I Love the Thunder. I Love the Rain.

Hi there. I was stuck in History's Most Boring Seminar most of last week. I'm stuck in the most humid city in the northeast this weekend. It's horrible here and I've had enough.

I get to the beach a couple of times each summer. (I'll be at Long Beach next Friday if all goes as planned. So you should definitely stand up and scream, "res ipsa loquitur!" somewhere near the Edwards Boulevard entrance 'round about 3 PM.) Along the south shore of Long Island, August means warm water and, quite often, jellyfish. But this year, I saw jellyfish in on July 1st. Granted, they weren't as fanciful as the creature you see here, rather, they were smallish (3"-5" in diameter) clear blobs like these, sort of minimalist jellyfish, and there were a lot of them. So why are these jellyfish showing up early? Duh, because while Barack Obama is apparently too skinny, Al Gore is still just too damn fat.

The explosion of jellyfish populations, scientists say, reflects a combination of severe overfishing of natural predators, like tuna, sharks and swordfish; rising sea temperatures caused in part by global warming; and pollution that has depleted oxygen levels in coastal shallows.

I can't wait for fall, but I keep remembering that last year, there were leaves on the trees lining my street until one week before Thanksgiving. And they were green.

I went on a pundit show boycott for July and August and I was doing just fine, until I turned on Scarborough on Thursday. Yeah, yeah, I only watched for five minutes, but those 300 seconds were enough to make me want to kick the damn TV in. (Note to Robert Gibbs: when McBush's spokesharpy shrieks, "We'll debate Barack Obama any time -- we're free all next week!" the proper response is, "Well, I know John McCain has nothing to do, but we're booked solid meeting and talking with voters through August. We'll talk debates in September." You gotta channel your inner Heather, Robert.) (Just as an aside, I am strangely attracted to Mr. Gibbs, but I digress...)

Anyway, I'm back on the wagon now. No pundits until BHO makes his big convention speech, although I reserve the right to see any speeches by HRC or the Big Dog at the convention, too. In the meanwhile, I'll make due with The Bobblespeak Translations of such stuff. You should, too.

I'm going to listen to the thunder and rain.