop on my lap, thinking I was going to do work while watching the movie, but because the movie was so good and I needed the help of the subtitles (especially for understanding the little girl), I was transfixed to the television. I definitely recommend that one.

I also went out with Ben (E STREET THEATER) on Friday to see "Jesus is Magic," a stand-up/show thing that Sarah Silverman put together. She's over the top. I wasn't a huge fan of the way the show was done, especially her dumb singing, but her standup is so totally politically incorrect that you are horrified by her, but still laughing hysterically. So, that was good.

We also watched (NETFLIX) "The Village," another M. Night Shyamalan movie, which seemed to drag but turned out well, with the much anticipated interesting twist at the end, like in "Sixth Sense."

This weekend we saw (TV) "Meet the Fockers," which hit a little too close to home for us! But nonetheless, it was a good comedy, like "Meet the Parents" was. The best part was the look on Ben's face when the Barbara Streisand character (exuberantly) reacts to her son telling her that his fiancee is pregnant. Ha. Priceless.

We also watched (NETFLIX) "O Brother Where Art Thou," which was awesome. Ben says it didn't do well in the theater, but that's probably because no one got the background on it. It's an allegory of The Odyssey by Homer. Ben pointed out the parallels (he made sure to point out the Isle of Lesbos reference--ha), and so I enjoyed it on several levels, though I probably would have enjoyed it if I hadn't realized the connection. Actually, one of the main characters was also in "Meet the Fockers."

Yes. We've watched a lot of movies lately!

On Netflix tap: Merci pour le Chocolat, Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, The Triplets of Belleville, Il Postino, Strictly Ballroom, and the Aeon Flux animated series (to review before the movie comes out!).

Hi mom

Mom will now be reading this blog. I'd better watch my mouth! :)

Wine-pairing dinner

On Wednesday, Ben and I went to Circle Bistro on Washington Circle for a wine-pairing dinner hosted by the wine store in Dupont, Best Cellars. It was really good. There were a few setbacks to the night, including a huge rainstorm and resulting traffic, and Ben did his usual "I'll give them FIVE minutes and I'm leaving to get a hamburger" when the start of the dinner was delayed about 20 minutes. I knew that could end in disaster, because the first course was scallops (or, A scallop) and he sure wasn't going to eat that! But the food did come, and the bonus was that I had already paid before we got there, an all-inclusive price. AND it was a four-course meal, with two wines to taste with each course! And not just taste, mind you, they poured a good 3 ounces of each wine. And they equipped us with tasting note sheets, with names and descriptions of each wine and space for me to write things, which in the end was mostly things like "Ben likes, Jen doesn't like," and "Jen LOVES, Ben HATES."

Anyway, the managers of the wine store did an intro on the region we were tasting from--the western vineyards, like chateauneuf and die.

Then finally we got food. Scallops with pistachios and a cauliflower cream. Two white wines, Ben said he couldn't taste either of them. So I tasted them for him. The wine folks gave all sorts of flowery descriptions about the wines, but what I remember is that the first was flowery and the second one smelled like applesauce and was much better with the food.

The second course was ravioli with pulled pork and swiss chard. It was awesome. Two red wines with that course, the first one actually made me sneeze when I tasted it. Ben liked that one.

The third course was a braised short rib, which I sacrificed (mostly) for the love of my meat-eating husband, since he very graciously gave me his scallop. :) There were two more red wines with that, neither of which I really remember, and I told the guy when he came to ask what we thought, "I don't know if it's just the fact that we're getting to the end, but both of these taste the same to me." He made some comment about how wonderful that was, and how the "next step" is "pulling out the different flavors and distinguishing the varietals." It's quite exciting, for him. Ben rolled his eyes several times during dinner, this being one of them.

We didn't finish any of the third-course wines, because I was tipsy and Ben couldn't because he was driving. The dessert was this baked apple pastry thing with ice cream and a tissue-paper-thin round slice of apple, with the star-shaped holes in the center and everything. I thought that was cool; I have no idea how you would cut something that thin. Probably with a machine. Anyway, there was a really sickeningly sweet muscat, and a very good sparkling dessert wine to go with that. Of course I don't remember the names of any of the wines, but hey, that's what my notes are for!

In January, they're having a champagne-tasting dinner, which I will definitely look into.

Manifesto P. Epidermis

The SPAM emails I get are always the same, but I am actually entertained by the names they think up to send them from! I get several different names a day. I am embarassed to say I almost look forward to seeing what will show up next. This morning was Manifesto P. Epidermis. Others this week: Jujube E. Sentimentalist, Placed C. Chauncey, Pullouts I. Jackdaws, and Mullato A. Howsoever.

Rapture goes condo

There's a pentecostal church on the corner of 14th and T. Ben and I noticed it was being sold a while back, and I asked a man leaving the building what it was going to turn into. "I don't know, luxury condominiums, probably." Yesterday when we were walking around town (it was gorgeous out), we wondered how much it sold for when we saw the banner across the building "The Lofts at 14th and T!" Apparently, the church sold for $10M!

We were supposed to go out with our realtor yesterday morning, but he, like all other realtors we've had experience with, neither called to confirm nor sent listings for candidate homes. He called and left a message yesterday morning after we had already slept later than our meeting time, and I just didn't want to call back. We did walk into a couple of open houses (of many!) in the neighborhood on our walk. I had seen a place online that looked good, but we realized it was a house-turned-condo where all four units were being sold, and the ones with parking were 1400 sq. ft. and $850,000 and 1100 sq. ft and $650,000. The basement apartment was the "affordable" one that came up in my search. That one doesn't have parking.

Again, wanting to move to Michigan yet wanting to stay in our apartment for a while. BUT, every time I look at the Traverse area realtor's site, I find houses like this that make me really not want to buy the same thing for 5x the price here. Not that I could, but the point is a good one.

I was reading my editors' listserv emails and there was a thread of conversation about the best places to freelance. The best places, so the freelancers say, are in small suburban areas or, essentially, not in big cities, so your pricing can be competitive and you can still live on your earnings. I think I'd have an OK time of getting into freelancing. We can't really think about moving until we know what the situation would be with Ben's work. Crazy grown-up married life junk!

Buying a house in DC may become an option

From an article in today's Post:

But many would-be buyers have withdrawn from the real estate market, saying prices are just too high to consider making a purchase. Dan McGrath, an organizer for the Service Employees International Union, and his wife, Teresa, who works at the Environmental Protection Agency, have been married for four months, have a combined income of about $100,000 a year and would ordinarily be good candidates to become first-time homeowners. But the McGraths, who live in the District's Shaw neighborhood, have been shocked and repulsed by the prices for homes in the area, including the $400,000 price on one 800-square-foot studio they visited.

"We can't figure out who -- for the life of us -- would buy a place with two doors for $400,000," said McGrath, 28. "We want to think about a future but homeownership here is just not possible."

Ben and I are in exactly the same boat as that couple! See previous post...

WARNING: Birth control patch

Sigh. Now there's a warning out about the birth control patch. I complained about the patch in an earlier post... now it seems there was good reason.

Quote about editors:

An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but has escaped the terrible desire to write.

-E. B. White

Pet Peeve

I really hate it when people buy jackets and coats and suits, and don't cut the thread that stores use to tack together the bottom of slits. I am forever seeing people wearing jackets that bulge at the butt because the wearer didn't bother to cut the thread, and his or her butt requires the spread that the slit is there for!! The same goes for floor-length coats; the slit is there so your feet can move! It's not there to make your coat look like it has a foot-long rip in the seam. I have a feeling that people think it's supposed to stay that way, like keeping mattress tags on after buying a mattress.

My rant is done. I must be having a bad day.

Ani Jen

Now I'm taking (well, Ben and I are taking) a Hebrew class. It's very stressful to start a new language and feel completely lost. I couldn't even come up with the word for "I" when asked in the first class last week. The teacher was like, uh oh, you know the alphabet but no vocabulary? I didn't say that I knew all sorts of words, like "baruch," "menorah," "mitzvah" (and "bar" and "bat"), "ish" and "ishah," "mikvah," and the jewish list goes on and on. I guess my knowledge of Hebrew isn't very applicable to an everyday conversation. If I can't say, "Hello, my name is Jen, and you?" I can't communicate in the most basic way, let alone carry on a conversation! So, last week I learned some vocabulary:

Shalom, ani Jen. V'at?

After the teacher said "ani" is "I," I realized I already knew that, because of the inscription on my wedding band, "ani l'dodi v'dodi li" (I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine). I guess it literally translates like this: I am of my beloved, and my beloved is of me. I know "l'" is "of." I can't even remember learning these words in French. I am too advanced for my French class and can barely keep up in my beginning Hebrew class.

Cult of iPod

I thought the photo associated with this washingtonpost.com article on iPods was really funny!

I could get away with murder!

Not that I want to, of course, but I theoretically could get away with a good crime with the new technique I've discovered to prevent leaving fingerprints: Krazy Glue.

So, my shoe was falling apart this morning, so I bought some Krazy Glue on the way to work. I went into the bathroom and fixed my shoe, but since I was crouched in the handicap stall and was trying to hurry so no one would come in and wonder why I was crouched in the bathroom stall with my shoe off, I knocked the bottle over and, though luckily it didn't get on the floor, it did get all over my hand. I have learned to not try to wipe Krazy Glue off, so I let it dry with my fingers spread apart. Then I realized that the tips of my fingers are now completely sealed, and I seriously doubt I could leave a good fingerprint anywhere. Sweet! Granted it doesn't make typing easy.

Spammers getting smart

So recently at my office I have started getting spam email. It started coming from "Doctor," advertising all kinds of DISCOUNT DRUGS! Leviltra, Celebelx, Vioagra, Cidalis, and the like. It came through the social email list we have set up. Now, after much complaining by the staff here, we no longer get the "Doctor" emails, but now we do get emails from, for example, "Remunerate H. Twiddles," and in the last day, I've gotten one from Eyesight I. Zeta and one from Belligerent H. Stepbrother. They both want to sell me "The best toolkit for fixing your erection: Vitagra, Cigalis, Leviztra and more! Sweet price of OUR SITE". IT here says that they filter out literally millions of spam messages every day, but these still get through because the name they are sent from is not what appears in our inboxes. Those sneaky bastards!!

Listen up, Eyesight, Belligerent, and Remunerate: Someday, you will pay.

EX

I saw my ex-boyfriend while walking home from work 2 days ago. We were passing in a crosswalk, and he called me by my maiden name and I thought that was funny. Our conversation was also funny:

me: Hey, so how are you doing?
him: Oh, doing good, going to law school, getting ready to graduate.
me: Yeah? That's nice, where at?
him: Catholic. Yeah, so what's new with you?
me: Well, I got married, 6 months ago.
him: You got married? Wow! Congratulations! Wow, newlyweds.
me: Yeah. It's great. And Bryan and Alana are married, too. And [insert list of engaged people].
him: Oh, well I figured that. Yeah, I know what that's about, I'm sitting on a ring myself. I think I'm going to pop the question when we go to St. Vincent. You remember Casey, from the gymnastics team?
me: Really? Conratulations.
him: Well, yeah, her mom and her sister have really been on my case about it, since we've been dating for four years. But Jen, I really don't think I'm going to make a good husband.
me: What?
him: Well I think I'll mess it up.
me: Well, you'd better not!
him: Seriously, though, you know me, I'll fuck it up.
me: [laugh] Yeah, well, I hope not.
him: But she doesn't DO anything!
me: You mean, she doesn't have a job?
him: NOTHING! She just sits around and wants to be a mom. And she gets mad at me because I'm out all the time and I think if she had a life she'd understand.
me: Well, there's something to be said for having kids, but you need to agree on the plan.
him: Yeah, but she is so lazy! Anyway, I'll let you get back to your husband. It was nice seeing you. Take care.
me: You too. Good luck.

I thought it was sad and funny that he would complain even to his ex who he hasn't seen in close to four years about his girlfriend being lazy, in a one-minute conversation on the street. If he's telling ME these things, who else does he tell? And why, then, is he going to ask her to marry him? Then again, I think he always liked my ability to relate to and understand people, so maybe he was looking for help. He just relies on his charm to get whatever he wants, regardless of the consequences, at least in my experience. Oy. Am I glad to be away from that!

Forbes blog series

Forbes has put together an interesting bunch of articles on how bloggers can sully the names of corporations. I think, at least I hope, that I have not written myself into a similar proverbial corner, and that I never will. I don't need to deal with that.

----
Attack
of the Blogs
Daniel Lyons, 11.14.05
----
Web logs are the prized
platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo.
----
Gregory Halpern knows how to hype. Shares of his publicly held company, Circle Group Holdings, quadrupled in price early last year amid reports that its new fat substitute, Z-Trim, was being tested by Nestlé. As the stock spurted from $2 to $8.50, Halpern's 35% stake in the company he founded rose to $90 million. He put out 56 press releases last year.
Then the bloggers attacked. A supposed crusading journalist launched an online campaign long on invective and wobbly on facts, posting articles on his Web log (blog) calling Halpern "deceitful,""unethical,""incredibly stupid" and "a pathological liar"
who had misled investors.
The author claimed to be Nick Tracy, a London writer who started his one-man "watchdog" Web site, our-street.com, to expose corporate fraud.He put out press releases saying he had filed complaints against Circle with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Halpern was an easy target. He is a cocky former judo champion who posts photos of himself online with the famous (including Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of this magazine). His company is a weird amalgam of fat substitute, anthrax detectors and online mattress sales. Soon he was fielding calls from alarmed investors and assuring
them he hadn't been questioned by the SEC. Eerily similar allegations began popping up in anonymous posts on Yahoo, but Yahoo refused Halpern's demand to identify the attackers. "The lawyer for Yahoo basically told me, 'Ha-ha-ha, you're screwed,'" Halpern says. Meanwhile, his tormentor sent letters about Halpern to Nestlé, the American Stock Exchange, the Food & Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission and the Brookhaven National Laboratory (involved in Circle's anthrax deal).
[...]

Fighting
Back
Daniel Lyons, 11.14.05
You Can't stop bloggers from launching an allout attack on you or your business if that's what they decide to do--but you can defend yourself. Here's how.
MONITOR THE BLOGOSPHERE. Put your own people on this or hire a watchdog (Cymfony, Intelliseek or Biz360, among others). Spot blog smears early, before they can spread, and stamp them out by publishing the truth.
START YOUR OWN BLOG. Hire a blogger to do a company blog or encourage your employees to write their own, adding your voice to the mix.
BUILD A BLOG SWARM. Reach out to key bloggers and get them on your side. Lavish them with attention. Or cash.Earlier this year Marqui, a tiny Portland, Ore. software shop, began paying 21 bloggers $800 per month to post items about Marqui, while requiring them to disclose the payments. Marqui's listings soared on
Google from 2,000 to 250,000 results. Never mind that one blogger took the money
and bashed a Marqui marketing strategy anyway.
BASH BACK. If you get attacked, dig up dirt on your assailant and feed it to sympathetic bloggers. Discredit him.
ATTACK THE HOST. Find some copyrighted text that a blogger has lifted from your Web site and threaten to sue his Internet service provider under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That may prompt the ISP to shut him down. Or threaten to drag the host into a defamation suit against the blogger. The host isn't liable but may skip the hassle and cut off the blogger's access anyway. Also:Subpoena the host company, demanding the blogger's name or Internet address.
SUE THE BLOGGER. If all else fails, you can sue your attacker for defamation, at the risk of getting mocked. You will have to chase him for years to collect damages. Settle for a court order forcing him to take down his material.

Who
is Pamela Jones?
Daniel Lyons, 11.14.05
The blog mob loves to spout off about First Amendment freedom, except when it seeks to deprive foes of the same. And so it was that bloggers came to the defense of one of their own--a mystery woman named Pamela Jones--and succeeded in having a story about her retracted and getting its author all but fired.
Jones has become a star in the blog-riddled Linux software movement. Her blog, Groklaw, sprang up in 2003 to cover a Linux-related lawsuit that software firm SCOGroup had filed against IBM. It cranks out lengthy articles, and it archives every document filed in the case.
Jones describes herself as a journalist, yet her blog is unabashedly
pro-IBM, insisting from the start that SCO's claims are groundless. She won't
discuss her background or reveal where she lives or even confirm that Pamela
Jones is her real name. Her Web site is registered through a proxy service in
Arizona that shields her identity. PJ (her nickname) lists no phone number and
won't say how she funds her operation.

Knowledge at college

I just had a flashback to elementary school, maybe third or fourth grade. I was in my "Language Arts" class, and we were doing work in pairs. I wrote the word "colledge." The boy I was paired with said that wasn't how it was spelled. I was immediately horrified that I had misspelled something, and I didn't really believe him that I was wrong. He said he didn't think there was a "d" in the word. I said I thought there was. The teacher came over to see what we were doing and said, "Why would you think that?" I couldn't explain it, but realized later it was the word "knowledge" that mixed me up. Why would college and knowledge be spelled differently if they sound exactly the same? If I had ruled the world when I was 10, they would be "college" and "nollege." Though now I know there are rules and word origins and all that crazy stuff.

This stuck with me. And I still stop to think about the "d" when I spell either word.