Today = cleaning day. It’s a pretty warm day too, not the best for trying to dig industrial strength cat hair out of the carpet or scrub the bathroom tile. It’s been that kind of Sunday though: cleaning, getting groceries, finishing up my last assignment (!), etc. Must be penance for all the time we’ve spent in front of the TV this weekend.

By the way, the Dessert Lady makes the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies ever. They’re going to do some kickass business on Labour Day (if they’re open); the new TIFF processing center is across the street in Cumberland Terrace, so the giant lineup should be there all day.

Last night signaled the start of the great Six Feet Under: Season 4 marathon. We got through six episodes; at this rate it wouldn’t surprise me if we finish it tomorrow evening.

The Toronto media has fallen into a state of CNN-like missing-pretty-white-girl dodginess. While I certainly hope Alicia Ross is soon found safe, I find it disgusting that missing white women (especially young, pretty ones) get ’round-the-clock coverage on American cable news (see Laci Peterson, Natalee Holloway or whatserface the runaway bride) while non-white women hardly warrant a mention (see Tamika Huston or Latoya Figueroa). Seeing local media fall into the same pattern is upsetting.

If you doubt this at all, doing a google news search for Alicia Ross will produce 224 hits (at the time of writing). Searching for Aziz Fatima Nizam Ahman who’s been missing for six days gets you 1 hit.

Missing? Check. Female? Check. Young? Check. Pretty? Check. White? Sorry. Hence, 224 to 1.

The new Black Rebel Motorcycle Club disc Howl (metacritic) is as good as I was led to believe. As everyone knows by now it’s different from their first two albums, and a welcome one; the vast majority of bands can only sound the same for two consecutive albums before it gets boring. They took side trips down the musical roads they hinted at on the first two discs, and they didn’t get lost. Highly recommended.

I’m listening to the upcoming Fiery Furnaces disc Rehearsing My Choir. Noooooooot diggin’ it. It’s like they invited Granny to guest on Blueberry Boat II.

Karla Homolka is horrible. This guy is just pathetic.

If you didn’t catch Jon Stewart’s interview with Christopher Hitchens last night on The Daily Show, head over to the invaluable Crooks and Liars to see the video. Say what you want about Hitchens, he’s an intelligent guy and knows how to argue a point without resorting to childish tactics; as a result there was probably more reasoned debate in these 9 minutes than CNN has hosted since the war began.

Incidentally, that’s the most agitated/determined I’ve seen Stewart since he ran Tucker Carlson off CNN.

Listen to the last two minutes of “Memorial” by Explosions In The Sky and tell me it’s not the most fun you’ve ever had.

‘Cept maybe the last two minutes of “Rocket” by Smashing Pumpkins.

My wife is a unicorn. That is, she’s holding the remote control to her forehead and whinnying.

My wife is a dorky, dorky unicorn.

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