You know, there is really no good melody for singing "guaranteed 35-minute music set."

Science Fiction/Fantasy: Le Guin's The Word For World Is Forest (heavy-handed and unappealing) and Birthday of the World And Other Stories (nonbad ratio of good to boring stories). Kress, Beaker's Dozen (fun!). Chiang, Story Of …

Jason Kottke knows my weakness! Comments on "Ten weird state taxes (Illegal drug tax!)" include an Al Capone reference, always welcome hereabouts.

Some people use dashes instead of, say, quote marks, which makes me think Emily Dickinson has reincarnated as a Salon Premium subscriber. Others use no punctuation at all; maybe they bought cut-rate keyboards off the …

A nursing mother in our office pumps breastmilk. When I catch a glimpse of her apparatus drying, it looks like drug paraphernalia. "Who's smoking crack at the office?! ... oh."

Perhaps Leonard will get a campaign-related kick out of "You know you are working too much when.....". Example: "sitting in your cube you think about how much more relaxed you'd be if you were in …

Every week Salon Premium Help receives a few autoresponse emails of the type "this email address doesn't work anymore because I've changed it to avoid spam; here is the new address." Everyone's in the witness …

Thanks to Sarah for pointing to the Sci Fi Channel's online archive of classic and recent SF/fantasy stories. Includes Nancy Kress!

According to Taxes And People In Israel by Harold C. Wilkenfeld, not only does Israel have a Tax Museum, but that selfsame Tax Museum's exhibits go beyond famous people's tax returns. The museum also shows …

Zed has pointed out to me my inconsistency in bashing Indians who use Western or Westernized names. When I got picked as an audience participant for his improv nights, I called myself Vicki. Fair cop, …