I just washed down a Pepto Bismol tablet with champagne.

“We’ll have lots of fun with Mr. Snowman” sounds like a euphemism.

So, according to this article, PETA has decided to hand out fliers to little kids coming out of the Nutcracker. The fliers “include a color drawing of a woman plunging a large bloody knife into the belly of a terrified rabbit. The fliers urge kids to ‘ask your mommy how many dead animals she killed to make her fur clothes.'”

As long as PETA is educating the public on how animals have similar feelings and instincts to humans, perhaps they should pause and consider how a mother bear reacts when someone threatens her cubs.

It is raining heavily. This man is wearing a yellow slicker and rain boots as he hoses down the sidewalk. There is obviously something so noxious on the pavement that he cannot wait a few minutes for the rain to wash it away. He would prefer to stand in the downpour with a hose to expedite the process.

When we travel, I’ve started to take my own teabags along so I’m not stuck with Lipton when the hotel room offers hot water. On our honeymoon, I took ginger peach tea along. I was having a cup recently and suddenly I felt like I was on our hotel patio in Malaysia. I could practically hear the ocean.

What I like about the word “redolent” is that it’s a perfect expression of the relationship between smells and memory. It means:

1. Having or emitting fragrance; aromatic.

2. Reminiscent; suggestive

A while back, I was reading a Salon article about how Iraqis were surprised that Saddam didn’t fight back when the troops found him. The article quoted a man who is employed by U.S. troops as a security guard. He said of Saddam’s capture, “We lost our only hope and now we are stuck with the Americans.” So that’s comforting.

In the past, I’ve tried to remain detached in the primaries. Once I choose a candidate I like, I tend to be fiercely loyal. If that person doesn’t win the nomination, I feel like a traitor when I ultimately vote for the other guy.

I spent last weekend helping Bryan with the Howard Dean campaign. He did site advance work, and I was the advance person for the hotel, which means that I missed the concert and Dean’s speech because I was watching the press core’s luggage. Though I learned very little about Dean himself, I’m hoping he gets the nomination simply because I shook his hand in a parking garage at 6 a.m. after collating his press briefing. That makes for a lame anecdote if doesn’t get elected.