Actually, just visiting for the first time, but mentioning it here again as a reminder:

I’ll be reading, signing, and possibly gargling with pages from Prisoner of Trebekistan at the Yale bookstore at 3 pm today (Wednesday).  This will be followed at 4 pm by something called a Master’s Tea, which I believe is either a chat for and with the students or a bizarre underground initiation ceremony involving skulls, crumpets, and oaths of fealty to Cthulu.

I think it’s just tea, though.

The Yale Record guys, especially Mike Gerber, set this up pretty much out of the blue.  My thanks!

Update, Thursday: the whole thing was a fabulous experience.  Yale seemed like the last place on earth a working-class lefty like me might feel comfortable, but the folks there couldn’t have been more down-to-earth or fun to hang out with.  Might even have some video to share if I get a minute.  My thanks to all involved.

Hail Cthulu!

This is just weird: Congressional-page-toucher-cover-upper House Speaker Dennis Hastert spent some quality time today with a Texas evangelist who brags about his previous contacts with Saddam Hussein, Charles Taylor, and Al-Qaeda’s own Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.

Nice company to hang with.  While calling press conferences in cemeteries.

Is it just me, or has Fellini hijacked the news completely?

While we’re on it, Hastert’s minister dude reportedly used to brag about running a leper colony.  Which wasn’t actually his:

Sweet.  All the benefit of having your own personal lepers, but none of the fuss.

Not entirely unlike declaring "Mission Accomplished" before, y’know, fighting the actual war.

This is just weird: Congressional-page-toucher-cover-upper House Speaker Dennis Hastert spent some quality time today with a Texas evangelist who brags about his previous contacts with Saddam Hussein, Charles Taylor, and Al-Qaeda’s own Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.

Nice company to hang with.  While calling press conferences in cemeteries.

Is it just me, or has Fellini hijacked the news completely?

While we’re on it, Hastert’s minister dude reportedly used to brag about running a leper colony.  Which wasn’t actually his:

Sweet.  All the benefit of having your own personal lepers, but none of the fuss.

Not entirely unlike declaring "Mission Accomplished" before, y’know, fighting the actual war.

Then creep yourself out a little further by visiting Korea-dpr.com.

Particularly great (and reposted, since I mentioned this once before): the flash-animated Mitch Miller-style North Korean musical number.

So friends have been forwarding me this "Free Hugs" video that’s zipping around the Internets.  If you haven’t seen it, it’s wonderful, and here:

Now look a little more closely.  See if somebody kinda familiar-looking shows up.

The whole time I was watching this guy, I had the weirdest feeling of deja vu.  And that’s because, at the 1:12 mark or so… I’m about 99% certain that’s me.

Wow.  Yeah, I remember now.  Small planet.  Nice place, mostly.

This is precisely the sort of thing Prisoner of Trebekistan is all about.