Evil tearjerker

From "American Dad's" TearJerker episode:

The evil tearjerker, after having failed in his first attempt, lays out his diabolical dreams for the next attempt:

"When I build my next lair, I'm going to do a lot of things differently. More quick sand, more death beams and a bench in the shower, 'coz sometimes I like to sit down".

Sigh... so many things about Family Guy and American Dad are priceless. Some of the most crisp comedic writing since Simpsons!

On social conversation

I found this chance comment by George Soros very interesting: a whole society may be contemplating something profoundly irrational - and you don't realize the absurdity of it all until you step out and question the basic premise!

From an interview on PBS with Bill Moyers:

GEORGE SOROS:Well sometimes we get carried away. I mean, you know, let's say in the Middle Ages, people were religious. And so they had tremendous discussions about how many angels can dance on the eye of a needle. Now, if you believe that angels can dance then that's a legitimate question. And this is exactly what has happened here. You thought that you could slice and dice and engage in this kind of financial engineering. And it became very, very sophisticated and got carried away.

Marfan syndrome (and a touching comment!)

Kids often say the most innocent, touching things.

From NPR story on new drug for Marfan syndrome:

(Note: The kid mentioned in the passage here, Blake Althaus, is 5.5 years old).

"After a few years of taking Losartan, Blake is doing well. He runs with the other kids, though not quite as fast. His mom says that one morning he asked if maybe new shoes would help him go faster.

"I ended up crying that whole afternoon while he was at school," Anita says. It was hard, she says, watching him realize he was a little different.

Then when she picked him up from school, she recalls, "he said 'Mom can you take me shopping so I can get new tennis shoes so I can run fast? I'm always the slowest guy.'" Anita told him that Marfan syndrome made his ankles a little loose, so running would be hard. But she also told him he was the best fisherman she had met in her entire life. "I am?" he asked, his face lighting up."