Why would Sarah Palin resign her governorship?

• She's Mark Sanford's Argentinian lover.
• She shot a man in Juneau just to watch him die.
• She's urgently needed to console Norm Coleman.

I didn't shave between Christmas and the Superbowl. The Pittsburgh Steelers won.

I didn't shave between Mother's Day and the Stanley Cup finals. The Pittsburgh Penguins won.

Coincidence? I think so. Sorry, Pirates!

My current favorite soft drink has a deal going: each 12-pack of cans comes with a $1 coupon off of the next 12-pack. Today was the first time I was planning to use two of them in the same store visit. I decided to read the fine print to make sure that wasn't prohibited. It wasn't, but I found something more baffling. The store is instructed to reject coupons which are "reproduced, gang cut or mint condition." I can understand reproduced. What I can't understand is how anybody's supposed to recognize "gang cut" as distinct from normal cutting. For that matter, wouldn't obsessive-compulsives be penalized for precision cutting which might be mistaken for "mint condition"?

It was raining inside and out at work tonight. I made eight code commits in the space of an hour. Such commit storms are pretty typical for me, but tonight's was eight commits for a reason. The last one had a revision number of 314. Sure, it was late for Pi Day, but I wasn't interested in staying around long enough to reach 501 for May Day.

It was only last summer that I learned to skip fabric softener when washing towels. The softener takes up residence where the water is supposed to go and reduces the towel's ability to absorb. Another important fabric softener detail: it builds up on the dryer's lint screen, and must be removed with soap to restore proper air flow. Are there any other laundry tips like that you were surprised to learn?

I'd also like to know if anyone has used those dryer balls. I'm on board for the cost savings from reduced drying time and the elimination of softener sheets, but it seems to me that they might achieve the softness much like a meat tenderizer would. I would think this ages the clothes more rapidly. The reviews online are less than helpful, so I'm hoping to hear about personal experience.

Lunch today was a cheeseburger plate, hash browns only, with everything. For those who've never experienced Rochester's most notorious contribution to the culinary arts, those cheeseburger patties were served directly on the home fries, no bun required. The "everything" translated into a heaping pile of diced raw onions, tablespoon after tablespoon of yellow mustard, and "hot sauce", a spiced ground beef slurry. I then poured on the Louisiana-style hot sauce you probably thought of when I said "hot sauce". And then, to mop up any flavor that managed to elude the fork, white bread with butter.

A plate is food that appeals directly to the part of the brain we share with lizards. The good news: the place had Trappey's instead of Tabasco, so the plate's signature burning and indigestion were significantly mitigated. The bad news: the plate's signature burning and indigestion were severely mitigated, undercutting the feeling of accomplishment that comes from polishing off a plate.

For dinner, I had Japanese. California roll, salmon roll, seaweed salad, two types of dumpling, a tempura assortment (broccoli, shrimp, mushroom, sweet potato, and eggplant), and shrimp sauteed with onions and asparagus. The flavors tended toward the subtle; my usual sushi selection is much more complicated and spicy.

For a while there, I felt like I ate at the two ends of the food sophistication spectrum. Could any two meals be more different? Now that I've enumerated the components of the dinner, I see that there's a strong common thread. Whatever it was, I had it "with everything". Perhaps tomorrow I'll get some plain pizza. Sauce + cheese + dough sounds downright simple.

We'll start with You Probably Lose, the addictive new Flash game from Bad Gods. After each round, be sure to visit Sad Trombone. I would mention Fail Blog at this point, but they've mostly been made of fail lately.

Ah, the things one finds late at night when waiting for the dryer to finish . . .

I went shopping last night to stock up on pie ingredients to celebrate π Day. I started at the fabric store, but they didn't have any French silk. When I asked where I could score some chicken pot at the grocery store, thay called the police. Oh well, there's always next year!

Poll #1357634 Laundry Delay
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

How many hours can wet laundry safely sit in the washer before being taken out for drying?

View Answers
Mean: 20.44 Median: 12 Std. Dev 19.82

4	2 (22.2%)
8	1 (11.1%)
12	2 (22.2%)
16	0 (0.0%)
20	0 (0.0%)
24	3 (33.3%)
28	0 (0.0%)
32	0 (0.0%)
36	0 (0.0%)
40	0 (0.0%)
44	0 (0.0%)
48	0 (0.0%)
52	0 (0.0%)
56	0 (0.0%)
60	0 (0.0%)
64	0 (0.0%)
68	0 (0.0%)
72	1 (11.1%)
76	0 (0.0%)
80	0 (0.0%)

I think the TiVo is dead.