Monday Moanin'

The parochial school fundraiser went splendidly. We aimed to make $35,000-$40,000. We cleared $45,000. Expenses are still trickling in, but we're comfortable notifying the ecclesiastical authorities that we beat the goal by 15% or so. The evening was a lot of fun, hands-down the most enjoyable charitable event I've ever attended, went off "without a hitch." I ended up dropping around $3,000, but I got a chunk of it back, plus I bought some things I would've had to buy anyway. Sunday morning was rough, but I rebounded by Sunday afternoon in time to clean the house for my exhausted wife, who desperately needed a nap even though we had company coming over later that afternoon to celebrate Meg's (7) birthday.
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Probably the most exhaustive list of obsolete skills ever created, from "cranking a telephone" to "COBOL," from "letter writing" to "loading a musket." I think the list includes skills that aren't obsolete, but it's still pretty impressive.
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Feel-good story of the day: A Chinese man has rescued a seven-year-old boy from a pond--20 years after rescuing the boy's father from the same place. Pretty bizarre. Also neat: It was a boy, not one of those lousy Chinese girls nobody wants.
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Visit now, because at 10:30, her blog will be swamped: "Today is the big day: I'm appearing on NBC's "Today" show at 10:30 a.m. to discuss a topic related to my book The Thrill of the Chaste ."
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Baseball, hotdog, Chinese food, and Chevrolet: Given that there are about 40,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., "more than the number of McDonald's, Burger Kings, and KFCs combined," Chinese food might be our national cuisine. "Our benchmark for Americanness is apple pie," she writes. "But ask yourself. How often do you eat apple pie? How often do you eat Chinese food?" It's an interesting point. I like Chinese food more than all those fast food restaurants. The Commies did something right. My town of 12,000 has three Chinese restaurants (just twenty years ago, we had none).
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Funny Conan O'Brien: "Valerie Bertinelli in the news. She says the rumors aren't true that she and Kirstie Alley have stopped speaking to each other. However, Bertinelli did admit that the rumors are true that no one cares."