Email: Smoothe Love [SD]

[Smoothe Love by Ten Feet is a] sexy song.

Smoothe looks like a hip-hop or reggae spelling. Smooth has 81.4 million instances on Google, Smoothe has 328,000, mostly related to hip-hip, bebop, jazz and fusion music.

Weblogs: Rap translation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Boing Boing: "'A rap artist has translated some of the best known works of poet Geoffrey Chaucer into hip-hop to make them appeal to schoolchildren.'

Orig:
And up they stirte, al dronken in this rage,
And forth they goon towardes that village
Of which the taverner hadde spoke biforn.
And many a grisly ooth thanne han they sworn,

Rap Version:
When he'd said his piece
The rest agreed, and the three friends hit the streets
And went to seek their destiny and provoke a confrontation,
In a drunken rage hoping Death would come and face them.
Their intoxication made them sure of their purpose"

Here is the Rap Canterbury Tales website.

Weblogs: Shaft meets Chaucer

(geoff_chaucer via Boing Boing)

"Wha be tha blake prevy lawe
That bene wantoun too alle tha feres?
SHAFT!
Ya damne righte!

Wha be tha carl tha riske is hals wolt
Fro is allye leve?
SHAFT!
Konne ye?

Wha be tha carl wha ne wolden flee
Whan peril bene all aboughte?
SHAFT!
Verray!

Alle clepe tha carl ane badde mooder-
SOFTE!
Speken of Shaft bene I.
THAN KONNE ALLES WE!

He be a man konne unnethes
Namo save is mayde konnes im.
JOHN SHAFT!"

Press: Tom Toles, November 15

Weblogs: "Shut up and clap louder" doesn't work anymore

Daily Kos: State of the Nation: "The Republicans don't want a debate over the war. They never wanted a debate over the war. They have gone, throughout the entirety of the last four years, to great lengths to impugn the patriotism, the courage, and even the Americanness of any citizen or politician that demands any such debate from their government.

They believe merely debating the current state of the war is an act against patriotism. Cheney blusters that questioning him, or the President, amounts to being anti-American. If you're a Republican, you have only two choices in this war: Clap Louder, or Shut Up.

No, after a blocking of every avenue of debate, after questioning the patriotism of every critic, this is now the Republican War, through and through. If you're a Republican, you like this war just fine, and you don't care how long it takes, how many American troops get killed, or how incompetently the war is run. If you're a Republican, you think of the war as a vehicle of nationalist virtue, not to be questioned by the likes of fellow Americans who demand answers better than 'everything is fine'. If you are a Republican, you meet the calls for an exit strategy with cries of cowardice. You meet calls for investigation into prewar failures with the brazen and shallow admonishment that anyone requiring accountability for failure does not adequately 'support the troops'. It is raw nationalism, and raw partisanship, of the ugliest and most cowardly fashion. Men who would send the sons and daughters of others across the world to die for a still never-quite-defined principle, but lack the courage to themselves defend their own convictions and actions to their fellow Americans."

Press: The $100 laptop moves closer to reality - CNET

The $100 laptop moves closer to reality | CNET News.com: "A low-cost computer for the masses moved one step closer to reality on Wednesday.

Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founder of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, detailed specifications for a $100 windup-powered laptop targeted at children in developing nations."

Weblogs: Full metal jacket

(via Daring Fireball, what looks like a 20-page PowerBook review)

"I have, for several years, subscribed to the theory that those who are mostly desk-bound should buy the cheapest laptop they can get by with and the most expensive desktop system they can afford. One reason is the idea that laptops — slower and more fragile — aren’t really worth a big investment. Better, say, to spend $1200 on a 12-inch iBook and $1800 on an iMac than to spend $3,000 on a big PowerBook. Get a portable that’s truly portable, and use a real desktop system the rest of the time.

As of two weeks ago, I officially unsubscribed from this theory, and I am filing this report on a new 15-inch PowerBook G4, maxed out with 2 GB of RAM and the 7200-RPM hard drive upgrade I pondered in my initial coverage the day these new machines were announced. New theory: get the best PowerBook you can and live off it."

Press: Priest Idol - Christianity Today

Priest Idol - Christianity Today: "How many American priests end up in their own reality show on British television? James McCaskill did just that when he moved last year from Pittsburgh to the town of Lundwood in England's South Yorkshire district. He was brought in to revitalize a church whose congregation had dropped below ten, and his turnaround efforts were filmed for one year by a camera crew. The results will air—under the name Priest Idol—in a three-part series in November on the UK's Channel 4. Nate Anderson sat down with McCaskill on a recent visit to the U.S. to talk about ministry and media."

Press: The rules of sarcasm - BBC News

BBC NEWS | Magazine | The rules of sarcasm: "And the king of sarcasm, Basil Fawlty, when Mrs Richards complains about the view of Torquay: 'What did you expect to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically...?'

So there is no reason why sarcasm has to be dumb. Just as there are corny puns and inspired ones, and funny and feeble versions of three men going into a pub, so the glories of sarcasm are only limited by your wit. Learn from the examples above: apply a flair for words, wit, a pinch of attitude, and maybe a toilet reference, and the world will marvel. How hard can it be?"

Poems: Christmas by George Mackay Brown

(via maggi dawn)

"'Toll requiem', said sun to earth,
As the grass got thin.
The star-wheel went, all nails and thorns,
Over mill and kirk and inn.

The old sun died. The widowed earth
Tolled a black bell.
'Our King will return', said root to bone,
To the skeleton tree on the hill.

At midnight, an ox and an ass,
Between lantern and star
Cried, Gloria...Lux in tenebris...
In a wintered byre."

Poems: thank you by W.S. Merwin

(via maggi dawn)

"listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glassrooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you.
we are standing by the water looking out
in different directions
back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you
in a culture up to its chin in shame
living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you
over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars
and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the back door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks that use us we are saying thank you
with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable unchanged
we go on saying thank you thank you
with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us like the earth
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is."

Weblogs: Even truer romance

Daily Blague: "Tucked in the middle of Elements [of Style] was the file card shown above. I proffer it as proof that I know when to stick an awkward preposition at the end of a sentence.

Neither one of us can remember what contretemps prompted this particular stay in the nuisance corner. There is no doubt that I had done something to make me smell like a bad cheese. In those days, most of my contacts with Kathleen were in public, necessitating surreptitious notes by the ream. It was a long courtship, as you can imagine.

What drives me crazy with love for my wife of twenty-four years is the squiggle under 'I.' You'll note that she underlined 'don't,' but then found that that wasn't strong enough. Ergo: squiggle. That is Kathleen."

Weblogs: Let's talk about sex

dissonant bible: "Silenced(?) by 'sex', the church is too often heard describing and proscribing rules and roles, and too little heard talking about the meanings that are brought into being when we make love.

In his dissonant words on divorce in Mark 10, Jesus ultimately responds to a highly politicised question about the rules and regulations of sexual conduct by bringing into focus the question of 'what does sex mean?' I think that, for all our misunderstandings of these chapters, Paul does the same in 1 Corinthians 6 and 7.

I wonder what would happen if those of us in the church talked about sex more, not less, and if our conversation began, and continued for a good long while, about its meaning(s), instead of almost always beginning with what you do and don't do and when and with whom."

(I think mainstream congregations -- Jewish, Catholic, Episcopal and so on -- do a better job of expressing the numinous nature of physical intimacy -- its mystic qualities beyond externals and our five senses, and why these are the real reasons for taking care with our sexual boundaries. Evangelicals and esp. fundamentalists, on the other hand, tend to focus more on prohibitions of specific behaviors, because ultraconservative views tend to be reactionary and simplistic. The one-size-fits-all or spoon-fed-dictum approaches don't work for everyone, I think -- only the lowest common denominator.)

Websites: Don't Date Him Girl

Don't Date Him Girl is a members-only database website where women can post the name of any man who has cheated on them.

Weblogs: An Old Testament God

dissonant bible: "A couple of nights ago I watched Phone Booth for the first time and if I was ever to teach an introductory course on the OT to a group of students who did not mind a fairly high count of MF's, then I would start with this film.

Why? Because, in the character and actions of the anonymous sniper, it brilliantly (illuminatingly) captures so much of how we might conceive the 'OT God'.

A god who demands absolute purity and holiness, a god who 'desire[s] truth in the inward being' (Ps 51.6), who calls us to confess the truth of who we are and receive, possibly, absolution.

A god who punishes the sinful, a hidden god who has drawn a bead on us and is ready to smite us in his wrath should we step out of line. A god who, even when we have come clean, even when he reveals himself, continues to privilege fear over mercy.

If you want to, you can find this god in the Psalms, in Job, in the narratives and laws and prophetic books - and then you can label him 'the Old Testament God'. But you will have had to discard an awful lot of text along the way.

For me, listening to the bible's dissonance is not just about recognising those parts we don't like and engaging with them; it also involves paying attention to those parts which resist our simplistic caricatures of the Lord God, even if our rhetoric is defused as a result."

Trivia: I am Numenorean

Numenorean
To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

Pets: Laptop cat

(via reverend mommy)

Internet: Things you'd love to say at work

(via Sophzilla)

* I can see your point, but I still think you're full of crap.
* I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce.
* I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter.
* Ahhh... I see the screw-up fairy has visited us again...
* Thank you. We're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view.
* Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
* What am I? Flypaper for freaks!
* Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
* Errors have been made. Others will be blamed.
* Whatever kind of look you were going for, you missed.
* Oh I get it... like humor... but different.

Weblogs: How to pick up Syrian women

Borgard Blog: "My interest and ability in learning the Arabic language has preceded to a new level. The first level (let's call it the I never thought I'd eat sheep's testicles level) was seeing how much I could learn for free, via the internet and our public library. It didn't help me talk to Grandma. She doesn't serve sheep's testicles nor does she keep scorpions in her house. The second level involved actually spending a little money and purchasing a book and a dictionary. I choose a grammar book which teaches the language systematically, which is good for the way my brain works, but isn't helpful for conversation. Unless, of course, you're are conversing about kings, sheikh, horses and swords, or wish to say Get back in the kitchen, O girl, and do your duty!. So, I still can't say much to Grandma, but if the occasion arises, I will be sure to tell her that the king's daughter and the sultan's son are friends. I'm not done with that book yet, but I have moved to a third level, the ever-praised Pimsleur CDs. Now, I'll be ready for real conversation.

Or so I thought.

After the 3rd lessons, I joked with hubby that it seemed like a course in how to pick up Syrian women."

Weblogs: Proclamation, orthodoxy, hypocrisy, etc.

any day a beautiful change: "I've been preaching weekly for going on five months now. And I really love it, in so many ways. I love that a sizeable piece of my job is to craft language in ways that illuminate the gospel. But the weight of this vocation is becoming apparent to me.

For one thing, I've rarely spent so much time with the Bible. I've had to face some of the scriptures I've preferred to ignore. And I'm realizing the portrait of Jesus in the book of Matthew - at least through the lens of the lectionary canon - isn't exactly the Jesus I thought I knew. He is bigger and more dangerous... and yes, my reading of the Chronicles of Narnia is also informing this new version of J.C. He's more leonine, more capable of righteous roaring. Perhaps this is one of the blessings of the lectionary; just when Jesus gets so Kingly we can't bear to look at him, we get to return to the season of holy baby showers.

I don't know what to do with this bigger Jesus. He does not fit into the liberal theology of my seminary education. And that makes me very uncomfortable. I'm tugging on the cuffs of orthodoxy these days, and that is extraordinary disorienting to a girl who is used to staunch heterodoxy."

Weblogs: Thank you for letting me be myself again

"Well Mr. Potential is local. To quote the ever fabulous Bridget Jones, 'He likes me just the way I am.' He's even suggested that we go to see the upcoming Harold Ramis film, 'The Ice Harvest'. It's a heavy drama. I'm not sure whether it's first date material. After all, sometimes seeing a bad film on a date is a precursor for relationship disaster for me. With Mr. Could Have Been My First Ex-Husband, we saw 'Dante's Peak' starring Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton. With Mr. Record Producer it was 'Galaxy Quest' starring Sigourney Weaver and Tim Allen.

Since there's a eventual possibility of physical contact to consider, I've debated about posting a second blog about my weight struggle. Most of us have at least five or six different blogs in us. A lot of the time most of us don't show our true colors at office. It's "take one for the team" mentality. You're supposed to leave whatever real life issues on the doorknob after you enter. *Poof* It's easy. Yeah right. I thought it was supposed to get easier as you get older. The workplace reverts to a high school mentality of cliques. Along with it are observing others having an edge due to the connections made by their parents, alma maters, and fraternal organizations. Sometimes it's not what you know but who you know.

I'm dreading interviews. I know for a fact my weight and size will be working against me. I'd be naive not to know that. So many news programs and talks shows have had thin less qualified person vs fat more qualified person go undercover for interviews for the same job. You guessed it easy reader. The thin person almost always gets the job. Not only that, they get access to better opportunities in the workplace once they get there.

An example, one of Minnie's sisters was a big time account executive of a company that was later busted for falsifying records. She was bringing in accounts that were worth one million dollars. But time and again, she was overlooked for promotions. Why? Because she didn't fit the corporate mold that they had in mind. Food for thought, in this case, the woman in question wasn't fat either. None of accounts said, we won't do business with your firm unless you get a makeover. Is it any wonder that plastic surgeons are making money faster than they could spend it?"

(I ran across Modern Day Spinster searching for "Bush" and "weasel." ;-) If I were a woman, I wouldn't date any man who wanted to watch Dante's Peak (1999 snoozer) or Galaxy Quest (nerdy scifi) on a date ... or Close Encounters, or Coyote Ugly, just to pick the two videos next to Dante's on my own shelf. [I wouldn't even date a record producer.] Also don't worry about your weight; change for yourself but not to putatively "win" any guy who wouldn't date you if you weren't thin. Pick a guy who likes what's inside you, since anyone who looks at only the outside is probably too shallow to make a deep and lasting commitment. Just a few thoughts from a man who knows men.)

Email: Eharmony matches [E]

In the past, most of my matches seemed more laid back, indecisive, even boring (while I'm a fairly well motivated go-getter). Perhaps some were inexperienced or uncertain about online dating (since half of them decided to stop dating at all [and many of the other half never responded]), but [I wonder if Eharmony has] fine-tuned [its] matching methods in the past [two years].

Email: Microsoft's Mac prejudice [BL]

Grrr ... Microsoft's email program (Entourage) seems to mess things up half the time. I've lab-tested all combinations of the variables (sender/receiver mail program, sender/receiver operating system, attachment encoding and attachment compression) and can't nail it down to any one thing: what works for one person doesn't for another who has the same conditions. So I conclude it's either the individual user's settings, or Microsoft's Macintosh software isn't working as specified (or consistently) -- and it appears to be the latter, especially since they've started to "break" Mac users' access to MSN Messenger and the Microsoft website (as I've predicted they would for ten years, since the advent of Windows 95). The WMV file did play on a PC before I got it, and under Mac OS X after I got it. Part of why I created my weblog was to avoid emailing attachments to people, however, until I set up a separate web space (my own web or FTP site) or begin podcasting, I can only post photos (not PDF or WMV files) to my weblog.

Politics: Bush, intelligent design win Dilbert weasel awards

(via Scott Adams' Dilbert mail list) "As you'll see, Democrats can't seem to win ANYTHING -- not even the Weasel Poll. Thanks to a substantial block of non-US voters who are not fans of the American Way, the results are a sweep for all things held dear by Republicans and conservatives. Plus the Democrats haven't actually done anything in the past year; it's hard to win when you don't play.

President Bush was a landslide winner for the Weaseliest Individual. I suspect that many Republicans voted for him by reflex. This is one of those cases where it pays to study the ballot a bit more carefully.

The biggest surprise to me was in the Weaseliest Behavior category where gas gouging lost out to advocating the teaching of Intelligent Design in schools. Apparently most people would rather be robbed than exposed to unproven ideas. This could be a valuable tool for muggers who don't like guns. "Give me your wallet or else I'll explain the concept of irreducible complexity!"
 
The United States (including Iraq) won again this year as Most Weasely Country. But by next year, Iraq will be a thriving democracy and all of the bad feelings will be a distant memory. I am confident that our efforts in Iraq will work because we're employing a clever strategy that comedian Larry Miller describes as "driving around until people shoot at us." How could that NOT work?"

Books: God's Debris (free download)

Synopsis of God's Debris by Scott Adams of Dilbert fame: "Imagine that you meet a very old man who—you eventually realize—knows literally everything. Imagine that he explains for you the great mysteries of life—quantum physics, evolution, God, gravity, light, psychic phenomenon, and probability—in a way so simple, so novel, and so compelling that it all fits together and makes perfect sense. What does it feel like to suddenly understand everything? God's Debris isn’t the final answer to the Big Questions. But it might be the most compelling vision of reality you will ever read. The thought experiment is this: Try to figure out what’s wrong with the old man’s explanation of reality. Share the book with your smart friends then discuss it later while enjoying a beverage. "

Politics: Our troops will finish the job

Rep. John Murtha (D, Pa.) is wrong to call for an immediate U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Yes, the Iraq war strategy should be improved. Yes, we should discuss how to more effectively accomplish security and self-governance in Iraq. But no, we should never cut and run, and by all means, no one should advocate anything less than a staged withdrawal tied to milestones accomplished. Admitting defeat and pulling out early is a wussy's way. Who does Murtha think he is, Dennis Kucinich?

For now, we need more troops in Iraq, not less, and certainly not none.

Peeves: Merry [Bleep] Christmas

Dennis Leary is not funny but reprehensible to name his coming blister-comedy special Merry [Bleep] Christmas.

Politics: Bush is good for your health

OK, maybe not for some people's blood pressure, but President Bush is doing the right thing with his initiatives to preemptively prevent the spread of avian flu; a global pandemic is serious stuff, not hype. His AIDS initiative in Africa has also been a large step in the right direction.

We still need better stockpiles of antidotes in case of chemical or nuclear incident, as well as annual influenza vaccines; but we should be wary of re-engineering vaccination production processes unless we want another Thalidomide scare.

Marketing: What Is The Secret?

Here is the most effective "viral marketing" campaign I have ever seen, intended to spread via word-of-mouth and -Internet like wildfire. No, I have no idea more than you what is about, however, I am wary of any "secret" that claims to surpass and disqualify everything we have ever known.

Marketing: Coors Light ice-wipe game

Coors has an effective "viral marketing" campaign (the term means it can spread like a virus, but it is not a virus). Yes, I know they call it the Ice-Swipe game; I think Ice-Wipe sounds better, for more than one reason.

Email: Hurricane alley [CC]

Thanks for checking out my weblog. I'm sure most people our age don't have time to read weblogs much; I try and it's hard for even me! I fear they are a medium for twentysomethings, as they begin to take over the reins from us fortysomethings to sixtysomethings. ;-)

With the hurricane migration that Rita inflicted on Houston, it does make one wonder how the roads might handle traffic if more people had to leave. You had to prepare your classroom as well as your home! I would expect skylights to blow out too; since I wasn't sure if a window would blow out or a tree would cave in the roof (or worse, like that home that a tree sawed in half to the ground in east Texas), I bagged everything I could and put it out of (intuitive) harm's way. Oh well, just two weeks left to hurricane season now.

My folks and certain friends have always tweaked their homes to their liking, but I have valued my time for "more important" things (intellectual and artistic pursuits). I did what was necessary with my first home in Minnesota, but (to paraphrase Christ) "the chores you will always have with you." People like me will always have huge to-do lists; what's essential is to come to peace with what needs to get done vs. all the rest, and to push energetically on that even while taking time for "what's important" (values vs. activities).

Try to find new kinds of friends, not the ones who gravitate to you -- a lesson I'm teaching myself.

Thanks for all your news about the hurricane... I'm sure your doggies did very well, sweet things... Molley and I did a lot of snuggling, she with her nose buried under my armpit most of the time. :-)

Email: Wheat from chaff [TD]

It's normal to want intimacy so much! If we weren't made that way, the human race might have died out. ;-} Physical intimacy (sex) is a wonderful thing; what's hard is choosing the right partner -- one who is capable of emotional intimacy (love). These two come together in, as you say, a committed relationship. Now, commitment comes in various sizes: minute by minute, day by day, month by month, year by year, and the economy lifetime size. You want to avoid those smaller sizes, because they often cost more per unit than they're worth.

Please don't be hard on yourself. You're not the first woman to encounter "unforeseen" situations. You're doing exactly the right thing: recognize you have "blind" spots, search your soul, and pray. However, I think you'd also benefit from speaking about such things with a few trusted friends (female, plus a male if you can manage it). We can all make fewer mistakes of our own if we learn from others' experience as well as their counsel.

The answer isn't to stop dating or looking for a good relationship. The answer is to get smarter about sifting the wheat from the chaff (as opposed to the chaff from the wheat). It's normal to make mistakes; no one is perfect. All the Lord wants is for us to follow our conscience, and to learn lessons from our mistakes (which are not to be confused with sins).

I think you express it perfectly when you say that a man should make deposits into your heart, not just make withdrawals. In other words, he should be more "into you" than into himself. (That's what love is.) You are right to value your heart and not to lend it to anyone who wants to borrow it, then treat it shoddily. It's my observation that women who follow this principle, find happy and fulfilling relationships, whereas those who do not, invite and often encounter tragedy at every step.

Email: Waking the divine [CC]

Isn't it amazing how much time these home projects take? We wouldn't rely on friends if we knew it would take so much time before hiring on a crew, right? Another lesson we learn is that real friends will stick with us through misunderstandings and catastrophes. It is amazing how life reveals as well as teaches us real character -- our own and others'.

I know how the holidays are for musicians. I'm taking a break from that myself (though I miss it). Omigosh! I have always wanted to do The Messiah!

Please don't draw conclusions of me based on my membership in (what claims to be) the largest Episcopal church in America. I don't like big any better than you do, however, I had to join somewhere, and St. Martin's covers the bases very well. I haven't fallen through the cracks there as much as at, say, Second Baptist. I visit other congregations too, of all denominations and sizes: Episcopal, Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist and more. I am eager to attend Quaker and Jewish services too. I love Hebrew and observing the Sabbath. St. Francis Episcopal is closer to me. I'd probably still be attending there, except they dismissed a female priest before I arrived, and the pastors wouldn't say why, so that made me suspicious.

St. John the Divine [Episcopal] is amazing for its music.

Movies: Office Space

This has been on AMC lately so I finally caught up with it. It is about the rigors of office life, has a low-key sense of humor throughout, and the character named Michael Bolton is pissy about his more famous namesake. :-) The ending credits roll to (get this) a hip-hop/country version of "Take This Job and Shove It" interspersed with percussive and vocal bits like the boss saying "Yeah..." I give this movie four stars for originality.

Websites: My horoscope - The Onion

Your resistance to technology comes to a sudden end this week when you're garroted with a length of fiber-optic cable.

Pets: Pee-mail

The day I got Molley (33 months ago now), I realized that whenever she sniffs a vertical surface outdoors, she is "reading" her "pee-mail" -- from males, since females use a horizontal surface -- in the closest thing that dogs come to online personals dating. So when she leaves a dab close by the fence or signpost in question, she's saying, in essence, "Call me."

Typos: mandortary, perisble

For mandatory, perishable (via property management company hurricane notice).

Websites: foundmagazine.com

FOUND Magazine: "We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles - anything that gives a glimpse into someone else's life."

Radio: This American Life

"This American Life (TAL) is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ in Chicago and distributed by Public Radio International. Ira Glass created the show, and has served as the producer and host since it debuted on November 17, 1995. [...]

The show began national syndication in June 1996 and currently airs on 509 public radio stations in the United States, reaching an estimated 1.6 million listeners each week.

TAL is primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, although it has also featured essays, memoirs, field recordings, short fiction, and found footage. [...] The mood of the show can range from gloomy to ironic to thought-provoking."

Typos: begets

For baguettes (via Irish Aires mail list).

TV: Prometheus and Bob

For stopmotion slapstick that doesn't need a script, nothing touches Prometheus and Bob, aired in 1996 via Kablam! on Nickelodeon. Here's a plot summary from the Aussie Nick website stub:

kablam: "We recently discovered a top secret video shot 900,000 years ago by an alien named Prometheus using a remote control camera. The alien's mission: To teach basic survival skills to prehistoric man. His subject: A caveman named Bob.

Bob is a caveman, and he's a little bit slow (if you catch our drift). But then again, maybe Prometheus isn't really so almighty and powerful, since he keeps allowing a dope like Bob to break his video equipment.
If nothing else, Bob tries."

TV: The Fairly OddParents

I love this kids' cartoon show on Nickelodeon, even after Butch Hartman's departure cut back on the adult humor, because I enjoy nonsense and nonsequitur even more. Here are some quotes:

Wanda: "Wow, this show is violent and boring!"
Cosmo: "Yeah, and I would have settled for just one!"

Wanda: "Cosmo, you're an idiot!"
Cosmo: "Yeah, but I'm your idiot!"

Pop singer Britney Britney: "Does that mean the show is over? Did I win? I'd like to thank the Academy!"