Stupid name, but big on taste. Kalena had the chicken with white sauce and I had the sausage with red… both earned 2 thumbs up. The chicken on Kalena’s in particular was very well prepared and very tasty.

Due to the struggling economy, however, we had to wait 30 minutes to get a table…

I am a huge fan of Dick Cheney. I love the way he answers questions directly, with no double speak or any of the other crap that is typical of politicians.

There are many more reasons that Dick Cheney is awesome, but that’s not really the point of this post. This post is to explain why his daughter Liz is awesome.

Liz Cheney was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bush administration.

Watch the clip below to see one of the finest press performances I’ve ever seen. She provides a thorough and thoughtful response to the Waterboarding hype that’s been all the rage the last few days. Note how she, like her father, doesn’t take any crap when dealing with the press.

Source: Red State and Power Line

Update: If the video wasn’t quite enough, you can read the transcript of the rest of the interview here.

Bea Arthur died today. Actually yesterday, technically.

She was preceded in death by Estelle Getty. Rue McClanahan and Betty White are still kickin’ it.

Richard Mulligan from Empty Nest is dead. Charlie is still alive.

But never fear, Golden Girls Fans! #1: You can see reruns on the Hallmark Channel. #2: A new version is planned. Unfortunately you’ll have to speak Turkish for full enjoyment.

T: Consider yourself scooped!

Turns out Taco Bells in AZ close at 1AM.

Carl’s Jr., Wendy’s, and Del Taco are all viable alternatives. Waffle House is also an alternative, but probably better if you aren’t wearing your pajamas.

The Wife^® has now revised her Del Taco view to “better than dirt” — so we’re making progress.

Paula Abdul choreographed the famous “piano scene” in the movie Big.

Here it is, in some other language for some reason:

Source: ABC News

The Wife^® (and I think Junior) hate Del Taco.

I—on the other hand—am not so sure.

Since The Wife^®and Junior were having an exclusive no-Jeff’s-allowed lunch today I decided to give it another try.

Just for shiggles, I decided to order a cheeseburger. A cheeseburger at a taco place? How could that go wrong?

I think I actually liked it. It was on the value menu, so I only paid a buck. And I’d put it up against any other place’s dollar cheeseburger. Certainly not great, but if you expect perfection for a dollar you will always be disappointed. (I didn’t have fries, so I can’t speculate as to how a whole burger-fries-Coke meal would be.)

I also had a chicken soft taco (not bad, not exactly good) and a crunchy taco. I know this may be seen as blasphemous, but I liked the crunchy taco better than Taco Bell. I was able to actually eat the whole thing without the shell breaking, which was a nice change. And it was only 59¢.

All in all, I think I’ll go back. Don’t get me wrong, Taco Bell will always be my first taco love, but I do want to see how Del Taco burritos stack up. And they had a quesadilla that looked intriguing.

One last note- the decor was atrocious. It looked like a clown threw up inside, which seems to be a pretty common decorative theme out here in the desert. (Basha’s—I’m looking in your direction…)

Another from Grammar Girl. This one I’ve been holding on to for a few days while deciding whether or not to share, but since I went crazy with the grammar posts I thought I’d just go for it.

When you want to describe an object using multiple adjectives, there is a proper way to order them.

Adjectives should go in the following order, with opinion first and purpose last:

Opinion (ridiculous, crazy, beautiful)
Size (big, small)
Age (old, young)
Shape (round, square)
Color (yellow, blue)
Origin (American, British)
Material (polyester, styrofoam)
Purpose (swimming, as in “swimming pool”; shooting, as in “shooting range”)

The good news is that you probably do this naturally, so you probably don’t need to bother memorizing the list. The other good news is that nobody knows that there is a rule about this, so no one will catch it if you’re wrong.

The other other good news is that this is the last grammar post of the day! Good news all around!

Source: Grammar Girl

Along the lines of the CMOS from the last post, another thing I’ve never heard of but now see all over the place is the em dash and en dash.

Em Dash
The em dash is the dash used to break up a sentence, and is so named because the dash is as long as an uppercase M in the font (or in the old days typeset) that you are using.

• You are the one—the only one—who can save the world!
• Never have I met someone so brave—before you.

Make an Em Dash by holding ALT then pressing 0151. Or just let Word do it for you.

En Dash
The En Dash, as you’d expect, is the width of an N. It is used to express inclusive time ranges or to join open compounds.

• Spring Break is from April 5–April 10.
• Be careful where you go, as there are a lot of beheadings along the U.S.–Mexico border.

An En Dash is ALT + 0150.

Hyphens
Now neither of these should be confused with the hyphen, which is used to join words together.

• It is well-known fact that grammar is tricky.
• The new X-Men movie looks like it will be OK. At least Halle Berry won’t be there to screw it up.

The hyphen is just the hyphen key (next to the zero key).

Spaces
It is not recommended to use spaces before or after dashes or hyphens. However— that is a matter of style.

I tend to use spaces because I think it looks cleaner. But I also use the serial comma before the last item in a list too. (This post is about em dashes, en dashes, and hyphens. vs. This post is about em dashes, en dashes and hyphens.)

I know, I know. I’m such a rebel.

Source: Grammar Girl, who also dives into dashes vs. colons, and GrammarBook.com

The 7 Wonders of the Ancient World:

• Great Pyramid of Giza
• Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• Statue of Zeus at Olympia
• Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
• Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus
• Colossus of Rhodes
• Lighthouse of Alexandria

Some lists include the Ishtar Gate instead of the Lighthouse.

There are also some other lists like man made wonders, and natural wonders, and wonders of bread, etc. but they are lame.

Source: wiki, based on a question while watching The History Channel

There is a name for the situation that occurs when you’ve never heard of something before, and then once you do you start to notice it everywhere. At least the people on the Bulletin Board in the St. Paul Pioneer Press had a name for it.

I can’t remember what it is, and such a vague idea doesn’t easily translate to a Google search. Oh, well.

Anyway, I had a question about a grammatical style point the other day and was told that The Chicago Manual of Style dictated that it should be the way that it was.

I had never heard about the Chicago Manual of Style before, but I didn’t give it much thought and went on with my day. When I was a junior journalist we used The AP Stylebook, so I figured this was just a competing book of writing rules.

That’s pretty much the case, though the AP book seems more focused on journalism, while the Chicago book seems more academic, which you’d expect, since one is produced by the Associated Press, and the other is produced by the University of Chicago.

Incidentally, since the first mention a few days ago, I’ve seen or heard references to the Chicago Manual of Style on no fewer than 4 occasions. Funny how that happens.

If you’re really into Grammar, you can get a subscription to either the CMOS or AP Stylebook on their websites. I think I’ll stick with Grammar Girl.