I’m glad that my TiVo is of the regular variety, since it appears that owners of DirecTiVo boxes have reason to be less than enthralled with last year’s best invention.

Rule number one of protesting: you don’t belong on the front lines if you have a tendency, if apprehended, to lose control of your bladder.

I’ve been listening to Paul Simon’s new album a lot lately, and completely dig the track “Pigs, Sheep, and Wolves.” It’s so far outside of Paul Simon’s normal vocals — kinda trippy, very mellow. It’s also an indictment of the death penalty, but wound into a little fairy tale about farm animals. Buy the album; check out the song.

I have no idea how I missed it when it was written, but the Democratic Response to Barbra Streisand’s Memo (courtesy of Modern Humorist) is a sheer work of genius. Then again, any web page that encompasses the sentence “Nothing captures the spirit that is Barbra like a child dressed as a Victorian whore” is a sheer work of genius.

I’m sorry if this offends any of you, but the red-blooded male in me just needs to point to the News Of The World’s photo spread of Anna Kournikova sunbathing topless. (My brother has been forwarding me URLs for years that are all obvious fakes; this time, he appears to have found the real thing.)

Today was another day at the Child Advocacy Center, but this time, it was a good day. Instead of spending time with children referred in for suspected abuse and parents who both confess to and believe in that abuse, I had two cases where there was clearly no evidence to back up the accusations that brought them to my interview room. In the first, the mom admitted to hitting her son once, but also produced evidence that she has sought out conseling and anger management classes; in her words, “I lost my cool, and I know that it wasn’t right. I want to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.” The second case was even more clear-cut — the parents were some of the most loving ones I’ve met, and all I can guess is that the accusations against them were made out of spite. Their case was the first time I’ve ever reported back to Child Welfare that there was no need for any further intervention.