Curious George and his Christmas Lights. Silly survey question: yesterday, I took advantage of the balmy weather and an early end to the workday to hang my Christmas lights on the eavestroughs with care, since I was up on the ladder anyway cleaning out the leaves and guck. So the lights are up. When should I turn them on? Now, since Hallowe'en's over? Nov. 25th? December 1st?

Unofficial Official America 2008 Election Wrap-Up. In a few hours, this interminable election will be over, and we can all go back to our regular lives, with late-nite talk show hosts joking only about Paris Hilton, SNL returning to its natural state of suck, and peace restored to the land. Or, in the alternative, whitey’s gonna steal the election and there’ll be all these race riots and stuff. Either way. Whatever. We need a place to discuss our last-minute wild predictions and baseless paranoid accusations, and this might as well be it. Happy Election Day, everybody! What a long, strange trip it's been, so far.

Yma Sumac, the "Peruvian Songbird" and "Nightingale of the Andes", is dead at 86.

Museum of Bags and Purses. Shoe Museum. Hat Museum. Fan Museum 1, 2, 3. Hanky Museum.

San Francisco has approved Proposition R to be on the ballot. What's Proposition R? A move to change the name of the city's Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant to the George W Bush Sewage Plant. Reaction has been mixed, both from Bush supporters to supporters of the sewage plant. Come on, Bay monkeys -- vote early, vote often!

Laura Gainey report published. The report into Laura Gainey's death is out. Laura was the daughter of hockey great Bob Gainey, a formerly-troubled woman who turned her life around, thanks in part to her time aboard the tall ship Picton Castle. In 2006, she was swept off deck, and lost at sea. more inside

The Unemployed Philosophers' Guild has many enjoyable trinkets. My birthday's coming up, and it's not too late to get me a light-up "Starry Night" pillowcase and a couple Will-To-Power Bars, KTHNXBY.

Missing: Mister Rogers' shoe. One of Mister Rogers' sneakers was stolen from the Louisiana Children's Museum on Saturday, but has now been returned. The theft was committed by a student of Tulane Law School, whose Vice-Dean sent out a nasty note, which didn't remind people not to steal stuff, let alone the stuff of Mister Rogers, but to not post bad publicity to the internettes. So, you know, pass it along.

The Great War made even GREATER! Some chaps have come up with this horrid little number, wherein you command some Tommies in the trenches. Accurately enough, scores of men are lost before you learn the simplest of lessons, like "stay in the trench". Right. Let's get this nasty business with the Kaiser all sorted, show him wot's wot, and we can all be home in time for Christmas and sticky pudding! Up we go, men! [Taken from the bloody Huns over on their Blue Danube.][Some sort of Prussian Flash-business, I expect.]

Drive-thru voting. For when you want to exercise your franchise and throw the bums out, but not get your fat ass out of the car to do it. more inside

Frank Lloyd Wright's Boathouse: a Case Study in the Ontology of Art. In 2000, three rowers from Buffalo's West Side Rowing Club sought the approval of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation for the construction of Wright's design for a boathouse, and it was realized last year. But a new Frank Lloyd Wright building raises some interesting questions -- when is it a FLW building, and when is it a reasonable facsimile thereof? What is needed to make a building a FLW? more inside

Tears for Levi Stubbs. The singer is dead at 72.

Women who live in the past.

Star Wars Hoodies. Here.

Curious George is in the tank. The phrase "in the tank" popped up a few months ago, and while I understand it to mean that one is an emphatic supporter of whatever, I still can't find a clear definition anywhere, at least one that's current and makes sense in the context of positive support. Knowing the etymology would be a big help in getting a better grasp on what "in the tank" precisely means. Any monkeys know where it's from?

Zombie in my Pocket [PDF] ia a free, print-and-play solitaire game. Playing time is 5 to 20 minutes. Review and summary here. [Via Defective Yeti]

PSA: National Canadian Do Not Call List. Starting tomorrow, Canadians can register for the new No-Call List for telemarketers. It is expected that there will be problems registering. There are still a number of broad exceptions, and it doesn't look like it can do anything about calls coming from the States or elsewhere.

"Did you or did you not want a circumcision?" Man claims penis amputated without consent. And they say papercuts are the worst... more inside

For Whom the Dinner Bell Tolls. The six-toed cats of Hemingway's house in Key West can keep having their Moveable Feast in their Garden of Eden, on that Island in the Stream, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place where Ernest lived as The Old Man and the Sea. Where the cats can watch The Sun Also Rising. In Our Time.

The Daily Puppy. Puppies. Daily. Blatantly stolen off of muteboy's blog. Sorry, man.