Updated Addendum:  The stay has been extended 48 hours, till late Friday afternoon!  The judge wants more time to hear arguments and to determine whether more medical tests are necessary.  Okay, everybody pray for the wisdom from the LORD to be showered upon Circuit Court Judge George Greer.

On a more serious note than is my custom here, let me echo my dear friend John Rabe in encouraging everyone to storm both heaven with your prayers, and Governor Jeb Bush with email, in a concerted effort to save the life of Terri Schiavo, due to have her feeding tube removed soon . . . possibly as early as tomorrow, the 23d.

If this premeditated murder is permitted to occur, look to Florida to become the new killing field.  Hey, there are a lot of retirees there, nu?  Some with greedy kids, I've no doubt.  Let Mom or Pop have the misfortune to lose the ability to speak as well as be dependent upon a feeding tube, and the inheritance is as good as in the bag.

Unbelievable, that's what it is.  Absolutely unbelievable.

Dmitry is facing one of the biggest scholastic challenges so far, with a lot riding on it:  a research paper for his history class.  His assigned topic is Springfield, Illinois.  Last night he brought home the notes he'd made regarding it:

What's scary is I can decipher most of it. 

Told him I'll bet I'm the only person in the world who could figure out what is the word with the arrow pointed to it.  His Pops certainly couldn't. 

BTW, does Illinois even have a "most famous state food"?  I can't think of any.

Mercy Maud, that was disappointing. 

I am referring to the much-anticipated (by me) Saturday Night Live
retrospective, so to speak.  The first five years!  Steve
Martin and Dan Ackroyd as those Wild and Crazy Guys.  John Belushi
as Samuri Butcher.  Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford.  

The good stuff.

Instead it was them talking about themselves, and how they felt, and what they thought, blah blah blah.

Why on earth do they think anyone gives two hoots about that, for crying out loud?  We wanted to again see the vignettes we fondly remember.

Guess not. 

It's frustrating to try a new recipe, and find it's just not worth the effort involved.

Today's episode in the continuing saga of "Boxed is Better" concerns key lime cookies.  Being excessively partial to both key limes and cookies, I figured this was a natural.

Huh.  Do you know how many of those little key limes you have to squeeze to get 1/4 C. of juice?

Lots, that's how many.  And you'd think the juice was gold, the way the lime refused to let go of it.

The real kicker was the 1.5 tsp of grated lime zest.  Didn't come close to that much.  First tried an actual zesting implement, but it didn't work worth a flip, so switched to the finest side of a grater.  It was a bit more effective but still required an enormous expenditure of effort for precious little result.

Finally decided "That'll have to do" and put them in the oven.  They're okay.  The lime flavor's fine (though obviously it'd be even better with the full measure of zest) . . . it's the consistency of the cookie I'm not crazy about.  The mouth feel.  I dunno.  As I say, they're not bad, but not worth the work.

Sometimes my dependency on the internet is revealed as being on the silly side.

Don needed the address and phone number of a driver's license location, and darned if I didn't automatically swivel around to the computer.  Then it dawned on me....just get the phone book and look in the handy blue pages, where all the government agencies are located. 

Did so and had the requested info in jig time. 

Can't think how many times I've spent ages trying to look up something on the internet that could be found much faster by reaching for the old fashioned phone book. 

Of course, why should companies be expected to demonstrate sense when the general public...at least those of the female persuasion....do not?

Present company (a pun!  get it?) excepted, naturally. 

Spring catalogues are flooding in, bringing with them shoes surely guaranteed to destroy any foot crammed into them:

My feet don't come to a point like that.  I don't know of anyone's feet who come to a point like that.  The toe-end of the foot usually is rather rounded, with the longest point being the big toe, which sits over on the side.  Yet the pointy end of these shoes is always spang in the middle. 

How did this madness get started, do you suppose? 

Sometimes one wonders whether there's anyone at these companies with any sense.

At the moment I'm thinking of Blockbuster.  The state of New Jersey has filed suit against them, alleging their new "The end of late fees" promotion violates that state's consumer protection laws.

Blockbuster is both surprised and grieved at the charges.

Can't think why.  It's a bogus promotion.  The late fees haven't disappeared, simply been changed.  The current plan automatically charges the replacement cost onto the customer's credit card if a rental is returned over a week past its due date, though it's refunded - less a $1.25 "restocking fee" - if the rental is turned back in.

That's not a bad plan, actually, and I appreciate the extended grace period, but why claim there are NO late fees when that just isn't true?  Charging for the replacement cost (full retail, from what I gather) sure feels like a fee to me, and ditto for the restocking fee.

The biggest drawback so far, though, is how difficult it's made it to rent a new movie.  A woman ahead of me last week complained to the clerk she'd been trying to find "Ray" since its release, but it was always checked out.  Come to that, I was renting "Friday Night Lights" even though it was Thursday and we wouldn't watch it till the following evening; we'd tried to get it since it'd come out and it was always gone.  Finally there were a couple available so I snagged one, figuring it didn't matter if the Two Day Rental might be a little late being turned back in.

After all, there are no late fees. 

This was such a good idea.  Thanks for forwarding the message, Mom!

Just got back from the grocery store.

You go first . . .

Current event day . . . otherwise known as "Friday."

Argh!  You'd think it'd be a simple task, wouldn't you?  To visit one of the myriad news sites and locate a news story suitable for Dmitry to read, comprehend, and explain in history class.

Well, take it from me, you'd be wrong.  The really odd thing is you'd think he'd welcome news from Russia - though, really, it's just as difficult to find anything there - but he doesn't.  I'm not about to send him off with the story about Bill Cosby not being charged with groping some woman, nor about the serial killer plaguing Kansas, nor about whether Dallas should go to a strong-mayor system.  They're either unsuitable, sensational, or bor-ring.

Finally chose an exciting piece of news from The Australian, telling how around the globe, English is beating French's fanny in the second-language stakes.

I remember having to scour the newspaper in junior high for current events, and it was a chore then, too.