Obama in Boston

Not only in the city, but across the street from my office.

Dartmouth Street was blocked to cars and pedestrians between Boylston and Stuart.

Worst Twilight Merchandise

We've all seen the TrueBlood drinks and the Twilight jewelry but this article rounds up bizarre outliers in the world of vampire merchandise. An Edward Cullen shower curtain? Really?

Most hilarious (or frightening) is the Twilight Dildo, which sparkles in sunlight. Natch. The article goes on to say:

"The real craziness comes from the product description, which touts both its "deathly pale flesh tone reminiscent of the moon's soft glow" and the fact that it "retains hot and cold temperature," so you can "toss it in the fridge for that authentic experience," thus selling it on the strength of how accurate it is to a corpse's wang. That's right, folks: This may in fact be the first sex toy to be marketed directly to the amateur necrophiliac."

Maine

This World War II vet put a tear in my eye this afternoon.

Witch hats in the library courtyard

Moving Out

Me: That's it. I'm moving out.
Him: Leave the food. Take the cats, otherwise the cats are food.

Blackbirds, baked in a pie

Every Thanksgiving and Christmas when my mom makes a pie, she puts a hollow, porcelain blackbird in the center of the pan before adding the filling around it. The blackbird acts as a vent: When the pie comes out of the oven, the blackbird is spitting steam.

I've never seen these pie blackbirds in stores. Until yesterday, when I happened upon a shelf of them while shopping for a belt.

I refrained from buying them all - one for everyone I know - and instead just bought one for myself and one to replace my mom's, should it ever break. Come to think of it, in the 27 years that she's been making apple pies for the holidays, it's amazing that little bird hasn't dropped or broken yet. He must be blessed.