All about me

Talk about a good deal:

Maybe I'll become a member of the Druids, who, after thousands of years, are going to finally be recognized by Britain as a religion. I could get in on all that good tax-deduction stuff without having to do any heavy metaphysical lifting:

Druids worship nature and that they also believe in the spirits of places such as mountains and rivers, as well as in

You know what nostalgia is -- fond memories of things you hated or were indifferent about at the time. Today's passing-into-history moment is devoted to that staple of boot camp, bayonet training. I know why they're getting rid of it -- the last U.S. bayonet charge was in 1951 and, as the story notes, new soldiers "already need to learn far more skills than the 10 weeks of basic training allows." And I remember the training as both irritating and challenging.

One of those ideas that sound simple and obvious -- after somebody thinks of it:

Standing in the vacant kitchen of the former Azar's former corporate headquarters, the executive director of Community Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Indiana conjures images of mounds of sweet corn and bushels of green beans.

It seems like just yesterday (oh, wait, it was) when I did a post about the Pew study showing how little people know about their own religions, noting that people who come late to something usually know more about it than those born to it. Well, oops. This is President Obama:

President Obama said something at his town hall meeting that I think is very revealing, both about his own political essence and about the ideological jungle we're all hacking our way through:

I think there have probably been times when, numbed with fatigue, I have said something like, "Man, I'd kill for a cup of good coffee right now." But I really didn't mean it -- honest:

A Kentucky man accused of strangling his wife is poised to claim excessive caffeine from sodas, energy drinks and diet pills left him so mentally unstable he couldn't have knowingly killed her, his lawyer has notified a court.

This is a strange one. From an Indiana University new release (full report is here -- pdf file):

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Cigarette use by Indiana sixth through 12th graders continued to decline, but findings from the 20th Annual Survey of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Use also pointed to increases in marijuana use and in tobacco use in pipes.

This story lost me at the very first sentence:

Richard M. Daley's 21-year run as mayor will end next spring with the city broadly reshaped by his vision and unprecedented grip on power, but with his image as Chicago's sure-handed leader increasingly challenged.