What I’ve been up to: eh, not so much. Gwen and I barbecued over the weekend, and I did an AWESOME job with the swordfish, which I’m very proud of. It was my 2nd time barbecueing solo, and maybe my 5th time overall. Made a marinade of olive oil, tamari, ground ginger and chinese five-spice, which worked really well with the swordfish, plus it picked up this terrific smokiness from the coals. The first run on this particular pit we also made fish, but it was tilapia, which, of course, I had to wrap in foil …

There may very well be many other things cheerier and usefuler to pass on to you, Dear Reader, but I still can’t help myself from posting a link to the BBC story entitled, Doctors ‘find dead foetus in boy’.

My favorite line:

The condition is known as “foetus in foeto”

I came up to the redoubtable Ari at work today, brandishing a plastic spoon, and intoned,

“Spoooon….”, wondering if he’d pick up on the The Tick reference.

“Hey man,” he answered, “Fork you.”

I stalked away, crushed, unable to rejoin. Then ran back to him 30 seconds later with,

“Alright, no more mr. knife guy.”

What? That’s funny, isn’t it?

Here’s a pretty cool optical illusion. Be sure to read the (short) instructions and give it a try. The magenta dots disappear and all you see is the nonexistent green dot!

Better yet, save it til you’ve got a slow Friday night.

You’ll thank me.

I have to confess something. I noticed this about a year ago, and, then, I thought it was temporary, that it was a passing phase from which I would soon emerge. So but now I’ve waited a year, it’s summer again, and nothing has changed. I don’t know anyone else with this problem, and so I’ve hidden it, but now I just have to come out, and what better forum than my blog that only five people read?

Here it is then: I don’t like ice cream. Mostly I just don’t mind it, but lately sometimes, …

It’s 3:30 on a beautiful early summer afternoon here in Boston, my cheeks are packed with gauze, and I still can’t feel my lower lip or chin.

My appointment to have all four of my wisdom teeth removed was at 11:15 this morning. Gwen was my chauffeur and support team, Dr. Tobey Feldman was the surgeon. We arrived at the tall ugly brick building on Mass Ave right on time and so we didn’t have to spend too much time in the waiting room (medical waiting rooms rank right up there with bus and airline waiting …

This morning, blear-eyed and discontent, I staggered onto the subway car, dangled from the support bar, wished I was elsewhere. Studying those in my immedate vicinity, I noticed an older Asian woman seated in front of me, making notes in her day runner. I tried reading what she was adding to her agenda for today (so sue me), but couldn’t quite make things out. Roving eyes also discovered that her name was Joanne and that she was a school principal. Studied her more closely: yep, definitely principal material. Looked back down to her day runner.

Now …

Ralph Nader calls on the people to debate whether or not to impeach “President” Bush.