I’m too tired to post about anything serious, so I instead cater to the children of the 80s with these things you might remember:

+ The 10 most insane, child-warming moments of the ’80s cartoons, including melting GI Joes, Smurfs who kill villains with the power of song, and NAKED Thundercats. (Ho!)

+ Sweet Valley High is getting reissued. Gawker has a press release letting us know that, among other things, the Wakefield twins are getting sized down to a “perfect size 4.”(*sigh*) Also check out the evolution of YA book covers and the new SVH covers.

Bonus! Check out the Dairi Burger, a delightfully snarky SVH blog.

There’s a blog by a active-duty girl sailor, which lately includes monologues from a piece called “Forward Deployed.” It’s interesting stuff.

Gothamist has a 2-part interview with a soldier who was in Iraq: part 1, part 2. The soldier, Jason Christopher Hartley, has a book out called Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq. I always think these soldier’s-eye view tales are fascinating, plus I think hearing from actual soldiers humanizes the troops on the ground. I’ve seen both sides of the war debate discuss soldiers as mindless automatons, either their to do our bidding or else only capable of committing atrocities, so it’s good to see what it’s like first-hand, the situation we continue to send out family members and fellow citizens into.

Ack, so much to post about! In no particular order:

+ I fear I might be an urbane tomboy, though at least I’m trendy, right?

+ Dana Perino might be a Barbie doll, or is at least undermining her own position by playing dumb on military matters. Thanks for making women look so smart, Dana!

+ Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye was in an inspiration to many young feminists!

+ Publisher thinks it’s too good for editors or something. Probably just more evidence for the fact that I’ll be completely unemployable in ten years, when editors are considered superfluous expenditures.

+ This guy wants you to debate him.

+ Alexander Hamilton’s house might get relocated… or not.

+ Journalists perpetuate the she was asking for it myth.

+ 50 animals with drinking problems.

+ Apparently, there is no crying in football. Although, dude, Favre had an awesome season, it’s totally sad that he’s retiring. And I’m a girl, so neener.

+ Bear gets convicted for stealing honey! OMG, Pooh is our #1 Threat!

+ The Times has an interesting profile of Obama’s mama.

We’ve lost Arthur C. Clarke and Anthony Minghella.

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I just stumbled upon Match It for Pratchett, a project dedicated to matching Terry Pratchett’s $1 million donation to Alzheimer’s research. Pratchett has Alzheimer’s, and so did my grandmother, so it’s a worthy cause.

I am not above the adolescent humor, apparently.

Got an email this morning from a friend in Massachusetts who felt it was necessary to add “Yankees suck!” to her screed about Spitzer’s, uh, indiscretions. So let’s play ball!

+ Spitzer’s out! Pinch hitting is David A. Paterson, both the first African-American governor of New York and the first legally blind governor, and, in his favor, he’s been an advocate for better domestic violence laws, stem cell research, and clean energy, among other things.

+ On second is Silda Wall Spitzer, about whose public humiliation much has been written. (Probably you can find more about this on the internets.)

Bonus! In the good news department, the fshk blog salutes Spc. Monica Lin Brown for earning a silver star, only the second woman since WWII to do so.

+ I agree with Ann that it’s pretty surreal to find myself agreeing with someone at IWF, but there it is: “Women aren’t dim, even when we indulge in girly things like fashion, romance novels, and friendly gossip.” I personally like all of these things, and also baseball and nonfiction books about history and political theory and feminism and science and all kinds of other things that are less “girly.” In sum: Shut up, Charlotte Allen.

+ Smart Bitch Sarah talks about virginity and revirginification. It’s possible I just made up a word.

+ A debate coach decodes the debates. As a former debate coach myself, I intend to do that when we get to the real debates later this year, so stay tuned.

+ I think we may have next year’s best picture in The Waldo Ultimatum.

It’s no wonder the kids today are disillusioned. Governor Spitzer was one of the first politicians I had the privilege to vote for that I was really, genuinely excited about. I thought he’d get to Albany and make all kinds of changes and reforms. He took on a lot of big corporations at attorney general, so he’d keep doing the same as governor, right?

That hasn’t really been the case. His administration has thus far been mired by scandal and he hasn’t been nearly as effective as I’d hoped. (The example that hits close to home was his stance on the subway fare hike, wherein he insisted the base fare remain at $2/ride, so to compensate, the MTA raised all of the bulk fares, meaning the regular New Yorkers who ride the subway daily pay more but the rate for visitors remains the same.) And now it’s come out that he’s been tied to a prostitution ring.

Gawker gets it pretty close to right, although I think the post sells the voters’ intelligence a little short. If public perception is what you’ve got to go on — and Spitzer took on a lot of foes as AG and seemed to be fighting for us — then that’s what you vote on.

So it’s disheartening. Now we’ll wait and see if he’ll resign. If Lieutenant Governor Paterson takes over, he seems like an interesting guy.

See also: East Village Idiot, zuzu, Gothamist.

+ New research indicates female brains process language differently, thus girls are better at language arts. I find the study interesting; I did some research in college that convinced me that boys and girls are socialized to succeed in certain skill areas, and I still think this is true, but it’s interesting also to think there’s a biological mechanism for girls excelling at language. (Of course, you don’t see action figures that say, “Words are hard!“)

+ The CEO of Lego doesn’t get why they can’t appeal more to girls. I’ll tell you why. It’s because parents buy them for boys. I owned not a single Lego as a kid, but I played with my brother’s. A lot.

+ There’s a guy who created the Typo Eradication Advancement League, to stomp out typos on street signs around the country. Can I join?

+ We at the fshk blog love Patrick Swayze and thus are saddened by the news that he may have terminal pancreatic cancer. Gawker has compiled some of his greatest cinematic moments. Hey, nobody puts baby in the corner!