Word of the Day: Peduncle

Does this ever happen to you? I ran across this word this morning on cnn.com in an article about somebody trying to breed the perfect pumpkin peduncle. I didn't know what it meant, and if I had to guess I would have said it sounded like the slightly weird family member that your parents never left you alone with as a child. So I looked it up, and of course it means stalk or stem. But then this afternoon I'm in a seminar about the reproductive biology of the lionfish that have been introduced along the Atlantic coast and it was used again, relative to lionfish ovaries.

Will Someone Tell John Kerry to Shut the Hell Up?

He's at it again. Not satisfied with having lost the presidential election in 2004 due to his douchebag personality, John Kerry is now trying to lose the midterm elections for the Democrats. Speaking at Pasedena City College he said "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq."

In other words, the troops are a bunch of ill-educated losers.

Can somebody please stuff this moron into a sack at least until November 8? Or indefinitely.

Update: Apparently he's decided to stuff himself into a sack, cancelling his public appearances over the next few days. Good idea John!

"One party official" is quoted by cnn.com as saying "I would be surprised if you see him welcomed out there anywhere and certainly not in a race that is meaningful."

Yet Another Update: Kerry says he was saying that Bush was the ill-educated one stuck in Iraq, not the troops. This is a plausible explanation, but I'd still rather see the guy sit the next few days out.

Quote of the Week

"How shall I say this? Much of the time in the Legislature, critical-thinking skills are not necessarily needed." -- ultra-conservative Idaho GOP state legislator and nominee for U.S. Congress Bill Sali, explaining why he's still able to serve despite claiming to suffer from "brain fade" and memory loss due to a car crash.