Acallidryas and I should have met in the sixth grade. We were in the same English class, sat in the same row and we can both remember incidents and other students in that class. But neither of us can remember the other one being there. We only figured out that we should have known each other at that age by discussing our previous teachers after we “met” the first year of high school. 
That I can remember anything about my sixth grade English class is a miracle considering my atrocious memory. …

Washington Mutual became the largest bank to fail in American history, dwarfing the IndyMac failure earlier this year.  I don’t have much to say about this in general except that I am beginning to lose confidence in the American banking system.  Oh, and that all the money for the international assistance programs my organization runs are kept at WaMu, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens there.  Luckily we’re a small group.  I don’t think we could’ve been too over the FDIC limit.
I did, however, want to draw attention …

John McCain suspended his campaign to return to DC and help with the economic bailout negotiations. So what if the only actual sign of a suspended campaign was throwing David Letterman over for Katie Couric? And it would just be unfair to point out that an informal bipartisan bailout agreement that had been reached fell apart upon his entry into the discussions. 
Fear not, my fellow Americans, the (anti) Maverick has decided that the situation in DC is resolved enough for him to attend tonight’s debate. No, there is no bailout …

Drive-By Bags 
Last featured: July 11, 2008 
I originally featured Drive-By Bags because I thought the concept of recycling vinyl billboards into bags was brilliant. Since that post, I have been gifted with a Drive-By Bag of my very own. There are three things you need to know about these bags: 
1) You will be stopped randomly on the street by strangers who wonder where you bought it. This has happened to me at least twice every time I’ve carried it. 
2) They are roomy. While there aren’t divided inner compartments (except for an interior …