yay, hygienic modernity!

Maybe some of you are like me; you aren't actively appreciating on a daily basis that you don't live in the middle ages or early 14th century. But I've been listening to this book (oh yes, my whole life is books on CD) Brunelleschi's dome by ross king, about the dome on the santa maria del fiore in florence (preparation for our trip to Italy) and i have to say, I am very aware of how craptacular life was then. Let's discuss the black plague. don't want it, killed 4/5 of the florentine population. glad it's mostly eradicated. let's discuss water: wasn't clean, had to drink wine instead...which might not be so bad if you didnt get tanked after 3 glasses(that might just be me). let's discuss work hours. do you actively appreciate the Socialists who helped bring you the 8 hour work day? well, take a moment to do so, because apparently back then you worked sun up to sun down...and in the summer that meant 14 hour days in scorching heat. and on days when the weather was bad you just didnt get paid.

So artists have always been known for being a little "off". Ross King has been telling me that artists were known for being extremely ugly and smelly in italy in the 1400s. In fact, apparently people marveled that Raphael could be so talented because he was moderately handsome. And Michelangelo who would go for months without changing his dogskin undies. YES. FOUL!!!

Hey speaking of having a sucky life, here's Stephen Colbert and a few little friends helping explain why our Christian president vetoed a children's health care bill overwhelmingly passed by Congress.

holy God, do all the Argentinians have to smell so fabulously mantastic? their cologne is distracting me. i work in a veritable UN, and may i say that i wish other cultures would learn from the argentine example...because contrary to popular belief, b.o. is NOT like perfume, and yes everyone is susceptible to b.o., even Asians.

if i were ethan hawk in gattaca and i had bought jude law's identity but was trying to keep it secret from the oppressive genetic hierarchy of the day, i would fail parlessly. yesterday i cleaned up a veritable treasure trove of genetic ID in the form of my eyelashes, eyebrow hairs, and lustrous red hair from my computer area. all i could think was that they would have no trouble whatsoever identifying that, i, indeed, am not jude law, but very much julie hartle.