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I narrowed down the causes of my recent back agony to my new office chair. When I grabbed the former corner office of our most recent departure, I kept her chair and desk set. The chair, I realized, is a four-wheeled torture device, and I traded it out for my old chair, and now my back is in bliss. No more pain.

I've narrowed down my comic proposals to five, keeping the weaker option among them just in case. The trick with that one was coming up with a catchy heroine name after I crafted my snazzy premise. And I'm not sure I've done that; I've settled on a moniker for now, but I don't think it will catch fire for the judges. I've reduced them to smaller paragraphs, and after running them past Your Sister, I'll email them Monday. The problem is that these ideas are practically fully formed (with designs and names), but the proposals need to be small. I'm cutting out the meat to make the platter prettier.

Picture of the Day
Bionic contacts lenses that might replace certain surgeries.


In The News
Kucinich is giving up today on his presidential campaign. His fans are loyal to a fault, but what skunks his chances isn't his ideas but his stature. He simply can't rile up support from casual audiences, and if it wasn't for his Irish wife, he would have received zero mainstream coverage.

The S.C. Democrat primary is tomorrow, and everyone's tired of hearing Obama vs. the Two Clintons. And, barring a second-place win, Edwards is perceived as a lame runner trying to finish a marathon. He can't even get enough bad press to help his cause.

The NY Times endorsed McCain and Hillary, but this comment about Giuliani was the most eye-catching:

"The real Mr. Giuliani, whom many New Yorkers came to know and mistrust, is a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man who saw no need to limit police power. Racial polarization was as much a legacy of his tenure as the rebirth of Times Square. Mr. Giuliani's arrogance and bad judgment are breathtaking. . . . The Rudolph Giuliani of 2008 first shamelessly turned the horror of 9/11 into a lucrative business, with a secret client list, then exploited his city's and the country's nightmare to promote his presidential campaign."

The stimulus package might not get the Senate rubber stamp that would send it unscathed to the president's desk. If the Senate decides to tinker with rebate amounts, the bill would have to go back to the House and then might not pass Bush's standards. I like the idea of getting $600 from the government, but one wonders:

1) How much this adds to the deficit?
2) How much better the economy would hum along if we all paid less in taxes to begin with?
3) Isn't this a form of welfare?
3) Why are we having to ask these questions during a Republican administration?

Bonus
Making the rounds today is the comprehensive list of reasons why David Banner became the Hulk on the TV series. Trivia: The name was changed from the comics' "Bruce Banner" because the first name was considered gay. It's also my middle name.