Sunday Funnies & Arts

As always, click to enlarge. For more Doonesbury, Tom Toles, Ben Sargeant, and Zippy the Pinhead, go here, here, here, and here...

Happy Birthday, Editilla!...

Happy songs...

Last night, Premium T. and I celebrated Valentine's Day at Cafe Juanita, where we got married. Here's the menu:

First Course

Maine Lobster with Green Apple Sorbetto and Lobter Butter Powder

Chiavennasca '07 Pietro Nera, La Novella

Second Course

Raviolo of Dog Mountain* Duck Egg and Full Circle Farms Sunchokes with Smoked Sea Salt

Barbera d'Alba '07 Bricco del Tempo

Third Course

Filet of John Dory with Winter Citrus

Rosso di Montalcino '05 Agostina Pieri

Fourth Course**

Loin of Veal and Crisp Sweetbreads with Brussels Sprouts, Truffled Potato Crema, Porcini Sauce and Pickled Quince

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo '04 Masciarelli, Marina Cvetic

Dessert

Pralus Chocolate Souffle

Porto '01 Dow's LBV

* A local organic farm

** I substituted Wagyu steak

The heck with Abraham Lincoln -- what about Rutherford B. Hayes? Now there was a real president...

So a big Texan stops at a local restaurant following a day roaming around Mexico. While sipping tequila, he notices a sizzling, delicious-looking platter being served at the next table. Not only did it look good, the smell was wonderful. So he asks the waiter, "What is that you just served?"

"Ah senor," the waiter replies, "you have excellent taste! Those are called Cojones de Toro: bull testicles from the bull fight this morning. A delicacy!"

The Texan hears that and says, "By God, bring me an order."

"I am so sorry senor," the waiter apologizes. "There is only one serving per day because there is only one bull fight each morning. If you come early and place your order, we will be sure to save you this delicacy."

The next morning, the Texan returns and places his order. Sure enough, that evening he is served the one and only special delicacy of the day. After a few bites, inspecting his platter, he called to the waiter and said, "These are fantastico, but they are a hell of a lot smaller than the ones I saw you serve yesterday."

The waiter shrugged and replied, "Si, Senor. Sometimes the the bull wins."

Speaking in Tongues: Novelist Zadie Smith (White Teeth, On Beauty) explores the links between George Bernard Shaw, Cary Grant, John and William Shakespeare, Lord Halifax, herself, Frank O'Hara, and L'il Wayne to Barack Obama in this tour de force:

It's my audacious hope that a man born and raised between opposing dogmas, between cultures, between voices, could not help but be aware of the extreme contingency of culture. I further audaciously hope that such a man will not mistake the happy accident of his own cultural sensibilities for a set of natural laws, suitable for general application. I even hope that he will find himself in agreement with George Bernard Shaw when he declared, "Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it." But that may be an audacious hope too far. We'll see if Obama's lifelong vocal flexibility will enable him to say proudly with one voice "I love my country" while saying with another voice "It is a country, like other countries." I hope so. He seems just the man to demonstrate that between those two voices there exists no contradiction and no equivocation but rather a proper and decent human harmony.

Citizen K. has begun following angels and people / life in New Orleans, a photographic witness of everyday happenings in the Crescent City...

Anthony Suau wins the World Press Photo of the Year Award for 2008...

Molly the Dog looks out at a dingy waiting room filled with discouraged people:

They look sad and tired. Most have been waiting there for hours. Some of them have appointments and some don't. For a few moments I think I'm working in a clinic in a third world country. Then I remember I'm looking at the poor in a major US city.

Sunday Gospel Hour: Aretha Franklin leads the Georgetown University choir in "Battle Hymn of the Republic":

Why Is This Man Smiling?

For some reason, conservative Republicans in Congress have taken great solace in their "ability" to remain united against the recovery package. In fact, it seems to be a point of pride, as if they have actually accomplished something positive. But as Ruth Marcus points out, the Obama Administration is about to win an unprecedented vistory...

John Dickerson seems to think that addressing the American people and the press as if they could think and parse complex topics might be a mistake: "If the president's job is to persuade, can it be done through patient instruction with only a few hints of harangue?"

What Dickerson found collegial, Rush Limbaugh described as "rambling incoherence." Oddly, Limbaugh has adopted John Edwards' rhetorical device of two Americas, in this case -- presumably -- the informed America and the uninformed America (i.e., his listenership)... 

However you heard him, Obama is bigger than American Idol...

Don't miss the rest Tawnee Lynne's Krewe du Vieux photos here...

For the record, Limbaugh is a college dropout. (According to his mother, "he flunked everything", even a modern ballroom dancing class)... 

Angels and people: A photographic record of life in New Orleans...

The $15,000 mortgage credit is great for people who don't need it: 

Low-income people will not benefit, said Linda Couch, deputy director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition."The bill is focusing a lot more of its resources on higher-income households and home ownership than it is on the lowest-income people and people really teetering on the edge of homelessness"...

Just the facts, m'am...

Foxessa writes of the potentially disastrous impact of flooding on our knowledge of our own past:

The people of New Orleans and the history of the city contain vital information and clues to our past, and our present got to be what it is, in so many, many areas. Those who work in these fields are terrified that everything will disappear before we've re-learned what was lost or never noticed or deliberately suspressed in the first place...

Can you spot the difference in these two pictures? Look closely...