Here, it's just another damned day

As I write this, thousands are thronging the streets of downtown New Orleans, and those of its suburbs as well, to watch colorful parade floats with masked riders tossing beads and trinkets, majestic marching bands, gaudily garbed "royalty" and other performers. In the French Quarter, crowds are packed literally from the wall on one side of Bourbon Street to the other, moving in and out of clubs and shops as partiers on the balconies above throw beads, confetti and the occasional flash of bodily parts. Families are eating king cake and drinking sangria, businesses all over town are closed for the day, and kids are running around or sitting atop ladders in the midst of it all.

And for the 19th straight year, I'm stuck somewhere else and can't be there, even if I had the money to do so. As if life didn't suck enough for me already just now.

Don Ho sings Peter Gabriel...and other musical atrocities

Go ahead. Click this link and take a listen; you'll never believe it otherwise. Yes, there really is such a recording...and it's only one of several on this CD that will leave you utterly gobsmacked. (Some tracks actually sound pretty good; the Oak Ridge Boys, frex, do a quite acceptable version of Kansas' classic-rock anthem, "Carry On Wayward Son.")

What if they gave an alien invasion of Earth...and nobody came?

You simply must read this post by my friend debgeisler. If you're a fan of first-contact SF, that goes double for you.