SPITBULL

1 teaspoon ground coffee
1 jigger scotch
1 scoop vanilla ice cream

Don't tell me you need directions! Dump the scotch over the ice cream, then sprinkle the coffee on top, okay?

Yucky-Tasting Medicine Works Just as Well When Given to the Cat

Online political discussion has become so fragmented so quickly that some public policy scolds warn that the Internet is in danger of narrowing the spectrum of debate even as it attracts more participants to it. The same medium that allows people to peruse a near- infinite number of news sources also lets them pinpoint the ones they want and filter out the rest.

If you start to read the blog on a daily basis, you start to form a relationship with it ... for the non-believers this can lead to persuasion.

Pair Wolf Blitzer with Dennis Miller. Wolf says the kind of things he says anyway, and Dennis makes snide remarks about how incredibly obvious everything Wolf says is. It would get both of them into the roles they were born to play. Wolf would be the vacuous, insecure, self-absorbed television host/idiot. Dennis would be the toublemaker one step ahead of getting knocked on the head by the captain of the football team.

Then we spice up the show by taping backstage scenes of Wolf taking out a contract on Dennis, and of Dennis replacing Wolf's can of hairspray with day-glow green spray paint.

The tussle left Franken's trademark thick-rim glasses broken, but he said he was not injured.

Franken - who seemed in a state of shock and out of breath after the incident - was helped back to his feet by several people who watched the tussle. Police arrived soon after.

When I have a longing for something myself, do you know what I do? I cram myself chockful of it, and so I get rid of it and don't think about it any longer. Or, if I do, it makes me retch.

The fat hogs! grumbled Zorba. "They're even going to make something out of this!"

Ten Running Games to Play While Carrying Scissors

Tap-dancing Classics lecturer. Chilling isn't it? (M, 38).

Some chances are once in a lifetime. Not this one, I've been in the last 12 issues. Either I strike gold this time or I become a lesbian. Man, 43.

So I said, 'maybe just the one' and before I knew it my head had swelled to the size of a water melon. Woman of a certain age, and more certain allergies, seeks Pirotin-carrying, lanolin-free man unlikely to send her into anaphylactic shock.

Ordinary woman seeks ordinary man for the usual.

I would like someone who's generally interested in the world around them and likes to try new things, be it something I'm familiar with or something we'll both dive into. Political/social awareness a plus, but not required... though she must put up with some of my idealistic mumbo-jumbo. :o)

The sacred memory of Poe and his final resting place is no place for French cognac. With great reluctance but for respect for family tradition the cognac is place. The memory of Poe shall live evermore!

I discovered that, without knowing it, I'd been spending all my time inside a church -- the Church of Lefty Artiness. How lovely to get up off very sore knees and move in the larger world instead. It's a little sad the way a few of my lefty friends make the sign of the cross whenever I get near these days. But, you know, they're the wild-eyed fanatics, not me.

There's No One Under Your Bed (It's Hiding Under Your Covers)

do you think the guy who wrote that article called up this site today, hoping he’d find a foamy-mouthed point-by-point reply?

Maybe. Who cares? Let’s talk about the stars.

1. Referrers (the sites that link to the blog). Yeah, everyone seems to agrees that a blog with more referrers is a bigger deal than one nobody links to but this approach is simplistic and encourages link-whoring. Obviously, the "quality" of the referrers matters. A site that is linked to by the InstaKahuna is likely to be more authoritative than one served by the long-since abandoned blog of an anti-social diarist. The way to tell whether you've got yerself a quality referrer site is to take a peek at its traffic meter.

2. Link click throughs. If vistors actually click on a blog's links this means they find the posts worth delving into. If they explore the blogroll they're probably interested in the blog's opinions of which sites are valuable. (Or it could mean they're lazy and see an easy way to get to a blog they meant to visit anyway...)

3. SpitbullPedigree (what can I say, there's a rule that lists like this always come in threes). Whether the blog links to or is linked from Spitbull. Over the top compliments get extra point here. Self-explanatory.

Even in the short run, however, these successes [Saddam in custody and a growing economy] may not be all they're cracked up to be. More Americans were killed and wounded in the four weeks after Saddam's capture than in the four weeks before.

Americans as a whole have not become happier over the last several decades.

American blacks have become happier over the last several decades.

American women have been the biggest happiness losers since the 1970s. (Hey! I resent being called a "happiness loser")

Happiness is U-shaped with age, with the minimum coming at about 40

Ask the janitor sweeping your company’s floors and he’ll likely tell you he’s “middle class." Query the vice-president of marketing and he will give you the same answer. The single girls down in accounts payable and the married attorneys in the legal department will give the same response. In the land of equal opportunity, it appears, we’re all “middle class.”

When people hear I make $11,000 a year, they're usually pretty surprised. And I can't say I blame them. It's a handsome salary to command. But sometimes I think they have the wrong impression, imagining me living some sort of extravagant lifestyle. Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but $11,000 a year simply doesn't go as far as you probably think.

The Babysitter's Boyfriend: Boxers or Briefs?

Too often, it is formulated simply by providing "both sides" of the story, and refraining from any adjudication between the two -- lest the reporter be accused of "bias."

Darting Out From Behind Parked Cars Keeps Drivers Alert