I just learned that Aldous Huxley used to live in an apartment right across from the one I lived in for nine years.

I have no idea why this makes me smile, but it does.  It does not
validate my existence.  It is completely meaningless.  He died 38 days
after I was born.  So it’s not like I’m gonna run into him when he
comes back because he forgot a box of underpants when he moved out or
anything.

The building I lived in for nine years is HUGE, by the way, and so is
the one Aldous Huxley lived in facing me, so this is hardly a surprise.  Warren Zevon lived in my
building.  I’d see him in the mail room.  Kato Kaelin used to visit
somebody on the floor above me.  I’d see him in the elevator
sometimes.  David Carradine almost walked right into me once.  No idea
what he was doing there.  The publisher of Screw magazine had a place in the back.  You’d see girls coming and going sometimes, and just know where they were headed.

I could go on with a dozen other names (and will someday; I’m sure it’s
quite a list if I ever sit down and write it), but you get the idea.

Y’know those TV ads (or California gubernatorial races) where they slam
34 different B-list celebrities into the same commercial, just to get your
attention?  This was that.  I used to live in one of those, 24/7.

Almost everyone on Earth has
lived or will live in my old building at one time.  Probably including
you.  So I should be used to this sort of thing.  Aldous Huxley should
be one more name on the stack.

But for some reason this strikes me as actually cool.  Aldous Huxley.  Neat.

And 29 other things you did not know about Chuck Norris here.  A few are appalling.  Most will make you laugh.  I actually laughed out loud at several.

Thanks to reader Alex.

Ordinary Dik-Dik:

Dik-Dik after getting a little too aggressive with that yoga stretching class:

OK, actually, that’s just another Gerenuk.

But still.

Another way to look at this terribly depressing poll, indicating that 46 percent of Americans think torture is "often" or "sometimes" justified.

Incidentally, if you read down in the article, that among security experts, opposition to torture is "particularly pronounced."  So, yes, almost half of America supports an inhuman practice that doesn’t work, in spite of the opinions of people who actually know what they’re taking about.

So despite the appearance that the nation is coming to its senses, um, no.  It’s not.

The only upside I can see: the Bush administration is now at least ten points behind the practice of torture itself.

At least I guess this gives the Democrats an opening.

Obama/Torquemada in 2008!

Amazing number of appalling stories in the last few days.  I don’t have
much to say beyond the obvious.  (Besides which, my voice has still
only healed to the sound of Tom Waits with his airway blocked by a
thrashing toad.)

Anyhow, here’s some stuff:

I find myself wondering, even after my own explanation: how is it possible Bush still has 36% support?