Ocelopotamus

News, culture, and politics. Not necessarily in that order.

Ocelopotamus header image 4

Entries from December 24th, 2007

Merry Crimble, Etc.

December 24th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Meta

I’m hereby abandoning hopes of posting any of the 87 things I had wanted to post before getting on the bus for the ceremonial voyage to Peoria, where I’ll be for the next couple of days spending the holly daze with my parentals and watching a Doctor Who DVD marathon with my mom. In the […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

CIGNA Decides to Commit Murder by Spreadsheet — “Day of Rage” Organized

December 20th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Activism, Blogs, Healthcare Crisis, Human Rights, News, Politics

See update #3 at the bottom of this post: after an emotional roller coaster of a day, Nataline Sarkisyan has passed away. The fine, caring folks at CIGNA health insurance have made the warm-hearted decision to let a 17-year-old girl die because they don’t want to pay for a liver transplant. And they’re trying to […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

La Vie en Rose

December 19th, 2007 · 10 Comments · Culture, Gender, Hate Crimes, Human Rights, Journal, LGBT, News, Politics, TV

In Florida a 7-year-old was covered in bruises after a man (seemingly his father, but the story isn’t clear on the relationship) beat him up and whipped him with a belt. His crime? Giving himself a manicure. A pink manicure. A man was arrested on child abuse charges after he beat a 7-year-old boy with […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

R.O.U.S.

December 18th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Books, Comedy, Fantasy, Film, Nature, News, Science

More breaking news from the world of fantasy science: A giant rodent five times the size of a common rat has been discovered in the mountainous jungles of New Guinea. The 1.4kg Mallomys giant rat is one of two species of mammal thought to be new to science documented on an expedition to an area […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Force of Hobbit

December 18th, 2007 · Comments Off on Force of Hobbit · Books, Culture, Fantasy, Film, News

Looks like the film version of The Hobbit is going to happen after all. And it’s going to be a two-parter (because they sell more popcorn like that, see). New Line and filmmaker Peter Jackson have resolved their differences over Jackson’s profit participation over the $3 billion-grossing “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, paving the way […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Burl Ives Recordings, Gingerbread, Dog Hair and Open Flames

December 17th, 2007 · Comments Off on Burl Ives Recordings, Gingerbread, Dog Hair and Open Flames · Blogs, Comedy, Culture, Law

Speaking of Earthgoat, the goat has your official holiday party release form. A valuable service to humanity — pro bono! By signing this form, I understand that I have been invited to attend a Holiday Party by the Host. By choosing to attend this event, I recognize that I’m doing so at my own peril, […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Tea-Upon-Ice Brews Up a Wiki-Firestorm!

December 14th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Blogs, Culture, Internet, Journal, Meta, News, Tea

What a thing to wake up to! Following hot on the heels of yesterday’s post on the subject of tea-upon-ice, Grendel has drawn my attention to the fact that some unknown reader of this weblog has now created a Wikipedia entry for tea-upon-ice. I am gobsmacked, flabbergasted, tiggywinkled, prattpaddled, chunderflapped, pussintuttled, argybarged, and various other […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

A Note on the Text of the 10-Second Interview

December 13th, 2007 · 6 Comments · Blogs, Culture, Internet, Journal, Language, Restaurants

Grendel from Earthgoat, always an attentive and keen-eyed reader, has written to gently chide me for conforming to a certain lowbrow usage in my 10-Second Interview post. The question in question would be this one: Pepsi or Coke? Iced peppermint green tea. Since that post and its comments are a fair way down the page […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Welcome Back, Otter

December 12th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Chicago, Illinois, Nature, News, Science

Forget about the possums, the raccoons, even the coyotes turning up in our urban environment. There are now officially otters in the Chicago River. Thousands of commuters were walking past Union Station on the day that Chris Anchor happened to see a dream made flesh. Furry otter flesh, to be exact. I know, I know. […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Rough Beast

December 11th, 2007 · Comments Off on Rough Beast · Culture, Media, Music, News, Politics

From the profile of Putin’s protégé (if that’s what we’re calling it), Dmitry A. Medvedev, in this morning’s New York Times: Short, boyish with a tuft of brown hair and sometimes described as socially awkward, Mr. Medvedev is also praised for a sharp and lawyerly intellect. Awww … tuft! Don’t you just want to tousle […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Being a List of Things That Will End Our Civilization

December 6th, 2007 · 6 Comments · Culture, History, Human Rights, LGBT, Politics

Just riffing off this most excellent post by Devilstower — as you probably know, Mike Huckabee has attempted to justify his opposition to gay marriage and civil unions by saying: There’s never been a civilization that has rewritten what marriage and family means and survived. For some reason, this is a very common “deep thought” […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

OMG STFU!

December 6th, 2007 · Comments Off on OMG STFU! · Culture, Film, LGBT, News

Andy at Towleroad thinks Jodie Foster just came out. Surely a sign of the end times. And here I haven’t even gotten over finding out that David Hyde Pierce is a mo. I mean, he just seemed so butch in Wet Hot American Summer.

[Read more →]

Tags:

Keith Olbermann Reads Tom Tomorrow

December 2nd, 2007 · Comments Off on Keith Olbermann Reads Tom Tomorrow · Comedy, Comics, Culture, Media, News, Politics, TV, Video

Here are your Sunday funnies, courtesy of Keith Olbermann reading Tom Tomorrow channeling Bill O’Reilly, bestowing The Falafel Truth upon America’s young people.   *** UPDATE: Should have included this before — you can read the whole cartoon here.  

[Read more →]

Tags:

It’s Been a Week

December 1st, 2007 · 3 Comments · Journal, Macintosh, Meta, Tech

Been quiet around here lately, you might have noticed. For starters, this past week I was on deadline with a Web content gig for a local university, which I actually really enjoyed (nice people, and interesting content to work with, which always makes the editorial work easier), but the turnaround time was v. short and […]

[Read more →]

Tags: