I've been noticing that people have been mining the socio-cultural material of the '80s for a while now (admittedly, in somewhat specialized fields, such as gaming - GI Joe anyone?) But now OpinionJournal has caught the signs. An A-team remake, the revival of the Miami Vice franchise.. Big hair even. And finally "Depeche Mode and The Cure are also staging comebacks." You may now panic.

I'm broswing through my blogs this morning, and I read today's Bleat. Cute story about small child? Check. Rambling commentary on classic media? Check Miscellaneous socipolitical commentary on the ltest blogospheric outrage? Check The latest outrage is Target's decision to no longer permit Salvation Army kettle-ringers on Target's property (this was a longstanding exemption to Target's blanket policy of not permitting solicitors on their properties at all). Myself, I'm of neutral opi...

As those of you who know me personally no doubt are tired of hearing, I want to own a PT Cruiser. If it turns out I end up getting one in white, I will seriously consider getting a vanity plate RMN-CL56. Anyone want to guess why? (those of you who know my reading habits should be able to guess this one pretty easily). Hint in the comments

Just noticed, this is my 101th post to JU! Now back to your regularly scheduled semi-political tirades... (I guess I'm going to have to find something else to blog on soon)

Via the Volokh Conspiracy comes this Neal Stephenson trivia contest - but see note (Enoch Root is not the answer).

If you haven't heard of Rain-X, it's a product that you can apply to automotive glass that significantly increases the point at which water beads up on the glass and flows off. You can get in several different forms and ways to apply it to glass (I get it as my windshield wiper fluid). the end result of it is that I have to run my wipers a lot less often in the rain - as the incoming rains beads up immediately, and slides off, making for a much less obscured view. One of the niftiest thing...

And I thought I had issues, learning to drive in the metro DC area

I love this story. Classic shaggy dog story meets the info age.

A couple of peopel point out this kind of thing is slightly more likely to happen in private schools due to the direct connect between keeping the parents happy and the money coming in. There's no good answer, really.

From Ananova comes this little bit of wackiness " Childless couple told to try sex A German couple who went to a fertility clinic after eight years of marriage have found out why they are still childless - they weren't having sex. " All I can say is, did they avoid every form of media out there?

Via SSDB comes this gem about workplace harassment. I read it, and all I have to say is that I had better not work there - I enjoy making cryptic references (pop culture, historical, what-have-you).

So I'm reading Carnival of the Cats Link and I realize that while I am limited in my own catblogging by lack of camera, there's no reason I can't pass on other peoples' catblogs (which I guess is the point of Carnival of the Cats. Anyway, I present - The Auto-Tracking Self-Propelled Flycatcher!

I haven't been inspired to write something of my own recently, so I'll link to this Christopher Hitchens piece in Slate. Every so often I do venture to read Slate, and this one struck me as interesting.

Go see it, I'll be here when you get back.

And then the world explodes. Well, maybe not, but at least you can have the bike.