My friend Karen emailed me a couple of links. First: a rabbit with a pancake on its head. Note that plenty of the links below that picture go to more bunny photos, including more cool ones. And an entry from Jessamyn that mentions the page contains more pictures of pets with stuff on their heads. Hee! I'm probably the 99th person to link to this stuff, but hey. I'm not surfing around to other weblogs much these days so I wouldn't know.

Karen also sent me to this site which I know I've seen before, but which is still funny, dangit.

I'm also ditching the convention of using subject titles for entries as I found they were getting in my way. Though for a while they'll still show up in ye olde archives.

Jane Siberry has posted mp3s of 5 songs on her website, select the "music for you" link to find them. They're all wonderful songs and I'm pretty sure some are different versions than on the albums (so even if someone like me who has all of Siberry's releases, you'll want to download them).

I’ve seen a lot of improperly displayed flags this week, but I’m not upset about it because people mean well, their hearts are in the right place and it’s good to see the flag anywhere, any time right about now.

But in case you don’t know or are curious, here’s how the flag should be displayed.

There's going to be a special issue of The New York Times magazine. It's available online already, the print edition won't hit stands until the 23rd. The piece by Jonathan Lethem is great, as you might expect. I haven't read everything there yet.

A page showing pictures of reactions the world over. These are things that make me cry, these are things that also give me hope that maybe some good will come out of this.

Bill Shunn’s check in page now has a really good essay posted as well as links to interesting articles about the check-in pages and how they were used (and abused) and what happened and what should happen. I feel bad for the people who misunderstood these pages or were given false hope, but Bill’s page in particularly truly was a blessing for me as when I saw it around Noon on Tuesday, most of my friends and acquaintances had checked in there (since I know Bill and they know Bill and like that).

Ian McEwan:

This is the nature of empathy, to think oneself into the minds of others. These are the mechanics of compassion: you are under the bedclothes, unable to sleep, and you are crouching in the brushed-steel lavatory at the rear of the plane, whispering a final message to your loved one. There is only that one thing to say, and you say it. All else is pointless. [The rest of the column]

It's my job to have something to say.

They pay me to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering.

You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.

What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed.

Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause.

Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve.

Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.

[Read the rest].

Here's hoping that we don't too quickly return to what we think is normalcy. We'll live just fine for another week or two, for example, without playing the baseball or football games that tend to stereotype us in the eyes of the enemy as frivolous infidels.

Those remorseless bastards have got to know that there are 285 million of us thinking about only one thing -- them.

And Monica, of Big Brother 2, reportedly has a cousin who worked in (or near) the WTC and is missing. Not that CBS has told the houseguests all about it (first they told them very little, since then they've reportedly told them more, but for a while on the feeds it was clear that the houseguests really had no idea. I mean, how could they?). Word is now that the houseguests are more informed, but I find it all pretty appalling (not that I'm surprised). Maybe CBS should let the houseguests go home. This post to tvbarn2 has more details.

John Bloom (who you likely know best as Joe Bob Briggs) was an eyewitness to the attack. His account is good, if you can call any accounts good if you know what I mean [via email from Monty].

I've not been updating here, but I think lots of other fine webloggers have done great jobs covering things, I don't feel I've much to add. Even though I've watched many hours of TV coverage, and I've read countless journal entries and posts to newsgroups, my heart isn't in looking at too much coverage, at posting to too many items.

I did do TV Picks today. A couple people have written to say they appreciated that, so it's worth it.

This editorial cartoon about sums it up, I suspect there are all sorts of variations on this idea out there.

Coverage at startribune.com has been good, I can't help but think about my former coworkers there and what it must be like reporting this.

My friend Shaun was in San Diego early this week for a business thing, I finally talked to him last night. He wasn't sure how long it'd be before he could get a flight back here, so he was considering renting a car and driving back to Minneapolis. "It beats sitting here doing nothing," was what he said. Yeah.

It sounds like the Minnesota Folk Festival will go on this weekend as planned, I've no idea if the performers who are coming from out of town will manage to make it here or how that'll work. But I'll likely be going with friends to see other friends perform and somehow it's got to be a good thing.

Oh hey-- remember when I posted about the auction of Bob Dylan's childhood home on ebay? The place finally sold (though not via any online auction).

Five firefighters were rescued today. Thank God. [It's since been reported that this story is false. Damn.]

Jim Walsh has been listening to the U2 song "Peace on Earth". I've been listening to Jane Siberry's "Calling All Angels" and Peter Gabriel's "Here Comes The Flood" and James Keelaghan's "Cold Missouri Waters" and then I can't listen to any more music for a while. Nothing seems quite right, really. And everything makes me cry.

There will be pressure to suspend our freedoms, to allow the government to invade our privacy and control our speech as part of the glossy new war. If terrorists force America to give up its freedoms, then they will have won. If we are stampeded into imprudent action out of fear, then it will once again be true that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. If we use our rage instead of our wisdom, we'll be just another dictatorship, and Sept. 11 will become the day we destroyed ourselves.

(Do read the whole article, it's all good).

And Monty's posted something, too.

I feel it all welling up in me, but still can't find the words myself.

I've been holed up at home without much contact with anyone. Other than checking on my livejournal friends and watching coverage. I didn't wake up 'til after noon since I've still got the head cold from hell.

I should venture out to get a good meal, I can't decide if I'm dreading seeing the world outside or looking forward to seeing other people.

It still doesn't seem real.

I just woke up less than a half hour ago and I'm still reeling from the news and I'm still, of course, concerned for oh-so-many people I know. The check-in page has been a blessing so far 'cuz a lot of people I know and care about have checked in already. Here's hoping more do throughout the day.

If you weren't at Worldcon this year, but wish you were, you might enjoy checking out the archives of the At-Con Newsletter. Looks like the Minneapolis in '73/Minicon party was a hit on Saturday night, was just barely edged out by a UK party for best Saturday night party per the Party reviews column. Cool! Great work by Geri Sullivan, Doug Wickstrom, Doug Friauf, et al. (Wish I could've been there).

And what's this? Chuck is talking about sf and fantasy at Looka!. He hadn't realized that fantasy books were eligible for Hugo awards and now I'm sure he's getting all sorts of email. His weblog is worth checking out regardless, it's one of my favorites.

Also: MacGyver's Recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies [both links via strange brew].

And UPN is on board for letting me do the show the way that works. I don't think anything will change. I mean, there'll be wrestling. But tasteful wrestling. Wrestling with a message behind it.

Ha! (The rest of the interview is really cool, with all sorts of stuff about Buffy and the work he's done in movies and such. Heck, he calls Donald Sutherland "a prick" and Paul Reubens "a god that walks among us," so what's not to like?)