The 7am double-take

Or, YKYBHTLW you get spam that starts "Breaking News for ARMM" and for a bare moment you are thinking retromoderation bots, not stock symbols.

Wrong from so many directions.

It started when the California Secretary of Education told a 6-year-old that her name meant "stupid dirty girl". So that's pretty retarded to start with, and deserves a nice big boot to the head. He did apologize immediately, and the girl and her mother accepted that (not happy with the whole event, obviously, but they're past it) and don't intend to go all sue-for-emotional-damages, so you think that'd be the end of it.

Then some other people horned in, like the NAACP, and local media, and local politicians, etc. There are shouts for his resignation. It does sound like the guy's a dickhead, and if it's part of a pattern maybe he shouldn't be in the job; but considering this case in a vacuum, if the primary players are tolerably satisfied I'm not sure beating the war drums is called for.

But. The real kicker is this: certain of the Some Other People were going to have a demonstration against the SecEd...until they found out the girl was white, not black, as had been originally reported. So, um, it's an outrageous thing to say to a little black girl but not a little white girl? Run that by me again, I think I missed a step.

I award everyone involved a session in the Whack-a-Luser, except the girl (who patiently corrected the dorkwad and told him she was named for an Egyptian goddess) and her mother (for exceptional sanity in this lawsuit-happy age).

Things that make me go *snarl*

- NetBSD hangman seems to think that "obelial", "daydawn", and "Bradylexia" are words. The last should be, I admit. But it's not.

- Being out of milk when I want a cup of tea.

- (The real answer.) Being the point person for the hiring-a-new-person process, telling all the candidates that we would let them know by the end of this week, only to find that El Jefe spent Thursday in a painkiller haze or something and "couldn't find the time" anytime betwixt Wed. evening and the end of the day today to make a decision. So I have to write them all and tell them "er, um, when we said end of this week, we meant Monday." Except that I told him I wanted to say "by noon Monday" and he was all "oh, I don't know if I could promise that." WITH A TOTAL OF FOUR EXTRA DAYS YOU #$*!$&%@! grrrrrr. And the Office Mom is out of town this weekend (including all of today), so she can't deliver the almighty Bitch-Slap that's the only thing he pays heed to.

A quick beer with the darling pet, and then home to bond with arkham1010 and mir_nyc's friend Mike, before we go off to face the Fighting Uruk-Hai at paintball tomorrow. Te morituri salutamus.

Point of self-aggrandizement, sort of

My black jeans have now achieved the status of clown pants. Which is good from a weight loss perspective, but moderately shitty from the "I have no black jeans that fit" perspective.

Why SNAFU is a term that originated in the Army.

I meant to be cozily in bed by 10pm, after a pleasant evening of leisurely packing and perhaps a war movie. Instead, here I am, waiting for the call that tells me that Steve is stuck in Hoboken because he missed the last train (at 11:25 he was still at the bar in Manhattan). Ahem.

I was going to bring my dome tent for the four of us to camp in during the wee hours. After half an hour searching for it, I realized I'd lent it to M & K last Burning Man and had never gotten it back. I've got Beth's huuuge cabin tent, which we're taking instead, but it's Considered Silly.

Another hour was lost looking for the straps that attach Dad's army knapsack to the web belt. Still haven't found it. I remember seeing it last time I did a major cleaning effort, and of course it will show up next week.

My sleeping bag is still in the dryer.

We have yet to pick up jugs of water.

We leave at 0630 hours.