Heads up before dressing up

According to an Associated Press item that has circulated widely the past couple of days, an auto industry consultant named Andrew Jones has created a Web site called www.dressregistry.com where attendees at high society events can check and make sure no one else is wearing the same dress they are. This would help fashion victims like Laura Bush, who showed up at a Kennedy Center event in 2006 wearing the same Oscar de la Renta dress (photo at right) that (gasp! choke!) three other ladies were also wearing!

I am thinking about starting a Web site devoted to rehabilitating those people who think this kind of thing is important (although there is little I can do about the fact that most of the afflicted are people with more money than they know what to do with.) On the other hand, perhaps bloggers could benefit from a similar service: Before saying exactly what thousands of other bloggers have already said, we could check a Web site to see whether someone got there before us with the same words of wisdom.

What's that you say? Such a service already exists? And it's called "Google"?

Never mind!

Photo: Courtesy of The White House.

Gaza update: Mass demonstrations in London today (Jan 3) drew about 10,000 people, according to the BBC, with smaller but significant numbers in other British cities.

The tragedy of the Gaza crisis. Historian Andrew Hunt produces what most of us, lost in rage and helplessness, have been unable to--a thoughtful, deeply felt analysis of the events of the past week.

The killing of the innocent. A Palestinian in Gaza chronicles the past days under Israeli bombardment in the Guardian.

Countering Israeli propaganda. A BBC report questions Israel's version of a deadly airstrike.