There's something kinda brilliant about this 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' parody. It inverts the idea of us rich Americans saving the world with our holiday spirit, it's funny, and it features a stunning number of people I like. It's kinda of like "We Are the World", if "We are the World" had actually been cool.

Hung out with Special K this weekend, where we went hunting for Halloween costumes. The library trustees have advised me to dress up as a character from a book, which I frankly think is a little overdone, but what the hey. Nancy made the very fair point "It's libraries-- everything is overdone." Which is hard to argue with.

But really, I can't just be any character from any book. The junkie in Bright Lights, Big City? Not so much. Even someone like George from of Mice & Men, while funny (I could carry a crushed, dead bunny) is probably not so great for the kiddies.

Really, I have to be someone from a kids book.

And don't even suggest Harry Potter to me, because I'm sick to death of Harry Potter.

I was thinking of The Man in the Yellow Hat, from Curious George, which seemed like a winner to me. Until I saw this costume:



Something about that picture deeply frightens me. It's hard to say exactly what. I don't recall The Man in the Yellow Hat being quite so... let's say fey. Also, the shirt seems eerily like the ripaway a stripper would wear. Or is that just me? I don't mean to be putting weird man in the Yellow Hat fantasies in your head. And believe me, they're more like nightmares. And what's going on with that hat?

Anyway, looking for a new idea. Many folks have suggested Max from "Where the Wild Things Are", since its iconic and the character and I share a name, but that costume frankly seems like an insane amount of work.

Picked up the new Sunset Rubdown album this morning, and I'm very taken with it. The usually fascinatingly dour Spencer Krug is now fascinatingly peppy. Enjoy it while it lasts, I suppose. It's a great lo-fi indie rock album, and I can't imagine those fellas staying upbeat for long.

My pal Eric is in Essen this month for, well, Essen-- the German Board game expo. It's a big deal if you're a geek like me for Eurogames. Happily, I learned that some artwork I created for Bohnanza will be put in the fan-favorite edition of the game. My artwork! On Bohnanza cards! If you're geeky, this is awesome. (If you're not, just take my word for it.)

Clay and I continue to fret about our impending wedding. Who will marry us? What should we say? Etc, etc. Weddings don't plan themselves. I'm remarkably dispassionate about the whole thing (Clay and I have been together for six years-- it's not like we're newlyweds), and I'm kind of the mind to be married by some sort of WeddingBot. WeddingBot3000. You go to the mall, give the WeddingBot a quarter, and bam, you're married. Also it takes your blood pressure.

There's gotta be a market for that.

Found in this months Baker & Taylor catalog--

PATRICIA CORNWELL:

THE FIRST NAME IN FORENSICS.
THE LAST NAME IN SUSPENSE.

----
That doesn't even make sense! (Or at least, it would imply that her books are very forensics-y and boring.) I propose:

COPY WRITERS FOR PUTNAM PRESS:

THE FIRST NAME IN CAPITAL LETTER USAGE.
THE LAST NAME IN MAKING SENSE.

I don't care if you're a children's librarian, an animated dancing cartoon elephant as part of your email signature is just plain tacky.

Can there be any doubt that I love this stuff? You take my favorite beverage (Diet Pepsi), fill it with my favorite drug (caffeine), and slap my name (Max) on the end of it? It's like it was made for me!

So, Diet Pepsi Max = amazing. I'm not debating this truth with any of you. But I do think the the construction of the name interesting. The suffix " Max" apparently means 'more caffeine', which I generally like. But I'm curious about other name suffix constructions. For example:

Diet Pepsi Clay = Diet Pepsi with Insulin
Diet Pepsi Linda = Diet Pepsi with Tea (?)
Diet Pepsi Ghengis = Diet Pepsi with the blood of your enemies

What is Diet Pepsi _yourname_?

You may have seen this already-- it's making the blog rounds, but I find it really fascinating. It's some sort of awful Bob Fosse number (seemingly from the 70's variety show of the damned) but set to Outkast instead whatever hellforsaken Herb Albert piece it originally used. Really fun-- but you should dig up the original bit-- it's mindblowing how differently we interpret the dance when set to different music.



This one is very similar, if a little less accomplished. It's a dance number from "Singin' in the Rain" set to 'I Don't Like the Look of It'. It doesn't have quite the euraka moment of Walk it Out, Fosse, but it's great fun. And the song is extremely addictive.



Finally, to finish of the remixed dance Trifecta, I present you with the Teletubbies. It's interesting; with different music, the Green teletubby actually seems kinda funky (although Tinky Winky still can't dance-- gay one, my foot.)

I don't know, I love all the videomashups floating around YouTube these days, but I think dance-to-music mashups might be my favorite. Any of you guys seen any good ones?

Well, it's been too long since the last post, I realize. I think I've largely slowed my posting here because my family members somehow discovered my blog. That'll take the wind out of your blogging sails, my friends. I mean, honestly, if I can't complain about my parents here, what is there left to say?

I'm kidding, (Dad!) Ha!

Anyway, let's see the big unblogged news is that Clay and I are getting hitched, as the title of this post seriously foreshadows. The plan right now is February-- we figure that January will be overcrowded with gay fellas getting hitched, given that that's the month it goes into effect-- and we figure waiting another month won't kill us. But yay us! More on this as it develops.

What else? Well, at the moment, I'm also seriously exploring the harrowing world of gay adoption. Oh, you lesbians, how I envy you! No government agencies for you. All you need is sperm, and a baby is magically produced. Sperm! That stuff's ridiculously easy to come by. I sometimes just find it on the sidewalk, or on the floor of the men's restroom at the library. If eggs were this abundant, I'd have dozens of children already.

But that's us at the moment. Don't drop me as a friend (Maggie)-- I'll start posting again, I swear!

So, I've been reading through the Department of Justice info dump regarding the "Octo-Gonzo" scandal-- (the dumping of eight US. prosecutors, for what appear to be politically motivated reasons-- [they were prosecuting republicans for corruption.])

There's a lot of skeevy stuff in there, but I leave it to much more intelligent blogs like Talking Points Memo to sort out the gory details. What I can't believe is how teenage girl squad some of these folks sound in their email. An email from U.S. Attorney to be, regarding what particular day his predecessor will be ousted:

-----Original Message-----
From: Griffin, Tim (USAARE)
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 2:31 PM
To: Goodling, Monica
Subject: RE: hey

cool.

a couple of concerns.

if his last day is Friday the 22nd, that is the Friday before Christmas and it will be (a) difficult to find the chief judge probably and (b) weird to press to issue a press release on my taking over the next day (Saturday) or that Monday (Christmas)

i am going on a long scheduled vacation on the week of the 9-16 December in St. John it is the continuation of the honeymoon that was cut short due to the white house's need for me to start asap. i would like to come back from that and have bud leave that week. i dont want to become the u.s. attorney and then be gone the following week.

ZOMG!!! im gone 2b t/ us attorney? teh roxxors!!! rotfl!

Yowsa... Tim Griffin. Are you a 14 year-old-girl? Is our new U.S. Attorney BOY CRAZY?!? No? Then why the lack of punctuation and grammar, friend? And the subject title of your email is "RE: hey"? You're killing me!

Also, Tim's resume is included in the DOJ files. It is one of Microsoft word pregens.

Somehow, that scares me more than the corruption.

The New York Times Online always has a particular way of denoting its link/headline for its letters to the editor pages. It will summarize the gist of the letters in a phrase, and then tell you how many letters are on the topic. It works well enough, but the result looks like nothing so much as crossword puzzle clue. "Showboating in Selma (7 letters)" is how a typical day's headline looks.

Now, even though I know that they're not really a crossword puzzle clue, I still rack my brains over these things. I don't know why-- it seems to touch some primal crossword puzzle part of me. I'm thinking "Showboating in Selma"-- G-A-M-B-L-I-N-G? Is that the right number of letters? C-A-S-I-N-O-S?

I rarely am able to solve these things, but I always try.

Today, however, we have:

Alternatives to the Nursing Home (4 Letters)

Which I solved with (drag over for my answer): U-R-N-S

It's embarassing, but this makes me deeply happy.