"Roses, roses" says the man with an armful of blossoms, walking up and down the bar. It may be just about the only word of English he knows.

There's a whole group of them, maybe from an extended family, I see them often talking to each other in a language I don't understand. Sort of modern Eliza Doolittles, selling flowers to the relatively more well off, helping guys pick up girls.

(Somewhere at home I have tucked away a dried an withered rose that a beautiful redheaded girl bought for me from one of these guys, in this very bar years ago, something I could never just throw any, would have to toss into a sacred fire to get rid of.)

My output from this week's Zelda's Inferno:

1) write a piece using the following three phrases (selected from random texts):

check out the wow factor
even the amateur chefs among us can accomplish
that's the key, having a good staff

look inside and
check out the "wow" factor
of the inside of the mind

with a little focus
even the amateur philosophers among us can accomplish
a beautiful remodeling of the mind
repainting the windows of the skull

Heh, heh, heh. Seems back in October, John McCain "joked" he would commit suicide if Democrats won the Senate.

I used to have some respect for the guy, but given the way he's been toadying to the most intolerant factions of the Right lately, screw 'im. C'mon, McCain, be a man of your word. You don't have to actually take your own life, I'll settle for political suicide. Resign from the Senate, disclaim any presidental ambitions, and go home.

My output from This week's Zelda's Inferno:

1) the "IQ test" exercise. In this one, we all make up multiple choice questions with some odd and interesting possible answers. We answer our own questions and those that others in the group pose, then write a poem based on the selected answers.

My questions:

why don't we see stars in the daytime? *they're afraid of the sun and hide / it's too bright to see them / we choose to ignore them / a government conspiracy

why is there a hole in the middle of a doughnut? to allow them to cook more evenly / *to symbolize the emptyness at the center of everything / cooks skimping on dough / a government conspiracy

MSNBC reports on a study showing that people who at mid-life have characteristics associated with being fit and active, have a good chance of being healthy in old age.

“There appears to be a lot we can do about modifying our risk and increasing the odds for aging more healthfully,” said lead author Dr. Bradley Willcox, a scientist at the Pacific Health Research Institute in Honolulu.

Seed features a piece by Ogi Ogas on how he used his knowledge of cognitive neuroscience to help his performance on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?

The first technique I drew upon was priming. The priming of a memory occurs because of the peculiar "connectionist" neural dynamics of our cortex, where memories are distributed across many regions and neurons. If we can recall any fragment of a pattern, our brains tend to automatically fill in the rest. For example, hearing an old Madonna song may launch a cascade of linked memories: your high school prom where it was the theme song, your poorly tailored prom outfit, your forgotten prom date, the stinging embarrassment when you threw up in the limo.

Well, it seems America may just survive after all...

I had requested and received and absentee ballot, but found out almost too late that it had to be postmarked the day *before*, not the day of, the election. So I went over to the school and voted on the maybe-it-counts, maybe-it-doesn't, Diebold machine.

I had a test in my Nihongo class that afternoon, so I'm standing there in line for about 20 minutes, going over my note cards, muttering "muzukashi...difficult...omoroshii...interesting..." and hoping no one things I'm crazy...

Behind me in line, two older women, mid 60s to early 70s I'd say. Got into a little conversation, small talk, hearing an old lady at the polls tell me that they ought to kick the old guys in Congress out and let some young people in with some new ideas, well that made my day.

Excellent story from the L.A. Times giving a first-hand account of combat in Iraq.

Sanchez: The rest of the squad was around the corner. It was just me and Kaminski. I turned back to make sure he was still there. I took a step, and I saw a big flash of light in front of my face, and I felt heat coming up. And I heard the boom. The next thing I know, I was laying facedown on the pavement. I didn't know what was going on, all the dust was everywhere. I just assumed I was dead.

More Zelda's Inferno exercises:

1) free-write on the phrase: "the time he was buried alive"

the time he was buried alive, in sand at the beach by his older sister, who then went off and left him, just his face sticking out, getting sunburned, biting flies on his cheeks, that time seemed now to have been a foreshadowing of all of his relationships with women

the time he was buried alive in rose petals, tickertape, praise, buried in adulation, stuck in it unable to move

The BBC reports on gaijin acting as "priests" in Japanese wedding ceremonies:

"I was living in Sapporo, studying Japanese, and I needed the money. It's far better paid than teaching in a language school," he said.

"Being a fake priest is big business in Japan - I've done a TV commercial for one company," he added. "In Sapporo, there are five agencies employing about 20 fake priests. In a city like Tokyo, there must be hundreds."

The fake Western priests are employed at Western-style weddings to give a performance and add to the atmosphere. These are not legal ceremonies - the couples also have to make a trip to the local registrar.