Reasonable Jon Stewart is Reasonable.

In the great long list of people whose opinions I try to find and digest and hopefully somewhat retain on a daily basis, there are approximately two who can speak - and often do speak - when I am feeling pissy and partisan and really want nothing more than to start yelling at Republicans, libertarians, and anyone who voted for Nader in 2000 - who can make me back down from whatever Unabomber cabin I've retreated up to in my head. One is Rachel Maddow, and one is Jon Stewart. I frequently disagree with both of them, but I think they'd be okay with the fact that I disagree, and they seem like the sort of people who'd be perfectly happy to talk about how we disagree over a beer - and I think this is some of what keeps me listening, and keeps me willing to reconsider my own positions. I don't know what Maddow's response is to the Giffords shooting because I'm so behind on TRMS it's not even funny. I'm actually just as far behind on TDS, but Salon linked to his opening segment from last night's show, and I watched it over my coffee this morning, and damn, that man is just irritatingly reasonable. I want to be angry about the fact that I'm not even angry at this point ('angry' is sort of my homeostasis) but I can't even get my dander up about that. Damn.

(I just figured out how this embed code thing works, in case you can't tell)

briefly

Remember the Russian flatmate I mentioned earlier? Her English is on the whole excellent, but occasionally it trips up over words that she's never needed to know (understandably!). So the other day we were talking about relaxing music, and she told me that she has a CD of dolphin sounds. Which was briefly a bit weird, because in my experience, dolphins sound like a squeaky pair of shoes.

Me: Wait. You're sure it's a dolphin?
Her: I think so?
Me: Because I think you might mean a whale.
Her: What's the difference?
Me: Dolphins are cute and playful and smallish and sometimes murder each other. Whales are really big and we don't know much about them, except that they're tasty and useful, which is why there aren't a lot left.
Her: ...I think it might be a whale.