I stopped by Blockbuster today to take back our horribly overdue copy of “The Illusionist” — brilliant! fabulous! — and picked up one of those obviously independent chick flick movies that dot the bottom two shelves. It’s called “Her Minor Thing,” and it was delightful. I don’t mean to suggest this is groundbreaking filmmaking or …

I’m starting to believe the unthinkable has happened. Either I am being invaded by bookshelf gremlins, or I have lost an important piece of my personal library. In the last month, I have gone hunting for four separate books, each I would consider absolutely vital to my collection, and each time I have been completely …

This is probably my favorite picture from all we took in Europe. This was in Tallinn, Estonia, the last port of call on our 10-day cruise. We were about halfway up the hill in the historic district of Tallinn. We’re posing along one of the many centuries-old city walls (ramparts) along the way up the …

This Slate article is one of the funniest pieces I’ve read since Emily Yoffe’s last article, whenever/whatever that was. Here’s a preview: The Bride of FrankensteerMy 2,000-pound steer falls in love. By Jon Katz Posted Monday, Dec. 11, 2006, at 12:03 PM ET Elvis settled in remarkably well, given that I’ve never had a …

I’ve been really quiet lately — most of the semester, in fact — but today I got proof positive that my efforts have paid off. I’ve mentioned before (including recently) that, as time goes by, I feel increasingly more at home in my new academic discipline (political science). I started the program about 16 months …

Apparently, Sonja Boles, who I’ve previously described as the bitch landlord from hell, has struck again. My heart goes out to the anonymous poster who this morning sent an “amen” to my past posts lamenting the misfortune of our decision to live in one of her rental properties. It wasn’t that long ago that I …

Graduates of Mountain Home (Arkansas) High School will recognize that line from one of the staple cheers. (For those who aren’t familiar, my high school alma mater’s mascot is a Bomber. We even have one!)Anyway, I digress. I have many things to report vis-a-vis my awesome high school, and here they are. First, the football …

I’m working fast and furious on a major project/paper due next Tuesday for one of my classes. I have spent much of the semester not complaining about this particular assignment, in stark contrast to many of my peers in the class, because it’s (in theory) a far more palatable assignment than many of the things …

I was heading back to campus after a very brief reprieve from my normal, hellish Monday routine yesterday around 2:30 when I heard the absolutely coolest thing on KERA, Dallas’s local NPR station. It was a story from the PRI program The World about a hotel in Romania that was built as a replica of …

This will mean very little to almost everyone who reads it, but TOO BAD. I just found out late last night (1 full day late, so I had completely given up hope) that I got a solo paper accepted for presentation at the Midwest Political Science Association meeting next April in Chicago. THIS IS HUGE! …