I've had my tongue piercing since autumn 1998. I've never lost any part of the jewelry. I've never even had any close calls.

Until today. I was eating strawberry yogurt for breakfast and felt something hard in my mouth[1]. Recognising that shouldn't be, I realised immediately what it was and stopped swallowing[2]. I fished the top of the ( Read more... )

Me: Hello?
CS: Hi, this is Sam at Nildram. You called us on Monday to cancel a BT engineer visit since your DSL connection was back up. This is a courtesy call to make sure that you're still not experiencing any further problems and are happy with the service.
Me: CS: Are you still there ( Read more... )

No, sadly not the time of year when I start posting more than fluff again. It's the People for the American Way (PFAW) auction!

Particular items of interest to some of you might be a limited edition signed lithograph from J.G. Thirwell, a guitar smashed and signed by Trent Reznor, or a signed book by Molly Ivins. If I had a few thousand dollars ( Read more... )

1. My paternal grandmother, Beatrice Arnold nee Morse, died Monday 21 November at the age of eighty-six after a long illness.

( Boston Globe Obituary )

If I wasn't half-asleep sitting up right now, I'd probably wax nostalgic about all the years we've known each other and how much you've helped shape who I am all the way back to my early BBS days ( Read more... )

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear wendolen
Happy birthday to youuuuuu!
I'd write something more erudite like going on for a while about how I'm so thankful that we've been friends for the past nine years or so and how much goodness I hope the next year brings for you, but hearing my singing in your head and possibly hearing ( Read more... )

For the third year in a row, purveyors of smutty clothing Frederick's of Hollywood is holding a celebrity lingerie art auction online (direct link to auction site here) to raise money for the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance. They are "corsets" (read: bodices) designed by such denizens of the A-list as Shannen Doherty, Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas, ( Read more... )

Home Office proposes calls to police on new non-emergency number cost flat-rate of 10p

If the plan of making citizens pay to report low-level crime to the 101 number occurs, I expect recorded instances will be at an all-time low. Not that having lower crime figures would be beneficial to Home Secretary Charles Clarke, of course.

Harriet Miers withdraws her name for consideration as Supreme Court Justice to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. Ostensibly this was to prevent the release of confidential Executive Branch documents and muddying up Executive privilege (never mind that her nomination itself arguably caused an issue with separation of powers). In reality, it was due to ( Read more... )

On 22 September I posted a music meme where one had to guess who artists were from pictures of them. I might have have picked pictures that were slightly too difficult for musicians I thought were too easy to recognise and it may have gone down like a stone somewhat for that or other reasons -- but I did promise prizes, and I always deliver.

( Who was that masked band? )