I WAS SURPRISED WHEN I saw Howard Bashman's report that Zacarias Moussaoui's entertaining ramblings would henceforth be kept under seal, but the judge's order is not quite that ridiculous. Moussaoui had been writing two-page after two-page diatribe that had nothing to do with seeking legal relief and everything to do with circumventing the regulations prohibiting him from contacting the outside world. The judge's order reflects that, and notes that legitimate requests for judicial relief will be unsealed.

A MARVELOUS PIECE summarizing DVD commentary tracks for movies you'd never want to rent.

MARK IT: First appearance of a "blog" in Doonesbury on September 5, 2002.

IN CASE YOU WERE worried that "Jesus appearing on a tortilla" is unique to Western Christian societies, Ananova is reporting that Pilgrims are flocking to a "divine potato" shaped like the Hindu Lord Ganesha, who you might remember from the Simpsons episode.

A FRIEND MAILED ME a link to this AP article about a Temple linguist defending the use of "like" in conversational English. (E.g., "He has, like, six sisters.'') I was a little skeptical of the story when I saw that the linguist's name is Muffy Siegel, but if it's a joke, it's one that extends to the Temple web site.

I WAITED TEN MINUTES for service at a Wendy's the other day. I settled for getting my money back and going home and cooking, but apparently I should have waited another five minutes and sued for discrimination. (via Overlawyered)

(If I had $1,000 every time I got bad service at a Taco Bell...)

HEIMATSCHUTZ UPDATE. (via Kaus)

ASIAN MARKET WITH funny name.

SPELLING BEE FAMILY.

THE PEOPLE WHO SHOP at Fresh Fields in DC (like the people who used to shop at Mrs. Gooch's in LA) are either yuppies like me who admire the cheese and deli-case selection or Ralph Nader types who are willing to pay a higher price for the privilege of feeding their mistaken beliefs that (1) the naturally-occurring pesticides in the strains of plants grown for commercial organic food farming are safer than the smaller amounts of man-made pesticides used for non-"organic" food and (2) they're sticking it to The Man by avoiding the Corporate Grocery Store. So it's mysterious to me why Whole Foods Market, the national chain without a national advertising campaign, seeks to repeat its mistake in Los Angeles, and rename the Fresh Fields stores it has owned here for seven years, and remind its customers that it is a national chain.

On the other hand, I remember when Starbuck's was considered underground and trendy by the left, right about when they opened their first stores on the East Coast. This was before it joined the McDonald's/Gap/Nike Axis Of Globalization. Starbuck's doesn't seem to have suffered from the shift in perception, so I imagine Whole Foods will rebound also.