A world of its own

One of the things I like most about my job is helping patrons with their research needs. Today I managed to help a couple from Astoria, which involved figuring out the weirdness of the US Patent Office.

Why the Patent Office has chosen to implement their image files as a strangely-formatted TIFF that requires a special third-party browser plugin is beyond me. Other than they're The Man, and The Man can do whatever He wants.

The guy made me laugh when he started mentioning "I'm here with the woman I sleep with," and they've been married for 30 years. "It sounds more mysterious that way."

So one way to stick it to the man is to donate to Paul Hackett for Congress. He's running an amazing campaign, and the GOP in Ohio is trying to Swift Boat him, saying that being in Iraq as a Marine Reserve officer isn't service. Will their lies ever end? Eight such officers never came back alive. Maybe their families weren't displaying enough yellow ribbons or something.

Do yellow ribbons negate the overwhelming feelings of guilt for voting for a horse-fearing liar, I wonder? There aren't enough acres of magnetic fabric in the world, I am guessing.