Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

Here’s my favorite photo from yesterday, taken by Brian Snyder of Reuters as Frank walked out the door for his usual 3-mile walk to MIT.

Can you see the West Highland terrier, down by my knee?

Marianne,
age 16, or 112 in dog years, had the best time of anyone yesterday
morning–her breakfast and morning walk arrived hours early! Getting to
sniff Brian Snyder’s photo equipment was an extra treat.

She was by no means finished sniffing it when he left.

When I need advice from a brilliant young geeks, where better to find it than in the IRC of Joi Ito? Here is some good advice I got from ado, aka Adriaan Tijsseling, developer of ecto (http://ecto.kung-foo.tv), who blogs at http://blog.kung-foo.tv and is aka adriaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.

[9:36:30:] Betsy_Devine: Hey, anybody here know how to spell “rulez”? I think it should be “r00lz” or something, shouldn’t it?
[9:36:48:] ado: it’s “rules”…
[9:36:54:] Betsy_Devine: Or maybe if I can’t spell it I just shouldn’t try.
[9:37:09:] Betsy_Devine: Oh, ado, how am I going to sound hip if I spell it like that?
[9:37:18:] ado: never try to sound hip
[9:37:22:] Betsy_Devine: :-(
[9:37:24:] imajes_: heh
[9:37:24:] ado: you are hip or you aren’t
[9:37:28:] Betsy_Devine: meef

Un-hip people are known for ignoring sound advice.

Heh, not like what you might think.

Exhibit A: After Frank gave me a thumbs-up that this morning’s 5:30
phone call was what we both hoped, I ran out to the kitchen to listen
on an extension as a series of very distinguished and impressive Nobel
Committee members congratulated him.

It wasn’t until the second or third Swedish voice (a Lars or a Niels or a Sven, I was losing track) that I
realized–Frank was still totally dripping water from the shower he
climbed out of. So I ran back and grabbed a big bathrobe to drape
around him. Not that he probably noticed, but I felt good about it.

Exhibit B: I’m not used to having people ring the doorbell at 6 a.m.
who turn out to be photographers from Reuters. But Brian was very nice,
and took some good pictures.

Exhibit C: Lame remarks that are fun in retrospect: “Could you let me
park in this parking lot because my husband just won the Nobel Prize
and I’m late for his press conference?”

That’s how I wound up with a huge cardboard special permit with a
handwritten endorsement. No, it didn’t say what you might think,* it
said, “Vendor.”

So this morning the phone woke me up at 5:30 and it was a lady with a
beautiful Swedish accent. Frank was already in the shower, but he got
out and dripped all over the floor while she informed him that he and
his thesis advisor David Gross, and a third physicist named David
Politzer, just won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics!

Awesome! I’m so pleased! Frank Wilczek rulez!

On September 30, 2003, David Brooks denounced political hatred as a “core threat to democracy.”

Of course, the warriors and “haters” Brooks denounced were all
Democrats speaking out against George Bush.

I wonder what Brooks thinks about the use of hatred, fear, and contempt
as political tools when they’re used by George Bush’s team against John
Kerry. Some examples, leaving aside the Swift Boat Vets:

• The Republican National Committee issued flyers saying Democrats will ban the Bible.
• Dick Cheney said electing Kerry will produce “devastating” terror attacks on the US. (Sept. 7, 2004)
• 
  Dr. Laura claimed that terrorists are killing babies to help Kerry get elected. (September 30, 2004)

David Brooks expressed some regret that he
never spoke out against hatred when the bashers were on his own team.
It wouldn’t be too late for Brooks to speak up right now…

Yes! The first weekend in October–my kids and I are once again headed for the Deerfield Fair in Deerfield, NH. My folks took me to the fair when I was a kid, I dragged my citified boyfriend there from college (“Did you ever notice that sheep feel a lot like wool?”), and I hope if I ever have grandkids, they’ll get the chance:

• To pat the noses of giant draft horses and wobbly baby calves.
• To enjoy the latest big voice from a pre-teen country music singer.
• To smell funnel cake, cotton candy, and fresh-baked apple crisp.
• To cheer for the pig scramble, and to admire Missy the 700-pound pig (now stuffed), who began her long life as a pig-scramble piglet.
• To continue my scientific research into which of 86 kinds of home-made fudge tastes best.

If that’s not enough reasons to go–a mere 50 cents will buy you a special plastic cup that squawks like a chicken, from 82 year-old “Chicken Man.”

Love this story at Kos, where a political novice (“Kerry’s the tall guy, right?”) gives this review of the debate:

“I can tell if they were both
captured by terrorists Kerry would keep telling them to go f * * *
themselves, and Bush would cry like a baby and tell them anything they
wanted to know.”

Kos points out, however: “Bush, well, he’s big on the tough rhetoric when it’s others taking the bullets.

Bonus link: Fact Check notes debate misstatements by both Bush and Kerry.

Republican activist, claiming to be undecided, gets showcased on CNN pre-debate coverage

Why I will vote for John Kerry for President (by John Eisenhower, son of of former President Dwight Eisenhower, who supported G. W. Bush in 2000 election)

Respected conservatives agree with ‘clueless lefties’

Kerry won the debate! What can we do to defend against GOP spin?