It's not often these days that I have nice things to say about the mainstream media, but my boy Anderson Cooper comes through with some righteous anger (got to love those Channel One folks from high school) (via April's favorite word - Amygdala):

Cooper suspended the traditional TV rules of decorum and, approaching tears of fury, said:

Excuse me, Senator, I'm sorry for interrupting. I haven't heard that, because, for the last four days, I've been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi. And to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other, you know, I got to tell you, there are a lot of people here who are very upset, and very angry, and very frustrated.

And when they hear politicians slap—you know, thanking one another, it just, you know, it kind of cuts them the wrong way right now, because literally there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats because this woman had been laying in the street for 48 hours. And there's not enough facilities to take her up.

Do you get the anger that is out here? …

I mean, I know you say there's a time and a place for, kind of, you know, looking back, but this seems to be the time and the place. I mean, there are people who want answers, and there are people who want someone to stand up and say, "You know what? We should have done more. Are all the assets being brought to bear?"

Landrieu kept her cool, probably because she's in Baton Rouge, while the stink of corpses caused Cooper to tremble in rage all the way to the commercial break.

Sounds like other reporters have stopped playing nice too (more at the link).

In much lighter news, the guest list for our party this weekend has topped 30 and Anna and I are very psyched (and feeling very loved!). Fortunately, she likes to hostess too (oh Carrie, how I miss sharing those duties with you!) so we've been shopping and cleaning and decorating and all the fun things that go along with revelry-making. Tomorrow morning I try my hand at Carrie's bourbon-dark-chocolate-cookies.

And refill my prescription for nasonex, since I've finally been convinced that maybe I do in fact have allergies (I've been skeptical since my doc suggested it). I finally started thinking like a scientist and linking the times when I've felt worse, and they've mostly followed time outside or driving around in my car with the windows down. And the clincher for me - running errands this afternoon I was really starting to struggle, feeling pretty congested, driving with the windows down (trying to conserve gas by skipping the AC) and rapidly after putting up the windows and turning on the AC I started to feel better. So I guess I'm mostly convinced. Sigh. I don't want to be allergic to the outside. I like the outside.