I hope the author can tear herself out of her ivory tower at some point and catch a few episodes of "Dirty Jobs". Not everyone is cut out for sitting around offices shuffling paper in an "intellectual" manner, after all, and the people who do (gasp) ACTUAL LABOR WITH THEIR HANDS (shudder) to keep those ivory tower offices clean and other needs met keep society running, or as Mike Rowe puts it "make civilized life possible for the rest of us. I don't expect her to condescend to do so, though. After all, heaven forbid a (shudder) plumber, who does that awful manual labor to keep the water going where it should be and staying away from where it shouldn't be, or a (gasp) auto mechanic who gets dirty keeping cars, trucks bearing goods to be purchased, etc., doing their jobs, should be acknowledged as having any useful function in the world, since they're not properly "intellectual".

But if bakeries actually hired competent employees, Gail, what would poor Jen over at CakeWrecks do for material?

So now only photogenic people who have either skilled videographers among their family/friends or the bucks to hire a skilled videographer have a shot at college admissions?

That is pretty. Nice combination and arrangement of the colors.

@BikerRay, that was my immediate reaction: visually impressive, but a major pain to dust.

My husband's reaction: "Cool Runnings 2".

How do Santa Barbara and Santa Maria count as one city when they're almost an hour apart through very non-urban territory?

@~April, I'm not surprised by your pack's dynamics. I've met very few dachshunds who weren't little terrorists with voices and attitudes roughly 10x their actual size. I've also met very few pits who weren't total sweeties.

I grew up with Dobes, and the biggest problem we had with all but one (who we got as an adult, so did not raise him) was that they never grasped when they'd outgrown laps.

Wow, Nicholas, that smugly elitist attitude toward people who don't feel the need to pay twice as much for the exact same item (or cannot afford to) or find that WalMart is about all that's open at times that fit their WORK schedules must get you SO much "romance".

@LisaL, I agree that it's just not worth it. I'm not a morning person either and don't care for crowds, even when they're relatively sane (the twice I've tackled Black Friday, sanity is not a noticeable characteristic of shoppers that day). I made sure on Wednesday I had the supplies on hand I needed to make it to Monday so I can avoid stores this weekend.

And why shouldn't "shoppers" be responsible for behaving like frenzied animals for the sake of material goodies that are LUXURIES to most of the world?

Greed is NOT an acceptable excuse for mobbing, trampling other human beings, etc.

Not exactly practical (I wouldn't try to use them), but visually striking.

Maybe I'm just in a morbid frame of mind today, but has anyone else noticed that SWHS aired on the day of the Jonestown slaughter?

I'd worry about how safe that thing is(n't), since it's so small other drivers would have a hard time seeing it, even if they're actually paying attention to their driving (pretty rare where I live).

@skipweasel, you must be a tallish male. Shorter drivers tend to find shoulder belts scraping their necks, and women (especially if they're in a point in their cycle where breasts are very tender) tend to find the seat belt seems to be attempting a mastectomy.

Easy solution, though: plastic clips that allow adjusting the shoulder belt to a comfortable angle. Inexpensive, and at least some auto supply places routinely stock them.