A Random Assortment

~ I wish I had invented this!: The Cocktail Party, a response to the Tea Party (wayyyyyyy better then the Coffee Party). (via Lawrence)

~ From The Fracturing of Pennsylvania (because I can't leave natural gas alone, and this article is delightfully snarky, and incredibly well-named):

"America’s latest hydrocarbon crush is shale gas." ...
"Like many rushes before it, the shale-gas version has made some people wealthy and others miserable." ...
"In the end, the best case to be made for fracking is that much of what is already being done is probably even worse. The trouble with this sort of argument is that, in the absence of a rational energy policy, there’s no reason to substitute shale gas for coal. We can combust them both! The way things now stand, there’s nothing to prevent us from getting wasted mountains and polluted drinking water, and a ruined climate to boot." (via Ilana)

~ In defense of gossip. This is how I really feel about gossip: it's how you develop your social observation skills:

"Joseph Epstein, the conservative essayist and editor, is not immune to the lure of his subject. In his new book, Gossip: The Untrivial Pursuit, he affirms Hardwick’s contention that gossiping is often a means to a perfectly understandable end: interpreting human behavior. He even literally recommends gossip as a way of meeting that high standard set by Henry James: to be 'a person upon whom nothing was lost.'"

~ This might as well be from Tocqueville. (Okay, okay, if Tocqueville were into fashion...)