This is the kind of civil disobedience I can get behind. Staffers at an Oregon weekly took the trash of their local politicos after a ruling legalized warrant-free searching of curbside rubbish. The contents are revealed, and I’m dying to know more about the “Extremely personal note on dinner napkin, handwritten in pencil.”

Now I’m “award-winning”: Best WORK OF FICTION featuring a murderous computer geek

Official motto on Idaho license plates: FAMOUS POTATOES.

The PC I use only to connect to the Internet became infected with NIMDA, and I spent two days trying to eradicate it. This is on a machine that does nothing but send faxes and dial the modem. No email sent or received. Rarely used to view web pages. Virus definitions auto-update daily. WTF!?

My cousin-in-law made this chocolate-covered caramel trombone for my uncle as a Christmas gift. I guess he opened his present early.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the challengers are winning more often on Iron Chef?

Final Survivor pool rankings:

1 Nullifier 925

2 Renutt 875

3 Nachos 645

4 BigMama 495

5 LoRez 470

6 Hongos in Diff’rent Area Codes 370

7 Roberto 250

8 Grech 225

$60, baby!

Editors’ secrets revealed (including mine) in Ellen Ullman’s mediabistro piece!

“These are designs not only for our time, but for all time.”

Which evokes all time better? The crazy angular building that looks like it’s going to fall down any minute? Or the grid-shaped buildings that evoke prison bars. These WTC designs get better every time around.

No, this is not for real, but it’s a pretty hilarious idea.

And this is a new policy?

I cut my teeth at the Texas Business Weekly. Now I’m on the front freakin’ page!

I’ve been quite ill. It all started with a stomachache that then turned into the whole flu-like thing. And that pain in my tooth is flaring up. It’s actually in the gum around the tooth. And now I realize it’s partly in my lip. I don’t know: Was it always the lip? I’m probably dying. Flesh-eating bacteria or West Nile maybe.

I realize this is not very entertaining for you, the reader, but this is the hypochondria part of the site. Sorry.

Hey, I think I know the other kid who was really scared and didn�t want to take your baby Jesus and the whole time all he did was say stuff like you�re going to hell, this isn�t right, stop.

Google’s new shopping service, Froogle, does not appear to work. At all.

Bizarre correction from my old stomping grounds, never known for rigorous fact-checking. Link courtesy Jim Dedman.

Absolute best thing I’ve seen on TV in ages.

Minor moment of concern of the day: Stopped at a red light next to a construction crew, which is carefully and rather wide-eyed lowering a 50-gallon tank labeled “LIQUID NITROGEN” into a manhole, with inches to spare around it, and about 2 feet from my car.

For god’s sake, don’t forget to ban the thing from the street, too!

The job of a film critic is a thankless one. Being on the Internet makes it even worse, as the trolls of the world need only hit a button to tell you HOW ST00PID U R!!!! Jeremiah Kipp and I wrote this little feature, outlining our favorite idiotic complaints and explaining why so many people are so very asinine.