Things that didn't die lately

Good: The bird trapped in the parking garage stairwell yesterday. Why an architect would design a parking garage with glass-window-lined stairwells in Texas, where the temperature averages 150 bajillion degrees in the sun, I'll never know. Neither will this grackle, who had entered at some point and was jumping at the windows, very confused as to why it couldn't just fly away. I held a door open for a few minutes to no avail, finally wedging it open it my shoe, then chasing the grackle (a difficult process, since it felt the best way to escape me would be through that big open space in front of it - which of course was beyond the window). It finally got out. My apologies to the person whose car has victory poop on it (the grackle's, not mine).

Not-so-good: Kim Jong Il. The morality of this pronouncement to be discussed at a later time.

Very, very good: Everybody and everything on the planet.