Here’s a little smorgasbord of items I wanted to blog this past week, and didn’t get the chance to. Because unlike spaghetti, time to blog doesn’t grow on trees!

John Nichols of The Nation asks whether we’re nearing an “Impeachment Moment,” noting that the I-word is finally being discussed — if not exactly embraced — on […]

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What’s going on in Chicago this coming week? Almost too much for one imaginary tree-climbing pachyderm to blog. But here are a few highlights:

On Monday night, the world’s best acoustic pop-punk outfit, John Pierson’s band Even in Blackouts, will be playing a basement concert in John’s own basement! It’s at [address redacted now that the […]

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Mia Farrow, in her role as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN, seems to be taking a real leadership role in drawing attention to the genocide in Darfur and putting pressure on those who have the ability to do something about it.
Earlier this week she had a great op-ed in The Boston Globe (free […]

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And now for something completely different: Two chickens break up a fight between two rabbits. And we’ve got the video. You go, peace roosters!

What would El-ahrairah do?

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Here comes the sun: Sicily is building the world’s first solar power plant! According to a deal signed by the Italian government this week, the plant should by operational by 2009:
The project is named Archimedes, after the famous resident of the nearby city of Syracuse. The existing gas-fired power plant on the site will be […]

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Ooh, I think it’s high time for another musical interlude, before Ocelopotamus goes into New Wave withdrawal. We don’t want the Ocelopotamus getting antsy, hissing and splashing around in some kind of hypo-wave-onic panic and scaring the crocodiles.
In fact, let’s start off with a welcoming doff of the cap to all of Ocelopotamus’s new visitors […]

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The April issue of Harper’s Magazine has a lengthy transcript of remarks by Zbigniew Brzezinski speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Feb. 1.
Brzezinski was the National Security Adviser in the Carter Administration, and is currently a professor of foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University. I’m no expert on Brzezinski, and reading […]

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I was at the Whole Foods yesterday and they had something called a “Meyer’s Lemon” in the produce section, which looked like a lemon only much orangerer, and a helpful sign explained that it is indeed a cross between a lemon and an orange, developed in China.
My question: if you create a cross between a […]

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Canada is gearing up for its brutal annual slaughter of baby seals, setting its highest quota ever at a time when the seal populations are also threatened by climate change.
Harp and hooded seals rely on the presence of sea ice, on which they give birth to and nurse their pups. But over the past […]

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• Orangutans may be extinct within five years, thanks to a soaring demand for palm oil leading to the destruction of their forest habitat. This situation needs to be addressed in product labeling somehow, so consumers can know that they’re buying sustainable, “orangutan and rainforest-safe” palm oil. Via this DKos diary.
• Here’s a fascinating look […]

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It’s a good week to be a Whovian — Season 3 of Russell T. Davies’ new Doctor Who series premieres on the BBC next Sunday, March 31. And a fourth season has been greenlit for 2008!
Hello Magazine has some tantalizing details about the premiere of Season 3, which will introduce the Doctor’s new sidekick Martha […]

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I don’t know what was in the air last week, but it was a banner week for jaw-dropping altercations, smackdowns and ruckuses (should that be ruckae?) caught on video. Here are the three that made a biggest impression on me.
1. Boxer vs. Inhofe vs. Gore.
Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe is one of those guys who doesn’t […]

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Mike Scott, singer, songwriter, and bandleader of The Waterboys, has a thoughtful and entertaining piece in The Guardian recounting his experiences trying to correct errors in the band’s entry on Wikipedia.
Meanwhile, the Waterboys have a new album coming out in April! It’s called Book of Lightning and you can hear samples of a couple […]

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I haven’t exactly been a fan of Wolfgang Puck, to put it mildly, because in the past he’s been a major promoter of animal cruelty — he bears a lot of responsibility for the popularization of foie gras over the last few years. I give his restaurant in Evanston a wide berth, and have been […]

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