hehe. ways to describe wine when you don't really know how. example: "Soberly Dionysian."

i went to a "ghetto wine tasting" (TM) last year, which stole a packet of info from a legit wine tasting, and there was a list of ways one should describe the taste of wine. ie, 'dry,' 'fruity.' and one was 'mouse.' i swear. or it might have been 'rodent.' i can't remember.

can anyone, oh anyone, tell me anything about the walkmen?
they're playing the 9:30 club feb. 26, and i'm considering seeing them, but as i'm elderly and can no longer stand for long periods of time, i really only like going to shows that i know will be worth it.

i think tommy and i might go to macrock at jmu, mostly because the wrens are playing. and it seems fun. anyone else interested?

here, via au currant.

"Indeed on the strength of it I came up with a theory, which is that brunettes are on average more attractive. Its simple really -- assuming an equal mix of attrative and less attractive women amongs blonds and brunettes, a certain proportion of the latter who aren't attrative die their hair blonde in an atttempt to be (particularly the type who go to post-Brits parties). Thus the proportions change."

i would like to hear more theories on what kind of women are attractive. these are providing entertainment. (don't worry, i don't actually take this seriously or think that the proponents do either.)

over at matthewyglesias.com, one guy's reasoning as to why smarter women are more attractive:

"Zizka's right. Smart girls are better looking than the average. My theory is that smart girls are high-strung, super motivated, high metabolism types. Hence, they stay skinnier longer. Girls in college are better looking than non-college girls of equivalent age, and they get better looking at the better schools. This effect might have pushed well past the diminishing returns when you get to, say, MIT though."

people reading and commenting on MY need to, i think, get laid more often.

i'd like to think that intelligent females are more attractive because, well, they are SMARTER. and more interesting. but i guess it's the high-strung, skinny stuff that really gets guys.

ps; childbirth=bladder stones

i may be behind on this, but i just found a a map of d.c. bloggers.
vienna and dupont circle are two of the bloggiest stations.

via anne, this history of valentine's day:

"Spring was thought to begin on February 5, which was the time for the seed to be sown. It was a time, too, for purification and the expiation of any unintentional offense that might have been given to the gods. The month of February takes its name, in fact, from the instruments of purification (februa) used in such rites, the best known of which is the Lupercalia.

On February 15, the Luperci, young men who were naked except for the skins of goats that had been sacrificed this day, ran from the Lupercal around the bounds of the Palatine, both to purify that ancient site in a ceremony of lustration (lustratio) and, striking the women they met with strips of goat skin, to promote fertility. "Neither potent herbs, nor prayers, nor magic spells shall make of thee a mother," writes Ovid, "submit with patience to the blows dealt by a fruitful hand."

The Sabine women seized by Romulus were barren, as well, says the poet, until struck by the februa. At the foot of the Palatine hill, the Lupercal traditionally was thought to be the cave where Romulus and Remus had been suckled by the she-wolf. The twins, born of Mars and the Vestal daughter of the king, eventually restored their grandfather to the throne and, at the site where they had been left to die, founded Rome."

i was aware that the italians have some wacky festivals, but really, beating women with strips of goat skin takes the cake.

this photo has a lot to do with why i am simultaneously attracted to and repulsed by the british band the darkness.

Howard Dean to announce today that he will stop campaigning, but will leave his name on ballot, campaign source tells CNN. Details soon.