Still and all, we managed to salvage some fun.

We slayed another redback in the letterbox – using appropriate tools and safety gear, of course.

We walked the dog in the dry spells. Yes, that is my front lawn but I mowed it, I promise.

And baked cookies in the rainy spells.

I think Boy Z is yearning for summer too as he insisted on wearing his board shorts today. Compromises were made.

I’m not going to comment on who’s responsible for this ensemble, but I will point out – that’s not me he’s walking up the stairs with. Speaking of whom – 37 weeks and counting…

…which means there is a 3.6% chance that we’ll end up down the road in the labour ward by day’s end.

And that’s a weekend.

Today was good.
Today was fun.
Tomorrow is another one.
From there to here.
From here to there.
Funny things are everywhere.

Ah, the simple genius of Dr. Seuss…

In the mind of kids books, we saw the preview for “Where the Wild Things Are” a couple of weeks ago before the latest Harry Potter. I have no idea how they’re going to make Maurice Sendak’s wonderful little story book into a feature film, but I was totally sucked in by the Arcade Fire musical accompaniment. I managed to dig up the “Where The Wild Things Are” version of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up”. Just in case I’m not the only Arcade Fire/Maurice Sendak fan around.

I’m pretty sure I am the aging hipster Dad demographic to which this film is being targeted.

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And finally, speaking of music, I’ve got an extra copy of Scottish popsters Cancel the Astronauts’ debut EP “I Am the President of Your Fanclub (and Last Night I Followed You Home)” to give away. Free. It’s a great disc, one that’s been getting a lot of play around these parts of late (have a listen to one of the tracks here if you’re picky about the music you win). If you want a chance to win, just leave a comment on this post. I’ll pick a random commentator sometime in the week.

UPDATE:

The winner of the Cancel the Astronauts EP as selected by random.org is….

Cat of My Name is Cat! Congratulations

-Sarah Palin, October 24

Damn it. I had placed a voluntary moratorium  on political posts here at A Free Man. My vote is in. My guy is well ahead. I was happy to get on with my life here on the other side of the world and ignore the nonsense of the last few weeks of this campaign. But this is just ridiculous. Sarah Palin is probably not going to be the Vice President. But she is a dangerous idiot. And in the Republican party, dangerous idiots are a little like bad pennies.

Here’s the background on what’s inspired this particular rant. Basically, Palin was talking about funding for autism research and in her inimitable sarcastic/moronic style dismissed both basic and collaborative research in a single breath of hot air.

Governor Palin, basic research drives innovation in the life sciences. Most of the advances in medicine over the last century have been initiated in labs that were working on what seems, to an outsider (or a dangerous idiot), as pointless research. Because of the ethics that scientists live by, most genetic research has to be undertaken in model organisms. These are critters like yeast, roundworms, mice and fruit flies. These are organisms that are amenable to genetic manipulation. Because we understand their evolutionary relationship (I know, evolution, scary and evil) to man we can make assumptions, for example, about what’s happening in your brain based on things that happen in a mouse’s brain. Probably not much of a leap there.

As for the France bit, scientists – unlike politicians – work best in a collaborative manner. Most major advances are done by groups of scientists from different universities who work toward the common goal of gaining knowledge about a particular topic. Sometimes, those collaborations cross national borders. Now, I know you were trying to drum up the hatred of France that worked so well for the Republicans back in the ‘02 midterms, but come on. If I can speak personally, it would have taken me another couple of years to finish my Ph.D. without a collaboration with a group that was working on a similar problem in Germany. I’m not particularly fond of Germans, but I put that personal prejudice aside and just got on with it – for mutual benefit.  This is how science works. Maybe, Governor Palin, you could try a similar approach to governing.

Governor Palin, just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it is not for the “public good”. Don’t you have some Russians to look out for up in Alaska?

With apologies to Dr. Seuss and Art Buchwald:

Sarah L. Palin will you please go now!
The time has come.
The time has come.
The time is now.
Just go.
Go.
Go!
I don’t care how.
You can go by foot.
You can go by cow.
Sarah L. Palin will you please go now!
You can go on skates.
You can go on skis.
You can go in a hat.
But
Please go. Now.

UPDATE

Check out NATUI’s “My fruit flies are smarter than Palin” shirts. The t-shirt every Drosophila geneticist needs.

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I’m all about the Treepeople covers this week, but this Carly Simon cover just seemed perfect. Treepeople were an Idaho band that used to tear up the Seattle clubs back during my time there. They were led by Doug Martsch, who subsequently went on to form the outstanding Built To Spill. If you like what you hear you can buy Treepeople’s records from C/Z Records.