Surveillance video showing destruction of a bank drive through in Center, Texas (July 2, 2008).  According to the local paper, the Shelby County Today, no one was injured.

As you may recall from an earlier post, the phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid,” is a piece of corporate jargon used to indicate company loyalty.

Sometimes it’s not enough to just say you drink the Kool-Aid.  If you really want to show devotion to a company, you have to go farther.  Not as far as Jonestown, thankfully.   For example, take a look at the photo below, sent to me by a good friend (let’s call her “Ruby”).

Pictured here with two cube-farm co-workers, Ruby is the one metaphorically drinking the metaphorical Kool-Aid:

*

*photo posted with permission of those pictured

I just got back from two weeks vacation in Europe. Was very nice. I set my blog on autopilot, posting five pre-written entries automatically over the time I was gone.

I couldn’t keep my millions of readers waiting two full weeks for a post!

Just got home from watching Dreamgirls. To answer my question from Saturday: I liked it.

[12/19/2006 UPDATE: Actually, I liked it quite a bit. Jennifer Hudson was amazing, and she performed so well throughout the movie that it took some of the pressure off when she finally got to "And I Am Telling You..." because by that point she'd already established herself as fabulous. She performed that song beautifully, but after watching I realize that comparing her performance to Holliday is not really fair. It's like comparing apples and oranges -- Holliday knocked the top off of the song because she was projecting to a Broadway audience. Hudson's performance is different, it's more subtle and sad, and a bit less angry and desperate than Holliday's. I love them both.]

[UPDATE #2: Salon.com has a nice article on Holliday's rendition of And I Am Telling You.]

I just returned from a week in New York City. I love New York. How can you not love New York?

You don’t need to be a plant lover — just a fan of interesting photography — to enjoy a visit to the Botany Photo of the Day, sponsored by the University of British Columbia’s Botanical Garden. If you visit the site, make sure to click on the thumbnails to see the full pictures.

Here are some recent photographs I enjoyed:

I have to thank Tim Bray for introducing me to the POTD website. Incidentally, Tim has been encouraging me to blog for at least two years, so in some sense he’s at least partially to blame for what you read here.

First, they ban “Lawn Darts,” then they ban “My First Exploding Chemistry Set (ages 7 and up)”. And now there’s a crackdown on kids playing tag:

October 18, 2006 (AP) —

Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they’ll get hurt and hold the school liable.

Oy.

No, “The Great Buffalo Lick” is not what you’re thinking. What are you thinking? It’s the name of a giant North American salt lick discussed in the book I’m reading, Salt: A World History, by Mark Kurlansky.

To be honest, I’m not in love with the book. Yes, it has buzz. Yes, it was featured on George Bush’s fake Summer reading list, as published this year by the White House. Yes, it is well written and has some interesting historical discussions. But in the end, it’s about salt. And for some reason I just can’t get excited about curling into bed every night with a book about salt.

When I’m through with Salt, the next book on my nightstand waiting to be read is a very short, happy looking book by David Rakoff, Don’t Get Too Comfortable. I’m embarassed to reveal the title of the next book on my list, now sitting underneath the David Rakoff one. I won’t give you the title, but I will say it was a book recommended by Tim Gunn in a recent Project Runway Podcast.

Mary Forrest has been encouraging me to create a blog. Usually her encouragement takes the following form:

1. I send an email to Mary.

2. Mary replies: “this is brilliant, why don’t you put it in a blog?”

Mind you, I’m a modest person who would never, under any circumstances claim that what I write is brilliant. I’m merely repeating — with no ulterior motive — what Mary says. And Mary, as you can see, is in fact brilliant. You are free to draw your own conclusion by regularly coming back to visit and read this site in the decades and centuries to follow. Assuming, of course that I actually create more than one post.