Apparently clothing merchants have finally realized two screamingly obvious facts: one, that women over forty do not look good in the same tight, clingy, brief, outfits that 15 year old girls can, er, get away with wearing, although truthfully, most teenagers don't look so hot in them either, in fact, "lumpy sausage" has been the dominant fashion silhouette for the past several years.
Two, that women over forty often have, you know, money to spend on fashion.
Oh, and babyboomers.
I also suspect something else is going on here -- the fashion industry requires novelty, always -- something that feels "new" to bring people inside and coax them to pull out their credit cards. And they really had pushed the lumpy sausage look as far as it could go. Fashion is at the peak of ugly shapelessness, which means the thing that looks really fresh, really sharp and surprising, is tailoring. You know, a-line skirts and so on.
I totally mis-identified this headline, "Rice in Indonesia." I thought it was about the food item. It's actually about our fashionable, yet psycho, Secretary of State. Although in this article she comes across as fairly normal.
Rice held up Indonesia as an example of tolerance, making an implicit contrast with extremist Muslim ideology and Islamic terrorism.
"I don't think there's any disagreement that we need to fight this common enemy," Rice said. Terrorists have struck in Bali and Jakarta in recent years, including a fatal blast at the downtown hotel where Rice's party stayed.
Keeping up with natural disasters:
- Swarms of tornadoes that killed at least 10 people and caused extensive destruction across the Midwest.
- Wildfires in Texas Panhandle that have killed at least 11 people and scorched 1,000 square miles.
- And, ironically, the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma has left Cancun a much more pleasant place to spend spring break.
The sugar-white sand beaches are back after being swept away by Hurricane Wilma five months ago. But there are no stages for wet T-shirt contests, and MTV won't be hosting its spring break beach party.
This is pretty hilarious. In a sad way. Alaska wants to change its image. Governor Frank Murkowski wants the state to hire a public relations firm to change the perception of Alaska as "greedy for federal dollars and all too willing to plunder the environment for profit." He wants to change this perception in order to sway public opinion in favor of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
Think about that for a few moments.
Naomi Wolf finds Jesus, but not in an Anne Rice sort of way. Naomi Wolf finds a very personal and still-Jewish version of Jesus. Which I appreciate, really, because it's guaranteed to annoy everyone, and therefore has that ring of sincerity.
Isaac Hayes, the voice of Chef, has quit South Park for religious reasons. Matt Stone said he and co-creator Trey Parker "never heard a peep out of Isaac in any way until we did Scientology. He wants a different standard for religions other than his own, and to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begin."
Seattle is a "hotbed of vegetarian goodness," according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Even so, Seattle is only the second most vegetarian friendly city in the country.
Number one is Portland. I assume only cities of a certain size were considered, because otherwise I suspect Bellingham would be up there.
"Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You didn't place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."
-- Jamie Raskin, testifying March 1, 2006 before the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee in response to a question from Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs about whether marriage discrimination against gay people is required by "God's Law."
Jesus doesn't want me for a sunbeam. Or maybe he does.
