Austin's 6th Birthday Party

It's incredible that he's six. I'm not sure if I'm more amazed that time has gone by so quickly or that he's survived all of his hijinks, but here we are. And here's a video of his party:

The Secret Origin of... the Muppets

Great Muppet trivia from CNN!

Dream

Sorry to be lame and post about a dream, but this was very spooky and was the first time I ever had... an archaeology nightmare!

(To be clear, I've had lots of nightmares where I was supposed to be someplace on a dig and wasn't ready, and I've also had plenty of experiences on digs I might describe as nightmares, but check this out:)

I dreamt I was digging in a trench and I came upon a bone. As I cleared more area, it became clear it was a tiger skeleton. That was weird. Then another bone, and another tiger. The next bone we cleaned off turned out to be part of a human skeleton. And then another. Lots of human skeletons! It was some sort of massacre that seemed to have involved a huge human and tiger conflict.

Then my dream cut back and flashed forward and from an aerial view I saw lots and lots of trenches, scattered across the landscape and from the bits and pieces I could see that this was a huge trench of tiger and human skeletons in the form of an ever increasing spiral.

Elvis Costello fans take note!

So, we don't have cable television, but I'm looking forward to the eventual DVD (Hulu?) release of Elvis Costello's talk show "Spectacle."

Meanwhile, an enterprising gentleman has downloaded audio tracks from the show performances and posted the zipfile on his blog. Check it out: collaborations with the Police (Watching the Moon); Elvis sings only the harmony to Alison; with Lou Reed on Perfect Day and more. Special Columbia alumni note: Laura Cantrell sings with Elvis! She graduated a year or two before I did.

(Also: this blogger, Sal?, isn't just some schmo. He used to run NYCD on the Upper West Side. I think it was through his store that I heard about, and bought, the XTC psychedelic side project Dukes of the Stratosphear. Easy to find this kind of thing on the internet now, which explains why Sal is blogging and not sitting behind the counter of a store.)

UPDATE: more audio from the show, this one featuring Rosanne Cash and Kris Kristofferson.

Happy Groundhog's day!

So, six more weeks of winter.

My question, has the groundhog ever MISSED seeing his shadow? Doesn't Spring usually come in mid-March?

UPDATE: Slate published an article about seeing shadows, etc. And it turns out the rodent sees his shadow 90% of the time.

UPDATE 2: Boston Globe on the usefulness of the rodent in New England.