I admit, sometimes I forget the iPhone is a phone. When a couple voicemails didn’t show up recently, I thought nothing of it until a friend asked me if I’d gotten his message—people just don’t call me that often. But a phone it is, as some users are reportedly being reminded when they get phone calls from the publishers of a free app they’ve downloaded from the App Store.

If I get one phone call from an app developer that is unsolicited, they’re gone. I don’t care what app it is, how much I use it, or how much I like it.

I cannot stand unsolicited phone calls on my landline, I sure as heck will not tolerate it on my cell phone. Last week I had someone call me about life insurance leads. Wrong number.

In 1994, my father wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal titled “Life Without Father.” It dealt with the subject of the family and poverty and welfare–with my father drawing for his argument, as he so often did, on a combination of social science, common sense, history, and personal experience. In the course of the article, my father briefly discussed his father, Joseph Kristol–who, he wrote, “was thought by all our relatives and his fellow workers to be wise, and fair, and good. I thought so too.”

If you haven’t read Bill Kristol’s eulogy for his father, you need to click that link and go read it now.

Former presidential candidate John Edwards is said to be ready to admit that he fathered a love child. But Hades may have a skating rink before his wife, Elizabeth, signs off on such a confession.

As a grand jury in North Carolina considers whether Edwards misused campaign funds to cover up the scandal, Elizabeth still can’t abide his former mistress, Rielle Hunter.

Why are people still talking about John Edwards? He’s a schmuck, we all knew that. Didn’t we?

William Safire, a speechwriter for President Richard M. Nixon and a Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist for The New York Times who also wrote novels, books on politics and a Malaprop’s treasury of articles on language, died at a hospice in Rockville, Md., on Sunday. He was 79.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said Martin Tolchin, a friend of the family.

…

In 1962, he married the former Helene Belmar Julius, a model, pianist and jewelry designer. The couple had two children, Mark and Annabel. His wife and children survive him, as does a granddaughter.

Rest In Peace, William.

Being an avid Tetris fan, I had to post this. I was completely addicted to Tetris many, many, years ago. I spent countless hours playing into the night and getting 2 or 3 hours of sleep before I had to go to work.

Until last week, I haven’t thought about Tetris in several years. Now I find it surreal that Tetris is back. Okay, so it never went away.

Tetris, I just can’t quit you.

Now that I am playing again, I can’t help but dream of tiles too. Thanks Tetris.

Sometimes, no matter how hard they try, people at Wal-Mart do not put a smile on your face. Other times, you laugh your ass off.

If you want to see your neighbors in their natural habitat, check out the People of Walmart blog.