Oh, and there were pratfalls. Domain re-registration got FUBARed, so the site was down for two days, whoops. Not that I’ve written anything here in a while, since real life gets in the way too much. I’m hoping to carve out some more free time for frivolous things like blogging, but we’ll see.

In the meantime, some delicious links:

+ Barbie sales down, American Girl sales up. Some friends of mine were in New York around New Years, and we wound up at the American Girl store, which OMG INSANE! I read a couple of the books when I was 10, but I think I’m a little too old to have been a part of the phenomenon, so I missed it. I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I think the dolls are mostly positive roll models and also educational, since the Girls come from different backgrounds and different periods in American history. And thumbs up to kids learning history! On the other hand, devotion is cult-like and the dolls, etc., are frickin’ expensive! The store is crazy, too. There’s a doll beauty salon, people, and a cafe with special chairs so that your doll can sit at the table with you. And, also, I had probably 30 Barbies when I was a kid and I don’t think she ruined my self esteem or whatever evil Barbie is accused of most often. Still, it’s interesting, the sales trends. Is Barbie falling out of favor?

+ MSNBC says the economy is making anal-retentive grammar nerds even more anal. I say we’re just fed up with years of people butchering the language. We don’t have to take it anymore! NO MORE SPLIT INFINITIVES!

+ Here’s an only in New York thing. The Union Square carrot peeler guy died. And every New Yorker says, “Aw.”

+ The news story I’m obsessing about most lately is the crazy lady who gave birth to octuplets in California. Here’s zuzu on the story.