I say “No problem!”
Apparently this marks me as a member of today’s fallen youth, as a sarcastic dick and as a presumptuous ingrate.  The phrase alleges that the speaker is a font of Zen beneficence and his or her interlocutor is a hot mess bearing shrill and ridiculous requests.  At least, that’s what Stanley Fish’s [...]

It occurred to me that it’s just not intellectually permissible to rail against chains, without distinctions.  So here are some chains that I like.
States with Ikea, states without Ikea.

States with In-n-Out, states without In-n-Out.

States with Crate and Barrel, states without Crate and Barrel.

States with Trader Joe’s, states without Trader Joe’s.

California has everything!  New Hampshire [...]

If I were a terrorist and I learned that the bulk of Christendom celebrated the central holiday of their faith, the one from which all its tenets derive, largely in the person of a bunny rabbit that lays eggs and brings chocolate, I would probably think I could nuke Chicago without consequences.  (Or Paris, if [...]

My boyfriend I went to four ice cream places in the past week because the weather was nice (it’s going to be drizzly and in the 50s indefinitely, so we did it right).  Here are my thoughts.
View Ice Cream in a larger map
Maggie Mudd
I like anything that’s in Bernal Heights, because we can walk there.  [...]

Stewart v. Cramer
You can read praise for Jon Stewart a lot of places, but what’s really amazing is the occasional difference of opinion, specifically how the Powers That Be circle to protect one of their own, no matter how crass or facile.  There is nothing more baffling than the contempt expressed from on high when [...]

OMG, I love her.  She even tells a boring story.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXpouL9Q1iY&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6]
Just when you think she’s more amused by this than you are, you get, “Put the cover on and let that boil until it cooks.  We’ll have to wait awhile.”
I love everyone over 85.  Her show should be called “The Watched Pot.”  It’s that good.  She [...]

For today, I refuse to get worked up about cartoons in the New York Post where the punch line is apparently “Black people are monkeys” or how depressing it is for the Obama Administration to continue some egregiously malevolent Bush anti-terrorism policies or how Goldman Sachs executives are openly stealing bailout money or how Detroit [...]

Awwww.  I know they’re in on it because it’s a great store.

There’s something so romantic about defleshing big pieces of meat.  Together, as a couple.

It’s not even cited in this list of desirable (or un-) US cities, but it’s totally in my top 4, along with NYC, SF and Seattle.  I’m sure it’s humid as hell for 10 months out of the year and you’d never find a decent job anyplace, but I could totally live there, especially in [...]