"How I laughed at The Times headline yesterday that said, 'siblings are a source of teenage stress.'"

"Apparently, the more siblings you have, the more stress you experience in teenage life because, claimed Professor Douglas Downey of Ohio State University in the Journal of Family Issues, 'siblings are best understood as competitors for resources' and the more of them you have, the worse the effect of this on your mental health. What tosh. I had a sibling in my teenage years (and still have one) and cannot see how she had anything but a positive effect on my mental health. While I was away at boarding school between the ages of 13 and 17, for example, being bullied, cold-showered and rogered senseless by the prefects, she was at home in the bosom of our Cricklewood family, hanging out with my parents and their famous friends.... What do you think I was, jealous or something?... If what these Yankee boffins are postulating is true, such an experience would have turned me into an angry, thwarted, attention-seeking little man....."

Writes Giles Coren, seeking attention in "I’m so lucky my sister never came to anything" (London Times).

Here's the article he's commenting on: "Why siblings are a source of teenage stress/An adolescent with more brothers and sisters is more likely to feel depression, anxiety and low self-esteem."

"Vin Scully Quotes Bob Dylan as the Dodgers’ Playoff Hopes Slowly Die."

Bob Dylan... Dylan Thomas... what the hell's the difference? They were dying out there last night.



Here's the Dylan Scully quoted:



Here's the text of the poem, which I checked for the reason you might want to check. He doesn't say "fucked." It's "their words had forked no lightning." Also "Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay..." Green Bay! This poem is good for baseball and football.

"As Sarah Palin awoke one morning from uneasy dreams she found herself transformed in her bed into a gigantic vice-Presidential candidate."

After I briskly kick off a discussion of the bad "creative writing" in Sarah Palin's memoir, Palladian says that should have been the first line.

And, for more Palin memoir fun, don't miss the unusually wacky "Duct tape" thread. Click here to get to the comments after the 200th. 201, by Roger J. is:

"This has got to be abolutely the most screwball post I have ever seen, and damn if its not going hit 200 comments! Wow--just wow."

Andrea had me in hysterics:

Does anyone else here besides me find it absolutely hilarious at Jeremy's incandescent Rage! against the whole idea of using duct tape to prevent frostbite? I mean, it's absolutely ridiculous, over-the-top RAAAAGE! It's over NINE-THOUSAAAAAAND!

Rage! Rage against the using of the duct tape!