Heath Ledger, RIP

To be honest, I was not familiar with his work and knew him by name only. Sounds like this might have been an accident, but regardless, it's definitely tragic.

Prayers for his young daughter and everyone else who cared for him.

Scarlett Johansson's PSA

Michelle Malkin today reported that actress Scarlett Johansson visited our troops in Kuwait, and good on her for that. Malkin noted that Johansson is gracing the troops with her presence despite being a sharp critic of GWB (big surprise -- I know) and his anti-abortion stance.

Which led me to finding this interesting tidbit about Ms. Johansson: She gets tested twice a year for HIV. She says frequent testing is "part of being a decent human being." And, if you happen to be either freebasing or randier than a frat boy on Bourbon Street, I would agree with you.

But au contraire:

"Contrary to popular belief, I'm not promiscuous. There does seem to be a mistaken belief out there that I am sexually available somehow — which is not to say that I'm not open-minded about sex."

Makes perfect sense, ScarJo. Obviously, non-promiscuous, non-sexually-available people are in dire need of frequent HIV tests. After all, toilet-seat transmission is still a very real and scary possibility.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Unspeakably tragic

Two-year-old Bronner Burgess, son of Rick Burgess of "Rick and Bubba" fame, died last night from drowning in the family swimming pool. Investigators have ruled it a tragic accident.

The city of Birmingham is reeling. Yesterday was such a day of wonder for our city's small children, many of whom had never seen snow before. Now, there's a sad shadow on that happy memory.

God's grace be upon the Burgess family and everyone else who loved little Bronner.

No wonder he kept it a secret so long

Singer Neil Diamond has just revealed the inspiration for his hit "Sweet Caroline" -- none other than Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late JFK. "It was a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony," Diamond recalled. "It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there."

That would be ... uh ... sweet, but let's review the evidence:

Neil Diamond is 66.
Caroline Kennedy is 50.
The song was written 40 years ago, which means Diamond would have been 26 and Kennedy 10.
The song contains lyrics such as:

Hands, touchin hands
Reachin out
Touchin me
Touchin you

And ...

But now I
Look at the night
And it dont seem so lonely
We fill it up with only two
And when I hurt
Hurtin runs off my shoulders
How can I hurt when Im with you

Does anyone else besides me find this a little creepy??? Now I'm not going to be able to hear that song without thinking of ... never mind.

Dragon*Con recap

Hubby and I got home LATE last night from Atlanta. His brother and sis-in-law gave us weekend passes to Dragon*Con and two nights' lodging as a wedding gift, and a good time was had by all. A few highlights:

• Rich went over on Wednesday night to attend a two-day writing seminar hosted by author Ann Crispin and gave it rave reviews.
• Sunday night, we saw a panel discussion on "Beer Snobs in Space" on the schedule and decided to attend. (Rich is a homebrew and winemaking enthusiast.) The featured speaker had to cancel at the last minute, but a group of homebrewers filled in -- and they brought samples. :) Props to the chemistry professor who brought his "Imperial Death Star Stout" and the dude in black who treated us to real honeymead. So cool. Man, I love geeks.
• I got to meet two male idols from my childhood -- Erik Estrada of CHiPS fame and Gil Gerard, better known as Buck Rogers. Gil was friendly and wisecracking; Erik looked unbelievably handsome, even 30 years past his CHiPS days. When I told him my mom loved him, he asked her name and said, "Be sure to tell her I said hi." I called her later and told her I had a special message from Erik Estrada. Tickled her to death.
• I also got to meet three Star Trek: TNG cast members: John DeLancie ("Q") and Jonathan Frakes ("Commander Riker") were polite but seemed like they really needed a nap. (Granted, this was yesterday on the last day of the con.) But Brent Spiner ("Data") made my day. Super nice, joked with me and looked terrific.

Special note: I'm sad that our buddies Tom and Minde couldn't make the con, but they had good reason: Their daughter was born Friday. :) Welcome to Geek World, little girl.

Alton Brown on the real reason we cook

Our Patron Saint of Perpetual Good Eats


The GGB recently gave up her 40-hour-a-week Corporate America job for a kinder gig as Household COO (and occasional dance teacher and freelancer). When my former coworkers asked me if I was looking forward to a change of pace, I often told them I was excited about cooking dinner and having it ready when my husband gets home.

A few people looked at me as if I'd said I was going to be manacled to a stove and given daily beatings for my trouble.

It is not fashionable these days to be enthusiastic about the home arts. And if you do cook, you're supposed to do it as quickly as possible a la Rachael Ray. (That's another post entirely. The woman is a blight on humanity.)

However, I picked up on a bit of cosmic brilliance by the anti-Rachael, the sensei of culinary kung fu, the high priest of all that is sacred and holy about the range top and the saute pan. I give you words of wisdom from Alton Brown:

... feeding someone is an act of caring. We will always be fed best by those that care, be it ourselves or the aforementioned friends and family.We are fat and sick and dying because we have handed a basic, fundamental and intimate function of life over to corporations. We choose to value our nourishment so little that we entrust it to strangers. We hand our lives over to big companies and then drag them to court when the deal goes bad. This is insanity.

Amen, brother.

Me and Kevin Bacon

The GGB is at home with a cold. Slightly bored. Mindlessly 'Net surfing. And I wonder: How many degrees of separation are there between me and Kevin Bacon? Let's see.

Me
> college acquaintance Lissa
> Michael Keaton (Lissa used to babysit for Keaton when she lived in California)
> Jack Nicholson (starred in Batman w/Keaton)
> Kevin Bacon (starred in A Few Good Men w/Nicholson)

That was easy.

My buddy Kevin.