Today’s Phrase that Pays is “Teriyaki Beef Dippers.”

Alyson Hannigan in When Harry Met Sally. Yes, Luke Perry’s in it, too; but still, Alyson Hannigan!

I hadn’t heard that Brazil has been photographing and fingerprinting US visitors. Chamber of Commerce-types there are unhappy that it might discourage American visitors, but I say more power to them.

Opera sopranos’ excellent pitch comes at the expense of clarity. The only reason I mention this is because the article provides today’s Bonus Phrase: "fleshy tunnel".

Every so often, I feel obligated to remind myself and others that I really am a geek (yes, it’s probably hard to forget). To that end, Groklaw is the place to go if you want to know the latest in SCO’s battle to drive themselves out of business by attacking Linux users everywhere.

On the old blog, Sarah posted something about this Economist article about T9. That post is mysteriously gone, but I’m re-running my follow-up, because I love quoting myself:

Perhaps underscoring the difficulties associated with using (or learning, more to the point) T9, the article cited in the previous entry makes this statement: “Abbreviations such as ‘can’t’ and ‘won’t’ are difficult to type.” Leaving aside, of course, that the writer meant “contractions,” s/he must have been using a different T9 layout from the one I have, since “can’t” and “won’t” are no harder to type than any other five letter combination, and each is the first guess for its sequence.
There’s also no mention of the fact that T9 was not designed for cellphones, as such, and works better when freed from the phone keypad mapping.

One wonders if wandering radium is a bigger problem than previously suspected, but is only noticed when we’re on the lookout for radiation.

Radium has been attractive to the indigent in the past.

Acid is cool. I mean, how else can you temporarily simulate such interesting brain damage?

If you’ve been looking for a good source for non-latex condoms with non-spermicidal lubricant, try Shop in Private. They have a variety of other products as well. Yes, they sell questionable items (including herbal supplements), but they mostly seem not to claim that anything that’s bullshit isn’t bullshit. I’d feel better if they warned against using benzocaine for anal sex.

Cory Doctorow talks about how he conquered back pain using the power of the mind. I trust Doctorow enough to run and get the books. He describes it thusly:

“Your mileage may vary, but after more than a year of this, I’m ready to start talking about it. Like Atkins for weight loss and hypnosis for smoking cessation, Sarnoid back-therapy feels something like getting root on my body, like being able to move into user-controlled space stuff that the OS was badly mismanaging in the background.”

I would very much like to get root on my body, how about you?