Gone Wishin.'

"So you are going on vacation?"

"Si!"

"Cote D'Azure?  The Italian Riviera?"

"Si! Or perhaps to Branson, Missouri.  Or to the Cheese State of Wisconsin.  All the cool people go to the Cheese State."
"But you will be back?"
"Si, Mio Cara!  I shall return!"

Better-looking tomatoes have less flavor.

Don't we know it, sister.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/29/science/flavor-is-the-price-of-tomatoes-scarlet-hue-geneticists-say.html?src=me&ref=general

Yesterday's News: Behold, my friends, Sharon Stone without makeup.

It is, pun intended, yesterday's news on the old Huff Po, right there next to the cute kitten videos.  http://tinyurl.com/6p6xzx7 Still, I probably should have put a PG-13 warning on this--it's so shocking when a 54-year-old actress goes out looking...54.  What would happen if we got used to seeing stuff like this?  This has to stop now.  When it comes to aging actresses, the Truth Must Not Be Out There.  http://tinyurl.com/84ekpz5

Basic Instinct 3:  Trying to stay regular without the prunes.

Forget the skinny dipping part. Scalia heading straight for Ranting Elmo post.

You cannot make me eat broccoli!

No celebrations today for El Nino. ( see post below)  Wait until those moms and tots get an earful about the evils of broccoli!

In honor of Rousseau's birthday and the last day of the SCOTUS term, Antonin Scalia will strip naked, skinny dip in the Capital reflecting pool, then head for New York City to fill in for ranting Elmo.

"I understand how it is to feel compelled to speak your mind," said the acerbic justice of the Elmo who's been scaring small children and their mommies in Central Park with his tirades.  "These lilly-livered liberals will always be getting their knickers in a twist over a few home truths.  I relish the opportunity to step into the role of ranting Elmo during our break, to give the current Elmo time to relax and recharge."

Actually, Central Park does have a bit of a problem with a ranting Elmo.  A fellow who used to run a Cambodian porn site called "Rape Camp," who bought himself an Elmo suit online and joined the City's crew of wandering, camera-ready Elmos.  Only this one likes to offer a little personal opinion along with the image.    http://tinyurl.com/bmdmbfw

And El Nino does have a bit of a ranting problem himself, and he's taking to delivering a little personal opinion to go along with the legal ones.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/28/us/scalias-immigration-dissent-is-criticized-as-political.html?ref=politics

And it is indeed the birthday of Swiss philosopher and lover of natural man, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, born on this day in 1712.  So hey, let's all strip off and go skinny dipping today, to celebrate the Rights of Man--liberty, freedom, equality and democracy!  And, as Scalia will no doubt remind us this a.m., the right NOT to buy broccoli!

Werner Faymann, Vampire Hunter?

True story:  Austrian officials have just stopped 9.5 tons of garlic from being smuggled into the country by unnamed Hungarian nationals.  http://tinyurl.com/7fpzrek  So who would authorize such a clandestine operation, I wonder?  And then I think:  Could it be Werner Faymann, the Austrian Chancellor who just last week urged compassion toward Greek citizenry in dealing with debt?

True, over the weekend, Americans largely ignored Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, but suppose Faymann didn't....I mean there is another Euro summit tommorrow, and Angela Merkel is still insisting on longer time for "integration" even as the markets are pounding Spain....what would happen if someone garlic-bombed the whole lot tomorrow?  Who would survive?   Who would rule?

I smell a thriller shaping up.

The thing about Nora Ephron was that if she had played herself in almost any of her movies, she would have easily been the smartest, funniest and most interesting character in the film.

Her parents were Hollywood screen writers responsible for the screen adaptation of Desk Set, and while Ephron had, as her NYTimes obit notes, softened the edges when writing for the screen, it's easy to believe that whatever comes out of the Rob Marshall/Johnny Depp collaboration on The Thin Man remake will seem like mush compared to what she might have made from it. 

Ephron was even married to a man named Nick.

It was always too late for that kind of wishful thinking; however maybe someone will grant Ephron what she thought would be her dying wish, to have her play about Mary McCarthy and Lillian Hellman, 2003's Imaginery Friends, revived.