William Jefferson is now unemployed, leaving him more time to hang around his house and gaze longingly into what I hope is a now-empty freezer.

Please, please, can somebody send Charles Rangel back as well?

In a roundup of news stories about Congress today, two stories were about Republicans warning Democrats about pushing through their agenda in the next Congress.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned Democrats today against preventing Republicans from offering amendments on the floor and making labor legislation a top priority in the 111th Congress.

Just one day after Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) won the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Republicans are seeking assurances that he won’t use his new position to push legislation that would grant California and other states the right to regulate greenhouse gases from automobiles.

Now, I understand there are some legitimate concerns about one party pushing through legislation. Legislation designed solely to cement the party's position in power or to remove checks - such as completely removing the ability to offer amendments, especially when you should be able to easily vote down the ones you don't like - would be something I'd genuinely worry about. But Republicans making threats to Democrats about passing policies that are more or less part of the platform? After this past election, I'm not quite sure what the Republicans think they have to back up their threats. Although I'm fairly sure the Democrats are capable of capitulating.

Cultural confusion

This headline seriously confused me, until I realized it means an entirely different thing in Britain than it does here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3468111/Pot-plants-instead-of-bouquets-for-medallists-at-2012-London-Olympics.html

Lieberman

The vote was today, and the Senate Democrats voted essentially to ignore common sense and allow Lieberman to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee. This is the sort of thing that makes me angry.

It's not as bad as the Dems capitulation in recent years on all questionable national security measures (FISA, the Patriot Act) but it's not a good start to this supposed new era of Democratic leadership.

I didn't want Lieberman kicked out of the party. But it seemed pretty simple - support the other party's candidate and badmouth your own, lose your most powerful platform. The justifications don't make sense to me - the talk about reconciliation and unity to honor Obama's message is the worst sort of smokescreen. This feels, pure and simple, like Congressmen unwilling to take a stand to take power away from a colleague because they don't want to have to worry about losing power themselves.

I don't advocate holding committee spots over the head of any legislator who breaks ranks on an issue. In fact, I would be even more angry about that sort of move, which seems more in keeping with the Tom DeLay school of political philosophy. Principled stands on issues, or even a crass political move on a vote, doesn't merit retribution from the party. But this isn't about one issue, or any principled stand, it's about a Senator who has actively campaigned against the symbolic head of the party, as well as staked out ground well to the right of where the party should be heading.

What really makes me angry at this move isn't even the issues surrounding the Lieberman vote, but what it tells us about the mood of the party leadership. The Democrats have been playing scared for a long time, even after picking up control in 2006. After riding a wave of obvious sentiment against the way the country has been governed and Bush's presidency, instead of making coherent arguments and standing up against Bush on key votes, instead they've made an occasional valid point and then immediately backed down once the votes were cast. It's as though Rove's politics of fear have the bulk of the Democratic congress so worried about falling prey to easy attacks on complex votes they aren't willing to do anything that might give the other side an opening.

To me, this was the most exciting thing about Obama's campaign. On some key points, when the opposition was trying to stir up resentment about his positions Obama didn't take the bait. Instead of retreating or responding in kind, he actually stood behind his position. Look at his speech on the politics of race. Or his willingness to stand behind his statements about pursuing diplomatic talks with our enemies.

I think there is a real danger of the Democrats losing the public affection they've gained in the past two election cycles, but to me the most likely way that will happen is by concentrating on votes that are clearly designed to benefit the people passing them - by worrying more about amassing power than benefiting the nation. And by not passing sweeping reforms of a progressive bent. The situation calls for large measures, and the leadership should be willing to make complex arguments to the American public, even if such moves may be seen as politically unpopular in the short term.

What this vote tells me is the Democratic Senate is not going to be interested in those sorts of large-scale measures or complex discussions. They're going to be interested in enjoying the political power they've been denied for much of the past three decades. And this is going to be the surest way to screw it all up.

the light at the end of the tunnel

Apparently driving the I-395 tunnel is similar to a near-death experience.

I've driven that tunnel, and my experiences have been far more mundane - more bored to death, less glowing white light enveloping the end of my road...

New personal rule: when I'm cold and want to check the temperature, make sure the weather app on my iPhone isn't set to display the Los Angeles conditions on opening.

Barack in the window

Barack in the window
Originally uploaded by slack13

We bought a pumpkin the other day, as is mandated during the month of October, and this is what Kirsten created.

this makes no sense to me...

I was looking at the websites of various candidates for Montana state office today, and I came across this.

That is not the current official website of the Republican candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, but it does appear to be a website that previous was her official site, and it's the top Google link for a search on her name. Ignore, for the moment, that her official website is hosted by her AOL account. Look down the page at the endorsements she's touting, presumably to show her qualifications for this office. Then remember, this office is the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (head of state schools):

Endorsed by: National Rifle Association
Montana Right to Life
Montana Shooting Sports Association
Montana Contractors' Association
Montana Wood Products Association

None of those seems to me to have anything to do with the schools. Am I missing something?

Crazy

Watching baseball on Fox and a NCAA BCS title game ad came on, finishing with a shot of two players looking at the National Championship trophy. The two teams represented? USC and - Missouri.

Of course, that's not looking like a great choice this week (although I guess the Tigers could be right back in position if they somehow pull out a win this weekend) but as a Missouri alum, it's pretty odd to see anybody put the Tigers in line for a Championship.

This is just about my favorite Internet comment ever.

this is not a joke

An actual police report from a neighborhood listserv:

Theft 1
SHIFT: DAY 09/30/2008 09/30/2008
1430 UNK
GEORGIA AVE AND PINEY BRANCH RD NW
Street/Highway/Road 402 08139126
Status: Open
C1 RPTS S1-2 APPROACHED C1 AND SHOWED C1 A BROWN PAPER BAG AND
STATED THAT THERE WAS FORTY-TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS INSIDE OF THE BAG.
S1-2 TOLD C1 FOR FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS C1 COULD HAVE IT. C1 REMOVED
FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS FROM C1'S BANK ACCOUNT AND GAVE IT TO S1. S1
GAVE THE BAG TO C1 AND THERE WAS NOTHING INSIDE.


This just presents so many questions, I don't know where to begin. But it is the first time I've heard of an e-mail scam work without the e-mail.

One more shout-out to the Washington Post before I move on:

These last few weeks have been a good time to be a subscriber to the Post. As the nation's financial system melts down, the paper has been on top of it with well-crafted, nuanced stories full of detail about how decisions were made and who was making them.

Of course, the gist of all the stories is that no one - in government or otherwise - really has much of a clue about what to do, but the daily coverage has been top-notch.

If you haven't seen it yet, take some time and read these two stories from the Washington Post this week.

The two-part series on Dick Cheney and the showdown between Justice and the White House over the secret surveillence program is amazing reporting - it's also worth checking out the earlier stories in the "Angler" series on Cheney, and I'm definitely going to want to check out the book when it comes out.

It's this sort of thing that keeps me going to the front door in the morning to pick up the Post. Often enough, I'll think the paper is overrated - the local coverage, especially, doesn't stand out from any other major metro paper.
But then a series like this comes along, or some excellent Olympics coverage, or a long-form feature story, and it makes up for all the mediocre days. It's the stories that take a long-term investment of time that make the paper great, and it's those stories that are often the first ones cut as media outlets try to beat the economy by cutting back on coverage.

nice touch, Apple

On iTunes AppStore today, all links work except one: when I try to see "All Free Apps" I get an error message saying the store is unavailable.

Looks like somebody wants their commission.

T-shirt of the day:

On the front, "Mennonite Mafia." On the back, in the style of a name
on an athletic jersey, "Spudnuts."

Bristol Palin's baby daddy is 'psyched' to be father, says his pal

You've gotta love the New York tabloids - any time a major political story includes the words "baby-daddy" and "stand-up dude" I'm going to be hooked.

NY tab story on Palin baby daddy

maybe a bit of an overstatement...

Heard while entering RFK Stadium for a D.C. United game tonight:

D.C. United has the best fans, in the history of sport.

Well, no.

disappearing demolition derbies

The highlight of my rural county fair growing up was always the night of the demolition derby. I haven't seen one in a dozen years, although if I ever saw one advertised near me I'd jump at the chance to go.

Unfortunately, today the demolition derby is falling victim to the economy, at least according to this account.

Derbies demolished

Michael Phelps' .01 second win last night will get some play on the highlight reels for a while (I assume - since I've been at the tennis until past midnight most nights, I haven't actually watched much of the prime-time coverage). I've been checking out a few different outlets' documentation of the finish, and the most startling thing is how different the finish looks depending on where the cameras were set.

The overhead TV camera makes it look as though Cavic beat Phelps to the wall. But Sports Illustrated had a camera underwater, right between the two lanes, and the frame-by-frame look at the finish seems to give Phelps the slight edge.

Shame the super-super-slow-mo footage swimming authorities looked at wasn't released...

cavemen

The Geico cavemen ads have clearly outlasted their humor usefulness, but that rarely stops advertising executives.

The new tennis ad simply baffles me, though. As you're sure to have seen unless you're one of those who manage to live without the pleasures of television, the caveman is playing a match against Billy Jean King. As he taunts her, she points out he's not winning and hasn't even gotten a serve in, to which he responds "you might want to look at the scoreboard." Both do, which shows that, in fact, he hasn't scored a point.

So here's my problem with all this - what's the point of the caveman appearing to not know the rules of the game? The whole premise of the Geico campaign is fact the tagline "so easy, even a caveman can do it" plays into a wrong-headed stereotype in this alternate world where cavemen simply happen to be a hirsute minority constantly struggling with the perception they have not evolved past the primitive pre-humans who lived in caves.

So either this ad is saying cavemen really are so stupid they don't know what's going on, in which case the point of the previous commercials sort of gets lost, or maybe they're indicating that the whole match is rigged, right down to the scoreboard operators, which doesn't seem very sporting, really.

tennis

This week I've once again been thrown in a perhaps surprisingly common situation - professionally covering a sport I know nothing about and have barely watched.

In fact, this week almost certainly marks the first time I've watched an entire tennis match (it probably checks in as the first time I've watched an entire set) in person or otherwise.

I've been covering the Legg Mason Tennis Classic here in D.C. for the Associated Press, an event that's turned out to be far more enjoyable than I expected.

For one, I'm generally always up for immersing myself in a sport I have no experience with (I've played tennis a few times, but I probably have more time in with Wii tennis than the real thing). A few matches have been wonderful to watch, and some of the personalities have been good to deal with throughout the week and I can now talk reasonably knowledgeably about tennis.

Thursday night had some of the best action of the tournament, but was also one of the worst days there.

Most of the time, play has started around 4 p.m. and wrapped up around 11, which works since I've been spending the rest of my time at the day job. Thursday, the last match finished at 1:27 a.m.

The main cause was a 2 hour, 43-minute match Andy Roddick managed to win (the best match of the event by far) - it pushed the whole schedule back. And then the final two matches on the schedule also went three sets and past two hours.

Thankfully, no day job for me Friday. And the matches went gloriously quickly. So I'm headed out to do something I haven't had a chance to do for a while - actually have a social evening.

Then more tennis - two more days to the end.

UPDATE: Of course, after I wrote this we sat through an hour-long rain delay. I'm still getting out before midnight, though.

olympics update

I have determined that the Air Pistol events might be the worst possible event to televise. In this case, it actually needs commentary. Because all eight contestants shoot at the same time, I can't figure out how they determine which one to keep the camera on.
However, it's so bizarrly bad I'm captivated.


To recap: live video of team archery - good. Live video of individual air pistol - bad.

More to come, I'm sure.

olympic obscurity

My favorite thing about the Olympics is always the really obscure sports, the ones you usually never see, but only read about happening in the previews when some publication picks the medalists in every event.

As the Olympics have gone on, each year there has been more time devoted to televised sports (I remember when it was a big deal that NBC was going to be showing events on more than one channel for the Games) but all that time is still filled with things like gymnastics, swimming and the rest of the sports I'm not particularly interested in (although this morning I did actually get to watch part of a team handball match, which is possibly the most obscure of all the Olympic sports, in this country at least).

But tonight I've discovered the live video feeds on NBCOlympics.com. As I type, I'm watching a qualifying round of team archery. Just a live video feed (thankfully with multiple camera angles, rather than just one camera turned on and left) with out any announcers. Just a little text box of live updated play-by-play. In other words, perfect.

I'm going to have to see how the live video works throughout the games, but for now it appears to be exactly what I've always wanted - the ability to watch whatever sport I want, with no annoying voices except the venue's PA announcer, and some unobtrusive informative commentary in text form.

(And I've been typing long enough that China has now beaten India in the team archery match).

It's this sort of thing that makes me wish I was still in college, when I could have shifted my schedule and devoted large chunks of the calendar to watching the Olympic stuff I've never seen before. (Seriously, have you ever seen archery televised? And it's interesting to watch. It quick-moving, and the scoring is easy to understand.) Now I'm going to have to do with sneaking in some watching here and there, during a week when I'm already going to be sleep-deprived because I'm working a day job and covering tennis every night this week.

What I'm really looking forward to, though, is the next winter Olympics. If I don't make it to Vancouver, you can bet I'll be watching all the curling rounds online.

all that, for this?

Of the assignments I regularly get, soccer is by far the hardest sport for me to cover.

It should be one of the easiest - the games go by relatively quickly and the AP usually only wants one short story, so there's no real deadline pressure.

But because the game moves so quickly and I cover the sport relatively infrequently and I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to the finer points of the game, it's not easy. When something does happen, the action moves on so fast it's hard to pick up who was involved in the play. And because I don't watch the sport often enough, I'm often a few steps behind the play instead of a few steps ahead, which is ideal.

So whenever I'm out covering soccer - especially when there aren't any early goals - I'm always wondering if I'll be able to describe enough action to fill out a story.

I shouldn't worry - because usually the stories are either this long or I get to write a longer story with quotes, and you can always fill out a story when you actually talk to someone.

training camp moments

I've spent a week out at Redskins Park in Ashburn, Va., covering training camp.

The big plus of the week: the AP finally put a byline on my stories.

The big minus: the 32-mile one-way commute to get here by 8:30 a.m. every morning. (Although that does help get the day done faster, as well). And an extra big minus Saturday, when I sat in traffic for nearly three hours to cover a training camp scrimmage.

Covering training camp has given me flashbacks to fall practice time in my days as a Southern Miss beat writer. Sure, there's more writers out here and more fans watching, but the job's still the same: stand around and watch football players practice (not even as exciting as it sounds), make sure everyone that's supposed to be on the field is on the field, watch for someone to get injured, and then dash around at the end trying to talk to everyone you need to talk to for whatever story you're going to write. The routine is broken, of course, if some news happens. This was how the first day of camp went, when I wasn't writing but just helping out and collecting quotes for the rest of the week.

The first few days were taken up with Jason Taylor updates. Then the rest of the time I've tried to find something interesting to write about (and make sure it's something I can get quotes about). I've only got a couple more days of making the long drive back and forth. Then I'll have to find something else to do next.

These month-long blogging breaks are no good, I suppose. This blog, at least, would get far more short posts from me throughout the day if I had easy access to an internet-accessible device as I was wandering about the city. Unfortunately, most of the quick ideas I have go floating off before I get to a point where I could type them in and tether them to this page.

This might change soon. At least, my access to such a device might change soon, and then my theory about increased posting would be put to the test. I'm thinking about picking up an iPhone. I still can't decide if it's actually worth it to pay AT&T the $ required each month, but I'm thinking the ability to watch movies on my commute (I have a pre-video iPod, so I was planning on upgrading that eventually regardless) combined with the GPS and instant internet access might be worth it. There's no question I'll be instantly addicted.

The problem comes in trying to figure out the best plan. Normally for the iPhone there's not much choice, but we might have a chance to pick up an original iPhone for cheap for Kirsten, so we could have one old and one new iPhone on a family plan. AT&T doesn't have much help on its website for people looking to roll an iPhone into a family plan without iPhones, much less for two different generations. Hopefully it wouldn't be too bad - I'm already paying way too much for my plan, but I'm off contract so it's an easy time to move.

obvious?

Surfing google news today, this headline caught my eye: "Record Percentage of Americans Use Internet for Politics".

Seriously, wouldn't it be a far bigger story if a record percentage of people weren't using the Internet for political coverage/activism? This is a medium that's been in the mainstream consciousness for barely more than a decade, and is still evolving at a pretty amazing rate (just think back to what websites looked like when Bush was first elected president). Sure, in 2004 the Internet had reached a decent level of saturation and maturity, but in the four years since it seems to me broadband has become even more ubiquitous, and more importantly, the "web 2.0" interactive philosophy - blogs, social networking, et al - has certainly become more ubiquitous. I'm sure each year since Netscape first became a household word (and quickly stopped being a household word, which dates myself horribly) the percentage of Americans using the Internet for anything has been on a steady rise.

So nearly half of our country has at least briefly checked out political coverage on an online site (I think that's what was measured, as far as I can tell from the vague way this is worded). In what way is this a news story?

I think these crazy political links of the day could become my new running feature, replacing the old running feature that didn't run very long (as this one won't; for a so-called writer, I have a real difficulty carving out time in my day to add anything to these blogs 'o mine).

Here's today's, which highlights one of the fun things about having a home state like Montana to keep track of. When I saw there were three Democratic candidates for governor on the primary ballot, I was intrigued, since we have a fairly popular Democratic incumbent.

It didn't take much research to realize Schweitzer doesn't have a lot to worry about.

For example, check out the website of this team hoping to be Governor/Lt. Governor. I can't really add anything to the experience of reading the information on the site, except to say I don't think even they really believe they're going to pull in more than a dozen votes.

Then there's this option - two high school teachers who decided to get in the race to increase the debate about education policy (if you believe their story) or to allow Schweitzer to keep a chunk of his campaign funds (if you like political conspiracies, or even just stories where money makes every motivation a little fishy).

The teachers, however, put up a site that's not near as much fun to read as Bill and Steve.

Here's my crazy link of the day.

Sure, this is a site about how and why the U.S. presidents are covering up the fact of an alien invasion, or at least government knowledge of extraterrestrial life.

Even so, as far as I'm concerned the most ludicrous statement on the site is this:

...the appearance of Cheney's name on the George W. Bush Presidential ticket, led many ufologists to feel that Cheney might represent an attempt by the government to make a disclosure on UFOs.

Read the this part on its own: "...feel that Cheney might represent an attempt by the government to make a disclosure..." In context or out of context, clearly these people had no idea what they were dealing with. In hindsight, anyone who thought Cheney was going to disclose anything was far nuttier than a simple UFO believer.

spam, spam, spam, spam

Sometimes I love actually reading through the sales pitches landing in my inbox.

Today's favorite line: "Become the Tasmanian lovemaking Devil!"

If it'd actually turn me Tasmanian and get me an Australian passport, I'd consider it.

today's link of fun

Awesome.

My favorite? The area code.

answering machine

"He left a message on her answering machine."

I've seen some variant on this phrase in print twice in the last two weeks, and each time the choice of phrase jarred me out of my reading rhythm. Does it seem as seem as purely anachronistic to everyone else? Especially when the context refers to someone talking on a cell phone, I doubt there is any separate answering machine involved. Not that I'm a huge fan of the phrase "voice mail" but at least it seems to cover more bases.
There are only three people I have semi-regular reason to call who have an actual machine to leave a message on (unless, of course, they happen to answer the phone). Two of them are of an older generation. I haven't had a landline since leaving New Zealand, and I haven't had a landline I actually used since I left for New Zealand.

So is the phrase "answering machine" so jarring to me only because I don't have one? Are they still an everyday feature of most people's lives?

spanish can be fun!

Sometimes it's nice to have a Spanish translator in the house. Like last night, when I was catching up on the 30 Rock season finale via Hulu

The plot revolved around cheap Mexican cheese curls Liz Lemon found at a grocery. The name: Sabor de Soledad. The translation, which I never would have bothered to find out, but made the whole thing far more funny: Taste of Loneliness.

breaking news: it's not breaking

Last night I covered the U.S. women's soccer team in a game against Canada for the Associated Press. When I checked to see how my story looked on the wire, I found it published in the Honolulu Advertiser.

All fine and good, but the real point of this point is this:
included in the side links on the page was a lists of "Breaking news headlines." One of the headlines: "Surf better suited for snorkeling today"

I think I want to go to Hawaii. And where do I apply for the waves beat?

tiring

Despite my vague intentions, my life is generally a sedentary one. I manage to keep up a running program for short bursts of time rather than the sustained effort that would actually be helpful.

In an effort to combat my inertia, I have joined the local recreational Ultimate Frisbee league. This spring, the season was supposed to have been about eight weeks long (we play each Sunday). Through a combination of rain and bad luck, we only managed to have three weekends with games. My schedule only allowed me to make one of those three, a weekend back in late March.

This past weekend was the season-ending tournament. We were scheduled to play four games back-to-back, going straight through from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. I knew I was in no shape to attempt such a feat, but since we've got about 20 people signed up on the roster and Ultimate is played with only seven people on the field at any given time, I figured I could manage.

Then I showed up and had trouble finding my team. Only natural, I thought, since I haven't seen any of them for a month. I kept looking around, though, and still nothing. Then I heard someone else looking for the same group. It dawned on us that we were the only representatives there. A few others arrived - we were six.

We managed to make the minimum requirement of seven through another team's generosity, and, later, with a couple of late arrivals. But instead of six hours of occasional participation, I had six hours of near-constant participation. The first hour went all right, but after that I felt the one extra gear I might have had fall right off, leaving me with one speed: slow.

I've had a habit of making my body go from nothing to far too much on the exercise front without any transition. This day was certainly good for my system, but my muscles and joints told me afterward they would have appreciated a bit more notice.

and, to keep things on a political bent...

I like to imagine a world in which actual campaign ads look something like this:


Empire Strikes Barack

a question

This week I was listening to a news report that included a quote from a "long-time Republican" who is planning to vote for Obama. It didn't say why he was planning to vote for Obama, as that wasn't the real focus of the story. But it did make something click in my mind. I've heard reports since the early primaries that Obama was winning over independents and Republicans. But I can't figure out why, exactly, a long-time Republican would decide to switch to Obama. It's not like there's anything about his candidacy that would appeal to someone to the right of center, politically. I understand that Republicans might be dissatisfied with the general state of the party and this year's candidates (now candidate) specifically, but it seems to me it makes more sense they would just stay home rather than become inspired by Obama.

Anybody hear any reasonings as to why Obama is/was winning some Republican votes?

not quite

Officially, it was 2 hours, 56 minutes with a 25-minute delay. Even the total of 3 hours, 19 minutes would have been short of the longest this season, but it was too long for me.

the long and short of it

Last night I was in the press box for the shortest game the Nationals have played this season, a 2 hour, 4 minute 3-2 win against the Pirates. Tonight, the game passed that mark in the fifth inning. A delay caused by a light outage didn't help, and 12 combined runs through four-and-a-half innings didn't either. If this lasts another hour and a half - a distinct possibility - I'll have see the shortest and longest 9-inning games for the Nationals this season in back-to-back nights.

I wouldn't mind as much if I didn't have to wake up early tomorrow to go to Redskins practice...

a first

Out at Nationals Park tonight, and I've already seen something I haven't seen before: the National Anthem was performed by a solo euphonium/

It was also the best anthem I've heard in quite some time.

they finally started to get something right

Lately, I've been watching most of my TV via the computer. The Internet is the poor man's Tivo (I miss having a DVR). Everything's out there, if you know how to look, but it's not always easy.

If the show I'm looking for is up on a network site, I generally head there first. But too often, I've had trouble streaming or got stuck in a loop of advertising, or the player just wasn't very good. I have my display hooked up to my TV, but on at least one network site, for a while it kicked me out of full screen mode every time it pulled up an ad in between segments. No good. So I often headed to BitTorrent, where I could find shows for downloading. That, however, takes time (along with the usual objection from the copyright holder).

But I've been plesantly surprised by Hulu, the new site from NBC and Fox for TV online. It's easy to find full episodes or clips of shows, the player seems to work well and I haven't had any streaming problems (yet). And since most of the US shows I'm looking for are on either NBC or Fox (or a site under their corporate umbrellas) I'm quite happy.

Especially when I figured out they've been putting up old shows as well. How can you beat episodes of the A-Team? I've never even seen Fantasy Island but I might watch one, just so I know what all the references are about. The episode lists are spotty, but I'm working on the (possibly fatal) assumption that content will be added as the site grows and the full-episode lists will grow to fill in the gaps.

And if you're the sort of person that has Gerald McRaney withdrawals, there's even 50-something episodes of Major Dad available.


(and by the way, I can't believe it's been a month since I posted last. That's no way to hang on to either of my readers....)

huh?

This is about a month late, but I figured it was time to archive the simply confusing full-page ad in a free weekly I grabbed a while back as I entered the Metro.

This is the ad, exactly as it ran. If you can make any sense out of it, you're probably in a far worse mental state than I am.

The guy behind the ad got some local blog space on DCist. Sounds like the protest went off exactly as well as his ad did.

oscar

I only picked one Oscar category (well, it was pretty obvious who was going to win Best Actor and Best Picture, so I can say I picked those too) and got it right. Even heard a story about the Peter and the Wolf creators on NPR yesterday.

But nothing made me happier than seeing Once win for best song. And the only really good moment of the awards show was Jon Stewart bringing Marketa Irglova back out to the mic after she was cut off by the orchestra the first time around.

If anyone hasn't seen Once, do so. The low-budget film following a budding not-quite-romance is one of the best I saw in 2007. It's not really a musical, but since the focus is on musicians, there are plenty of songs involved, each of which is weighted with emotion and things-not-quite-said between the lead characters.

a merchant referendum

I should have posted this months ago and seemed like a genius, but instead I'm behind the curve. I was reminded today, however, of a political barometer. Based on an informal accounting of the T-shirts offered by street vendors and gift shops, Obama has held a decided advantage over Hillary since well before the New Year. Today in the window of a gift shop in Union Station, Obama had several T-shirts displayed prominently, McCain had a couple next to his and Hillary earned one design down in the corner.

Last weekend I had an opportunity to see all of the Academy Award-nominated short animated features (I missed out on the screening of the live shorts, and also didn't get to the Archives to see all the documentary nominees, despite my best intentions a week ago).

A quick review on each of the contenders, for those of you desperately seeking an edge in your Oscar pool:

Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)
The only 3D computer animated short in the bunch, a comedic look at a priest trying to sell an old man a way into heaven. A light tone, which was a significant contrast with the rest. The animation was good, a few laughs to be had, including a punch-line of an ending. Probably the best at doing what it aimed to, and the most fun of them all, but it also didn't have the extra emotional weight of some of the other shorts.

Moya lyubov (My Love)
The most unique animation style - done in the style of an impressionist painting. This was actually distracting, because every time a character moved, the brush strokes of the background around them moved as well, giving it the feel of a badly-compressed, pixelated digital file. A Russian entry, this may have lost something in translation. However, the dual love stories around a 16-year-old boy, both of which end badly, weren't particularly compelling and the climatic feverish dream came out of nowhere.

Madame Tutli-Putli
A Canadian entry following a woman's eventful train journey. The promo notes call it a "exhilarating existential journey." The stop-motion animation was amazing, but the story may have been too existential for just one viewing.

I met the Walrus
A five-minute clip of audio of a 14-year-old boy interviewing John Lennon. The animation is, as one review put it, just something interesting to look at while listening to Lennon. It is interesting, though.

Peter and the Wolf
My pick for the Oscar. The animation was impressive, the story was well done (although also done often) and unlike the others it didn't leave me thinking about the flaws. Just an overall strong contender.

you win one reality show dancing competition...

Surfing around Nola.com's Mardi Gras coverage, I noticed something a bit odd.

Click over and check out the caption of the first photo.

The guy has won two Indianapolis 500s, raced in the top circuits since 1998 - but after a season of "Dancing with the Stars," it's "Dancer Helio Castroneves."

(Of course, his Wikipedia page also gives his dancing career a more prominent placing. But at least it mentions the whole auto-racing part of his career.)

demographics

Looking through the early results of the Florida primaries, one thing jumped out at me. And it had nothing to do with any candidate.

According to the CNN exit polls, around than 40 percent of the voters in each primary were 60 or older. About 75 percent of the voters were 45 or older.

According to information on the state of Florida's website, and looking at the population of voting age (18+), those 60 and older made up 28.7 percent of the population, and those 45 and older made up 54.6 of the population.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
I haven't bothered to look at other states yet, although finding the data above took me about 10 minutes and a couple of Excel formulas, so it wouldn't be too hard to do. And I know every so often we hear about how young people don't vote, especially in primaries, and how older people are the most likely voters. I just didn't realize how out of proportion the numbers of older voters were compared to the numbers in the general population.

kiwi humour

I thought I'd posted this a long time ago, but they came up in conversation recently and I realized they hadn't made it onto my corner of the internet:

One of our favorite aspects of New Zealand culture was the willingness to poke fun at themselves, and just about anything else. It even manifested itself in a government advertising campaign for home safety. The ACC - Accident Compensation Commission - pays for all medical bills resulting in any accidents, for anyone in New Zealand. (This takes the place of personal injury lawsuits, which are generally not allowed in the New Zealand court system). The ACC put out a series of TV ads to try to lower accident rates around the home, but the ads have a serious black humor to them.

For example, every time this ad came on TV, Kirsten started laughing uncontrollably:

More of the ads can be seen here. And here's one more that wasn't on-air while we were in NZ.

kiwi humour, part II

One more for you-

This is an official Australian tourism commercial that got a ton of play in NZ our last few months there. Apparently it created some controversy in the UK, since "bloody hell" was seen to be a bit dirty:

This is a NZ take on the ad, apparently put together by a consumer advocate program:

The stories for this tag probably too often come from the Wired Threat Level blog but I think online security and the government's surveillance programs deserve a more penetrating look than most have been giving it. That's mostly why this stuff makes me sad, because even with the dust-up about warrantless wiretaps, it seems that the big picture mostly gets brushed aside in coverage of the details.

At any rate, here's an interested take on how the coverage is getting it wrong. I haven't taken the time to dig deep into the FISA legislation, but it sounds like the Wired guy has done more digging than the reporters, who (in defense of reporters everywhere) likely have way too many things on their plate and are reporting the information they're given.

Today's news item that just makes me sad

shampoo, used on my hair or other body parts

I was reading my shampoo bottle in the shower the other day (doesn't everyone?) and noticed a totally useless sentence fragment.

My shampoo informed me it was "Made in the USA." All fine and good. Then it added, "... from US and/or imported ingredients."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the same thing as saying, "Made from ingredients"? Which is the same as saying "Made"? Essentially this is as useful as putting "This shampoo exists" on the side of the bottle. Although if I come across a product which needs to assert its existence on its packaging, I'll find that far more interesting than this shampoo bottle.

Yesterday, I answered an hour-long survey on Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco and Mental Health. It's a government program called, appropriately enough, the National Survey on Drug Use & Health.

Most of it was as you'd expect - lots and lots of questions about what you'd done, how often, etc. For the most part, it was all dry and free of any obvious bias, although I think any survey of this sort is prone to people misreporting their experiences. (On the plus side, I got $30 for answering the questions).

Then toward the end, I ran into this question:

How do you feel about adults trying marijuana or hashish once or twice?
1 Neither approve nor disapprove
2 Somewhat disapprove
3 Strongly disapprove

No matter what I was going to answer, I was struck by an obvious omission. What if I approved of people trying it once or twice? If the question replaced "marijuana or hashish" with "alcohol" would there be extra options? Although what would "approve" mean in this case, anyway? Would it mean I advocate forcing everyone to try a joint once or twice? I certainly couldn't advocate that. But I also don't think trying it once or twice does any irreparable harm.

Looking through the survey's data from 2006 I can tell there were more questions for the 12-17 year olds who took the survey. They were asked questions about their feelings toward peers who used drugs, alcohol or tobacco and what they thought their parents' feelings were about them possibly using. Again, there was obviously no "approve" option.

It seems odd that a survey designed to measure people's perceptions of drug use would include such obvious bias. OK, not that odd. But being able to answer that you've tried illegal substances but being unable to approve of illegal substances seems so obviously political that it should have been flagged somewhere along the line.

(And for those interested - the survey web page lists survey results yearly starting in 1994. I didn't bother to search through the questions for all the years, but I found a page that said this question dates back to at least 2000, and I would guess it dates back earlier than that.)

profane stats nerds. I like.

I thought I'd posted this before, but I don't see it in the archives. One of my favorite sites for sports commentary is the Fire Joe Morgan blog, where a deep regard for baseball statistics and an equally deep disdain for lazy baseball commentary come together in sarcastic, profanity-ridden, vitriolic rebuttals to those journalists the authors feel have neglected common sense or reason.

Even though it's the off-season, the recent Hall of Fame voting has given the FJM folks ample fodder recently. My favorite is probably this post. Check it out.

running

My friend Dave blogged about running, how he enjoys the point where his mind is trying to justify quitting and he has to push through. He threw an insult at us amatuers, who find the use of an iPod to block out the pain helpful.

I was thinking about this as I tried to job around my neighborhood tonight and found my mind's justifications far stronger than my lungs and legs. I did use my iPod as a motivational tool, telling myself I at least had to run until the end of the track I was listening to. This is slightly more impressive than it sounds, as the track I was listening to was a 20-minute BBC podcast of a weekly show where comedians talk about current events. Then I realized I was using my iPod for motivation and to block out my brain with a BBC podcast of a weekly show where comedians talk about current events.

Not exactly "Eye of the Tiger," I suppose. But since I'm in DC instead of Philadelphia, perhaps appropriate. (Hard to set a montage to, though).

interesting (only to me)

I logged on to Blogger tonight and saw I had 100 posts on this blog and 300 on Leaping Point. Not so many, since I started them both late in '05, but surprising I hit a milestone on each of them at the same time, without realizing it.

I was talking with a friend of mine about how we liked the idea of Ron Paul gaining more ground in the Republican nomination race, just because we like to see totally out-of-left-field people in all areas, but especially in the focus group-crafted world of politics.
This even though the few things I've heard about Ron Paul's positions make him sound even crazier than he does just being Ron Paul.
In other words, I like Ron Paul's ideas about 1 percent of the time, but I like the idea of Ron Paul 100 percent of the time.