Melyssa-with-a-Y

Last minute trips to DC are always fun. I went to water aerobics on Sunday, had lunch with Dani and dinner with Jen (steamed crabs, yum!), spent some time schmoozing on Capitol Hill, and even gave Brad a quick tour of the monuments at night (he'd never been to DC before!). Yes, it's a little hotter here than it is in Austin, but that's to be expected, summer in DC. But going home, well, that's a different story. Here I sit at National Airport (I REFUSE to call it "RRRr..." -- I can't even say it), dreading the impending thunderstorms and hearing flights cancelled all around me. My flight is delayed by 2 hours, but so far, still scheduled to go. Cross your fingers that I can get to Dallas! Worst case scenario, I'll rent a car and drive home from there. Best case, my flight to Austin is also delayed, and is still there, so I can make it. From now on, I solemnly swear will only fly early in the morning in the summer -- even if it means getting up at 5am (...

*Sigh* The Supreme Court deals another blow to free speech today, ruling in favor of the school principal who suspended a student who held up a banner that said " Bong Hits 4 Jesus " as the Olympic torch passed through Juneau, Alaska. Free speech, if you're in school, is apparently only partially free. Oh well. (Ok, so the phrase *could* be construed as pro-drug-use... it wasn't what I would call disruptive or lewd. Lighten up, people!) What makes this case more interesting is that Republican conservative groups allied themselves with the kid, because they didn't want to see the court take away their right to protest things like homosexuality and abortion. So there you have it: Republicans admitting that Free Speech is actually useful! But, in a case that redeems my faith in the justice system, the DC Superior Court ruled against a judge (A JUDGE!) who was suing a dry cleaner for $54M over a pair of lost pants. Yes, you read that correctly, he sued the dry cleane...

Ok, I admit it, I didn't fare too well in my American Government class in high school. What's that, you say? a child who was born and raised in the nation's capital?! In a house full of American Political memorabilia?! Yes. (Can you say "rebellion"?) Actually, it had less to do with rebellion, and more to do with the fact that our AmGov teacher was visiting from England, and wasn't the best teacher. And then she got sick, and we were left with the parent of a former NCS student, who, to the best of my knowledge, knew even less about how the US Government runs than we did. But, I digress. At least we knew more about the government than our current Vice President, who feels that the Vice President's Office is not part of the Executive Branch! He seems to think his office is exempt from having to follow the rules governing how classified national security documents are handled. Darth Vader strikes again! Here's the document from the House Government O...

Yes, it's been a while since I posted anything. Like a lot of my yarn-obsessed friends, I got sucked into Ravelry for a few days... and that was after four relatively relaxed days in DC, during which I walked at least 5 miles before 11am on Saturday ( Racing for the Cure!); ate Tex-Mex at Austin Grill , dim sum at Fortune, crab cakes (and the most amazing biscuits) at Acadiana and mezze at Lebanese Taverna ; wondered how I could ever have withstood the dust in the family basement for so many years; and finally got to see Tai Shan, the baby panda at the National Zoo (who is nearly 2, and will be shipped back to China soon!). Phew! Good thing I got all of that out of the way, because I don't know when I'll be getting back to town for a while. [I was going to post a panda picture, but I can't figure out where I uploaded them. Maybe later.] In today's news, another case of "I wish I were making this up": The WaPo and BBCNews are reporting that a watchdog...

(That'd make a fun bedtime story, wouldn't it?) Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the latest assault on reason: The Creation Museum , in Petersburg, Ky. Cost: $27M. [I will not link to it directly... you can go find it on your own.] Salon.com has a great article about the museum, which was built by a non-profit organization called Answers in Genesis -- to "undo the damage done 82 years ago when Clarence Darrow put William Jennings Bryan on the stand in the famous Scopes trial in Dayton, Tenn." ( Inherit the Wind is one of my favorite books! My brother is named after one of the protagonists...) Undo the damage? These are the same people that want to teach about the Bible in public (state-funded) schools -- that would certainly "undo the damage," if it weren't for this little thing called the CONSTITUTION!! Separation of church and state? Hello? Ahem. And apparently, until Adam took a bite of the forbidden fruit, all of the animals were vegetarians! One...

Miniature ceramic pot with dirt and basil seeds from Target: $0.99 Larger ceramic pot and nutrient-filled potting soil: $5.98 Proving that you don't really have a black thumb: Priceless. :) "A man taking basil from a woman will love her always."-- Sir Thomas Moore

Melyssa -- adjective: Like in nature to a kangaroo 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com Dani seems to think hers is appropriate (I disagree) - but mine is just sort of goofy. (unless y'all think I'm sort of kangaroo-like?)

Modified Star Wars clips have been spreading mercilessly across YouTube almost since the site started. Now (finally), George Lucas & Co. have decided that instead of trying to sue every creative teenager who made a mash-up (and particularly those who tried to eliminate Jar-Jar Binks), they want in on the action. Starting today, the Star Wars website is offering "Make-It-Yourself" clips and images. You can download the various offerings, and then there's a gallery where you can upload your creation to share. Here's my favorite image so far. :) On one hand, I'm sure lots of great new images and clips are going to come of this. On the other hand, anybody who wanted to mash-up Star Wars has probably done it already, whether it was legal or not! Of course, they have to make money somehow, so Eventually, the mash-ups will run with brief video advertising before them, with Lucasfilm and Eyespot splitting the proceeds. The efforts should bring refocused attention on...

I need to get out more. There's always so much going on in Austin, and I spend far too much time sitting on my sofa, knitting. The Paramount Theater to the rescue! They have a classic film series every summer. [ Bonus: "getting out" doesn't have to include "being outside" when it's 104-degrees .] This year's films include: 2 Thin Man (Nick & Nora Charles) films 2 Sean-Connery-as-Bond films (From Russia with Love and Dr. No - two of my favorites!) Monty Python & The Holy Grail 2 (early) Star Trek films Films by Scorsese and Robert Altman 2 films each from Newman & Redford (Butch Cassidy, and the Sting), Audrey Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Orson Welles, Cary Grant... and of course, to end the season, Gone with the Wind. They're also having a classic film poster auction/sale this weekend, which I might have to go check out. (Not that I have any wall space left, but maybe for my office, if we're ever allowed to hang anything on the wa...

Yesterday was the 30th Annual O.Henry Pun-Off World Championships. Being an aspiring punster and a huge O.Henry fan (I read the Gift of the Magi at a very young age), I decided to go check it out. I made it just in time to hear the first of 32 2-minute punny presentations. The winning contestant was far and away the best - he did a riff that included most (if not all) of the names of the Presidents of the United States. I couldn't af-Ford to miss it, even if I had to stand over in the Bushes. (ok, I'll stop now) I think they said they were going to transcribe the speeches and post them on the website. One guy did a candy bar riff that was hilarious -- and very naughty -- although I knew I'd heard a lot of it before (scroll down to The Birth of a Candybar ). The judges didn't rate him terribly highly, but at the end of the day he won the mmMVP award by vote of his peers. I also bought a couple of books while I was there (funds benefit the O.Henry museum , so that'...

Dani tagged me with this (I guess knew it was coming...), so here goes: The Rules: 1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves. 2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules. 3. At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names. 4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog. 8 Random Facts/Habits: 1. I have to wash my hands one last time before I go to bed at night. I don't know why, I just do. 2. I'll watch The Princess Bride, the Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Star Wars any time they're on, with or without commercials. And because of Dani, I have to watch the Bond movies too. (Can't wait to see Daniel Craig on Spike!) 3. I wish I were able to turn off my brain to go to sleep easily, and stay asleep. The room has to be quiet (except for the fan noise) and close to pitch black! Little bumps in the night make me ...

Saturday night, E and I went to see the Austin Symphony's tribute to the Beatles. The website said the layout was picnic tables - I was sure we were going to be sitting outside, like Wolf Trap . But I was wrong! It was inside the Palmer Center's cavernous music hall. We picked up dinner at Central Market beforehand. A lot of the other patrons had box dinners from Jason's, or amazingly elaborate dinners and setups including little shelves to put stuff on! The orchestra came out right on time, and played a lovely medley of Beatles hits: Hard Day's Night, She Loves Me, Michelle, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Hey Jude, and others. At this point I thought, "Ok, now what?" Wouldn't you know it, The Beatles came on stage! It was excellent. Apparently the " Classical Mystery Tour " is the combination of a Beatles tribute band and a great orchestra playing backup. The Fab Four are from the Broadway show "Beatlemania," so the singing voices are...

For 12 seconds today, banners on CNN International flashed "Bush Resigns" courtesy mediabistro.com/tvnewser

I love this speech -- just dripping with sarcasm. No real candidate (or lawyer in court, for that matter) could say these things, but that's why I love the creativity of TV writers like David Kelley and Aaron Sorkin. So many of my friends watch Boston Legal -- after watching this James Spader rant, I might have to add it to my weekly DVR schedule!

This time, I was in DC for more than 40 hours . I managed to fit in time to see my former colleagues at the Council on Competitiveness, as well as Amy, Kelly & Jeff & Hannah, Dani (and Spiderman 3), Lisa, Jen, and some MBA folks. [Oh, and I went to a CASC meeting and some meetings on the Hill, of course.] And, I got a cute haircut! Phew! Random news: Amy & Rob and Amy's friend Mary are going to Australia later this month. They're hitting Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne in the space of a week! I gave her a list of things to do, but I think it might be too chilly to climb the Sydney Bridge by the time they get there. I can't believe it's been three years since we went ! Hannah has chosen the names she'd prefer for her soon-to-be-sibling, but I don't think Kelly is going to use them (there are too many Michaels already) so she has some others in mind. We won't know what sex the baby is until a few weeks from now, though. Not patient enough to be surp...

... Dear (Old) Dad managed somehow to sprain his ankle/break something on Thursday night (well, ok, Friday morning at 1:30am) when he was taking out the trash. We're just lucky he didn't hit his head when he fell -- Mom and I wouldn't have found him until 7am when we were rushing off to a meeting! Having skipped medical treatment until Monday (unless you count Nurse Ratchett bandaging his ankle for him while I was there over the weekend), the doctor has decreed that he will be at home for a few days. He will be walking with crutches for two weeks, and have one of those big black boots for six weeks. He's learning to go up and down the stairs on his tush. Poor "gimpy". He'll accept any sympathy you want to send his way.

THIS is ridiculous! Dutch researchers are reporting that "women who are left-handed have a higher risk of dying." Specifically, ...lefties had a 40 percent higher risk of dying from any cause, a 70 percent higher risk of dying from cancer, and a 30 percent higher risk of dying from diseases of the circulatory system. Left-handed women also had a 2-fold increased risk of dying from breast cancer, close to a 5-fold increased risk of dying from colorectal cancer, and more than a 3-fold higher risk of cerebrovascular mortality. So on top of my familial history and pre-dispositions to things, now I'm in trouble because I'm left-handed? Yikes. Here's some fun trivia: It seems lefties perform well in the arts and sciences. There are plenty of well-known lefties in Sports (Jimmy Connors, Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe, Bobby Orr, Dorothy Hamill, Mark Spitz); Politics (Bill Clinton, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson); Entertainment (Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Dan A...

Did I happen to mention that the USPS is going to issue Star Wars stamps later this year? They have a sheet of different options, including Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Yoda, C-3PO, and others. You can go check out the options for the stamps (and vote for your favorite, for another few weeks) here . Apparently the Leia and R2-D2 stamp is getting a lot of votes. I think I'd like the Han Solo one more if it were a better likeness of Harrison Ford. ;) In the meantime, they have created R2-D2 mailboxes and placed 400 them around the country. (I have yet to see one, but maybe they've posted a location list someplace...) So you knew this was going to happen. Classic! What I really want is one of those mailboxes. How many of them do you think will get stolen? (yes, it's a Federal offense, but really... people are stupid, and we all know how nutty Star Wars fans are!) Oh, and incidentally, postage rates are going up again this month! Better go out now and buy some 2-centers (Mo...

I don't even know how to begin. Today I learned that one of my favorite professors from Business School passed away last month. Nothing I can say here would do justice to what a great man he was, or how strong he must have been to keep teaching through all of his (apparently ineffective) treatments, and even get to tenure at UMD a few years ago. Josh Newberg suffered from treatment-resistant depression. None of his students ever knew this about him, however, because he always showed amazing enthusiasm and a willingness to help us learn - I think he'd have taught us everything in his packed brain if he could have! "Law and Technology Policy" was my favorite class of my second year -- and as far as I know, this was the last time the class was taught (at least by Josh). We talked about everything from the creative commons to the Microsoft anti-trust suit to Napster. I had to give a presentation on Napster and how it violated copyright laws. I wrote a term paper on the co...

Why can't people just change the channel if there's something they don't like on tv? The FCC, in yet another maneuver to control EVERYTHING we see and hear, has recommended to Congress that the government be allowed to regulate television violence -- even on PAY CABLE channels! According to the WaPo : The report -- commissioned by members of Congress in 2004 and based on hundreds of comments from parents, industry officials, academic experts and others -- concludes that Congress has the authority to regulate "excessive violence" and to extend its reach for the first time into basic-cable TV channels that consumers pay to receive. Seriously? Almost every television these days comes with a little thing called a remote. If you don't like what's on, you don't have to watch it! It's called free will! Whatever happened to parental responsibility? Why should the government have anything to say about what's on, particularly on pay channels? If you...