First Cuppa Coffee – March 22nd, 2012: Induced Fantasies Edition

Slumming for meatballs...  The next time you’re “slumming” around North Park—or whatever neighborhood CityBeat writer Amy T. Granite lives in, be sure to bring along a  stash of meatballs to throw at her house. Writing under the moniker of “Grubby Bitch”, she “discovers” OB’s Poma’s Italian Deli this week and proceeds to get all weak kneed about their eggplant parm subs. And she rambles on about the roast beef “mayo-bomb of a sandwich”. But somehow she fails to notice the best meat ball sub in all of western civilization. I may love me some politics, but dem meatballs are primo. Failing to notice them is like driving along Abbott Street & not seeing the beach…

Your arm is buzzing…   Cell phone maker Nokia has proposed patenting a design for tattoos that vibrate when someone calls or texts you. It would even warn you when your cell phone battery is about to die. The tattoo, which would also comes with a stick on version, would be made with ferromagnetic ink and able to detect a magnetic field generated by your phone in order to “transfer a perceivable stimulus to the skin.” It could assign different ringtones to different contacts in your address book, vibrating differently based on who’s calling, or whether you’re getting a text, email or news alert.  There was no mention of what happens should you fail to pay your bill on time…

The kids are all right…  Boing Boing’s chattering about the latest Big Thing for Teens and Tweens today: sewing. That’s why my daughter wanted and got the sewing machine last year.  It’s more than simple DIY, according to the article.  There’s this whole dimension of technical and geeked-out practices. One of the really interesting things about sewing is how much technical knowledge and engineering knowledge it requires. We’re talking 3-D here, algorithmic thinking, even sewable lights, motors, and temperature sensors.  And I thought my daughter was just making anarchist flags…

The kids are not all right…  Right wing fiend Ann Coulter went on Fox Spews yesterday to announce:

“So maybe it’s time to start imitating liberals in another way and go after the Obama children. By the way, that has been done grotesquely and viscously over the years by the left.”

Really?  Here’s a Media Matters report on the positively scummy things that prominent righties have said in recent years about kids who are unfortunate enough to have Democratic politicos as parents… all the way back to Rush Limbaugh’s comparison of Chelsea Clinton with a dog.

Gas pressure blues…  The latest GOP Presidential campaign meme is to blame Obama for the high price of gasoline.  It’s “drill, baby, drill” time all over again. So along comes the Associated Press with a not so GOP friendly fact check that looks to establish a relationship between domestic oil production and pricing going back over three decades.  The AP found “no statistical correlation” between domestic oil production and gas prices.  Which brings us around to a quote from Mr. Etch A Sketch: “I’m very much in favor of people recognizing that these high gasoline prices are probably here to stay.”  Mass. Gov Mitt Romney, 2006

Don’t make me laugh…   At a town hall in Michigan on yesterday Mitt Romney claimed that the economic policies of former President George W. Bush and then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson were responsible for keeping the United States out of a full-scale depression.  Despite a Secret Service test for hallucinogens in all the food and beverage served to the former Massachusetts Governor during the day, none were detected.

Won’t make me laugh…  Women frustrated with various GOP politicians’ attempts to restrict, legislate, or prohibit birth control and other measures related to health are responding by voicing their anger in a very public way: on politician’s Facebook pages.  Some of the postings are serious and others are satirical; all reflect a high level of anger and frustration.   Sample postings, courtesy of Talking Points Memo:

 Dear Doctor Governor-I have an issue with my vagina. I’m having a terrible flow and cramping. This happens every month. I’m not sure if it is related to the lack of an ultrasound or the lack of a pill (I know one is mandated but my poor addled lady brain can’t wrap my head around this issue). I’m guessing that it may be the ultrasound since I heard the men folk on the teevee telling us that contraception and the like is one step from abortion. What do I do Dr. Gov? Should I come to your office for the exam?

 I am so happy to hear that you are an expert on women’s health…’cause you know, who can afford doctors nowadays? Anyhoo, I got my period for years and years… with no problems, and then suddenly it stopped! Should I be worried? Does the fact that I’m in my 50’s have anything to do with this situation?

 And then there’s:

“I just called your office, and they wouldn’t let me schedule a pap smear,” a posting on Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s Facebook Wall reads. “I’m confused, aren’t you taking care of all this now?