Here’s a long and thought-out case for euthanizing The Simpsons I found on MSNBC. The author descibes the transformation over the last several years of the original Simpsons characters, especially Homer, into what he calls “the meta-Simpsons”, or, less civilly, “jerkass Homer.” An interview with George Meyer, the last of the staff old guard, helps the author make his case.

My co-worker Paul has a conversation on software code reuse.

Señor Coche, the glory of chicharones! It’s been several years, since I moved away from New Mexico, since I’ve had chicharones. And I miss them. At a few Mexican restaurants here in Athens, I’ve asked if the cooks had any chicharones in the back. After getting over their amazement that a gringo would know what chicharones are, they’d laugh at the sheer notion that they’d have any to make. (Note: one place did briefly put them on the weekend brunch menu after I talked with them about it, but they didn’t stay) Chicharones are but one end product of a Matanza, what the first page referred to as a “pig fry”. Matanzas are family celebrations, usually held around Christmas. The centerpiece is the pig roast, which begins the night before and lasts well into the next day. In fact, the word “matanza” translates as “bloodshed”. The slaughter of the pig used to be a solemn event, as explained in this Spanish oral history project. (elingo.com does a fair job at translating.) The parties are a celebration of a successful year, Christmas, and the upcoming year. They are traditionally open parties, as sharing with neighbors is a major theme. Here’s a nice list of Spanish [Matanza-related recipes](http://soria-goig.com/Recetas/pag_0202.htm#migas matanza), and the rough English translation. The air here turned crisp over the weekend, and brought to mind the wonderful traditional Matanzas I was lucky enough to attend.

Congressman’s teen-aged son shoots self, acne drug to blame

So I went to George W. Bush’s official website to see the spin on Cheney’s comments. There were three links titled “Setting The Record Straight.” Clicking through, I was given an ugly error message: “ADODB.Field error ‘800a0bcd’ Either BOF or EOF is True, or the current record has been deleted. Requested operation requires a current record. /helper/RecordSetFunctions.asp, line 35 " No help there. Just for fun, I answered the daily trivia question (“Win a T-shirt!”), and got the following when I pressed the button: “No such Daily Trivia item. " So I left.

I have tickets to see Graham Chapman’s rediscovered play tomorrow night. Oh Happy Day!

According to this article from the 700 Club (not on my regular rotation – I was just checking if Pat Robertson has left the GOP over Cheney’s gay marriage remarks. He hasn’t, yet.) Jesus and I have the same blood type. I’m AB+. “The Universal Taker”, the rarest blood type. Conversely to type O, who can donate to anyone, AB people can take from anyone but can give only to fellow AB’ers. Because of that, I routinely get turned away from blood drives. “Blood shortage crisis!” the posters say. “All types needed!” they cry. But when I get there, they say “Sorry, AB’s not worth our effort.” On rare occasions, when they need blood parts that aren’t type-dependant, they’ll take it. But that’s less than 10% of the times I’ve tried to bleed for the good of my fellow man.

Jacob Weisberg at Slate was wowed by the same moment as I in last night’s Vice Presidential debates. Until last night, I didn’t have a single nice thing to say about Dick Cheney. But what he said about gay marriage floored me. He’s still not getting my vote, but I was truly impressed. I wonder what the fallout will be.

“What the vice-presidential debate did was confirm the wisdom of both choices. In selecting their running mates, both candidates found what they lacked, Wizard of Oz-style. By picking Lieberman, Gore got a heart. In choosing Cheney, Bush got a brain. "

From fellow Athens weblogger Chip comes a link to Minnie Minnola’s Story, an amusing recollection by the woman who inspired REM’s (Dont Go Back) to Rockville.

Here we go. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has finally put up an in depth article on the Coffee County drug situation. The sheriff was known as “the scourge of South Georgia marijuana farmers” before all of this came to light. I’m sure it comes as no surprise to learn that law enforcement in South Georgia is primarily a family affair.