Nothing funny about feldspar

If Albite could sing songs to the tune of Monty Python ditties, he’d be singing “I’m a sunflower and I’m ok, I sleep all night and I bask all day.”

C’mon. You know you’re singing it now yourself.

Sitting in a waiting area today, I had an opportunity to look at a couple of months-old magazines: Vogue for December and People for sometime in November. (I glanced at Seventeen and quickly put it back down.)

Wow. I am so out of touch with fashion and style (not too surprising in someone who can’t be bothered to get a haircut) and celebrities. I have no idea who three-quarters the people were, but boy do they get into some funny poses just to have their photo in a magazine!

The oddest bit was the fashion spread with the exotic chickens. The most ironic bit was the celeb who posed draped in diamonds and pearls, while exclaiming “Support my favorite charity for disadvantaged persons!” The most surreal bit was the multi-page ad in Vogue for Wal-Mart.

I certainly was entertained, but it was in the incredulous “my gosh, wouldja lookit that?” way. Not enough to want to actually subscribe, but then, I’m probably not Vogue’s nor People’s target audience. It does kinda make me wonder who is though.

Why is it, when it’s my turn to do the dishes, that all the hard-to-fit and hard-to-clean stuff is there to be washed, even if it wasn’t used today (or yesterday — I’m slatternly, so sue me)?

And as a perfectly irrational command: don’t use the #&$!@ iced tea spoons when there are plenty of perfectly normal (and clean) teaspoons available.

Thank you. I feel better now.

I don’t have much to say about the whole Medicare Part D drug plan except for this: My mother, who has private prescription drug insurance (and has had it since retirement), has been affected by the Medicare plan even though she doesn’t need it. Like many of the private insurers, her company changed its benefits to be more like the atrocious Part D plan. Hers is still better at the moment, but it is worse than it has ever been for the dozen years since she retired.

I think that is shameful. I understand very well how insurance works — but she was in a plan that already accounted for the actuarial needs of its members. Now, all of a sudden, the group shouldn’t have somehow gotten worse, ’cause actuaries are pretty smart people (the ones I’ve met, anyway) and know how to account for that. I think it is her company’s idea to not be “too generous” so that when they finally decide to bail out of the private plan (likely for all retirees, I’m afraid), Medicare Part D won’t look as insane as it really is.

This is just helping to cement my opposition to lifetime drugs. If my doctor ever prescribes something like Lipitor™ or Fosamax™, I’ll have to think long and hard about whether it is worth it to extend my life just so I can eat cat food when I’m 80.

Take the letters from g to o (g h i j k l m n o), change one to the following letter of the alphabet. Rearrange them, and you’ll have the full name of a famous person (someone in the news).

Here’s another hint: The person isn’t American.

Answer below the fold (sorry, RSSers)

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