This Week in Its Briefs: Screw Laundry, Just Buy New Pairs

1. I was saddened but not overly suprised to learn of Steve Irwin's death over Labor Day weekend. It was somewhat inevitable, I suppose, that jockeying about with wild animals would prove fatal. But he had such unbridled enthusiasm for the natural world, and did a great deal to promote conservationist causes worldwide. RIP Croc Hunter. There won't be another like you.

2. And with the conclusion of Labor Day, summer is officially over. I emerged with only one very minimal sunburn, coinciding not at all with the fact that I received the burn on the one and only day I actually spent in the sun. (What was up with that? I'm a suncreen demon. I can only conclude the brand I bought was crap.)

I stopped actively tanning several years ago; after a youth spent in the pursuit of the perfect summertime tan the bronzing habit was initially hard to break. However, right about the time I was trying to kick off the strait jacket of tanning I visited a female relative in her mid-50's who had tanned aggressively and religiously all of her life - whoosh! She had far too many wrinkles in what should have been relatively youthful facial skin. She looked 10 years older than she should have and this scared me straight; straight to the bottle of industrial strength sunscreen and straight off the beach forever more.

Nowadays, on the extremely rare occasions when I go to the beach I'm the one under the huge umbrella wearing hat, sunglasses, and long sleeved tee shirt. I always get a big laugh from my fellow beachgoers, but I shall be the one laughing when I confront my peers in the future (most of whom have not heeded my sun warnings) when their skin resembles mahogany end tables. And for those friends still in their late 20's and 30's that scoff at my advice I have six words for you: forty five - you won't be exempt.

3. If you feel as if this Administration is just marking time before they unilaterally decide to declare war on yet another country, even before we've sloppily stitched together the seething mess that is Iraq, you're not alone.

I can't say I'm surprised, given the unrelenting tide of hate that streams forth from Capitol Hill, which hatred of "the other" they in turn disseminate through the Republican party and which encompasses nearly everything they espouse. It's not really hate so much as the callous indifference to human lives and suffering that bothers me the most. I have no problem ascribing monumental indifference to the cosmos, laws of physics, nature & stuff, as these are generally enormous non-sentient masses that don't actively wish harm, it's just shit that happens. But to willfully ignore potential suffering to a member of one's own species; just ick.

4. In Cupcake News: Cupcake Emeritus is enjoying the semi-retired life, preoccupied with propelling his wheelbarrows of money about, and is cutting the apron strings connected to me slowly and painlessly. Remaining Executive Cupcakes aren't taxing my intellect or time very much, which gives me ample time to obsess about My Life and Where It's Going. For someone like me who very easily dips into quagmires of introspection, this is not really a good thing, as the quagmire is often hard to emerge from.

All I can do is hope.