And this is how the first Padishah Emperor, creator of the Landsraad, got his start.

You didn’t hear what you heard. No one did. Crooked Hillary. My earpiece cut out, and it didn’t feed me advice, my earpiece transmitted sounds because it’s hooge. Crooked Hillary. Crooked Hillary. Nothing I say or do is my fault, ever. Crooked Hillary.

Can anyone help provide a film title? Film about a bunch of kids and a robot (natch), the kids thinking the robot was a toy but it was actually a weapon; it would attempt to kill, and when it failed it would upgrade itself, each time becoming more deadly. I can remember it learned that shooting ping-pong type balls…

“Product Invented to Fill Void That Doesn’t Exist -- Again”

A false sense of democracy. Americans love personal service, but are unsure how to treat people who provide that service. The usual categories of friend, acquaintance, relative, etc., don’t apply, leaving some to the “hail well met” technique of forced equality. “I’m employing you to drive me, but I’m going to sit in…

Two things jump out at me looking at the photos. One is that the badge on the trunk seems to me to be about half the size of the current badge, which can be seen from space. The other is that rims are branded with an “A” for Azure instead of the present-day “B”. Can’t really be sure from the photos, but I think even…

She was competing in The Guardian’s Stupidest Woman in America contest.

It’s called the “Project Runway Gambit”, where you take a mildly commercial but very watchable show to another network that allows sixty minutes of product placement. (Someone must still be watching Project Runway as it’s still on the air, but I never hear discussed a la watercooler any more.)

Brits mourned when GBBO (known as GBBS in the U.S.) producers announced its move to Channel 4. They cheered when Mel and Sue announced they were sticking with the BBC, and they’re cheering now for Mary Berry’s decision.

Seems like the only time anyone ever asks me what I’m reading is when the book I’ve got in hand is some obscure by-blow of an unpopular literary genre that sold seven copies when published in 1936. On the plus side, they then look at me funny and leave.

Cowards do that. Gives them an easy out, and that’s better than answering hard questions.

It’s a happy accident that has made the world a better place, even though I’ve yet to figure out how to drop the phrase into conversation. (But I will, oh I will.)

My new favorite phrase is now “bridge and groom”, which I will have to work into the conversation while including the phrase “bride and tunnel”.

That’s the model I’ve got. In the fall the local markets seem to have more varieties of apples every year, and I use it daily.

I remember the mail order catalogs that purveyed such wonders.

Brought to you by the same people who brought you glass slippers, maidens in a tower with long hair, and little girls in red capes on their way to Granny’s house.

Or you can not spend $17 and learn how to use kitchen tools you already own, such as a knife, fork, spatula... funny how this point doesn’t say “Sponsored”, because it reeks of — let’s just say it lack common sense.

There is a significant subset of people who treat all royals (any flavor) as dolls to dress up and participate in their tea parties. All the romance, twice the specialness, and no historical perspective that allows anyone with a crown to be a human being that shits once a day, pees somewhat more frequently, burps…

Ooh, that retractable rear window. I was convinced that every car was going to have one the very next production year because they were so cool.

Only? Only?!?