Below is a petition to start having regular "question time" between the President and members of Congress.  I think whatever one's political party, this has the potential for being incredibly helpful and could force politicians to stand behind their accusations and broad talking points.  Or it could just devolve into this.  Either way - good television!

Today's word of the day is Sobriquet:

Sobriquet

A nickname

He went on and on about how delicate space and time was, but frankly I didn't buy it.  I mean, if you think it's so easy to change the course of world events, try it.  You don't need a time machine.  You're already living in somebody's past and somebody else's future.  Just step on a bug or something and see what that gets you.  See if you were never born, or suddenly now there's fifty Hitlers in your bathroom, crapping all over everything.  It ain't going to happen.  Anyway, that's what I figured.

--The Time Machine Did It by John Swartzwelder

Currently, three of the most prolific and brilliant minds working in modern television are without TV shows at the moment:

• Joss Whedon recently wrapped up "Dollhouse" after two seasons with the (constantly mucking about) Fox.
• Conan O'Brien left "The Tonight Show" after a very public mess with Jay Leno and NBC. 
• Bryan Fuller, creator of "Pushing Daisies," "Wonderfalls," and "Dead Like Me," has a development deal with NBC - but no series on the horizon.

So what should these titans of broadcasting do?  I say it's time for them to get out of the business of television.  Yes it's time to leave behind the main networks and cable channels for...the internet!  Buh?

Click to read more ...

Today's word of the day is Deodand:

Deodand

-noun, English Law

(before 1846) an animal or article that, having been the immediate cause of the death of a human being, was forfeited to the crown to be applied to pious uses

Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen.

-Michel de Montaigne

The Song: "Waste" by Phish

The Event: My Ex-Girlfriend

“Waste” by Phish, from their great album Billy Breathes (which I will defend to the death in a hipster thunderdome of coolness), was “our” song for my relationship with someone I'll call "Rachel."  It’s a sweet little song with the main hook of “come waste your time with me."  What I think is interesting is the many phases my feelings and memories have gone through in regards to how I react when I hear this song. 

While I was dating her, the song was a sweet reminder of how cute we could be and how weird it was to be in love.  After she dumped me and started banging the guy down the hall from me, I was a little less optimistic when listening to the song, and more often than not just skipped it altogether.  For a while, I thought I had ruined one of my favorite love songs - at which point I resolved that I will never have another song with a woman, for fear that I really do like the song and it gets ruined by tainted memories. 

Now, however, as time has passed, when I hear that song, I think about the relationship as a whole, good and bad, and take it all in.  The pleasure of waking up besides her is coupled with the annoying regularity of our bickering towards the end.  The song represents a particular time in my life, but it also reminds me of how time changes our perspective on all things and people.  And that’s one to grow on!

Today's word of the day is erinaceous:

Erinaceous

Of the hedgehog kind or family

"Damage makes you wise."

-Swedish Proverb

Today's word of the day is Jiggery-Pokery:

Jiggery-pokery

–noun Chiefly British.

1. Trickery, hocus-pocus; fraud; humbug
2. Sly, underhanded action
3. Manipulation: After a little jiggery-pokery, the engine started
   

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

-Friedrich Nietzsche

“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore.

Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.”

Neil Gaiman

Today's word of the day is Hypnopompic:

Hypnopompic:

Of or relating to the partially conscious state that precedes complete awakening from sleep.

"Let us first of all and before all be kind, then honest, and then - let us never forget one another."

Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov