Yes, happy birthday! Your present was delicious.

Happy 39th birthday! See you soon.

From B comes this gen in the NYT: Money Is Tight, and Junk Food Beckons:

This fall a couple in Encinitas, Calif., conducted their own experiment to find out what it was like to live for a month on just a dollar a day for food. Overnight, their diets changed significantly. The budget forced them to give up many store-bought foods and dinners out. Even bread and canned refried beans were too expensive.
…
Breakfast consisted of oatmeal; lunch was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I have to laugh, because that has been my diet for oh, ten years.

Including a report of a U.S. pilot ordered to shoot down a UFO. More fascinating reading (I’m sure) at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos.

From Jeff Matthews is not making this up:

FDR: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Churchill: “We shall fight on the beaches.”

GWB: “This sucker could go down.”

Am I the last one to discover FiveThirtyEight.com? Lots of great election data and analysis like this on strange betting patterns at Intrade.

My favorite female Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman has a new campaign at The Great Schlep: “The Great Schlep aims to have Jewish grandchildren visit their grandparents in Florida, educate them about Obama, and therefore swing the crucial Florida vote in his favor.”

Debates now remind me of doing a parent hour at Niko’s coop day care. Only much less fun.

From freelevi.org:

If we can’t, after all is said and done, make this election go the right way, at least we can save one man. I’m talking about young Master Levi Johnston. He’s the 18-year-old Alaskan hockey enthusiast who knocked up Sarah Palin’s daughter, and the National Enquirer describes him as “a boozing pot-smoker who doesn’t want to get married” – and John McCain thinks he found his soul mate!

We’ve all recently seen how evil henchman of the Republican party captured this poor innocent out of his natural habitat and forced him into a shotgun wedding, all so that their campaign narrative of fake family values could be upheld. When the 17-year-old daughter of the vice presidential candidate running on the Jesus ticket is “out to here,” it’s just better that Levi was introduced as the “fiancé.” Looks a little less white trashy.

But that doesn’t change the fact that right now Levi is America’s number one political prisoner. But Levi, you don’t have to be – this is the 21st century, at least in the blue states. We don’t have sharia law like in Saudi Arabia, or Alabama, and as much as the Bible thumpers would want it, we still don’t have arranged marriages in America. You don’t have to do this – you have options. You can pull a Juno – fuck, you live in Juneau! Or you could do what most people do with an unwanted child: give it to Angelina Jolie.

The NYT Freakonomics blog has a good summary of just what the hell is happening right now in financial markets.