Kris has been kindly nudging me to contribute to 12 Apostrophes for quite some time and I have held out till now. I thought why not give recognition where recognition is due and post something about the man who gave this webpage its name, one James Joyce. And what better day then Bloomsday, June 16th   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomsday) to celebrate the work of the man and give a shout out to one of my favorite authors.
 

Now, I could be mistaken and Kris and Donnie please correct me if I am, the name for the webpage/literary movement came from . . .

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I’m blogging from Kris and Pulao’s house. It’s the middle of an insane party. All the 12apostrophes bloggers are here. (Apparently the India crowd’s plane was delayed). Things started out tame but it’s getting more interesting. Last I looked, people are in the living room doing gigantic whiskey bongs. Michael is in charge of that. In the red room, people are fighting over the Wii. I gave up because I can’t return a serve or putt. Since I left, the paint on the wall was chipped, at least one person drew blood, and Daniel fell in love.

Let’s see what’s happening in the . . .

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Some of you may already have seen the YouTube video documenting American intellectual prowess, but in case not, it’s worth a view. Watch it and decide if it’s depressing or hilarious….

It’s called Americans Are Not Stupid, with Subtitles. It’s a few minutes long.

This reminds me of a funny story. Or a depressing story. Definitely a related story. Yesterday a member of my family sent a petition to other members of my family (not me). The petition was one of those bogus right-wing scare tactic petitions talking about how the bad “illegals” are trying to steal good, . . .

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My latest craze is Conquer Club, an online turns-based game improving on the Risk board game. I understand all the theoretical problems with taking a subject like war and trivializing it with game play. But to me, with all the various boards in this new game that aren’t even map based (the chinese checkers board, the crossword board, the university campus), the game takes on more a game of strategy like Chess or Backgammon and less a trivialization of war.

And how can something this fun (and free) be intellectually dishonest to play? Not to mention the sideline banter: . . .

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Because Michael Douglas.  And Glenn Close’s perm.