Idealogian

Muppet Movie

An army of Kermits playing beautiful music and doing other bizarre yet strangely charming things

Why I Shouldn't Become a Doctor

Apparently, my blog is the first result for a Google search for "medical tip of the day".

Just in case anyone out there was considering relying on my medical advice, this recent conversation should dissuade you:

[G is pregnant with twins, due soon]

G: I'll probably have a C-section, because one of them is breech and the other is transverse.

N: What does that mean?

G: Breech means that it's feet-down, instead of head-down. Transverse means that it's lying across, horizontally.

D: Is there any way to turn them around - get them both head-down?

G: Some people say acupuncture works.

Me: Ah, forget that. Save yourself time and money - a few good cartwheels should set them right.

WITWDTSF?

A co-worker replied to an e-mail with a simple four letter response: "WFFM". Confounded as to the meaning of his code, I turned to Google for help, and stumbled upon the following possibilities:

• World Federation of Friends of Museums
• Women's Faith Force Ministry
• Something having to do with nubian goats
• Worcester (Massachusetts) Fire Fighters Memorial
• Web Forum for Mailtrag
• W Fem-FM, a radio station in Pittsburgh, PA
• Wide-Field Fluorescence Microscopy
• Weed-Free Forage and Mulch

Frustratingly, none of these seemed to fit the context.

Eventually, I found the answer: Works Fine For Me. Would that have been so much harder to spell out? And is there an acronym dictionary out there for the IM-ese inept like me?

P.S. The title of this post stands for, "What In The World Does That Stand For?"

Celebrity Stumping

ABC News reports on the Palestinian "get out the vote" campaign:

Well known for his vocal support of Tibet's Dalai Lama and celebrated for his captivating good looks, [Richard] Gere urged Palestinians in a television commercial broadcast ahead of Sunday's poll in the West Bank and Gaza to get out to vote for a new president to succeed Yasser Arafat, who died in November.

"Hi, I'm Richard Gere and I'm speaking for the entire world. We're with you during this election time. It's really important. Get out and vote," Gere said in the advertisement. He repeated the final phrase in Arabic.

There's only one problem:

Many Palestinian voters, already struggling with the labyrinthine politics of the West Bank and Gaza, say they have never heard of Richard Gere.

. . .

"I don't even know who the candidates are other than Mahmoud Abbas, let alone this Gere," Gaza soap factory worker Manar An Najar told Reuters.

One wonders if the Palestinians wouldn't respond better to another popular celebrity voting campaign - P. Diddy's "Vote or Die!"

Balance

At 8 minutes, Balance is relatively long for an animated short, but it's profound enough to be worth it.

(You'll probably need to click on the lower-rightmost image - the one that says "Balance" when you move your mouse over it - to get the movie started.)

Fool Me Once, Shame On You

Fool me twice, shame on me