Yo Melora Melora

Let's say, hypothetically, that you have a child who saw a commercial for the utterly-surreal kid show "Yo Gabba Gabba", so you put it on for her so she can watch it while you try to pick up the wreckage of toys in the house.

Then let's further say that you looked up at the television and saw someone you could swear is a dead ringer for Melora Hardin, known to many as "Jan" from The Office. And you think, "That can't possibly really be Melora Hardin dancing with these weird characters and singing songs and stuff."

But really, truly, the person looks and sounds exactly like her. So what would you do? Would you be thoroughly freaked out to google "Yo Gabba Gabba", find the official site, and then find this:

I mean, I know people guest-star on shows for kids. Goodness knows that most of the people who were celebrities when I was very young or before I was born are known to me mostly because a lot of them were on Sesame Street when I was a kid.

What's weird about this is that I don't think they called her "Melora" or anything, so any adults watching with the kids who recognize her from something else she's been in were really left stumped unless they went and looked it up like my obsessive nature forced me to do.

Looks like I can catch Amy Sedaris if she wants to keep watching it, but I'm not sure it really held her attention. Perhaps that's all for the best.

Palin Was Picked Because...

...I honestly think John McCain wasn't and isn't bothered by the amount that it's clear that she's in over her head. I think *this* is because he doesn't believe there's a woman anywhere who could do any better. We're all not as good as men, so isn't any random female Republican politician as good as the next?

(And if you're about to argue her abilities or credentials with me, go to YouTube and watch that interview she just did with Katie Couric. Or any of her interviews, when they've allowed her to speak, for that matter. Her lack of readiness for the job she is up for is beyond any argument at this point.)

There were better women for the job, and I can't believe there are any women left out there who are willing to support her merely because she's a woman. The very choice that was made is insulting to all of us. The Republican ticket picking her is a slap in the face to any woman who would normally be proud to see a woman up for such a vital and important job.

What's Cindy's Last Name?!?

I drowsily looked up at the television one Saturday morning a month or so ago and the credits for "The Early Show" were rolling. I saw this:

Poor Cindy. Surely someone knows her last name. She's a stage manager, for heaven's sake. It's not like she doesn't work with a bunch of people if she's managing the stage.

(And thank goodness I got around to snapping a pic of this so I could finally clean this off of our TiVo.)

To the Airline Industry

Reading a story on the Consumerist today about United raising their charge for a second bag from $25 to $50 reminded me of something else.

After staring at Google maps for about fifteen minutes last night, the mister and I determined that we will be driving to Wisconsin from here the next time we go to visit, which will probably be sometime around the holidays. Yeah, between gas and a couple of hotels there and back, it will probably cost somewhere in the neighborhood of what flying would cost. Yes, that's true, but that's not what this is about.

We won't, however, be supporting an industry that insists on continuing to treat their customers like cattle, nickle and dime us and act like we should be thankful for the opportunity, and the overall airport security system that believes that acting like bullies and treating everyone like a criminal is an acceptable way to keep the peace.

When you drive, you're on your own terms. You stop and eat if you want to (paying what you choose to pay for a wide variety of foods which are either in the car with you in a cooler or the stuff that's available at restaurants along the way). You take as much or as little as you can fit in the car you've chosen to own, and no one has the right to stop you and paw through your things to take away dangerous things like water, sterile feeding tubes, knitting needles, or tweezers. No one can check your name against a list of people to determine if you have the right to travel on the conveyance you've already paid to use. (Don't get me started on how easily a terrorist can get fake ID and subvert the no-fly list.) Even if something goes wrong with your car, you still have control over how it gets resolved and what happens to you in the interim.

No one hates being stuck in a car for long trips more than me, and I'd still rather drive just about anywhere than take a plane flight, even if the stupid thing was given to me for free.

I'm sure this information comes as no surprise to anyone reading this, as you've all undoubtedly heard me complain about the decline of the airline industry and the violations of privacy and decency endemic in the TSA "system" before, but when I see things getting worse and not better, you can believe that I'll probably just keep bitching about it more.

Stupidest Website Registration EVER

I couldn't get through to the automatic account information for one of my utility bills to verify the balance I should pay and so, like a good web user, I went to their website to see if I could get an account there and see the balance via that interface. When I went to the page to begin account registration, this is the help text next to the form I was asked to fill out.

Username: AT LEAST 10 characters please. No, forget the please. 10 character minimum. MINIMUM!

Password: At least 4 characters, and NO MORE THAN 10 characters. No specs on whether you have to include letters and numbers, or letters/numbers/mixed case like most sites that are concerned about account security.

You put the security on the PASSWORD, morons. Not the username.

How many people routinely use a username that's at least ten characters? Ridiculous. If this wasn't a one-shot usage (I don't anticipate having to use the site again, even to verify account balance) I would be seriously ticked off.

I Won't Now, Nor Will I Ever Vote for a Book-Burner

quoth Time Magazine (via Boing Boing):

Time Magazine says that when Sarah Palin took office as mayor, she approached the town librarian and asked how to go about banning books from the town library:

[Former Wasilla mayor] Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. “She asked the library how she could go about banning books,” he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. “The librarian was aghast.” The librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn’t be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire her for not giving “full support” to the mayor.

Even if you take out every other philosophical difference between the Republican ticket's platform (and the individual platforms of their presidential and vice-presidential candidates) and my own thoughts about what's best for the country, this alone is enough to put me off them for good. I will never, never, ever vote for a book-burner.

So here's your chance. If you can show me any time (reputable sources please, FoxNews doesn't count) that Obama or Biden has led some sort of book-banning campaign (I'm not holding my breath) then I guess I won't have anyone to vote for in November, and I'll have to stay home and knit.

I despise censorship and the tiny little minds behind it in any arena. There are amendments to the U.S. Constitution other than the second, notably the first, the fourth, and the sixth. (Cheat Sheet) I really wish that it seemed like some of our politicians would fight just as hard to uphold the entire document as they do to argue for the amendments that speak to them the loudest, or, more likely, are more attractive to their constituency.