Whitman boys.

The House Rabbit Society. You, like Amy Sedaris, can own a rabbit as your primary pet. In Portland, here’s the link for the local rabbit rescue organization.

Just say it a few times. Rabbit. Rabbit rabbit rabbit rabbit.

HEY, I FORGOT TO FOLLOW UP ON THE CAR-BUYING EXPERIENCE. It went smoothly. We went to http://www.autobytel.com, detailed the kind of car we wanted, and about 30 minutes later the fleet manager from Herzog-Meier, one of the local VW dealerships, called and gave us a quote immediately. It was about eight hundred bucks below MSRP, which wouldn’t be a great deal except that the high-end diesel wagon we wanted is a rare beast, and none of the other dealers we talked to were close to dipping below MSRP. (Ah, the benefits of talking to the fleet manager.)

So we showed up to the dealership, didn’t have to do any haggling, and got our car with no trouble other than the wait to get in to see the finance guy. That part went fine, because we were preapproved through our credit union, Portland Teachers’. We left with the car, and haven’t even crashed it yet.

As Tom Skerrit said in “A River Runs Through It,” I am…. pleased.

I READ SLASHDOT. That in itself isn’t enough to make me a geek–with my relative lack of techie skills, I’m only a geek poser. But a recent post noted “Thyne Oldest Known Tech Manual,” a recently-found 1391 manuscript in which Chaucer himself explained to his young son how to use an astrolabe. The followup included this post, which is hurt-your-sides funny if you get it and “huh?” material if you don’t.

NEVER GOOGLE YOURSELF. You’ll realize that other people with your same name are bright lights of creativity and genius, while you are merely a talentless hack.

THE NYT CAN BE BEWILDERING. In today’s online edition, the featured story (top right, next to the headlines, is a story on the giant bullfrog of South Africa, titled A Loathsome Frog, Perhaps, but Surely Lionhearted. The tree showing the journalistic division this story comes from runs like this: “internations/africa/midrand journal.”

“Midrand Journal”?

Ping-Pong Ball Avalanche Home Page. Say no more.