Hump Day Links

1. Here in Boston, we had our undies all in a twist because we had to boil our water for 3 whole days. Well, check out these photos of the floods in the Tennessee area and quit yer whining. (Oh, and for the record, it turns out that the water coming through our pipes did not need to be boiled after all—it tested the same as always!)

2. My old camp pal Lenny has been a phys. ed. teacher for something like 25 years now. One day he was coaching basketball at camp, and the next he's on ABC News promoting his fitness book for kids! Way to go, Lenny!

3. Can you name that Commencement speaker?

4. "Hyperbole and a Half" is my new favorite blog. Today's illustrated post is Things That Can Make You Feel Like an Idiot Almost Instantly.

5. Check out this 2-minute Special Comment from Keith Olbermann. Hear, hear! (via Tonya)

Comments

[Margaret]

I got only 6/10 correct on the Commencement speakers. Of course, I never claimed to be an expert. I barely listened to my own commencement speakers!

[margalit]

I don't think it's fair to make light of the boiling water thing, which followed a big storm, which followed two huge rainstorms that caused massive flooding. If you were able to avoid all of that, it's great and you're lucky. A friend in town had her basement flooded twice, got only $1000 in FEMA money, had to replace the floor, walls, woodwork, and most of the furniture in her basement, all of which was over $7K and she and her neighbor did the work to avoid the cost of labor. And then in last weeks windstorm one of only two trees left on her property fell onto her brand new minivan, crushing it and eventually totalling it, plus the top of the tree hit her garage, crashing thru the roof. So when the water boiling came, it was REALLY the last straw for her. I mean, can you imagine that much stress?

For us, we boiled and boiled, but it didn't feel clean. I soaked everything in bleachy water which was gross, and I finally decided to get a couple of the MEMA flats at the Star. Yeah, we're still drinking those bottles and the whole recycling that many bottles drives me crazy, but I am thankful that we at least had that opportunity.

What I'm not all that thrilled about is how we get socked with massive flooding and nobody gives us anything and FEMA barely helps out and yet we don't beg for help, but Nashville does and the money comes pouring out for them. According to my old friend, only a small part of Nashville was severely damaged (and she also had a tree fall thru her kitchen roof when she and I lived in NoCal). Nashville is a fairly wealthy city with a TON of stars in bazillion dollar homes. They don't have neighborhoods like in Lowell, New Bedford, Taunton, Fall River or Lawrence, where people lose their homes due to flooding. They don't have houses falling into the ocean. But because a lot of famous country stars live there, they get FEMA money that should be more equitably shared amongst all disaster situations (like the Gulf Coast). Just my opinion.

[Elena]

The commencement speaker quiz reminds me of my own college graduation, 30 (gulp!) years ago this month. Our commencement speaker was supposed to be Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, but for some reason--I think there was some controversy at the time--it was changed to someone from the UK. His name was Lord Annan, but we called him "Lord Anonymous" since no one had ever heard of him!

[Susan Champlin]

Thanks for the reminder about "Hyperbole and a Half"—genius. My daughter had linked to the brilliant "Alot" post (http://bit.ly/amuCen)—so of course I had to go on the store and buy my daughter the t-shirt. Thanks Alot, Karen!

[Susan Champlin]

Sorry, I messed up the link to the Alot post, which I highly recommend reading! Here it is:

http://bit.ly/amuCen

[Rachel]

Thanks for the Lenny link - I loved watching it - He looks exactly the same as he did all those years ago! I guess exercise really does keep you young!