On my mother’s side of the family, my cousin passed away and I miss Cousin E. very, very much. Her daughter gave one of the most personal and touching eulogies I’ve heard.

A good piece by Bill Keller in the in the Times op/ed today. I’ve been out of commission lately with a bad flu or something but promise more interesting goodies soon.

I found Powell’s speech before the U.N. today relatively convincing. Two things scare the daylights out of me, however. One: if the evidence that Powell provided today (supposedly the very best evidence of Iraq’s denials that U.S. intelligence can muster) is the very best evidence we can muster, U.S. intelligence is probaby way in the dark about a lot of other plans around the world for war and terror. What about all the other phone calls, emails, and photographs that the intelligence community sucks in every day? Are they being warehoused on some database somewhere? Second, and more realistically, if Saddam really has tons and tons of warfare agents around, I worry seriously about our (and other nations’) troops in Iraq. You’d think that Powell, a soldier himself, would at least make mention of the horrendous dangers that might accompany any forward war.

Go ahead, type in your favorite Web site (I’d be honored if it was this one here) on Snoop’s Shizzolator and shazzam, you get your lyrics smooooth.

I’m still in a bit of shock about the Columbia disaster. There’s not much I can say that has meaning. Below is the official insignia of the mission.
Here’s what the NASA site says (in part) about the insignia: “The central element of the patch is the microgravity symbol, µg, flowing into the rays of the astronaut symbol. The mission inclination is portrayed by the 39 degree angle of the astronaut symbol to the Earth’s horizon. The sunrise is representative of the numerous experiments that are the dawn of a new era for continued microgravity research on the International Space Station and beyond. The breadth of science conducted on this mission will have widespread benefits to life on Earth and our continued exploration of space illustrated by the Earth and stars. The constellation Columba (the dove) was chosen to symbolize peace on Earth and the Space Shuttle Columbia. The seven stars also represent the mission crew members and honor the original astronauts who paved the way to make research in space possible. The Israeli flag is adjacent to the name of the payload specialist who is the first person from that country to fly on the Space Shuttle.”

I really like the idea of Top 50s, as they are semi-good gauges of what the masses like and don’t like. MyFonts.com has a Top 50, which is pretty interesting to me. Some of my old time faves are there, including at Frutiger, Trade Gothic, DIN 1451, and Windsor, all of which I use all the time.
More importantly, one can see an obvious trend toward sans serif fonts throughout all media right now. The serif font (e.g. Times Roman) is still much easier as a text font (e.g. in a newspaper or a magazine) as has been proven by many studies on perception and reading, but for some reason, probably having to do with the technological flair and look of cleanliness, sans serif is everywhere these days.

O boy. At the urging of a number of friends and family members, I took a short break to go the “neighborhood” Costco in Brooklyn. I feel like I lost my innocence there and the only way to get it back is to buy a bunch of hand-made cookies at the local deli. Costco (at least here) is a massive warehouse filled with massive containers and quantities of name-brand products.
I was overwhelmed by the size of the place, by the 12-packs of paper towels, by the 2-gallon size containers of Tide, by the tubs of peanut butter, and mostly by the assortment pack of 50 ruggelach in the bakery area. I signed up for membership at the register before I entered, thinking this would be a great opportunity to purchase diapers, some bread, maybe a few batteries.
I went up and down the conveyer belts masquerading as escalators in the store, which hauled me and my 100 pounds of stuff to different floors.
By the time I was ready to check out, I stood in line for 1 minute and then promptly parked my cart near the entrance and walked out of the store. Tomorrow, I cancel my membership. The time and frustration involved with buying Goliath-sized goods and then finding a way to transport and store them far outweighs the savings. On top of that, Brooklyn is one of the few places around that actually still has a vast number of locally-owned businesses; I always try to support them and I want to continue to do so.

I’m scared that this emoticon actually looks a little like me.

I hate war. I hate the bellicose talk that Mr. Bush just delivered to the entire world. But, like many, I’m not against the now very, very, very likely probability of war with Iraq. I read a good editorial in Canada’s National Post, which is much like today’s piece by Daniel Pipes. The other piece from two weeks ago asked this simple question of its readers: In looking at world history, and looking at the terrors and heinous crimes of the past 100 years, would you prefer to be on the side of U.S. foreign policy or that of France, Germany, and Russia?
The answer to me is pretty clear. France, Germany, and perhaps Russia are looking at appeasement as a way of making sense of deception, horrendous human rights, and the accumulation of murderous weapons by Iraq. All three countries have a less than trustworthy history when it comes to the life and death of millions of innocents.

The ever-good Morning News did Monday Morning Quarterback on the most important part of yesterday’s Super Bowl, the Super Bowl Ads. Note to self and others: I did not watch either the Super Bowl or the ads yesterday. If you want to see the ads now, however, you can visit the ever-surprising USA Today.