Category: Uncategorized

Bwah-hah-hah!

Before I left for Nashville yesterday morning, I said to myself, “Don’t bring the camera. You’re not going out anywhere in the evening after the conference, and it’d just be one more thing to account for.”

Now it’s obvious that I was a jet-lagged wreck. How could I have failed to bring the one device that would provide irrefutable evidence that this resort/hotel/conference center is in fact Cracker Disney? Why hadn’t I looked at the site’s own description?

Under majestic, climate-controlled glass atriums, you’ll be surrounded by nine acres of lush indoor gardens, winding rivers and pathways, and sparkling waterfalls where you can unwind, explore, shop, dine, and be entertained to your heart’s content. Highlights include a 44-foot waterfall, laser-light and fountain shows, and tours aboard our Delta Flatboats – right inside the hotel.

and thought, “There needs to be a visual narrative for this”? You, dear reader, can only take my word for it that the entry gates to this majestic edifice are flanked by Cracker Barrel and Shoney’s.

Moreover, even my coworkers don’t believe that, while my hotel room does possesss a king-sized bed, that bed is actually a Murphy bed, mounted into the wall and made to look like an armoire! I’m not inclined to chalk that up to anything particularly “southron” so much as flat-out surreal. You’ll have to keep a picture in your mind’s eyes of that horrible realization that my bed was hidden away vertically, followed by a Poe-like scene in which I was nearly crushed by the descent of said bed.

Oh, with the regrets, dear reader. I’ll try to make it up to you with a field trip to Cracker Barrel before I leave.

Off to Nashville, where I likely won’t see the outside of the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center until I’m in a cab back to the airport on Wednesday!

Huh-huh-huh. . . He said, “Gaylord. . .”

Speaking of which, the ultimate Beavis & Butt-Head DVD collection comes out tomorrow!

It seems that Iran will only use peaceful means to “wipe out Israel from the map of the world”! Whew!

According to the wall calendar in my office, Monday was “UN Day”! So, to honor that occasion, here’s a link to the Word document of the Mehlis report about the Hariri assassination in Lebanon.

(This would be the file that includes the “Track Changes” fixes by the UN Secretariat’s office, in its attempts to soft-pedal the fact that the assassination was ordered at the top of the Syrian regime.)

As an bonus present, here’s a link to a PDF from Chris Hitchens’ site about how the Iraqi Oil-for-Food scam worked! I found it in this article by Hitchens about possible perjury charges for MP George Galloway.

Happy 60th!

If New Orleans is good enough for the American Library Association, it’s good enough for our wedding!

Last week, a delegation from ALA traveled to New Orleans to assess the situation. The delegation found that downtown, the French Quarter, and the Garden District had largely escaped flooding, and that essential services have been fully restored in those areas. They found the conference center and conference hotels bustling with hundreds of workman repairing broken windows, installing new drywall and laying new carpeting. Restaurants are reopening on a daily basis, and plans are already underway for Mardi Gras in February.

No sooner do I post about John & Liz’s new baby than I get news that official VM buddies Blake & Ines have just welcomed Beckett Martin into the world! Congrats abound!

(no pix available at press time)

Congrats to official VM buddies John & Liz on the birth of their baby boy Miles, probably named after the sheer amount of travel his parents have done:

All is love.

Boy, if I hadn’t self-imposed a moratorium on book-buying until the end of the year, I’d buy Dream Boogie in a heartbeat.

Why shouldn’t there be a Hasidic reggae rapper? Go, Matisyahu!