Nice To Know
someone else out there has an appreciation for rugby players.
My favourite's still Ian Roberts.

Ur
Because of the basketball on CBS, I had to watch ER last night. But I was glad I did. It was a repeat but I hadn't seen it before.
I used to watch ER a lot, but then it got to a point where all the main characters were having horrible things go on in their lives, and I quit watching it.
One main character was a head doctor/administrator named Dr. Romano, and he was an asshole. The head of the ER was a woman, Dr. Weaver, and she came out as a lesbian, and Romano gave her all kinds of holy hell over being a dyke.
Then there was an episode where something happened, like a blackout, and they were moving most patients out to other hospitals, and Romano was with people putting patients into a helicopter on the roof, and Romano was being haughty and full of himself, and he flung an arm up in a gesture of pridefulness - and the little tail propellor on the helicopter cut his arm off.
So in slightly later episodes there was the on-going drama of how they sewed his arm back on, and it was all right for a while, and then something went wrong with it, and they had to cut it back off again. In the episode I saw last night he had a prosthetic.
In last night's episode some big-wig was brought in. And he was being a jerk about how he didn't want anybody at County to touch him. He tried to call somebody on his cell phone to ask them to come and get him, and a young doctor took his cell phone away because its transmission interfered with the medical equipment.
Then Romano blew in and criticised the young doctor, saying the patient was Chicago's biggest real estate tycoon. He then proceeded to kiss the patient's ass, saying of course we'll transfer you wherever you want to go.
The young doctor and Romano then got into an argument because the young doctor thought there was still too much unknown about the big-wig's condition to transfer him. So Romano fired him.
The big-wig was taken up to the roof to be put on a helicoptor. A new character, a young East Indian woman, ran up to Romano, saying the big-wig had left his Rolex in the examining room. Romano barked to take it up to the 'copter deck. The young woman said she didn't know where it was. Someone in the background asked Romano if he was scared to go up there. So he said, "I'll show you," and he took her up.
When the elevator doors opened, revealing the helicopter sitting there twirling its blades, Romano started to freak. He thrust the watch at the woman, and said "Take this to him," and he pushed her out of the elevator and went back down. He went to the ground floor and walked out front for some freah air.
Up on the roof the helicoptor was taking off. Then the screen showed a shot of a wind sock suddenly flipping around, changing directions. The helicopter started floundering a few feet above the roof. Then it smashed back down onto the roof, tipped over, and the spinning blades dragged it around in a semicircle. It went to the edge of the roof and fell off.
Halfway down it burst into flames.
Then the screen showed Romano, down on the ground, looking up at this flaming helicopter wreck headed right for him. "Nooooo . . . ."
Like I said, I'm glad I saw this, because I saw a later episode where Dr. Weaver, the lesbian, unveiled a plaque commemorating the Dr. Romano Memorial Gay and Lesbian Family Clinic.
I think the writers really enjoyed themselves with all this.

Lazarus of the Blogs
Graduate school. I'm having a hard time staying positive about it. I'm having a hard time buying into the mindset that says you have to get an MLS before you can be called a librarian.
There was a woman who worked here until she retired recently. She was very cool. We talked about music and all sorts of other interesting things. But once I was talking to her about the rare book school at UVA. I had just found out about it, and I said I was interested in it, "but I think you have to have an MLS before you can go." And this woman, who was very cool in all areas but this, said "Yes, it's something that librarians do."
And those italics are not mine. They were in her voice. I was shocked to hear this otherwise very cool woman say something so snobby and elitest.
On another occasion I told another woman who works here I thought everyone who works in a library is a librarian. She countered with, "Is everyone who works in a hospital a doctor?"
That analogy doesn't hold up under scrutiny, and I'm not going to insult anybody's intelligence by explicating it.