It’s been a while, eh? Time to pair up a few bloggers that might not have come across each other otherwise.

But first, Stuart over at Autoblography has the result of the caption competition and invites you to partake of the next.

I scribbled a note that Huwge would like The Cartoonist while 10 signs like this would be of particular interest to Jo and Toni.

How about adding another librarian to the fold? Here’s re:becca. And I think you’ll like speckledy dog, a “thirty-noneofyourbusiness” new mother.

For the more geeky tech bent, Marco van Hylckama Vlieg’s The Net is Dead…. He uses Pivot to power his blog (new one on me) and has designed this gorgeous template.

That’s it, I’m beat. Hasta mañana mis amigos.

UPDATE: I missed one – e meet Alison, Alison meet e.

Isn’t it nice when one of your favourite writers pens an essay on one of your favourite artists? Especially when you agree with much of what is written. Annie Proulx on Edward Hopper [via Eliane].

Almost every critic, artist, writer (especially writers), art savant, book-jacket designer or media hack sees in Hopper’s mature paintings solitude, alienation, loneliness, psychological tension. The general critical observation that Hopper’s paintings depicted loneliness and that this loneliness was an integral part of the American character is a bit puzzling. Hopper himself didn’t see it and once commented “The loneliness thing is overdone.” More likely than “loneliness” is the sense of self as different and apart, nor are such feelings limited to Americans. The interpretation of “loneliness” possibly stems from Hopper’s habit of focusing on one or a very few somber figures in an everyday setting–café, bedroom, hotel lobby, movie theatre–and the viewer translates a solitary figure as a lonely human.

Tensor [via Andrea] has an interesting post on holiday locations:

I recently had reason to use the phrase “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” (my sister’s fiancé is having a bachelor party), and then a few days later I read an Onion article titled “What Happens At Yucca Mountain Stays At Yucca Mountain”. This got me to thinking that maybe it would be possible to roughly measure the reputation for depravity of a particular location by counting the number of Google hits for the phrase “what happens in PLACENAME stays in PLACENAME”. The results below are an interesting catalog of spring break hotspots, gambling meccas, and other places where you’re likely to embarrass yourself. Use it to plan your next vacation!

Alas, Abergavenny can’t offer much in the way of depravity. Where else should we be looking then?

Update: Um, that should have been Abergavenny. With the quotes. I am an idiot.

Update 2: To make up for that idiocy I’ve googled (properly) for all the places I’ve ever lived in – Paris, Boston, London, Brussels and Holland. Holland wins, hans down. Oh I do like me puns.

One

Here’s a good Blogliners idea:

“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”
Movie quotes in retrospect can be such amusing groaners, so c’mon folks… let’s trot out your favorite cheesy movie lines.

Shall we open this up to include all the lurkers who might be a bit too shy to leave a comment – come and dip a toe in the water, it’s lovely and warm I promise!

Two

A photograph of me has been sitting on this site for days and no-one has spotted it. Shame on you!

Last night’s Front Row on BBC Radio 4 had a fascinating interview with Michael Crichton (once I got over the shock at hearing his voice and wondering if he’d employed Donald Sutherland to take his place).

Mark Lawson introduced him as the best selling thriller writer with a knack for dealing in fiction items that soon become huge factual issues (Jurassic Park – cloning, Disclosure – sexual harrassment and so on), the “nostradamus of popular fiction”. But his new book, State of Fear, tackles global warming and the concern that the “global warming industry” might be international hysteria, “filling a fear gap that opened up when the cold war ended, [a fear] that decade by decade it has shifted to invisible things”.

I have to confess that I haven’t been entirely convinced these past years by the threat of global warming. If meteorologists can’t predict the weather correctly for the following day, how are we to believe their (and that of others in the scientific community) speculation on weather/climate changes two, ten, twenty, a hundred years down the line?

Do go and listen, it’s a thoght provoking interview.

And in other news, time to recycle possibly the best Christmas animation on the net.

Crisis over, please meet sb, poet and writer and now TSB (TypePad Subscription Buddy).

A huge thank you to Neil, Ellie, Emrys, Sheilagh*, Anan and to Laura at TypePad.

I should write a few notes about why I haven’t switched to MT or WP yet but it’s past 1:30 a.m. and I ain’t had much sleep these past few days so I’m orf to me bed and will postpone that to another day**.

Night, night.

* who by the way has great hosting at Small Packages.

** Just time for a quick picture entitled Tragedy. From Mr Sevitz.

If anyone is using the Pro subscription and would be interested in splitting the cost via the current “buy one get one free” offer, could you email me as soon as possible? If you’d prefer to leave a comment, I’ll email you from there.

My subscription is due to be renewed today (yes I know, I’ve left it late but procrastination is my middle name) so if you could let me know rather quickly so that I can either start the process and renew for the next year with the free second subscription for you or *gulp* find the money for just the next month and find a painless way to switch from TypePad.

A new priest at his first mass was so nervous he could hardly speak.

After mass he asked the monsignor how he had done.

The monsignor replied, ” When I am worried about getting nervous on the pulpit, I put a glass of vodka next to the water glass. If I start to get nervous, I take a sip.”

So next Sunday he took the monsignor’s advice.

At the beginning of the sermon, he got nervous and took a drink.

He proceeded to talk up a storm.

Upon his return to his office after the mass, he found the following note on the door:
(more…)

There is more money being spent on breast implants and Vi@gra than on Alzheimer’s research.

This means that by 2020, there should be a large elderly population with perky b00bs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

…but first – Mark has the solution to your dating problems.

New blog alert: Miss Doxie [don't miss the pre-MT archives].

A gold star to the first person to identify the institution and location implementing this dress code.

Thank your for the sweet words on the new look and no, I’ve not had a minute to do any more today but I’m hoping for some suggestions on replacing the grey*.

Talking of banners, don’t forget that Meg has some lovely banners and other graphics, as well as some great tutorials for those of us still in the paddling pool of css.

* Anan my love, could you pull your notes out of the shredder and glue them all together again? And since the iron is on, maybe you could get them a quick press? :-0))