several things you should know:

1. Alice packs for her trip to Paris:

"I’ve been practicing some important phrases, too:

Excuse me, stewardess, please make sure there is no turbulence.

Excusez-moi, hôtesse de l'air, s'il vous plaît assurez-vous il n'y a pas de turbulence.

I thought I said no turbulence. Now I require a bucket of red wine and some horse tranquilizers.

Je pensais que je l'ai dit pas de turbulence. Maintenant, j'ai besoin d'un seau de vin rouge et quelques chevaux de tranquillisants.

Do not laugh at me. I have an anxiety disorder.

Ne vous moquez pas de moi. J'ai un trouble anxieux."

from Alice Bradley's blog Finslippy

2. Wish I’d said that:

In Religion Dispatches (which I read nearly every day) Benjamin Weiner points out where Gary Trudeau falls short. He’s right, but the really fabulous part of this essay is the use of “metonymize” and “clusterfuck” – “a beautifully multi-cultural clusterfuck”, in fact – in THE VERY SAME SENTENCE.

3. Dear Pixar, From All The Girls With Band-Aids On Their Knees

"If we had to wait for your thirteenth movie for you to make one with a girl at the center, couldn't you have chosen something -- something -- for her to be that could compete with plucky robots and adventurous space toys?"

from Linda Holmes' terrific pop culture blog for NPR.com, Monkey See.