Useful.

Concentration.

Lovely review in the Wapo of a book called "Rapt", whose thesis is that noone concentrates on anything any more. (See also the mythology around multi-tasking. I don't think you can do two things at once if one of them requires much mental effort. And don't get me started on the connection between this and the gender sterotype....)

Anyway, the reviewer says:

Spending an hour doing just one thing -- such as reading a book or practicing a musical instrument -- may soon be the equivalent of wearing spats

Note.

Note to self: If I ever go out drinking again with Neighbor Girl and her friends, I have to make sure I don't have to do anything the next day except lie in bed and recuperate.

Rewrite...

It's so perfect.

SGT Joey

These nigerians are getting lazy. I got this spam today, which I reproduce in its entirety. Nothing about plane crashes or someone's uncle who was finance minister. Just this:

I am SGT joey, with the USA Army in Iraq, we have 20,000,000.00 USD and we want to move the funds out, you will be entitled to 8 Million, respond for details.

Why I don't live in Cairns.

This gem's been doing the rounds for the last few days. Cairns Post did a street-corner vox-pop asking passers-by what they were going to do with their $900 stimulus package windfall. Brilliant!

Apart from the Connor Simpson thing, I think it's interesting to note that two of the others were planning on spending money on tattoos.

Another Queensland newspaper (and why does that sound vaguely comical?) did a follow-up and interviewed our man Connor, who claims that the whole thing was a joke. And, strangely enough, I believe him.

Bristols

I'm sure everyone but me already knows this one, but I was reading in the Australian today about the dispute between the Palins and the father of Bristol's child. It's oddly fascinating as these things often are. But the best bit was a statement from the Palins, trying to diffuse the whole thing:

"Bristol is focused on going to college, raising Tripp and advocating abstinence."

Abstinence? It's a bit late, surely.