Last night I was watching Cops and they had a segment filmed in Palm Beach County. I was especially fascinated when the text on the screen showed that the cop was patrolling the Northlake area. I saw that and said out loud: "North cake."

I couldn't help it; it's a reflex.

Alane, who was disgusted that I'd be watching the show, was sitting next to me reading a book. I picked up the phone and said to her: "I'm going to call Steve and get him to say the words 'north cake.'"

So I dialed the phone and told Steve that I was watching a police car patrol Northlake. He said: "North cake."

This morning I got up very early and started the gravy to the lilting tunes of The Smiths. Been a while since I played that stuff. And I had to laugh as Morrissey groaned out his "...the calf that you carve with a smile, is murder..." as I was just then in the process of slicing some beef shanks to get better browning of the meat around the bone.

I'll make the meatballs when we get back from Mass. Maybe for that I'll play "Every Day Is Like Sunday."

So met a total Debbie Downer today. People like that don't deserve any macaroni.
On a much better note, I'm trying out a new skincare. I think my eczema will clear up.

We rented the nature film "Earth" this weekend -- that HD spectacular that features many of the planets most interesting and tasty animals. As we watched I was a bit concerned that the film's soft-propagandizing would have an effect on Da Chimpz, but I needn't have worried. As they showed some weird-looking cranes migrating from Mongolia to India over rugged mountains I heard Cookie singing under his breath "Holiday in Cambodia."

Quite right.

No WSJ today. Maybe they're not printing today. So my paper delivery service is either mistakenly or mockingly giving me a chance to read the Plain Dealer -- that's what was in my driveway this morning. I rarely read it because it is profoundly crappy and dishonest.

It still is -- I read a few articles just now and saw all the familiar laziness of conventional thinking. Sad, but hey, that's entertainment.

This blog has been dead all year -- we rang in 2010 without the obligatory message of high hopes! What the hell, it snowed around here for about two weeks straight earlier this month. Only in the last week did we get above freezing long enough to put some melt on.

We must ask Jenia about the snow levels in Russia and compare them to Berea. Everything these days feel so... Soviet.