last saturday nite in adams morgan my girlfriends an i encountered the full spectrum of socially retarded men…or so i thought! sunday evening i received what is most certainly the most inappropriate text message ever sent after a first date. i should have seen the warning signs when we spoke an hour before our tentatively scheduled “date” and he still had no idea about where or exactly when we would be meet. seriously…what is WRONG with men these days?! he finally managed to come up with some semblance of a “plan” i.e. select a location and time to meet me there (wow…difficult). the date itself only served to confirm that this guy (though seemingly nice enough) was not for me. no spark at all; not even decent conversation. i head home with no intention of going on date #2.

sunday rolls around and he texts me about going salsa dancing wednesday. he earns a point for advance planning, but still im just not into him. at this point i could simply not respond and hope he goes away…this is common practice and generally acceptable behavior after one or two dates. however i decide its more mature and polite to text him saying that i cant do salsa, he seems like a good guy but i didnt really feel like we clicked. THIS is what he texts in response “yeah i agree, but i was really looking forward to the sex.” ummm really. i wasn’t! WHAT THE F&*^! first of all i cant imagine what gave him the idea there would even BE any sex…i was not at all attracted to him which was apparent in my decidedly un-flirtatious demeanor. furthermore i ended the nite early and LEFT him at the bar then declined the second date! and this makes him think im interested in sex? men are fucking delusional.

to be fair, i could imagine a scenario where sucha  text MIGHT be appropriate…say if two people had been out a couple times and there was a palpable sexual tension between them despite signs that perhaps a committed relationship wasn’t a likely outcome…in that case things would be different. this guy clearly isnt familiar with the subtleties of body langauge and the intricacies of interpersonal dynamics which dictate the liklihood of sex. he is apparently operating under the more animalistic gorilla-level thinking that he is man, i am woman and therefore we “do it.” 

though the text message gaffe was a first, this guy was one of many poorly socialized undateable guys disguised as an educated civilized person. oh the array of bullshit i have encountered!

i would rather just be an old cat lady with some awesome vibrators

1) Make toast
Not just any old piece of toast, but that which has been cut thick from a fresh, old-fashioned white loaf. It should be toasted over the hot plate of an Aga, till the cut sides reach only the palest gold, and the crusts have blackened very slightly round the edges. It should be spread with salted (yes, salted) Welsh butter and eaten before some of the butter has had the chance to completely melt.

2 Eat the best
Simon Rogan, chef-patron of Michelin starred L’Enclume, and several others of those in the know suggest the full symphonie menu at La Ferme de Mon Père – Marc Veyrat’s restaurant in Megève. The owner was awarded three Michelin stars for this faithful reconstruction of a Savoyard farmhouse in the mountains of the Haute Savoie. Purpose-built to his own design, the building is a homage to his peasant-farmer father and his own roots, where every night the animals would be brought into the stables under the house. And indeed at La Ferme, where authentic farmyard smells permeate the eating area, diners can look down through the glass panes in the floor onto the flock of mountain sheep, a carthorse and a flock of hens. I would agree with them all, except that I have never been comfortable with being introduced to an animal before I sit down and eat it.
· La Ferme de Mon Père, Megève, France (00 33 4 50 21 01 01), 16 courses for approx £238

3) Dismember a chicken
Nigella Lawson says that everyone should do this at least once in their lives. It is actually quite easy when you get the hang of it, and your supper will taste much better for your having had a hand in it, so to speak.

4) Eat lunch at Le Grand Véfour
Housed in a corner of the delicate stone arcade that frames Paris’s Jardin du Palais Royale, just up from the Comedie-Française, Le Grande Véfour is literally the mother and father of all restaurants. Véfour, once a chef to the French royal household, founded the establishment that bears his name back in the 1780s. Here you will eat Guy Martin’s melt-in-themouth raviolis de foie gras, an emulsion de crème truffé from Limoges china and pore over one of the world’s most revered wine lists. At least that is what I am told by very informed foodies. A word of warning: wear your dark glasses or risk being blinded by the OTT decor and swirly carpets.
· Le Grand Véfour, 17 Rue de Beaujolais, Paris (00 33 1 42 96 56 27) approx &euro200 a head

5) Boil a new-laid egg
Our own Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall suggests a freshly laid egg from a self-raised hen, boiled for 4½ minutes and served with well-buttered granary toast soldiers. Allergic to eggs myself, I will just have to take his word for it. You can have the egg Hugh, I’ll have the soldiers.

6) Dine at the French Laundry
First you must devote yourself to getting through to reservations at this Californian shrine – put the phone on redial and speakerphone and be prepared to sit there for an hour or more. Then God help you if you actually want a reservation on a specific day at a specific time. The place itself is delightful, situated in a small house that was once a French laundry (the only reminder now is an old-fashioned wooden clothes peg attached to each stiff white linen napkin). The restaurant has a charming, lush garden – perfect for pre-dinner drinks, and the kitchen is visible through huge windows so you can watch the chefs praying over their minuscule towering creations. · The French Laundry, 6640 Washington Street, Yountville, California (00 1 707 944 2380)

7) Take a dip
More precisely, dip into the warm cheese fondue at Watergate Bay’s Beach Hut in Cornwall after a morning’s surfing. Converted from a bucket and spade shop, the Beach Hut manages to combine a slightly chaotic informality with fantastic food. The wooden walls, wicker chairs, primary colours and reggae background music create a colourful beach-shack ambience, while the views are of endless sand and sea.
· The Beach Hut, Watergate Bay, nr Tregurrian, Cornwall (01637 860877)

Dive for sea urchins
Fino’s Sam Hart would be happy to end his days diving for sea urchins then eating them raw with a slice of lemon on the beach. Certainly there are worse ways to go. If I were a better swimmer I would join him, but I’m happy to make do with the octopus platter at his London restaurant.
· Fino, 33 Charlotte Street, London (020 7813 8010)

9) Pick your own
Our forests and meadows are a valuable, yet under-exploited food source. Fromlate spring till the first frosts, you will find everything from chanterelles to puffballs just waiting to be picked. For the best breakfast of all, head to the woods with your camping stove and fry yourself a fine plate of freshly gathered mushrooms, cooked briefly in a little butter and eaten straight from the pan. Just make certain that you know what you are picking.

10) Eat fish on the Pampelonne
Club 55 is St-Tropez’s most infamous beach hangout, put on the map in the 1950s by Brigitte Bardot, and now loved by celebs like Bono . Eating the restaurant’s overpriced grilled fish while wearing nothing more than a thong is now a rite of passage for any aspiring model, actress or porn star. If you can’t get a table, try Le Voile Rouge up the beach. Of course the food is irrelevant, but who cares?
· Club 55, Pampelonne Beach, St-Tropez (00 33 4 94 55 55 55)

11) Make love in a vineyard
Don’t all rush at once, but making love in a vineyard is at the top of Tim Atkin’s list. Not just any vineyard either, not even any French vineyard, but in no fewer than all five of the Bordeaux first growth vineyards. ‘At night,’ The Observer’s wine editor adds somewhat coyly. I guess it beats the ladies’ loo in All Bar One.
· Château Lafite-Rothschild, Chateau Latour, and Château Mouton-Rothschild all in Pauillac, Médoc, Château Margaux, in Margaux, Médoc and Château Haut-Brion, in Pessac-Cedex, Graves

12) Slurp udon noodles in Takamatsu
Takamatsu, in the prefecture of Kagawa, on the island of Shikoku, to the south of Japan is to noodle lovers what Mecca is to Muslims. According to Terry Durack, restaurant critic and author of Hunger, in this one little town, 300 noodle restaurants all serve up bowls of big thick white, gloopy udon noodles. He suggests you look for hand-kneaded udon, and tells us not to worry about making a noise as we eat. You’re supposed to slurp.

13) Learn how to make a dry martini
Mr Durack says the perfect ratio is six parts gin to one part vermouth. He’s right of course. He says that you pour the gin and vermouth over ice in a chilled shaker, then mix and strain quickly into a chilled martini glass. There are more rules too: any more vermouth and it’s a mixed drink. Any less and it’s a shot. Anything more than a green olive or a twist of lemon and it’s a salad.

14) Nibble cheese-flavoured chocolates
Pascal Aussignac from Club Gascon and Le Cercle raves over the cheese-flavoured chocolates created by Jean-Paul Hévin in Paris. Combinations such as chocolate, walnut and Roquefort or epoisses, (that’s the stinky one) chocolate and cumin may sound bizarre but the salt/sweet mix of flavours is to die for. Intrepid eater I may be, but I think I’m going to take Pascal’s word for it on this one. Camembert and Terry’s chocolate orange anyone?
· JP Hévin, 23 Bis, Avenue de la Motte-Picquet (00 33 1 45 51 99 64)

15) Tread grapes in a laga
Tim Atkins gets his kit off again, but this time to tread grapes in a laga inPortugal’s upper Douro. He insists you should have consumed a bottle of vintage port before you start.

16) Buy a turbot
Peter Weeden of the Paternoster Chop House suggests a trip to Charlestown harbour in St Austell Bay, Cornwall, to catch the day boats just coming in. He wants us to buy a whole, fresh turbot and take it home to cook. Personally I can’t think of anything nicer, especially if someone makes a little jug of hollandaise sauce to go with it.

17) Lick an ice cream in Sicily
So overrun are we by the choc-chip-fudge-crunch-style American ice creams that it is easy to forget what the real stuff tastes like. The ices at Corrado Costanzo in Noto, Sicily, are arguably the best you can find anywhere in the world. Mandarin, made with Sicilian oranges, is probably the most in-demand flavour at this ice-cream and pastry shop but try also mulberry and the jasmin sorbet that’s made with flowers picked in the evening when they are at their most fragrant. Chunky Monkey eat your heart out.
· Corrado Costanzo, Via Spaventa 7, Noto, Sicily (00 39 931 835 243)

18) Shuck an oyster
Any excuse to slurp a decent oyster, but Racine’s Henry Harris, who has shucked a few in his time, recommends a platter of ‘wild native oysters, from a forgotten oyster bed’. He is right, of course, and I come across so many people who say they don’t like these delectably slithery, sexy little creatures but, when pressed, have to admit to never having tried one. Yet why do so many of us rank them as one of the all-time greatest food on earth? Do I have to get down on my knees and beg?

19) Order a Bellini in Harry’s Bar
It is tempting to think that ordering a Bellini at Harry’s Bar is the Venetian equivalent of buying a kiss-me-quick hat in Blackpool. It isn’t. Everything about Harry’s Bar is spot-on, from the napery to the carpaccio. Pity about the prices.
· Harry’s Bar, Calle Vallaresso, Venice (00 39 41 52 85 777) &euro14 for a Bellini

20) Wolf down a hotdog on Coney Island
Martha Greene, the brains behind London’s foodie haven Villandry, has high praise for the hot dogs on New York’s Coney Island. But not just any old dog. She claims it must be from Nathan’s and you must eat it on the pier. And you don’t argue with Martha.

21) Poach a snail
Morgan Meunier of London restaurant Morgan M raves over a particular snail dish served at Lameloise in Burgundy. The chef first poaches the snail to remove its rubbery consistency and then serves it in a sauce made from local wine breaking from the tradition of serving it with garlic. So much for me thinking they taste like bogies in garlic butter then.
· Lameloise, 36 Place d’Armes, Chagny, France (00 33 3 85 87 65 65)

22) Eat the first asparagus
We are not talking about the bargain-basement Spanish stu. here, and certainly not the thick ‘porn-star’ Californian spears either, but only the very first British asparagus, poached and served with plain, melted butter. Fay Maschler, the country’s most experienced restaurant critic, insists that it should be cooked immediately after picking. As usual, she’s right.

23) Order fish at Doyles
Watsons Bay in Sydney is best known for Doyles, probably the most famous seafood restaurant in the world. There’s something virtuous about eating fresh seafood with the Pacific lapping at your ankles. The view of Sydney harbour and skyline is breathtaking, particularly in the late afternoon as yachts begin to head for home, or moor in front of Doyles so the crew can swim ashore for a drink at the adjacent Watson’s Bay Hotel.
· Doyles, Watsons Bay Wharf, Marine Parade, Watson’s Bay, Sydney (00 61 2 9337 2007)

24) Be cooked for by a legend
Marco Pierre White was the food world’s first and best enfant terrible. We miss his antics. But most of all we miss his cooking. The Square’s Philip Howard wants to lure the millionaire restaurateur out of retirement so that he can once again taste his signature ‘tagliatelle of oysters with caviar’. Dream on.

25) Sniff a white truffle
Almost every foodie I have ever met goes weak at the knees at the mere mention of white truffles. Gordon Ramsay likes his on scrambled eggs and toasted brioche while several others like theirs shaved over risotto. Me, I am happy just to breathe in their heavenly scent.
· Available fresh from Selfridges (08708 377 377) around Christmas time, approx £3,500 per kilo

26) Dice with death
Eating Japanese blowfish is the food lover’s answer to unsafe sex. Prepared by careless hands this fish can kill you, and the Japanese pay a small fortune for the frisson that goes along with each mouthful. Gordon Ramsay likes it for the ‘thrill and the unusual sensation when you eat it’.

27) Eat chocolate cake in Vienna
The silver pot of hot chocolate, the delicate china cup, the slice of richest most divine chocolate cake, and don’t forget the cream. Try it at the Hotel Sacher or maybe one of the city’s string of ancient pastry shop like Demels. John and Yoko were right.
· Hotel Sacher, Philharmonikerstarasse 4, Vienna (00 43 1 514 560). Cafe Demel, Kohlmarkt 14, Vienna (00 43 1 533 5516)

28) Dine at Jean Georges in New York
This place was on several people’s wishlists. I must admit I found it difficult to keep my face straight at some of the pretensions of this world-famous and currently fashionable restaurant. Perhaps it was the white-gloved waitress with her trolley of warm marshmallows which she then proceeded to cut into cubes with grape scissors. Or was it the small matter of telling me I was unsuitably attired when sitting opposite me was a couple snogging so energetically I half expected a waiter to bring them a condom on a silver tray. Still, it would take more than that to distract anyone from the sublime cooking, be it sea bass with enoki mushrooms and star anise, or the heavenly chocolate dessert plate.
· Jean George, 1 Central Park West, New York (00 1 212 299 3900), seven-course truffle tasting menu $220 per head

29) Pod fresh peas
Restaurateur Sir Terence Conran is rarely happier than when sitting in the sun, eating a dish of the first uncooked peas, broad beans, tiny artichokes and French breakfast radishes with some Malvern salt and a bottle of Batard Montrachet on the side. And who can blame him?

30) Queue for fish and chips
A really good fish-and-chip shop is a rare treat, so if there is a long queue you know there is a chance you are in for something special. So get down to Aldeburgh in Suffolk, join the (very) long queue, grab your hot parcel and whiz it off to the beach, unwrap and eat with the sea breeze in your hair.
· Aldeburgh Fish and Chip Shop, 226 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk (01728 452 250)

31) Get up early and go to market
Preferably in Provence. The smell is a mix of pine and cigarette smoke with the occasional strong hit of goat cheese. Cogniscenti head for the Var area, particularly the markets of Cotignac (summer only), the bustling town of Salernes (Wednesday and Saturdays) and Aups (famous for truffles).

32) Shop till you drop
Terry Durack reckons that the food market at La Boqueria in Barcelona is simply the best in the world. The place is an absolute joy – full of life, colour, movement, bulls’ testicles, cod tripe, goose barnacles and tiny, tiny, baby broad beans. And to think I didn’t even know that geese could get barnacles.
· La Boqueria, Plaza de la Boqueria, Barcelona, Spain (00 34 93 318 25 84), open Mon-Sat

33) Catch your own dinner
Uber-chef Tom Aikens votes for deep-sea fishing in Barbados. ‘I went deepsea fishing for tuna, which we then barbecued on the beach at sunset. The satisfaction of catching your own dinner, the freshness of the fish and the stunning surroundings made it an unforgettable experience.’

34) Push the boat out
Drink Domaine de la Romanée- Conti (around £250 a bottle), preferably at the vineyard in Burgundy. Tim Atkin again.
· Try Corney & Barrow (020 7265 2400)

35) Grill a steak
A good steak features high in many people’s lists, but Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall suggests a Guernsey beef sirloin, aged four weeks bought from Brown Cow organics, served with perfect chips and Dijon mustard. Sir Terence Conran goes one further. He says the most sublime of all is cooked by Michel Guerard at his restaurant in Eugenie les Bains with the fat from foie gras.
· Brown Cow Organics, Perridge Farm, Shepton Mallet, Somerset (www.browncoworganics.co.uk; 01749 890298). Les Pres D’Eugenie Michel Guerard, Eugenie Les Bains, France (00 33 558 05 06 07)

36) Drink a bottle of 1947 Cheval Blanc
Not a bad life is it Tim? Available from Fine and Rare Wines Limited (020 8960 1995), approx £1,058 a bottle

37) Do the Grand Tour
Several of our contributors voted for a gastronomic tour of the South of France, ensuring a visit to the restaurants of Marc Veyrat, Les Troisgros, Michel Bras and the Pourcel brothers. Oh really, can’t you think of any other way to spend your last few hourson earth than stuffing yourself with plates of uptight ‘towers and drizzles’ cooking? Personally, I’d rather have a nice plate of teacakes and a pot of tea at Bettys in Harrogate.
· La Maison de Marc Veyrat, 13 Vieille Route des Pensieres, Veyrie du Lac, France (00 33 4 50 60 24 00), Les Troisgros, Place Jean Troisgras, Roanne, France (00 33 4 77 71 66 97), Michel Bras, Route de l’Aubrac, Laguoile, France (00 33 5 65 51 18 20), Le Jardin des Sens (Pourcel Brothers), 11 Avenue Saint-Lazare, Montpellier, France (00 33 4 99 58 38 38), Bettys of Harrogate, 1 Parliament St, Harrogate (01423 502746)

38) Go out for a duck
Jay Rayner recommends eating your own numbered duck at La Tour D’Argent in Paris. Since 1890 this establishment has been serving a whole Challandais duck for two people, in a duck jus enriched with cognac, madeira and foie gras. Each duck is numbered, and the tag presented to the diner. In 1921 Emperor Hirohito of Japan ate number 53,321, and returned 50 years later to enjoy number 423,900. The one millionth duck was served in 2003.
· La Tour d’Argent, 15-17 Quaide la Tournelle, Paris (00 33 1 43 54 23 31)

39) Visit Pierre Gagnaire in Paris
Not another bloody three-star yawnathon? Well, actually no. Pierre Gagnaire’s Paris restaurant is the real thing. The most elegant restaurant imaginable continues to surprise and delight with its constantly changing menu. The food there just gets better and better.
· Pierre Gagnaire, 6 Rue Balzac, Paris (00 33 1 58 36 12 50)

40) Bake a loaf of bread
Sooner rather than later, you really must bake a loaf of bread. There are few things that feel the same as having taken your own loaf out of the oven, tapped its bottom and heard the tell-tale hollow sound of a perfectly cooked loaf. If your loaf is a true San Francisco-style sourdough then all the better.

41) Visit Highgrove
HRH’s perfect organic farm is how things should be in an ideal world, from the humanely reared and slaughtered cattle and pigs to the pesticide-free oats and reed-bed sewage system for both humans and cows. However, most operators don’t have his bottomless pockets.
· To visit you must apply to the Prince of Wales Office, St James’s Palace, London SW1A 1AA

42) Take coffee at Caffé Florian
OK it’s a bit touristy, but there really is only one Florian’s (founded in 1720) and this is the place to sit and watch Venice go by. You will pay dearly for your tiny espresso, and may be even slightly disappointed, but you will still have taken part in one of Europe’s oldest foodie pastimes.
· Caffé Florian, Piazza San Marco, Venice (00 39 41 520 5641)

43) Attend Holi Festival
Atul Kochhar of London’s Benares restaurant implores everyone to experience Holi, India’s spring festival. With the flowers and fields in bloom, India goes wild with people running around smearing each other with water and brightly coloured powder. The festival celebrates good harvests and fertility so huge bonfires are burnt in which new spring vegetables are cooked, followed by a huge barbecue amid songs, dances, processions and a general sense of abandonment. Sounds just like my local.

44) Catch a lobster
Christopher Gilmour of Christopher’s, the Enterprise and Pomino, wouldn’t want anyone to leave this earth with enjoying a freshly caught, grilled lobster with melted butter on Nantucket Island.

45) Stuff yourself with caviar
A favourite pastime of Gordon Ramsay. He recommends the caviar of the rare albino sturgeon (up to £22,000 a kilo), served preferably on a warm blini with crème fraiche. Presumably to the sound of angels playing trumpets.

46) Squeeze a fresh pineapple
Andrew Turner, executive head chef, at 1880 at the Bentley Kempinksi says: ‘If I didn’t have long to live and had the chance to do something special, it would have to be in Lanai, Hawaii. I would be on the beach with the sun setting, sitting looking out to sea with my family and friends. I would have a local pineapple picker who has selected half a dozen chilled super ripe/slightly fermenting pineapples bursting with sugar. He would then press them and serve a long high ball of pineapple cider. The taste is like no other in the world.’

47) Kill a pig Fino, just off London’s Charlotte Street is one my favourite places . Sam Hart, the owner enthuses about Matanza, the mid-winter Spanish tradition of killing the village pig then feasting on its offal.

48) Milk a cow
Not just a humbling experience, but some say a sensual one, too. Milking a cow is something I was certainly taught to do at school, but now I am not sure most kids even know where milk comes from, let alone how to get at it.

49) Catch an elver
Stuart Gillies, head chef at the Boxwood Café at the Berkeley suggests fishing for elvers. These baby, or ‘glass’, eels are available for a mere six-week season during the spring. Fished at night from the river Severn in Gloucestershire they are a rare delicacy, fetching upwards of £500 per kilo. He offers them quickly fried with watercress butter on toast. Fabulous! Sounds a bit like posh whitebait to me.
· Seasonally available from Severn and Wye Smokery, Chaxhill, Gloucestershire (01452 760 190)

50) Go for a pee at Felix
Felix, at Hong Kong’s Peninsula hotel is simply the place to go for an after-dinner pee. Not only does the bar boast a seductive interior with dining tables that glow, but has spectacular views. Designing the lavatories was clearly what interested Philippe Starck the most. The men’s room has a floor to ceiling glass wall offering dazzling views of the Kowloon skyline with an all-glass urinal ranged along it, for an authentic master-of-the-universe experience.
· Felix at the Peninsula hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon (00 852 2920 2888)

SOURCE http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2005/may/15/foodanddrink.shopping2

Excerpt from Salon.com article:

“During the sentencing phase of Hamdan’s trial, the government had tried to invoke the Geneva Conventions — which it had long argued were inapplicable to Guantánamo detainees — to justify Hamdan’s confinement in Camp 5, one of the prison’s highest security camps where detainees are held in conditions akin to super-max conditions in the U.S. With no shortage of irony, Judge Allred interrupted, asking, “Geneva Conventions?! What Geneva Conventions?’ “

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/08/12/hamdan_guantanamo/index.html

I love my roomate. He is so full of really awesome stories like this one about a show he played in Louisville: “…the band we were playing with got kicked out & banned by the owner.  That was actually really hilarious, because they were awesome.  They were spreading cake on each other’s naked torsos and licking it off each other, and they crucified a stuffed animal bunny rabbit and played some really disturbing video footage.  It was like a movie, where the big shot guy with the designer scarf came in and did the whole “get the hell out of my club!” thing.  The band was just kids and had no experience with these things, so I reminded the owner of the contracts that were signed on the night of the show and got the kids paid.  That was great.  The owner apologized for telling me to get out of his face after everything had settled.  Music is such a silly world sometimes.”

-i have to score my own pivot tables

-i have to go to Dunkin Donuts alone sometimes

-teasing nana about breaking Francois seems less relevant

-Nalan has lost an important voice of reason and is thus more likely to make bad decisions as to her romantic life (guess who she brought to my bar exam party….eww!)

-she missed the story about the African doctor who gave birth to Nana and left a hole in his head

-Henry has nobody to talk about nerdy IT stuff with

-lots of other reasons that are near and dear to our hearts at BCAST.

WE LOVE YOU KRISTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! poop on Tyson’s for stealing you!

• it may be that passing the VA bar exam will result in nothing but rejection letters from a yet another jurisdiction’s potential employers, but i nonetheless hold out hope that the months i spent studying for that damn exam will be worth it somehow.
• i have come to realize that the only way to survive my current job is to apply for at least one new job every day. today i applied for a position with Americans United for Separation of Church & State. dare i dream to escape this cube and do something challenging, meaningful, and relevant to my educational background?!?! the mere though of it gives me a workgasm…a reaction similar in nature to orgasm caused by the excitement associated with a substantially improved work environment.
• dismal news…big fancy firms (example: cadwalader wickersham and taft) are firing attorneys. firms are revoking job offers to recent graduates from top law schools. if these people cant make it in the current legal job market, what the hell am i gonna do?! surely if the fancy firms are feeling the strain of our economy then the public interest and government entities are feeling it even more. hopefully the light at the end of this tunnel will come soon, but i fear it wont be until after january 20, 2009 

This place is a total shithole. It’s basically a bunch of concrete and dishevelled shit orbiting around one giant strip mall in the middle of nowhere. The fanciest restaurant in town is the Olive Garden where tonite I paid someone $18 to thaw out some shrimp and dump it over noodles. The only place with any potential is Thelma’s Chicken & Waffles – a diner across the street which might at least offer some local culture…and I use the word “culture” loosely.

Not only is the town shit, but so are the accomodations. I’m in a “prostitute hotel.” You know, the kind where the doors open directly to the outside. Apparently hallways are a luxury reserved for establishments that dont rent by the hour. Ok, i haven’t seen any prostitutes yet but this is the sort of place where I would imagine such things occur. In my own defense, i will point out that i didn’t choose this establishment over a real hotel…there apparently ARE no real hotels in Roanoke. This is not surprising since the only two events that occur here are the bar exam and the Jehovah’s witness convention. I only hope i can manage to sleep without the bedspread touching any part of my body. Thankfully I brought my own pillow. Furthermore, the “carpet” looks like that stuff on a putt-putt golf course. Ok enough griping. I should study.

I am currently on hiatus from the blogworld while i study for the VA bar exam and hopefully become licensed in VA so that i will be eligible for rejection by employers in yet another jurisdiciton. I digress. Upon return the following topics shall be investigated with varying levels of thoroughness..

1) whether its possible to vacuum a cat

2) use of the phrase “where do you stay at?” and whether it it primarily indicative of transient existence or flagrant disregard for rules against dangling participles or both.

3) vegans

4) whether intelligence is related to success and how best to define professional success

5) behaviors appropriate for post-college aged persons and why beer-pong and bud lite are not amongst them

6) james traficant

7) the obsession with Warner Brothers characters among latinos

Bush confuses Italy with Spain http://digg.com/world_news/At_G8_Bush_Calls_Italian_Prime_Minister_Amigo
Bush’s farewell at G8 “goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.” Wow. Some claim to fame ‘eh? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/2277298/President-George-Bush-’Goodbye-from-the-world’s-biggest-polluter’.html

If America were a dog, Florida would be tucked between its legs right about now. 1/20/09 can’t come fast enough

http://www.alternet.org/election08/89686/?page=entire