The History channel has a show on snack foods. It’s showing my all-time favorite junk foods. There were Milky Ways (okay, Snickers, but still, pretty much the same) and potato chips and Tootsie Rolls and next comes Hostess cupcakes.

So much for my trying to go to bed early.

Oh. My. Gawd. I cannot express to you how much I wish I were actually at each of the companies they showed us. Especially the Utz plant. I’d pay big money to be able to sample absolutely fresh potato chips.

Now I have to find out where to buy Snowden potatoes.

About a month or so ago, I was discussing clicker beetles with a friend. I think it was Sarah. I know it was a phone conversation. I remember saying, “I wish I could find one of them outside. I’d actually bring it inside for Gracie.” That’s because a clicker beetle, so called because of the clicking noise it makes when it jumps, leaps pretty high into the air—several inches, in fact—and a couple have found their way into my home and entertained Gracie for hours at a time.

Well, last night, I went to sleep. Late. But about thirty minutes after I fell asleep, something woke me up. I kept hearing a noise, a very repetitive noise, and it sounded like Gracie was grooming her claws. Sometimes a cat makes a clicking sound as they clean their pads and pull on their claws. This one was loud, regular, and coming from the side of my bed. Tig was sleeping to my right, and Gracie was nowhere to be seen, so I yelled at her to settle down. She ignored me. I grabbed a flashlight because I don’t think very clearly when I’m woken up half an hour after I’ve fallen asleep. I saw nothing. No Gracie, nothing. I turned on the light and saw the beetle, which then tried to make a break for it.

I did not save it for Gracie. I threw it in the toilet and flushed. And went back to sleep, without any annoying clicking noises going off three feet away from me.

Not only did Americans sweep the Nobel science prizes, but one of the prizes went to a Jew who is deeply devoted to Israel, teaches in Israel part of the year, and has an Israeli wife.

Yes, it’s another in-your-face moment.

The Stanford University biologist who was named on Wednesday as this year’s Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry - Prof. Roger Kornberg - just spent four months at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he is a fellow at the Alexander Silberman Institute for Life Sciences.

Kornberg told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive phone interview that his stays in Israel are a significant part of his life.

[...] Kornberg has been a visiting professor at Hebrew University four months a year every summer since 1986. His Israeli-born wife, Yahli, is the daughter of the late historian and Knesset clerk, Netanel Lorch, and their three children are fluent Hebrew speakers.

It emerged during the telephone interview while he was in his office in Stanford that Kornberg is not only academically connected to Israel, but also emotionally. He said some of the Israeli scientists he has met are the “finest scientists” he knows, adding that the level of academic and scientific research in Israel is “world class”.

So, how would the proposed academic boycotts affect the world? One would have to say that if other nations succeed at refusing to work with Israelis, or those who teach at Israeli institutions, science overall could—no, make that would suffer major setbacks.

Remember that, Britain, next time you propose that academic boycott.

And, uh, score another one for the list of Jewish Nobel prize winners. Hoo-boy, that list is long. And to think, we’re only something like one-half of one percent of the world population, but we have been awarded 23% of all Nobel prizes.

Yes, I’m gloating. Because it’s fun. And it pisses off the Jew-haters.

I’ve been watching a fair number of the new shows. My opinions, for what they’re worth:

Jericho: I really like this one, too. It’s a what-if scenario about what would happen to a small, remote town if someone dropped a bunch of nukes on us. I like the cast, I like the writing, I like the conspiracy-theory that they’re building up. Added to my other Wednesday night television, it makes an entire night’s worth of good shows.

The Nine: Yes, the hype was worth it. The first show gave you just enough about the characters who were held in the hostage situation to make you want to learn more. I think the writers have figured out that if Lost can get away with flashbacks, so can they.

Brothers and Sisters: Oh, no. Not another whiny yuppie show. This one is better than that horrendous “What About Brian?” (which is returning, please don’t watch it and let it die a well-deserved death). First we had thirtysomething, a show about whiny yuppies who weren’t happy being wealthy yuppies. Then we had Once and Again, which should have been called “fortysomething,” yet another show about whiny yuppies, only now they were older and had a superb actress like Sela Ward wasting her talents on that drek. Now we have “wealthysomething,” yet another series about whiny yuppies. Only this time, they’re the wealthy sons and daughters of a guy who dies in the first episode, so we get the father issue right away, and the junkie no-good son, and the stereotyping of just about every other character, and oh yeah, Callista Flockhart plays a conservative Republican talk show host. Wow, that’s going to be SO exciting. Well, at least she started eating again and isn’t hideously thin anymore.

Help Me Help You: Ted Danson is a sorta-Bob Newhart in that he leads a group therapy session. I liked the first episode (and even laughed), but didn’t remember to watch the second. I’ll keep watching, though.

I’ve already told you I love Heroes. I’m not as keen on the new Aaron Sorkin show, Studio 60 blahblahblah (like I’m going to type the whole title every time), but I’m giving it a chance. I also like Men in Trees, even though I’ve never seen Sex and the City. Ugly Betty was trite and predictable.

As for my returning favorites, I hold out almost no hope for the Gilmore Girls. The first two episodes mostly sucked. On the flip side, Lost was excellent. I may get to the episode parody tomorrow. And Grey’s Anatomy is rolling along wonderfully. That scene of McSteamy coming out of the shower last week—hoo-boy. Hot, hot, hot.

Also can’t wait for the return of Scrubs. I love that show.

We have been careful with the use of that …stan label. Taking into account its overuse by certain people and the BNP fascists and their ilk jumping on the bandwagon, terms like this are better left alone.

However, the absurdities reported by the British press lately are adding up into one picture - that of sensitivity toward real and imaginary grievances of the Mulims community in UK going overboard.

The prison toilet seats that should accommodate the faithful desiring not to face Mecca during the act.
(I still haven’t heard about the solution to the requirement of my sect, by the way.)

The new cemetery where all the stiffs (including Christian and Jewish) will be facing Mecca.
(Were Christian, Buddhist, Jewish or other communities consulted? Oh, and by the way - my sect requirements include being planted vertically - head up, to be sure.)

Police consulting a panel of Muslim leaders before mounting counter-terrorist raids or arrests.
(Amazing that: imagine an ad in the newspaper inviting the Muslims leaders to a pre-raid briefing…)

And now another phenomenal act of police sensitivity: a Muslim policeman excused from guard duty at Israeli embassy due to his objections to the Lebanon war.
(On one hand it could be better not to have this character near the embassy at all, but on the other a policeman of this kind is bound to have his own opinion on the above mentioned counter-terrorist raid as well…)

Former Flying Squad commander John O’Connor criticised the decision, telling the Sun: “This is the beginning of the end for British policing.

You are absolutely right, commander. But it is not just the policing I am concerned about.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

Amira Hass is getting mighty testy about Gaza. Of course, she blames Israel. But I hope she’s right, and that the civil war continues. Yeah, yeah, I know. Not gonna happen. But one can dream.

Okay, hold onto your hats, here. The AP has a news story for us:

Palestinian Unity Talks Collapse

No. Really? What clued you in? The gunbattles? The deaths? The threats to kill each other’s leaders?

RAMALLAH, West Bank Oct 4, 2006 (AP)— Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday his efforts to reach a power-sharing agreement with the militant group Hamas have collapsed, raising concerns a deadlock will lead to more factional fighting after deadly weekend clashes.

One can only hope.

Say, remember those two kidnapped soldiers? You know, the ones Hezbullah took after murdering three of their compatriots?

The Russians say they’re just fine and dandy, physically. Gee, thanks, Russia. Because it’s not like you weren’t helping the effing Syrians and the effing terrorists and the effing Iranians kill more Jews during the war.

During the fighting in Lebanon Hezbollah received direct intelligence support from Syria, using data collected by listening posts jointly manned by Russian and Syrian crews. Hezbollah was also fed intelligence from new listening posts built on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, which are operated jointly with Iran.

This information was confirmed in recent reports by the defense journal Jane’s.

Syria’s centrality to the collection and transfer of intelligence to Hezbollah is based on separate agreements Damascus signed with Moscow and Tehran on intelligence cooperation.

Eff you, Russia, and your long, bloody history of Jew-hatred. Eff you, Russia, the nation that forged the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Eff you, Russia, the nation that supplied Israel’s enemies with weapons to murder Jews for decades, and used your own soldiers to try to kill Israelis.

I’m so glad my grandparents left Russia. Another hearty eff you to the former Soviet Union, and hey, doesn’t it suck that Communism sucked so bad it bankrupted what used to be the only other world superpower?

Well, no, actually, it doesn’t suck for us. Only for the apparatchiks. Who are, like, sooo 1980s.