10 Things to Think About on a Friday

What an amazing, busy and amazingly busy week. It started back on Sunday with a birthday party for my Mom where I managed to get my Grandma and Grandpa both to play a game of Beirut. Tuesday saw a disappointing loss in an ultimate frisbee playoff game, but I bounced back with a 6 mile run and ultimate frisbee game on Wednesday night, the very exciting class registration for Grad school yesterday, followed by an outstanding time out at Nightlife with Za (which included a stop at a bar afterwards as well as the crepe stand)...Now, I'm gearing up for a weekend that will be spent in the comfortable hands of the San Mateo County Fair. Might I say, "Banzai?" Yes, I might. But before you get into the comfortable hands of who or whatever you're trusting this weekend, here's 10 things to think about.

1) In terms of being pissed about something going on in the judicial realm, I think the freeing of the Lockerbie bomber this week is absolutely horrendous. This man put a bomb on a plane, killed over 280 people, got a life sentence, and has just been released from jail because he has prostate cancer and only three months to live, and Scotland wanted to show humanity by allowing him to die at home.

Am I missing something here? Did he allow the innocent men and women he killed to die at home? Did he offer them any compassion or understanding? No, he put a bomb on their plan and then took satisfaction when it blew up over Scotland. The man was given a life sentence (of which he served 8 YEARS) for this crime, which should mean his life. I don't care if he has cancer. He should die in prison, a tiny box that he can't escape from, just as he condemned innocent people to die 20 years ago. Worst of all? Upon returning to Libya, he was given a hero's welcome. How's that for compassion for the dead?

2) Wanna kill yourself without dying? How about trying out for the Badwater Ultra Marathon?

3) Gotta love this...swimsuits that jibe with the Muslim tradition of covering the female body.

4) It's almost time for the new season of America's Next Top Model! I'm quite excited for this year, not because of Tyra or Paulina or any of the other super cool guest judges (I'll refrain from showering too much man-love on Nigel Barker), but because the max height on this season is 5'7". Bets on how often we hear girls in the house referring to each other as "Shorty."

5) I must say, these clips of Heath Ledger's last movie, a Terry Gilliam flick, look spooky good. I'm interested to see how much he had filmed of it before his death.

6) What can it mean for music if Radiohead is "done" making albums and will only be releasing songs? It sounds interesting, but would Kid A really have the same impact piecemeal? To me, it was always the cohesiveness of the album that truly showed their brilliance as a band.

7) David Foster Wallace finally got some much needed pop culture recognition this week when his masterpiece, Infinite Jest, was shown briefly in the newest episode of Weeds. For those of you who don't know about him or haven't read his work, here's a great article on a person I consider potentially the greatest American fiction author of the 20th century.

8) There's a lot of back and forth lately between proponents and opponents of the new health care package. I don't mind people feeling one way or another about it, but it seems that partisan politics and scare tactics have lead to a situation where not many people actually know what's REALLY going on with this bill. While this article doesn't speak to all of it, it does tackle some of the more commonly held myths surrounding Obama's health care push. My jury is still out until I see actual legislation.

9) In news I can really get behind, a judge has fast-tracked the dispute over gay marriage to hit the courthouse docket in January of 2010. Just out of curiosity, what part of "land of the free" do people trying to ban gay marriage not understand? Oh, I'm sorry, it's only about your freedom? How carelessly thoughtless of me.

10) Finally, because I love to eat and eat well, and have become increasingly concerned that one of my favorites, foie gras, might be disappearing due to the feeding techniques used to produce it (not that pigs, chickens and cows in this country don't all live in worse conditions), I was very happy to see this article about a man who has now won awards for free range, non-force fed foie gras. Wunderbar!