Eccentric Flower:200906/Stepchild of Linkage

Just two quickies. There are bigger entries before this, one from last night with the Betty Hutton links and one from yesterday afternoon with stuff from the archives. Maybe another archive entry later today, if I get my work done.

1. At last I have been given some minor insight into why conversations between men go the way they do. (Yes, yes, Iain, I mean straight men.) I don't really approve of conversations about sports and tits, but I can understand the noble goal of wanting to get past the Awkward.

(My usual solution for getting past the Awkward is simply not to talk to men, which carries its own penalties, however subtle.)

2. As you know, Bob, I feel that one of the first cost-cutting measures the Globe should have taken was to fire every last one of its worthless columnists (yes, including the much-awarded but now-much-declined Ellen Goodman), especially the ones who write "light" columns for the back page of the g section, and most especially especially the absolutely useless Alex Beam. I had a sloppy, now-embarrassing amateur column published in the Baton Rouge Advocate when I was a barely-teenager which is better than nine-tenths of Beam's output. There are columnists who can piss on a piece of paper and have it be more interesting reading than Beam.

So it may come as a surprise to you that today I am agreeing with him completely. Really, how can it be considered falling out of favor if there's no real penitence? How can you be said to have suffered for your crimes if you just go get a job as a talk show host or sell your tell-all book fifteen minutes later?

Something is wrong with this planet.