my employer will be passing out pledge cards for the Tulsa Area United Way. reading the accompanying email, it occurs to me that every year, they say the same thing: the United Way needs your assistance more than ever!

if year after year it's always a more than ever! thing, doesn't that mean that world keep getting worse and worse? who needs a Doomsday Clock? there's the perfect Hell In a Handbasket Indicator.

for the record, i already knew the world was going to shit:

Moviehole reports that an insider at Paramount Pictures has confirmed that John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John are indeed in talks to reprise their roles of Danny and Sandy for an update of "Grease". The story follows all the original film's stars who'll we'll be catching up with years later and finding out what's going on in their lives post high school. Stockard Channing is apparently going to reprise Rizzo. Randal Kleiser, the original director, is rumoured to be handling the new one.