Cookies Are Wonderful, Cookies Are Fantastic

Of course everyone knows that NASA's Opportunity rover is up on Mars looking around at everything there. Recently a jelly doughnut appeared. No, not really. It seems to be a rock that looks like a jelly doughnut. Or is is something other than a rock? How could a rock move from place to place? It wasn't there and then it was. So, could it be a Martian? I don't think we will ever find out. And besides that, Stephen, in a split moment of utter lack of impulse control, destroyed any hope we might have had for diplomatic ties with Mars and Martians.

As if that wasn't depressing enough, Air Force officers at a Montana nuclear missile base are having problems with drugs and cheating, mainly that they are doing both of those things. Stephen explained it all in Tip/Wag. He also told us that that dog and pony show, The Westminster Kennel Club show, is now letting plain old regular mutts in. I don't like to use that word since after all, we all know what dog spelled backwards is. (Dogs are special.) But Stephen did report on it so I am too. But all was forgiven once Stephen brought out a cute, cute dog. Good doggie.

How about this idea? Use the trainers from Westminster Kennel Club to train those people who are up in Montana. I think those Westminster people could teach them a thing or two about obedience. Maybe they just need to run around a bit and work off some extra energy. And then the dogs could go to Montana and, and... No. That is not a good idea. Ignore this paragraph.

Stephen had a guest on last night to talk about a book he wrote. He does that a lot. Almost every show he has someone on who has just written a book and they talk about it. It's almost like a habit of Stephen's. Last night's guest was Charles Duhigg talking about the book, "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business." This looks like a book that I will go out and buy. Seems quite interesting.

Did you know that about 40% to 45% of what we do every day is habit? It's true because Charles Duhigg said it to Stephen last night. And those percentages are from a survey, so that tells you for sure it is true. By knowing that what we are doing is a habit, and by knowing what reward we expect to get from that habit, we can change our habits and turn bad habits into good habits.

We Mars'd It

Curiosity touched down SUCCESSFULLY on Mars. Now everyone is curious. Is there life on Mars? Apparently there did seem to be some sort of feline life, but the Rover landed on top of it. Curiosity killed the cat. But citizens, are there any citizens on Mars? That's the real question. Perhaps this will answer that question. And for lots more information and pictures, yes pictures, head over to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Dan Cathy's confession ran AFOWL of supporters of the LGBT community. Of course, part of the media circus is because of the Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day suggested and promoted by Walking Fried Food Museum Mike Huckabee. Stephen noted that while it may have been the best day in history for the fast food restaurant, it was the worst day in history for the chickens. It's time to put this story about Chick-fil-A to bed, but Stephen just had to get in one last jab with his "ran AFOWL" comment. I have never seen Mr. Colbert look smirkier. Cluck, cluck, Stephen. Cluck cluck.

Pete Seeger was the guest. He is a living legend and having him on the show was even better than having Paul Bunyan or Johnny Appleseed show up. Pete Seeger is still going strong. He lives in the country. He heats his home with wood and therefore spends some of his time splitting logs. This impressed Stephen immensely, who, at age 48, claims you can stick him with a fork because he is done.

Stephen was able to put the responsibility for gay marriage smack dab on the shoulders of Pete Seeger by the simple method of basically making it up. Starting with the folk revival that Pete Seeger was instrumental (pun) in, Stephen went on to Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Woodstock, Sexual Revolution, Bill Clinton, and therefore gay marriage.

I found this great article over at Huffington Post by Peter Dreier about Pete Seeger. Lots more stuff than we learned from Stephen's interview. There's even the lyrics to the song "Quite Early Morning" at the end of Dreier's post.

Watch in the future for another post about Pete Seeger. There's more to the story of Pete Seeger than one post can do justice to.

Fiscal Cliff

I know what you're thinking. Curiosity has landed on Mars and fell off the Fiscal Cliff. No, you're jumping ahead to tonight's guest and getting that confused with what Congress is doing.

First things first. Contraception. August 1 was a day to celebrate, ... or not, depending on who you are. After taking quite a few birth control pills (Stephen is one of the hottest women in the world), Stephen suggested a simpler plan for ladies is just to think of Mitch McConnell. I guess what Stephen is suggesting is something similar to a cold shower.

I was not paying close enough attention to the segment on the Economy, so I may have gotten stuff mixed up. I think what Stephen said is that some guy named Grover Norquist will push chickens off the Fiscal Cliff if anyone tries to shave him. Like I said, I might have that wrong. Perhaps a better explanation can be found here from Ezra Klein. It kind of worries me that Stephen was willing to so easily make some sacrifices last night. I think He Who Must Not Be Shaved has way too much power.

With the Olympics going on still, we got to see another segment of the Stephen Colbefrajilympic Expealacoverage '012. Gymnastics was the sport du jour. I was disappointed not to see good photos and video of what happened. What I did see was a bunch of letters and envelopes. Something about Olympic lawyers and "cease and desist" showing of footage of the games. Darn. Luckily, Stephen was able to accurately portray women's gymnastic without any worry about legal sanctions.Such form. Such speed. And she stuck the landing!

Speaking of landing, Curiosity! That's right, Curiosity is heading to Mars. You can watch live at 10:31 PDT. (11:31 in Mountain Time, 12:31 Central, 1:31 New York Time if I have my time zones correct.) More information over here at Wikipedia.

Oh, yeah, the guest. Well, NASA astronaut John Grunsfeld showed up to talk a little bit with Stephen about getting to Mars. Pretty exciting stuff! Planetary travel and all. You can go to the main NASA website page and spend hours looking at Earth, the Solar System (my personal favorite set of planets), the Universe and more. Be sure to go there soon and see if you don't recognize a certain Image of the Day person. If he's not there, try the "View Image Gallery" button and look for someone with the initials S.C.