A weekend round-up - non-political edition

• This has to be one of the wierdest sites ever, Crying While Eating, and the LA Times says it's had 15 million visitors since late May, making it one of the most popular around.

• Suburban Guerilla on some strange problems the British are having with domestic cats

• Jim MacDonald over at Nielsen Hayden explores the history and variations of the game of chess.

• Paul Reiser at Huffington Post on Father's Day and driving in the car, made me laugh out loud with this line about making his kids listen to the Boss:

let me tell you something; until you’ve heard a 4 year-old belt out, "This town rips the bones from your back, it’s a death trap..." you have not been entertained.

Actually, real parents have their kids sing songs by Bob Dylan, like Subterranean Homesick Blues. The TL kid could belt out from the age of five,

Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government

...Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift

He hasn't been arrested yet, knock on wood.

Your turn....what's on your mind?

TalkLeft is now three years old. How the time flies...

Many, many thanks to the readers and bloggers who have visited, commented and linked to us.

With 6.5 million visits, almost 11 million page views and three Koufax awards for Best Single Issues blog, I'm proud to say the site is still going strong. I hope you'll all stick around, the best is yet to come, as TChris and I continue to focus on the politics of crime - and the crime in politics.

Update: A special thanks to Skippy for his very flattering birthday wishes. Whenever I need to smile, Skippy's always the first place I turn.

I'm sure there are topics besides Michael Jackson you'd like to discuss today, so here's a place for them. I'll be back this afternoon to join in.

I'm sad to report that TChris's father has died. He will be in California for the next week attending to funeral arrangements and being with family. If you'd like, you can post condolences in the comments. All of our parents are getting older. TL's dad died three years ago and it was very sad. It must be really hard a week before father's day. My thoughts and prayers are with TChris today.

Say Hello to Dr. Tom Cruise's Medical Forum. And another open thread.

An open thread again. I have to lay off typing today, to let the cortisone shot I got in my shoulder yesterday afternoon start working. Who said blogging isn't hazardous to your health? Also, Markos of Daily Kos and Jerome of My DD are in town today, conducting interviews for their book, and I'll be meeting them for lunch, along with the folks from Progress Now.org. Hopefully, I'll be back to blogging tonight, and I've sent out an S.O.S. to TChris, who if not in court, may take over today. In the meantime, here's a space for you.

Update: A big thanks to TChris who posted up a storm today. Lunch with Markos and Jermome was a working lunch - with Colorado Gubernatorial candidate Rutt Bridges, a Democrat, who announced his bid last Thursday. Markos and Jerome interviewed him for their book for over an hour, using an IPod with a recorder on it. No laptops, no notes. Just the four of us and Sarah, one of his staffers. Lunch was brought in from Quiznos, and we ate at his desk. Their book is going to be a best seller, I'm sure. Anyway it was great to see both of them and also nice to meet and hear the thoughts of Mr. Bridges in such a small setting.

I'm in court most of the day, so feel free to choose the topics and take over. The latest version of the potential bloglift is here, but it's only working in Firefox and Safari right now. The newsfeed will return Wednesday.

[link fixed]

[Comments now closed, there's a new open thread for Wednesday where you can continue the discussion. Thanks.]

I'm on a blogger conference call with Bob Geldof of Live Aid, arranged for by Joe Trippi and John Hindrocket of Powerline. I'll update after the call is over.

In a non-partisan effort, Joe Trippi of JoeTrippi.com and John Hinderaker of Powerlineblog.com will be hosting a Live 8 Blog Conference Call with special guest, Live 8 organizer, Sir Bob Geldof.

The Live 8 concert series has been set up to raise awareness to the issue of ending poverty in Africa prior to the leaders of the G8 meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland. This event is crossing both political and musical spectrums and now we are hoping to cross the blogosphere as well.

Update: It's still going on. We're asking Sir Geldof questions now. He's so passionate on the subject.

This is not a campaign to raise money, it's one to influence policy. They want bloggers to spread the word. If you're a blogger, lend your voice. This is a campaign to do three things:

Bump: Monday is the last chance to weigh in.

I've been working on making TalkLeft more readable. Mike Ditto has been helping.

If you go here, you will see what the new site would look like.

What do you think?

Update: The justified text is now gone, by acclamation of commenters. The issue now is the size of the center column and whether it should be fixed or adjustable. I've already made the color changes to the block quotes. Thanks for your comments and keep them coming.

At 8pm ET, C-Span 2 will feature Atrios and other bloggers participating in the Take Back America conference this week in Washington, D.C. You can watch on the Internet here.

Top progressive bloggers, comedians and radio commentators will take the stage for an animated discussion about the new media and politics. Think Crossfire meets Politically Incorrect. Bring your laptop and tell them what you really think live on stage.

Howard Dean, John Edwards and Arianna Huffington spoke today. And John Edwards invited some of our favorite bloggers over to his house for dinner.

The conference continues tomorrow.

Crooks and Liars, the best liberal video blogger, is hosting a funds drive to help pay for site expenses. Go on over and help, you know you watch the videos, and they are expensive to host. He doesn't ask often, and C&L is a must-stop-by-every- day kind of site.