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This one’s from the Economist:

One of the things I never understood when I was a journalist (and still don’t) is the copy editor’s penchant for puns.  Typically the last in the chain to see an article, and typically responsible for crafting the story headline, copy editors — for whatever reason — feel its their duty to take perfectly straightforward headlines suggested by writers and section editors and turn them into bad jokes.  Why?  What’s the point?  Are they just bored?

I once asked the copy chief at one magazine why they do it.  “It’s a long tradition,” he said.

In other words: They do it because they’ve always done it.  And they’re bored.

Some RSS headlines from CNN that popped up on my Google home page today:

All messages that begin with “I need to talk to you” always lead to news you don’t want to hear. (The same is true of “We need to talk.”)

I bought some reusable grocery bags while checking out at the supermarket the other day.  I don’t know why it’s taken us so long to get some.  The number of plastic bags we bring home from the grocery store each week (and then shove under the sink to be recycled later) always horrifies me.  So I’m feeling good that we’ve now finally taken the plunge and are cutting off a big source of our “transitory plastic.”

The only problem is, it’s not easy to remember to take the reusable bags into the store before you start shopping.  So you (or maybe just I) find yourself in line with a cart full of groceries and the realization that you’re sans-bags. And I’m ashamed to say I usually don’t get out of line in these cases.  I doubt others do either. Consumer habits are very hard to break.

An idea: Environmental groups ought to give stores free signs that they can put up in their parking lots to remind customers to bring their reusable bags into the stores with them.

What? Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are going to be face to face in a movie again for the first time since Heat?  And the movie’s coming out next month?  Why didn’t anyone tell me this?

Too bad I can’t say the word “righteous” with a straight face.

When the boy yawns, it’s contagious (as to be expected.)  Yet, he himself seems impervious to anyone else’s yawns.

When he wakes, he stretches his arms above his head like I do.  But it’s doubtful he’s ever seen an adult wake up and stretch (especially given his limited eyesight.)

He has known how to pout from day one.

If you’re looking to scare a couple of new parents, refer to the bump on their kid’s head as “a hematoma caused by shearing of the skull during delivery.”  Then shrug and say, “That’ll go away.”

If we were stranded together on a desert island, and we were trying to decide who stays and who gets eaten based on the useful skills we each might be able to provide the group, my skill would be the ability to repair a fence.  You know, in case we need to keep the Others out.

1998: Having told my British, German, Italian, Portugese, and Czech flatmates that Mexican food is the finest food on the planet and that surely they must try it, we head out that night to what must be the only Mexican restaurant in Edinburgh.  It is run by a Spanish family.  When giving the waitress his drink order, Dave, unknowing that the Tequila we speak of is meant to be served as shots, asks for “a bottle of Tequila.”  I’m pretty sure we talked him out of it. Still, I don’t quite remember the rest of the evening, except: the food was bad, or at least not Mexican; and once we got back to the flat I used the phone in the hallway to call a national park in Costa Rica to find out why a certain girl hadn’t called me first. She wasn’t there, and she didn’t get the message.

2008: I wake up late to find that my wife and son have let me sleep in.  In the living room, the kid is playing in his little chair and smiles when he sees me.  My wife is making birthday brownies.  We open my present, which is both a surprise and what I wanted.  Later, we pack up and head off to lunch at a local restaurant specializing in barbecue.  I think that barbecue might rival Mexican food for the title of finest food on the planet.  The kid falls asleep in his chair and we have one of the first leisurely lunches we’ve had in a long time.  The grilled tuna sandwich is incredible.

The new design is courtesy an entirely new content management system under the hood.  Also, most of my technology-related posts will be over at returncontrol.com from now on.

For those who are interested, I’m now using WordPress, and like it much better than Movable Type 4, which was a nightmare after the upgrade from version 3.  Will write up more on my experience making the switch later (and post it to returncontrol.)