Immature, yes, but still kind of funny.

Me? ME???? You mean, they really like me?

This is about the most blatantly gimmmicky thing I've seen in a very long time. I had hoped to post video of last night's Daily Show in which Jon Stewart does a bit on this much-anticipated annual Person of the Year issue. It has a mirror on its cover. I didn't find the video, but take my word for it: it was pretty funny.

I can just picture the high fives of the Time editors when they came up with this idea. It's just so dorky. At least they didn't pick Borat.

Next year this might not be far off:
Person of the Year: The Sun

Seasons Greetings

This year, we ... OK, I ... have decided that instead of sending out holiday cards, I'm making a donation to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), which is an organization I've always admired. Once again, I did consider ironically dressing up Augie in some ridiculous outfit and sending it to Stuff On My Cat, and then using that as our holiday cards. But the fear that some people might think I was being serious has kept me from going that route. I am attaching a classic photo of Matt and me from Brian's wedding, just for kicks. Next year, God willing, you can expect to see a new Elbert face in your holiday mailboxes.

Until then, Matt and I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a New Year filled with happiness.

Hair Nets Are Hot!

This year as a group volunteering project I brought my team to Feed My Starving Children to package food for needy kids around the world. Each package of food contains 6 meals and costs 90 cents. They consist of dried chicken, soy, rice and dried veggies. We even got to sample the food — not bad! Especially after we were told that in Haiti the regularly serve mud pies to children to fill up their bellies. The mud pies contain nothing but mud. In about an hour and a half, we (plus another group of about 20 from a nearby company) packaged enough food to feed 21 kids for a year, and our boxes were headed for Mexico. Not only was it a great way to get a group involved in volunteering, it was also fun! And I'm amazed that only a few editors were too busy to make it. Anyway, Feed My Starving Children is a great organization based here in Minnesota. If you're interested in making a donation, go to fmsc.org.

Awwww....

With the melting of the polar icecaps, the growing number of comedians and actors who turn out to be racist kooks, the consistently bad news from Iraq, and a president quite obviously in denial, sometimes we all need a little cute in our day.

A sample from Cute Overload: