rethink(ip)

Carnival of the Vanities #196

Posted by Stephen M. Nipper at June 21, 2006 10:19 AM

One Hundred and Ninety-Six?  Crikey.  That's a heck of a lot of Carnival of the Vanities issues. 

Welcome to Rethink(IP)!   We're three patent attorneys who blog separately at PHOSITA®, PROMOTE THE PROGRESS® and THE INVENT BLOG, and (of course) together here at RETHINK(IP).  We won't bore you with a detailed description of who we are or what we claim to be.  Just have it known that we're in the field of patent law and that an object of our work together is to transform the practice of patent law.  We'll incorporate a little background material (including links to our most popular posts) by reference, for those of you so inclined. 

We will tell you this, though.  We're sort of a Carnival enigma.  No..no...we're not a freakshow, like the bearded lady or something.  We're an enigma...something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained (according to Google, anyways).  We keep hosting them - this is the fourth time we've stepped onto the carnival barker's platform, including two editions of the Carnival of the Capitalists.  According to some of our critics, though, we're anti-Carnival.  Most of that stems from our "rethinking" of Blawg Review #48 (the lawyer blog (blawg) carnival).  Apparently lawyer bloggers didn't want to hear it...regardless of our intent in doing it.  Oh well...sue us.  ;)

The Vanities needs no rethinking.  Nope...the Vanities is exactly what it says it is.  Pure, unadulterated vanity.  Send in a post, and your blog will appear in lights.  So...we offer no rethinking this week.  Nope...we respect and follow the CotV tradition of posting everything.  Absolutely Everything.

This week, Absolutely Everything means the following thirty plus submissions:

The Needle and the Damage Done Madeline Begun Kane, known in the blogosphere as "Mad Kane," writes a notable limerick about Mad Ann Coulter (please excuse all of the Mad's - Ms. Kane's nom de plume got me thinking about General Mad Anthony Wayne, the American General who scored a decisive victory in the Northwest Indian War less than a stone's throw from where one of the Rethinkers is sitting right now).   Read the limerick and laugh.  If you're a Coulter fan, it might make you a bit mad.  Well, I guess maybe if you're Coulter it might make you mad.

Here's a tasty bit...a tasty Bacon Bit to be exact (hey, isn't that a registered mark of some sort?).  DL of TMH's Bacon Bits draws a parallel between the cheating husband and republican leadership .  Both, apparently, have done so much damage that the wronged wife (the GOP base in the analogy) can't be won over simply with flowers.  Nope....the "lawyers' phones are ringing as bags are being packed."  Wow...does anyone know if DC requires a separation period?

Mmm...politics.  Mr. Right at The Right Place gives us an ode called Ms. American Spy.   Michael McCullough at Stingray: a blog for salty Christians gets wound up about Al Gore and some inconvenient truths about global warming.  Of course, then there's Below The Beltway's meme on The Flag And Freedom, a lengthy discussion of the history of flag burning and the proposed Constitutional Amendment.  Finally, The Radical Libertarian asks whether libertarians against everything?  They are apparently not against submitting posts to Carnivals...  ;)

Uh oh.  The Washington Post featured an essay by Linda Hirshman, author of Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World, that, um, tells women to get to work.  Forget the family, pursue an "elite job", and rake in the cash.  Leslie Carbone, of the aptly named LeslieCarbone blog, has fired back with a well-written responsive rant that themes with "it ain't all about the money, honey."

Need 10 reasons why allotments should be preserved?  Check out "Allotments: Ten Reasons Why Preston City Council Should Not Build Over Them " at Save the Ribble. 

Genius!  In the business of making medicaments for bad breath?  Stop the manufacturing lines immediately....and incorporate this breakthrough idea.  Make your product taste like crap.  Seriously.  Well, um, at least the TamsPalm blog is serious about it .  "Revolting taste protects them from getting gobbled up...," which would, of course, defeat the purpose of these products.  What?  I don't know...at least I know that the post isn't about the religious theory of intelligent design (thanks to the explanation of the title). 

Thousands of journalists from across the globe have waited for decades to write about Paul McCartney turning sixty-four.  Well, it's finally here.  Sir Paul is officially sixty-four and most journalists used the birthday, and the song, to celebrate the life and career of the ex-Beatle.  But we're bloggers....we're different.  We see things differently.  Apparently, we hear things differently, too.  To wit...the dustbury blog celebrates Paul's much-anticipated birthday with mocking lyrics that call Paul a bore, long for John's return, and pledge not to buy anymore.  Ouch.

Soccer.  Football.  Hmm...bloggers blogging on it?  You bet!.  Andrew Ian Dodge at Liberty Cadre has had enough and has instituted a personal boycott, while Mark Rayner asks "Do you have soccer on your home world?"  Do you?  Maybe Soccer Dad knows....he had a post titled “The critically acclaimed for a plinth.” 

Thanks Dad.  Of course, Mom wants to tell us all about Four Year Old (Mis)Behavior, Portrait Studios and Pants-Dropping.  We guarantee that is the only blog this week using the term "wenis."  Lisa (next week's host) at Lil' Duck Duck tells another interesting story in The end of the duck & fried carpet??!!  I presume all of those kids know that you should Leave Things Better Than You Found Them.  OK, now that you've left things better than you found them, maybe a little staff motivation would be a good idea, or so Wayne Hurlbert at Blog Business World thinks.
 
Mothers...Fathers...hope you remembered Sunday was Father's Day.  Sunday was "also the day of loss of the USS Bonefish in 1945."   Jack Yoest had the scoop in Fathers' Day on Eternal Patrol.

A number of blogs took a financial advice theme with their submissions:  The AMT – If You're Not Scared, You Damn Well Should Be!, Wire Transfers When Closing on a House, Rate Buydowns, Stock Market Beat: Symantec Leverages Up, Using Mind Games To Stop The Cycle Of Debt.  We're not sure if all of that indicates a hot economy or a cold one...  I guess we could always start a new charitable organization.

Ooops...I forgot to mention that Free Money Finance raised the question Extended Warranty: Worth the Cost?  We’ve always been of the opinion that extended warranties are gambling...and the house always has the advantage.  FWIW.

Where are the CotV tech bloggers?  Aside from A DC Birding Blog’s test drive of new Internet browser Flock in the appropriately titled:  Flock Review, the pickings were quite thin in that area.  Maybe tech guys/gals aren’t vain.

The Rethink(IP) guys are science nerds at heart...thus you've got to love a blog writer who goes by GrrlScientist (Living the Scientific Life blog)!  The Grrl’s submission to the Car-r-nival:  The Rise of The Feathered Dragons.

Finally, three posts that didn't really seem to fit in anywhere else.  Makes me want to shout out "Potpourri for $1000, Alex!"  First, the death of FTD.com is predicted in:  A New Paradigm Replacing the Old.  Of course, Western Union is still around (although they did send their last telegraph earlier this year....  Goosing the Antithesis brings up Lovey-Dovey Christianity vs Reality.  Last, but not least, Suldog at Suldog-O-Rama gives us "A Recipe.”  Good luck finding a pan for that.

And that's a wrap!  Next week's host:  Lil' Duck Duck. 

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