Blog Jammin'

I Think, Therefore I Color Commentate

2007-02-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Here's something I can't stand: when sportscasters precede an objective fact with the phrase, "I think". Either player A is bigger or smaller than player B. Either player A is 23 or 36 or 42. Either player B caught 3 or 7 or 10 touchdowns in 2002. These are not up for discussion; these are basic easy-to-prove facts.

"In my opinion," they might say, "player A is a better rebounder than player B." Well if player A pulls down 13 boards a game and player B pulls down 4, then they can unequivocally say that A is better to B. Yet for some reason, they don't. They preface. They try to make themselves sound smarter than they are. And yet, it backfires.

In my opinion, they could use some classes in public speaking and ego restraint. (Oh there I go, stating a fact as opinion again.)

The Hotness that is Sarah Silverman

2007-02-06T01:21:00.000-07:00

In his article on Sarah Silverman this Sunday, LA Times television critic Paul Brownfield cut straight to the core of why so many men, including myself, find the sexy yet raunchy comic irresistible:

Ah, the achy love particular to a slightly less clever white Jewish male for the Semitic goddess who is meaner and quicker, who can talk so dirty and yet be so pretty in cargo pants and a T-shirt.

As one of those white Jewish males Brownfield mentions—and one who can appreciate and laugh at a good Jewish joke—I concur.

In other Sunday Calendar section news, I noticed a first (for me, at least). When reporters reveal to readers how they conducted an interview, they usually say "speaking on the phone from her home in Milwaukee" or "while sitting in the All-American Burger on Sunset", but this is the first time I can remember an interview being conducted completely within a second-life computer game. Speaking of the virtual universe where she spends much of her time, an interviewed player said "she agreed to speak only through her RedLightCenter avatar."

RedLightCenter is like World of Warcraft, just replace warlocks, wizards, witches and trolls with prostitutes, pimps, perverts and, well, probably more trolls. It's creepy on many levels, yet it is the future and I suppose we should all just embrace it. I've always wanted to be a pimp.

Quid Pro Colbert

2006-11-30T02:02:00.000-07:00

It's amazing the symbiotic relationship Stephen Colbert has created with other media entities. Twice this week on his Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, Colbert has held up a magazine and talked about his inclusion in it. First it was People's "Sexiest Man Alive" issue, which named him one of the sexiest men "with glasses." Then it was GQ's "Men of the Year", which also featured a picture and brief article about him.

It's a beautiful quid pro quo Colbert has developed. A magazine puts him in its pages, he puts the magazine on the show. He puts the magazine on the show, more people buy the magazine. People read the article about him in the magazine, more people watch the show. Everybody wins.

It's not just magazines, of course. Who followed Saginaw minor league hockey before the team changed it's mascot to Stephen Cobeagle the Eagle? How many people were interested in visiting Hungary's web site until Colbert entered himself into the country's "name a bridge" competition and urged his viewers to vote for him? When someone quotes him or references his show--whether it's Oprah, the New York Times, or Bill O'Reilly--it is virtually guaranteed that Colbert will mention it on The Report. He may praise it sarcastically, mock it, or belittle it, but he will quote it nonetheless. And the beauty of it is, his blatant grab at any publicity doesn't come across as ungenuine or forced, because it is exactly how his character "Stephen Colbert Cable News Bloviator" should act. He's playing the part perfectly, allowing him to naturally bask in his glory.

Colbert is a one-man publicity vortex, rising the tide and lifting all boats. Get ready to see him in more magazines and on more television shows to come.

A Powerful Lott

2006-11-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

In the next few days, a major political story will be Sen. Trent Lott running for Republican Whip. He will be trying to regain some of the power he lost in 2002, when he was forced to resign as Senate Republican Leader after remarks he made at the late Sen. Strom Thurmond's centenarian birthday party. During his toast, Lott included this juicy little sound bite, alluding to Thurmond's presidential bid in 1948 on an anti-segregation platform:

"I want to say this about my state [Mississippi]: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

Despite my occasional fit of giggles at the sight of (yet another) Republican scandal, my chuckles didn't have quite the same enthusiasm about them as they did during: the many DeLay ethics violations and ultimate resignation, the Jack Abramoff fall-out, the numerous volumes of President Bush blunders and stumbles, the Vice President shooting his load on a friend, "macaca"—you know what, this could go on a while, we should probably just end the list here.

The media reaction was harsh and the fallout precipitous, and I must admit I actually felt a little sorry for Sen. Lott. I mean, who hasn't given a toast and ran out of good things to say? Sometimes there just isn't much material to work with, so you start grabbing for any little glimmer of a memory the two of you may have shared and using grandiose words that sound better than they're defined. What often happens next is overcompensation—fishing so deep that you reel in complements you don't believe and anecdotes that never happened, capped off with the wild flourish at the end, when you get so carried away in your embellishments you don't realize you just endorsed segregation and ruined your political career while adding a couple more paragraphs to your eventual obituary. That's a tough act to follow.

In the ensuing days, when his comment turned into a Gary Condit-level controversy (sleazy Representative from California + dead female intern = Senator from the South + comment interpreted as racist), Lott was stuck. Sure he issued classic non-apology apologies, but he couldn't completely denounce his comments—that would signal to Thurmond that he just made that last part up and surely hurt the old man's feelings. But by the time Thurmond died a year later, the controversy had too, and it was too late for Lott to acknowledge he just said it to make the crazy old coot smile.

So I say good luck to you, Sen. Lott. You've just been reelected for a fourth term, and it's time for you to venture on your quest to regain power. You're done being the whipping boy; now it's your chance to reclaim the Whip.

On second thought, that may come across as a little racist.

Britney's Dirty Little Secret

2006-11-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

She really doesn't want this information to get out since it could ruin her reputation, but I'm going to spread the news anyway: did you know that Britney Spears plays chess?

Like the article states, it is indeed quite "odd."

Oh, and she's in a sex tape. But we knew that would happen sooner or later, so I wouldn't really classify it as news.

A Four Hour Election

2006-11-11T03:57:00.000-07:00

The smoke has cleared, the dust has settled, and the Head-On commercials have reclaimed their time slots from all the campaign ads (I can't decide what I enjoyed not suffering through more). What crazy shenanigans did California voters unleash on election day? Let's take break it down 80's style, with my picks, the Los Angeles Times editorial page's picks, and the winners:

Prop 1A
Me: Yes
LA Times: No
Winner: Yes

Prop 1B
Me: Yes
LAT: Yes
Winner: Yes

Prop 1C
Me: Yes
LAT: No
Winner: Yes

Prop 1D
Me: Yes
LAT: Yes
Winner: Yes

Prop 1E
Me: No
LAT: Yes
Winner: Yes

Prop 83
Me: No
LAT: No
Winner: Yes

Prop 84
Me: Yes
LAT: Yes
Winner: No

Prop 85
Me: No
LAT: No
Winner: No

Prop 86
Me: Yes
LAT: Yes
Winner: No

Prop 87
Me: Yes
LAT: No
Winner: No

Prop 88
Me: Yes
LAT: No
Winner: No

Prop 89
Me: Yes
LAT: No
Winner: No

Prop 90
Me: Yes
LAT: No
Winner: No

Me: 5-8
LAT: 8-5

Congratulations LA Times, you whooped me. If we were betting against the spread though, I would have had beaten you easily, since many of the underdogs covered. Next time. By 2008 you'll probably have gone through seven or eight editor-in-chiefs and a couple of owners by then, if you're still in existence at all. I'll get my vengeance then.

Dead Bradley

2006-11-09T21:05:00.000-07:00

If I believed in hell, that's probably where I would be going for using this headline, but sometimes a pun is just too good to worry about the moral or karmic implications.

We all though Andy Rooney was a lock for the distinction, but Ed Bradley swooped in and became the first journalist from "60 Minutes" to pass away. He died yesterday from leukemia at the age of 65.

Bradley was an excellent reporter and interviewer, and certainly the most influential black journalist in the country. But what I am going to miss the most is the sight of the grey-bearded, bald sexagenarian wearing an earring in his left ear. It was absurd and distracting and delightful.

The Blogger Party: Too Much Blogger, Not Enough Party

2006-11-08T18:05:00.000-07:00

As always, Slate.com offered the best analysis of this election. Writing about the television networks' coverage of the election, Troy Patterson offered the greatest line of the night. Discussing CNN's "blogger party"--a coffee place in Washington, DC, the network stuffed with political bloggers--Peterson wrote:

As you know, and as the blogger may not, the term party carries certain connotations: If the people being entertained are, in the main, younger than 11, they expect to find cake, balloons, games, and maybe a pony. If the guests are any older, they show up anticipating alcohol, possibly drugs, a chance of getting laid, and maybe a pony. At this party, however, we saw a handful of Americans, none of them remarkably telegenic, sitting in front of computer screens in a Washington, D.C., coffee house. No ponies.

Speaker of the Crypt

2006-11-08T17:40:00.000-07:00

As happy as I am that the Democrats have managed to take back the House and are very close to regaining the Senate, while watching coverage of the results and aftermath, I can't shake one negative thought from my head:

I would be much more excited about all this if it didn't look like probable Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's face was going to rip off her skull every time she attempted to smile. It is really quite horrifying.

The Republicans' Mourning in America

2006-11-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

The Democrats took back the House of Representatives yesterday, and today Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has resigned.

If it really is "morning in America", as Reaganite conservatives like to espouse, we are eating one delicious brunch, with the mimosas flowing freely and all the breakfast meats and honeydew we could want. Delicious!

Mad Props

2006-11-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

We all know that everyone who votes spends hours before an election reading positions, researching issues, and determining for themselves who and what they are going to vote for and against. That is why you never see partisan commercials on television anymore slamming opponents and distorting facts; political consultants know that the public has become too smart and informed for those types of ads to be deemed effective.

Okay, so maybe I'm foreshadowing the 2020 election (or is the 2130 election a more realistic goal?). In the meantime, I've tried to ignore the commercials and look below the surface of newspaper articles and avoid getting caught up in the waste of money that is the gear up to an election. Instead, I am going to use two resources to supplement the knowledge I've weened from the above outlets and to determine my vote today, the nonpartisan and non-profit California Voter Foundation and the Official Voter Information Guide. If I can't figure out from those two sites what the heck I would be voting for or against, it shouldn't be on the ballot in the first place.

So how am I going to vote? Let's find out. The main question to answer for the propositions is, are the costs worth the rewards:

Prop 1A: I hate traffic. I hate it so much. As someone who routinely uses and gets trapped on Los Angeles roads and freeways, my car and I will be voting for 1A. While I don't necessarily like the provision that "prohibits the state sales tax on motor vehicle fuels from being used for any purpose other than transportation improvements"--I find it's never a good idea to box yourself in like that, you never know when you may need those funds--it is a small price to pay for alleviating traffic congestion, which is by far the most aggravating part about living in LA. Yes.

Prop 1B: Ditto, almost. 1B also includes money for improving earthquake readiness for bridges, reducing air pollution, and beefing up port anti-terrorism security. It is a bond measure that will cost $39 billion over thirty years, which is certainly not too much to pay for more car pool lanes and public transportation (in LA, is there a difference?), to go along with the aforementioned. Yes.

Prop 1C: Another bond measure, this one will cost about $6 billion over thirty years and create a whole lot of bureaucratic paperwork. But how can you vote against a proposition that will provide shelter for battered women, housing for low-income senior citizens, and home ownership for veterans, the disabled, and working families? It may help the poor, the military, the elderly, and the disabled: no wonder Republicans oppose it.

Prop 1D: Enough with the bond measures already! This one would cost roughly $20 billion, and will go to helping public schools and universities improve earthquake safety and add class rooms. It seems like they could have just folded this into 1C, but since education--meaning public schools--is the most important role of the government, it's hard to vote against putting more money into strengthening schools, literally and figuratively. Yes on 1D.

Prop 1E: Yet another bond measure. It happens every time there's a large negative news event, whether it's a hurricane, a gay congressman, or a meth-buying Reverend: everyone tries to prove that they had no connection to the failed levee, homosexual representative, or Evangelical; if they did, they try to distance themselves as much as possible. If they didn't, they try to make sure that their political hides are covered by pretending to make sure it will never happen again, whether there's a threat of it or not. That was a very vague statement. My question:1E allocates $8 billion to secure levees and protect homes from floods; if Hurricane Katrina had never happened, would this be on today's ballot? My answer: no. Which, out of protest to Katrina's ongoing politicization, is also how I will be voting. No on 1E.

Prop 83: This prop increases restrictions against sex offenders and sexually violent predators. This includes making sure that no registered sex offender lives within two thousand feet from a school or park, broadens the definition of and increases the punishment for sexual offenses, and requires lifetime GPS monitoring for all of them. No sane politician is going to vote against this proposition, but I am. First, the GPS thing is absurd; first sex offenders, then drug dealers, then all felons, then all traffic ticket violators, then everyone. No thanks. Second, it's pretty hard to live anywhere and not be two thousand feet from a school or park. Yes, a sexual offender should be punished. But they serve their time, and when they are released they need to live somewhere. Until the government creates "Escape from New York"-style cities of just felons, where are they going to live? Nobody wants them in their neighborhood obviously, but
tough. Most sexual assaults are committed by friends or family, not random strangers. Yes, I dare say it, no on 83. This will come back to haunt me if I ever run for office, I'm sure.

Prop 84: This $10 billion bond measure related to California's water issues is all-encompassing yet contradictory. It puts money toward both increasing the water supply and conserving it. Both important. Yes on 84.

Prop 85: The easiest decision all day. 85 would prohibit minors from receiving an abortion without parental consent. While most of the country is taking away women's rights, I'm proud that California has been strengthening them. If 85 passes, if liberal, Hollywood commie California can't protect women, then American women really have no hope. No on 85.

Prop 86: This increase on cigarette taxes is probably the toughest decision on the ballot. It will significantly raise the tax, and if all the extra income only went into anti-smoking research, education, and treatment, I would be against. But it also goes into hospital and emergency services, nurse training, and children's health insurance. Maybe it will lead to less smokers and a healthier populace, which would lead to less government money spent on medicare. But if people continue to smoke, it will mean a larger part of their income will be spent on cigarettes, meaning less on the necessities (of course, a smoker would say they are a necessity). Still, yes on 86.

Prop 87: It had me at the title: "Alternative Energy. Research, Production, Incentives. Tax on California Oil. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute. Taxes oil producers more, but prohibits them from passing the tax onto consumers, with the extra tax revenue spent on reducing petroleum emissions. It's win-win. An emphatic yes on 87.

Prop 88: A $50 tax would be added to "each real property parcel", with the money going to K-12 public school funding. It exempts some disabled and elderly homeowners, but I wish that list were longer, like exempting homes worth less than a certain amount or families making less than a certain amount. But the latter families would benefit from the extra $50 a month anyway, since their children are more than likely in the public schools that would benefit. Yes on 88.

Prop 89: Another reactionary proposition, this time because of the Jack Abramoff scandal. But this one does more than just restrict how much lobbyists can donate to campaigns, it could lead to a whole reevaluation of campaign financing. The prop is the next step toward truly publicly financed campaigns, which is much needed. Yes on 89, but barely.

Prop 90: The anti-"Eminent Domain", 90 would limit how much land the government could seize, then turn over to private businesses, and requires it to define "just compensation." It may not be a very liberal thing for me to do, but I don't care. Ever since the Supreme Court ruled in favor of eminent domain last year, the controversy and practice has spread. It needs to be curtailed. Yes on 90.

Voting now.

The Public: Coming to the Aid of Underprivledged Multi-National Corporations

2006-11-05T17:45:00.000-07:00

Have the business and media worlds completely run out of good ideas? Do they have anyone creative on their payrolls anymore? It seems like everyone is asking the public for help coming up with a great idea, instead of coming up with it themselves. They disguise their lack of ingenuity by presenting their desperate pleas for help as a "contest"; not only does that have the potential to boost ratings and business--who doesn't love contests, or the chance to win a "prize"--but it saves employees already on the payroll the difficult task of actually doing their job and coming up with ideas themselves. It's a trend that seems to be picking up steam. Four examples:

1. The NFL is looking for fans to submit ideas for the "best Super Bowl commercial ever." Wait, isn't that why the NFL signs contracts with advertising firms? Why give these firms tens of millions of dollars when they are just going to outsource the work to the general public anyway?

2. On the CBS Evening News, new anchor Katie Couric has asked viewers to send in ideas for what her sign-off line should be.

3. Netflix has asked customers to submit a new model for calculating and compiling the web site's "people who liked this also liked this" lists. The winner will receive $1 million, a small price for Netflix to pay when it could conceivably bring in millions more in revenue for the company.

4. In possibly the most egregious case of letting others do your work for you, CNN has created "I Report"--pardon me, "iReport"--an opportunity for average citizens to submit their own stories with video or photographs. If you should happen to capture some amazing footage, whether it's of a hurricane, a burglary, a Reverend using crystal meth with his male prostitute boyfriend, or anything else a network would happily pay you for, you can send it in to CNN and be rewarded with. . . the honor of saying "'I report' for CNN."

Congratulations, you are helping giant corporations make more money by doing their work for them! Gives you a huge feeling of pride and accomplishment, doesn't it? Of course the companies will let you keep the rights to your brilliant ideas, though, since you did come up with them, right? Right? Wrong. All submitted entries become property of the company they are sent to, of course.

Greed and laziness disguised as populism--only in America would a company have the chutzpah to pass this off as an altruistic attempt at incorporating the will of the people into a business plan. And only in America would the people eat it up. In this celebrity-obsessed culture, everyone wants his or her fifteen minutes of fame, and these are easy opportunities to get the clock started. All it takes is one great idea; that's certainly more than what many actual celebrities have come up with.

Now if I can only figure out how to incorporate the Oakland Raiders, former Secretary of State James Baker, a pair of left-handed scissors, three cases of RC Cola, the Incredible Bongo Band, Yasmine Bleeth and the space shuttle Atlantis into a witty Super Bowl commercial . . .

We can probably just get my clock ticking now. Everlasting fame, here I come!

Breeder's Cup Runneth Over

2006-11-03T00:35:00.000-07:00

Excluding the Kentucky Derby and the injury to Barbaro, this week has brought us more horse racing coverage on ESPN's Sportscenter and web site than I ever remember seeing before, leading up to Saturday's Breeder's Cup race. It didn't take me long to realize why that is: the race is airing on ESPN! Should have seen that one coming.

So ESPN focuses more on the sports and events it covers, not a big surprise there. But this shows an inherent flaw of ESPN's news division. What is news, and what is just marketing? If the station didn't carry Monday Night Football, would it still run as many NFL segments and shows? Football is the most popular sport in the country, but how much of that is because of ESPN? The station is great at brewing up its own controversies, such as its coverage of Terrell Owens. Non stop talk, on Sportscenter, Pardon the Interruption, Cold Pizza, Quite Frankly, Rome is Burning, NFL Live and all the other "news" programs there, creating an echo chamber where they all think they are talking about what everyone wants to hear, not realizing that they are only listening to other ESPN people talk about it. They then assume that since all the other ESPN shows can't get enough TO talk, that it's what they should discuss too. Some talked about TO, others talked about everyone talking about TO, while no one bothered to find out if Americans actually cared or not. Well, we don't. We didn't then, we don't now, we just don't care. All ESPN's blathering only made me less interested in the story, not more.

Will there be a self-fulfilling prophecy this Saturday? By spending so much time talking about the Breeder's Cup, will more people be interested in watching it? We'll find out then, but in the meantime, back to NBA Fast Break . . . on ESPN.

This rant certainly could and should be expanded, and it will.

IndirecTV

2006-11-01T16:56:00.000-07:00

I moved into a new apartment recently, which has reunited me with an old friend.

DirecTV and I go way back; we first met in 2001 and became fast friends, then moved in together in the summer of 2002. We stayed roommates for the next three years and in two cities, Washington, DC and Tempe, AZ. But our relationship ended --amicably, I'd say--when I moved back to Los Angeles in June 2005.

As of last week we are living together again, but I must admit, things haven't been the same. These last couple of years I've created new friendships, with Adelphia and Dish Network, and have watched my appreciation for them blossom. DirecTV tries but just doesn't live up to the expectations my new friends have created; the bar has been raised, and DirecTV is having trouble making ends meet.

My main problem with the current situation is that DirecTV seems to care more about itself than about me, its viewer. On its channel listings page, DirecTV sticks its pay-per-view movie channels--all one hundred or so--directly in between the networks and the main cable stations. I suppose their thinking is, "our viewers will want to see what's on ESPN or TNT after 'Lost' is over, so maybe we can get them to buy one of our ppv movies instead by forcing them to see that 'Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift' is starting in five minutes". And I suppose this may occasionally work; I'm just going to throw this out there as a hunch that more customers would rather not waste time scrolling through all the ppv channels they will never watch just to get to the good stuff..

When will DirecTV decide to allow customers to rearrange the channel list in order of preference? It would certainly be innovative, and would let us cut down on wasted channel-surfing time. The technology is definitely there, and wouldn't it be great to scroll through the listings without interruptions from HGTV, the Baby Channel, and the east coast feeds we don't get anyway?

The DVR function on the DirecTV also lags behind its rivals; too confusing trying to program it to record new episodes of shows. I ended up recording the same Daily Show four times per day instead of just once.

I think the DirecTV and I just need to start communicating better. I don't mind that many of the show times are different with satellite than cable (the Daily Show, for example, comes on at ten on DirecTV and eleven on cable), but I do get annoyed when it doesn't record what I ask it to.

Once we start to learn each other's quirks and pet peeves, I think our living relationship will regain its luster and our friendship will flourish again. But the DirecTV is going to have to adjust. People change; I've grown up; now it's time for the DirecTV to grow up too.

Red in Peace

2006-10-28T23:11:00.000-07:00

Legendary Hall of Fame basketball coach Red Auerbach
died today, which is sad in itself since he was such a huge figure in the history of the sport, but it is twice as depressing because it also signals the passing of the most famous sports figure in the history of the George Washington University.

Granted, it's not the most illustrious history--the names Yinka and SirValiant ring a bell, anyone?--but Auerbach happened to be basketball's most well-known and respected coach not named John Wooden, and by far the greatest in annals of the NBA. Going to GW's Smith Center to see the Colonials play just won't be the same without finding Auerbach in the stands, rooting on his alma mater.

We Need a Fact Check in Section D, Please

2006-10-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

It's been widely reported the last few weeks that the LA Times has been ordered by its parent company, the Tribune Co., to slash more jobs, but as I've been noting on this blog, the evidence is mounting that the paper may have cut one too many copy editors out of the payroll. In Tuesday's sports section, Bill Plaschke wrote about Detroit Tigers pitcher Joel Zumaya, who had a major error in game three of the World Series. Platschke wrote that Zumaya "needed just eight pitches to retire two Tigers in that sixth inning to strand [Yadier] Molina." Except Zumaya pitches for the Tigers, not against them. He pitched against the Cardinals. Carelessness, really, that's all it is. Another obvious correction not made.

Yes, I know it's being a tad bit nitpicky, but all the little things add up.

The Power of the 'Pod

2006-10-25T17:16:00.000-07:00

The iPod just celebrated its fifth birthday, and to honor the occasion the LA Times ran a few opinion pieces in this Sunday's Current section. The cover article, by Newsweek senior editor Steven Levy, dissects how the iPod has transcended pop culture. It has revolutionized not just consumerism, but culture and society as a whole.

As a devout iPodder, I agree with his assessment that the shuffle feature has been almost omniscient in its understanding of music-listeners' habits. And as a podcastaholic--I have upwards of forty podcasts on my iTunes, mostly NPR and KCRW shows, Slate articles, and some great music programs--I love the chance to listen to my favorite radio programs whenever I want (especially now that This American Life became free in podcast form, praised be Ira Glass). But have all iPod-related inventions really benefited society?

Discussing the merits of iTunes allowing listeners to pick and choose what they want to hear, Levy wrote:

Instead of being forced to buy an entire CD, much of it stuffed with subpar music, people could now purchase only the one or two songs they like the most.

Levy presents this as a good thing, and I suppose it can be for people who know what they want and have no interest in discovering anything new. But you have to wonder how much great music people are missing by only purchasing songs they already like instead of the CDs with those songs on them. How will they know an album is "stuffed with subpar music" if they don't find out on their own? Certainly mainstream radio is no way to determine what is good and what is not.

When I bought Weezer's blue album, I knew three songs: Buddy Holly, The Sweater Song, and Say it Ain't So. I bought the album because of those three, but only after listening to the whole album did I realize that every song on it was great. If iTunes existed back then and I decided to buy just the three songs individually, I would have missed some amazing music; from first track to last, all the songs are classics, and songs I had never heard before became my favorites (Only in Dreams being number one).

This phenomenon of tuning out everything you aren't already familiar with is not limited to music. Tivo, DVR, etc., do the same thing with television: program the shows know you like, watch only those, never venture into the unknown.

Levy mentions newspapers, saying, "Instead of buying an entire newspaper, you can cherry-pick articles from a vast virtual newsstand (shuffle the news!)". RSS Feeds and news alerts send Internet users updates on subjects they are already interested in. Levy does not touch on the negative these supposed revelations may cause.

Newspapers give readers a better opportunity to stumble upon stories they may not have realized they were interested in, about parts of the world they didn't think they would care about or aspects of society they didn't know affected them. There may be a story you want to read next to one you had no intention of reading; but you look at its picture, glance at the headline, scan the lead, and before you know it you're halfway down the second column.

Yes, a lot of music is crap. But I'll take all the crap if there's the occasional gold nugget hidden somewhere in it. You never know what great things you may stumble on.

Dissing the Super Brian Cox

2006-10-25T02:27:00.000-07:00

The LA Times had a glaring oversight in its profile of actor Brian Cox this Sunday. The story focused mainly on his role as an eccentric therapist in the just-released comedic drama (or is that dramatic comedy? I don't know I haven't seen it yet) Running with Scissors, but also took a look back at some of the highlights of his long and prestigious acting career.

And yet it fails to mention his greatest acting role ever: Capt. John O'Hagen, the gruff but lovable chief of the Spurbury Highway Patrol in the all-time classic Super Troopers. Sure Cox was memorable in such films as The Ring, Adaptation, X-Men 2, and the Bourne series, but no role combined his keen comedic timing with his empathetic interpretation of the common New England civil servant. How could the paper commit such a blasphemous mistake? It was the role of a lifetime, and the impeccable actor nailed the part. The paper has no excuse for such blatant disrespect and neglect.

But seriously, continuing my previous post, the LA Times should probably splurge on an extra copy editor, perhaps someone who might be aware that Deadwood is on HBO, not Showtime (same article, two-thirds of the way down).

NEWS FLASH

2006-10-24T01:25:00.000-07:00

This just in: the word "millennium" can be pluralized as either "millennia" or "millenniums." Who knew? Besides the Los Angeles Times, which had the latter on the front page of its Sunday paper in an article about bird flu in Alaska.

When I first saw the word I planned on writing a scathing rebuke of the LA Times, commenting that the paper's quality is obviously slipping, proportionally to the number of people it fires. But fortunately I researched "millenniums" before writing anything, and discovered that I would have been incredibly wrong--about the word part, not the quality part. They could really use another set of eyes over there, just check out the typos and grammatical mistakes from Friday's Calendar section. Really, yowzas.

Sunday's Times was notable for another, more noticeable reason: it has been redesigned to incorporate more colors and type sizes and article lengths; the datelines have been bolded (boldened?); a little gray bar runs below the masthead, which itself has pictures from inside sections' articles; and other changes that were made to cover for the inevitable decrease in the competency of the journalism.

But at least it finally added Pearls Before Swine to the Sunday Comics page; that was way overdue and well worth the price of admission. Now it just needs Rhymes with Orange and Pickles to become the unequivocal comics champion.

Postscript: I didn't know "millenniums" is a word, while GMail's spell-check doesn't know that "millennia" is. Microsoft Word wins, no red squiggly lines under either.

Google Vision Part One: Modern Texts

2006-10-23T01:35:00.000-07:00

Google does not advertise. It doesn't need to. When the company releases a new feature, it spreads like phone trees or an airborne disease; a handful of net-savvy web pros use it, like it, then tell their 10 friends (their net-savvy web pros, that's about all they've got), and those friends tell 100 friends, and those 100 tell 1,000, until a month later everyone is hooked. In order to register for Google's GMail email service, you have to first be invited by someone already on GMail. One friend has it, likes it, invites some friends, it spreads, and all of a sudden nobody doesn't have a GMail address. Scant mainstream press coverage; little hype; no advertising. No need.

And that is how another Google feature is growing. A couple weeks ago, while searching for a phone number for a restaurant's address, a friend told me about Google's text message service. And now I am telling you. Looking for a business address or phone number but without Internet access? Want to know the score of tonight's World Series game but not by a television? Want to know movies times but already chucked the Calendar section? Just send a text to "GOOGLE"--466453--with the team, the store, or the film name in the body of the message, among other options. Seconds later, your information appears. All for the price of a regular text message. It's absolutely, rediculously amazing. And unlike many technological developments and inventions, legitimately, life-alteringly useful.

Google doesn't need to advertise because it get plenty of free publicity from people like me in articles like this. That is, it would if people actually read this.

Google Vision Part Two: Earth Shattering

Meaningless Football Talk

2006-10-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

Phil Simms, the color commentator for the Falcons-Steelers game, just said that Michael Vick "reminds me of John Elway when he was with the Denver Broncos." News flash buddy, John Elway only played with the Denver Broncos.

Someone needs to start keeping "unnecessary, redundant, and non-sensical comments by announcers" statistics. They keep track of everything else, why not that?

As American as Baseball and Apple Pie

2006-10-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Hudson just sang "God Bless America" during the 7th Inning Stretch. Hudson is apparently one of the stars of the upcoming film Dreamgirls. I know this because the announcer said so in her introduction, along with the film's opening date. It's nice to see another intersection of patriotism and commercialism. Everything's marketable nowadays, even the singing of the National Anthem Lite. Only in America!

Tiger Sharks Play Cards

2006-10-22T10:42:00.000-07:00

The Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals will play Game One of the World Series this evening, which is disturbing on numerous levels. The Cardinals finished the regular season with a record of 83-81, barely holding of the Houston Astros for the National League Central title. They played terribly down the stretch, backing into the playoffs, but got lucky when they were matched up with the even worse San Diego Padres in the first round. They then defeated the New York Mets--who lost two of the team's best pitchers before the playoffs--in seven games to win the pennant.

There are two ways to look at this, and I can't decide which one I'm going to choose. The Cardinals are certainly an undeserving team, one that would never have even sniffed the playoffs before the wild card, three divisions per league era. But they also have some great players on their team, including Albert Pujols (pronounced, fortunately for everyone, "poo holes"), Scott Rolen, and Chris Carpenter. They have some playoff experience and a manager who has been to the World Series numerous times.

The Tigers have very little playoff exposure, considering this was the team's first winning season in more than a decade and the first time it's made the World Series since 1984. But the manager's been there before and won, and the starting catcher has been there before and won, and the team's pitchers are rested. Plus everyone outside of St. Louis wants them to win, since they are the "feel-good", most likely to be turned into a Disney movie, story of the year; many baseball writers picked them to finish fourth in the American League Central, yet here they are.

Now who should I root for? I could root for the underdog Cardinals, because it's always more exciting when the underdog wins. I am a much bigger fan of the NL-- with the Mets, pitchers that have to hit, more strategy, and less designated hitter--than the AL. But the NL has been viewed as horrible this year, a "quadruple A" league as Sports Guy refers to it. I believe, or at least want to believe, that it's actually better than that, even if the NL has lost the last few World Series' and All-Star Games. It's not that bad, dammit!

Okay, so maybe it is. And the Tigers will probably prove it. While the Cardinals may be the series underdog, the Tigers have been the underdog the entire season, and play in an underdog city struggling with numerous issues--though everyone saying how great it would be for the people of Detroit if the Tigers won is perhaps pushing things a little far.

Plus, I can't root for the team that beat the Mets. Tigers in five.

Ralphing up Salad

2006-10-20T15:13:00.000-07:00

When a food label says, "Keep refrigerated after opening," does that mean I shouldn't refrigerate until opening? Or can I stick that red wine vinaigrette in the fridge before I decide to use it? I need a clarification on this.

The dressing--lukewarm, straight out of the pantry--was used on a salad today. Very cheap, possibly E. Coli'ed, bagged lettuce I bought at Ralphs for 59 cents a bag. I'm just going to come out and make an assumption here, hopefully the right one, seeing as how I just ate said salad: the lettuce was cheap because people are afraid to buy lettuce after the latest bacteria scare, not because Ralphs is trying to get rid of all its questionable produce. Let me tell you, it is a buyer's market out there for pre-cut lettuce, get it while the getting is good (or contaminated). If I'm in the hospital a couple days from now, check the crisper.

Side note: Has anyone figured out why "Ralphs" isn't "Ralph's"? If it wasn't named after a Ralph (which would call for the apostrophe), then was it started by many Ralphs (apostrophe not needed)? Or did someone vomit at the naming meeting and it get named after the colloquial? Another question that needs answering immediately.

Fields of Mold

2006-10-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

Sting?

Sting?!?

Does FOX really expect to get viewers excited for a Game 7 with "Fields of Gold"? Fortunately I'm a Mets fan and didn't need any song to get my excited; if I were relying on FOX for that, I would have contemplated finding Jeannie Zelasko and locking her in windowless room with Sting's new lute CD playing on repeat. Sure it wasn't her decision, but I'm holding her accountable regardless. We are about to watch a baseball game, the last game of a competitive series between the team from the Big Apple the other representing the mid-west and the pleasant folk of St. Louis, MO; it's going to be watched by millions of people in those cities as well as millions more around the country; fans for both teams are nervous and excited, imagining the incredible elation they will be feeling three hours from that moment while reminding themselves not to jinx anything; they are in sports bars and hotel lobbies and friends' houses and police stations and old folks' homes and anywhere else baseball fans reside, ready for the most exciting and gut-wrenching event in sports, the Game Seven.

And you go with Sting. Absolutely brilliant. Sting's not even American! It's the American Pastime, not the British one. They don't even play baseball in Britain. They play cricket. Who wants to play a game named after a bug? Not me, that's for sure. I'm an American, we don't name things after insects. We stick with flying mammals; it's not a wicket, it's a bat. Someone should tell Sting that.

For shame, FOX. For shame.

Rogers That

2006-10-19T01:54:00.000-07:00

This is the subhead for an article on the front page of Saturday's Los Angeles Times Sports section, regarding the Detroit Tigers' pitcher Kenny Rogers superb performance against the Oaklad A's:

"For the second time in the playoffs, Rogers comes up with the game of his life, and Detroit's 3-0 victory puts Oakland on the verge of being swept."

Now, if it was really the game of his life, how can it be the second one he's had? Or is that too logical of a question to ask?

And speaking of Kenny Rogers, can we please retire all references to "The Gambler", Mr. Rogers, and roasted chicken? They're a bit stale. Come on headline punsters and Sportscenter anchors, I'm sure you can come up with something better than those (one of those "do as I say, not as I do" things, as illustrated above).

Side note: Kenny Rogers once threw a perfect game, the eleventh in the history of major league baseball (many don't recall this because it happened in 1994, right before the strike erased the rest of the season). Twenty-five players win a World Series every year (minus that one exception, unfortunately). Eleven total have thrown a perfect game. I wouldn't be surprised at the end of his career he considers that the game of his life.

Aerosmith or Air Pollution?

2006-10-19T01:14:00.000-07:00

I heard a new Aerosmith song on the radio tonight. I'm pretty sure it was called "Jesus is on the Mainline." The radio was tuned onto 95.5 KLOS and Jim Ladd, with the song playing lightly in the background, just simmering enough to be audible but quiet enough to avoid distraction. I wasn't paying much attention and didn't realize what was playing, but about three minutes in I thought to myself, "this has to be the longest commercial for a prescription drug I've ever heard." Only after focusing harder on the radio for the rest of the song did I realize that the voice was actually Steven Tyler's.

That can't bode well for Aerosmith's new album . . . or for my hearing. One or the other.

A Problem With iPods and School Buses

2006-10-18T00:02:00.000-07:00

We all thought it would be impossible, but I may have discovered a flaw in the iPod: podcasts are churning out faster than I can listen to them. Some weekly, many daily; there's just too much good stuff to listen to and not enough time to listen to it all while still managing to remain current.

Okay, so this isn't an iPod flaw so much as it's an Alex overindulgence, but certainly there's a way to remedy it. I'll just have to start listening to some podcasts while sleeping.

This irrelevant thought became relatively relevant when I heard a story today from the August 31st Marketplace about a company that installs on school buses radios that only play prescreened music, public service announcements, and, of course, ads. So it's a month and a half old, doesn't mean I can't share a little thought about it. That's what blogs are for; that and accusing people you disagree of various felonies.

Schools pay BusRadio to install the system on their buses, while advertisers pay to get their spots heard by the millions of kids who ride them. Whether it's ethical or not to expose children to even more commercialism than is already out there, is not my concern. My concern is that schools are wasting a great opportunity (and money) to expose these children to the rest of the world. Instead of shelling out for muzak and radio commercials (a double whammy if I've ever heard one), just switch the FM dial to the NPR. It's educational, with no annoying commercials or threats of indecency; the kids will hate it, but maybe they'll learn a little something. Or at least its dulcet tones and extended vocabulary and talks of interest rate hikes causing stagflation in the New England housing market will lull them to sleep.

The schools will save money, the kids will either be learning or snoozing, and NPR will acquire a whole new demographic.

Everyone's a winner that way. Well, everyone except BusRadio.

I swear, I should be on the NPR payroll.

The NPR Difference

2006-10-14T01:38:00.000-07:00

The top news executive at National Public Radio resigned today, after clashes with his boss. While it is always sad to see the occasional ripple of discontent at the country's best news source, this story is not a major one. It's just my excuse to make this point:

NBC, CBS, and ABC, along with the major radio networks, are headquartered in New York City. NPR is based in Washington, DC. Madison Avenue, Wall Street, and the United Nations are in New York; the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Pentagon are in the Washington region. There are a few reasons why NPR's listenership has been steadily rising while the networks' viewership has been dropping. Basing your operations in the city where most of the important national news comes from, in my opinion, may be one of those reasons. It proves to the audience that the network cares about the news more than the money.

Then again, NPR does not have to kowtow to advertisers and shareholders, which are really the only two audiences the networks feel obligated to cater to anyway. And from the amount of international coverage on network nightly news, they certainly don't tape in New York because of its proximity to the UN. Granted, NPR stays close to the piggy bank also since its funding comes from the federal government, but the network has no problem biting the hand that feeds it in the name of accuracy and truth; the others have too many hands and not enough teeth.

I smell a dissertation in here somewhere.

Wasted Energy

2006-07-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

With power usage at record levels throughout Los Angeles today, the electronic signs on all the freeways read, "Conserve Energy/Flex Your Power". I wonder what saves more energy though: throwing a little slogan at drivers who are too busy flipping through their Ipods and text messaging friends to notice the signs, or just turning the signs off? At least the latter's effectiveness is more tangible; I doubt that someone driving will be so moved by such powerful and inspirational words that he or she will drive home, shut down the AC and fans, turn off all lamps and clocks and computers, and spend the rest of the day eating the soon-to-be rotted food in the unplugged fridge, and the night reading by candle light.

It would never happen, nobody reads anymore.

Late Night Deals

2006-07-20T00:47:00.000-07:00

It's funny hearing at the end of insurance or pharmaceutical commercials the announcer say, "So-in-so not available in certain states." This subtly informs listeners that this RISK-FREE! insurance plan or that painless easy-loss GUARANTEED OR YOUR MONEY BACK! diet pill is probably illegal in some, if not most, states (how many does "certain" mean anyway?).

There must be some reason for that, right? Perhaps it's not the smartest idea to purchase either coverage or medication (or knives or mattresses or housebroken alpacas or the six secrets for earning six-digits without leaving your half-bathroom) from companies that are banned from peddling their product in many places. The euphemism may just be meaningless jibberjabber completely unrelated to the legality of the product, but more likely the companies aren't telling us something we should probably know before biting. Something that might make the consumer say, "You know what: on second thought, I'm not so sure I'm willing to risk my first born in exchange for 30% less Carpel Tunnel."

Of course, if you're up at 3 a.m. when the commercials come on, you may already be on illicit drugs and more amenable to trading in your liver twenty years down the road for a five-hour hard-on now. It's a toss-up, really.

Kneeling Before the Crossword

2006-07-14T00:08:00.000-07:00

And to think, for all this time I assumed I was a nerd for doing crossword puzzles. But after seeing the new documentary "Wordplay", I realized that while I may still be a nerd for doing crossword puzzles, at least I have some company--and some very prestigious company at that.

"Wordplay" focuses on New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz and the annual Crossword Puzzle Tournament he started in 1978, but also explains how crosswords, specifically the Times', are created, solved, and worshipped. The filmmakers follow a few high level crossword solvers as they prepare for the 2005 tournament, observe a master crossword constructor at work, and demonstrate the widespread and high-end popularity of the puzzles by interviewing a variety of important and talented crossword addicts, including Jon Stewart, President Bill Clinton, the Indigo Girls, and pitcher Mike Mussina (never thought I'd put those four in a sentence together).

While this film probably won't make crossword puzzles the next Sudoku, it does manage to bring out the competitiveness of the solvers and make the puzzles themselves seem more fun; not an easy thing when the words "Zolaesque", "battie" and others are being tossed around. We'll see if crossword puzzles become a phenomenon, but I'm torn between hoping and fearing it does. Part of me hopes the film preaches to more than just the choir, that it helps spread the (cross)word (sorry, I had to) and popularizes knowledge and learning; the other part of me is a bit scared that the film will turn crossword puzzles into poker or sudoku or pilates, another overly popular fad that ruins the credibility of anyone who already partook in such endeavors. Even though crosswords have been around for almost a century, they've never reached too deep into mainstream culture, maintaining a home on the plateau of the intellectual elite (not that I'm on that plateau with it, but I'm climbing up the side of the cliff, working my way up, the crossword puzzle as my carabiner).

Not to get too political in a non-political film review, but I wonder what the breakdown of liberal versus conservative is for the people in the film. It seems that conservative culture denounces knowledge and learning and progress, that the movement's leaders prey on their followers' ignorance; they call liberals "intellectuals", as if that's an insult; since when is it wrong to exercise one's brain and to seek what one does not know? Great, I've turned crossword puzzles into another battle in the culture wars. My job here is done.

As someone who has mastered the art of getting two-thirds of the way through a crossword before getting stuck, I found my emotions mixed. Part raging jealousy--how can a 20 year old finish a NY Times crossword in 2 minutes?!--and part pride--I am the only person I know that actually enjoys real crosswords (like Stewart mentions in the movie, USA Today, and other minor-league puzzles like it, don't count), yet here are hundreds of people getting together for an entire weekend of nothing but crosswords. It's beautiful, in a nerdy sort of way.

Considering that I too am a nerd, what could be better?

Viva Italia

2006-06-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Rome, the trip having come full circle, and we are all getting ready for the Italia-Ukraine match starting in a few minutes. If any of you saw the Germany-Argentina match that just ended, you can see why the World Cup is the biggest event on earth; incredible competition, complete national pride, festive and tense atmosphere, it's a lot more than just football. If you're in Germany right now, you're experiencing a party bigger than all US college football parties from an entire season combined.

More traveling tips:

If you are riding the metro with a giant bag the size of an endangered rodent on your back and another smaller bag on your front, hold on to a handle. You are not in the best position to keep your balance.

Know what train station you are supposed to get off at. This email almost came to you from Napoli. On a somewhat related note, if you are taking two overnight trains two consecutive nights, before you settle in on the first, check to see if the chair turns into a bed; it will make your life much easier, and it will save you the bitterness of finding that out with three hours left on your second leg.

More to come I'm sure, but first it's football time.

Munchen Land

2006-06-29T15:50:00.000-07:00

That's it, the final eurail box has been stamped, the last reservation
has been made, and the train travel is coming to a close. Only 7 hours
of terrible if any sleep and I'll be in Rome. These overnighters are
horrible, impossible to find a comfortable position to sleep. The
bench in the park today was nicer. Munich was a surprisingly beautiful
city, old architectural marvels everywhere, a great river and classic
beer gardens. But I shouldn't have jinxed myself yesterday; it poured
on me again today.

Train in Rain

2006-06-28T17:27:00.000-07:00

Finally, with 2 days left I was forced to walk with all my stuff in
the rain, in a lovely little Czech storm. Quite pleasant, really. I'm
now on a night train to Munich, but it's hard to sleep when someone
keeps busting into the cart asking for I'd, ticket, or to rummage thru
your stuff. Make your own classless German joke here. Prague was quite
the beautiful city, even on a grey and drizzly day; appropriately
somber weather for a walk thru the town's old Jewish Quarter. Back to
pretend sleep.

Prague Jumping

2006-06-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

It' raining in Prague. A giant storm has just started, and I am
sitting on the hostel porch enjoying the little lightning show. Prague
is a fascinating city, a more gothic and inspiring version of
Florence; most important sites are within walking distance, a very
int'l mix of people, great nightlife, but with a darker past and
seedier side than Florence. I guess that's what the Soviets were known
for though. Prague is Melrose to Florence's Sunset. Plenty of
character and a lot of fun so far. 1 more night.

Day 25: In Berlin

2006-06-24T02:33:00.000-07:00

Got into Berlin last night. This morning, I was woken up by the sound
of a Ukrainian guy taking breakfast shots of vodka to celebrate his
country's victory. Today I will be going to the fan mile, the main
world cup viewing place, for Germany's second round match. Now the Cup
really gets exciting. My one thought on Berlin so far is that it is
Paris on steroids.

The Answer: Amsterdam

2006-06-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

The questions: which overrated European city's train station doesn't
open until 5 am and has zero benches, chairs, or waiting rooms? What
city has a service industry less friendly than Paris and more a more
obvious tourist trap than Florence?

World Cup of Stupid

2006-06-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

The last games of the first round have begun. FIFA has changed the
schedule format from 3 games, at 2, 5, and 8 pm, to 4 games, 2 at 3 pm
and 2 at 8. So viewers now have to choose between competing matches,
except these are the most important ones! Why change it now when the
tensio n is at its highest? It only cuts into viewership and upsets
fans who now have to choose which to watch. Make the first week like
that, not the last. I don't get it, where's the benefit for FIFA by
structuring it this way?

The French Countryside

2006-06-19T03:50:00.000-07:00

The same 10 cows have started a chorus line. They're quite talented,
really. The rumor is that the train will be moving again sometime by
Friday, so I'm excited about that.

Day 21: Somewhere in France, Near Cows

2006-06-19T02:38:00.000-07:00

This particular strip of French countryside is quite lovely, and the
cows are plump and tasty-looking. Good thing they're cute, because
I've been looking at the same 10 cows for an hour now. A train in
front of us has broken down, so all the people on board that one will
be loaded onto ours; it'll be another hour at least. I'm glad I'm not
in a hurry, like the business men next to me fretting about missing
their Hungarian meeting. I'm going from London to Amsterdam via
Brussels today. If we ever move again.

not sure what day it is

2006-06-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

...But it finally happened: I'm In a room with a snorer. Two,
actually, though one louder than the other. Other than that, london
has been a nice city. Tonight I hung out with people from morocco,
france, quebec and the states, playing a drinking game based on
actors. There are 2 universal languaged: math and hollywood. The
latter matters more than many think, apparently.

Day 19: Update from London

2006-06-17T02:36:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday morning here in England and I've been here for almost
two days now. I haven't had a chance to do much sightseeing yet, but I
did get to the Tate Modern yesterday, which was certainly interesting;
some stuff more than others. I also caught a Shakespeare play at the
Globe Theater. The play was Coriolanus (i spelled that wrong), and it
is one of Shakespeare's lesser known plays for a reason. Of course, it
did take me most of the first act to figure out who was who and what
was going on; it's like another language sometimes, especially when
performed by Shakespearean actors. Plus we stood the whole time like
the original groundlings, which was certainly a distraction over 3
hours. Ever wonder what happened to Jeffrey the Butler from Fresh
Prince? Check out the 2 pm showing of Coriolanus at the Globe, and
you'll find him right up there in a supporting role.

Today I think I'm going to visit the British Museum and walk around
the Parliament/Big Ben neighborhood. London's a beautiful city, but
my god is it expensive. At the hostel I'm staying at (another
miraculous experience, showing up without a reservation but them
having a bed available anyway), the bar downstairs has a drink deal
for people staying here, 2£ Coronas. Sounds ok, except that translates
to almost 4$ US. Not much of a deal anymore, yet that was the bargain
price.

I'll be here until Monday (as of now), and then it's back to the
mainland and a trek through Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, and then who
knows. We're more than halfway through this adventure, and the days
are going by faster and faster (and the money quicker and quicker).
Pretty soon it'll be July 2 and I'll be back on a plane. I hope all is
well back in the States, and that the US doesn't get embarassed
tonight versus Italy. More soon.

Day 15: Who Knew?

2006-06-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

That brussels would be so great? Or that I would even be in brussels
today? I decided to come here over london this morning, with no place
to stay and no info but a subway stop, but managed to find a cool
hostel and meet four califorians three minutes later. We walked around
town had a good dinner and watched some world cup, and I am now back
at the hostel. Amazing how things worked out today, despite the hour I
walked around lost. The power of positive thinking. Brussels is quite
underrated and beautiful

Day 14: Two Weeks In

2006-06-12T07:12:00.000-07:00

And I'm still alive, albeit a little smelly. But everything smells
better in Paris so I'm ok. I'm sitting in a beautiful park right now
that I'm guessing was a royal courtyard since it's in the middle of
one beautiful red brick building. I'm going to a bar nearby soon to
watch the US foorball match, and have my jersey ready to go. Does
anyone in the states care? Will any of you watch it?

Paris one little chunk at a time

2006-06-11T16:21:00.000-07:00

From the church I went to the Muse D'orsey with a cool Alaskan girl I
met on the Metro two minutes earlier. It may be blasphemy to say, but
I ejoyed this museum of Impressionism and later more than the Louvre;
not as crowded, great recognizable works, no overrated novel-inducing
portraits. From there to Invalide, the top of the Eiffel Tower, then
around town. Now I am back at the hostel, enjoying any little breeze I
can get outside. It's hot in Paris. Tomorrow I relax a bit and finally
watch some football.

Day 12: Paris

2006-06-11T16:17:00.000-07:00

Another wonderful sunny day in Paris. I woke up at the random guy's
apartment around 11:30 and headed straight for Notre Dame. If you are
catholic and need a religious jumpstart, visit this church. It will
rekindle any lost catholicism. It almost turned me into a practicing
catholic, and I'm Jewish. Possibly the most amazing building in the
world; in a fight with the Duomo, it would dominate.

Day 12: too much to include all

2006-06-10T19:06:00.000-07:00

...Etc. Fun party, though the language difference make it real tough
to have good conversation. My Kerry for Prez shirt helped a little
with that (guess if they liked it or not), and I did meet some very
cool people, such as the Icelander acting in an American playwright's
work in French, some photographers, and friendly people. Since I
missed the metro (another story, not as pleasant) I am writing this
from an extra bed. The day is now done. I look forward to the next
adventure Paris has in store for me.

Day 12 continued

2006-06-10T18:52:00.000-07:00

...To the Eiffel Tower. Back to the hostel, watched a little football,
then it was off to my sister's friend Henri in the outskirts of town.
We had a lovely dinner of what I thought was pork sausage, but when I
was almost done he told me it was coagulated pig blood; who knew that
could be so tasty? We then went to a pretty park to meet his friends,
then went to a party at a very hip apartment, it looked like it could
be any rich college kid's place, with great movie and music
collections, projection tv...

Day 12: Feels Like 30

2006-06-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

Wow quite the day: got to the hostel at 4 am; it's the best and worst
place ever: 5 bunk beds in one cramped room, not very appealing
bathrooms or showers, "clean" sheets...but I also stayed up until 5:r
having beers with a londoner and Scot from Brussels and two guys from
Texas. I woke up at 8:30 and met Brazilians, a South African from
London, and others. Exactly what a hostel is expected to be. At 10 I
went to the Louvre, walked the Champs D'Elysee to the Arch D'Triumphe
and went to the top, then went...

Day 12: Correction

2006-06-10T09:02:00.000-07:00

I wrote this last night:"And I am still on the train. The last
announcement put it at 15 minutes, but that could mean anything at
this point, and since it was in Frech, it may have. The metro shuts
down at 12:30 so it's looking like a nice little cab ride across town
for me. Looking forward to Paris by daylight, because right now it's
quite ugly." How wrong I was. Paris is one of the most amazing cities
in the world. Remarkable. More later.

Day 11: the March to Paris

2006-06-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

It has been something of a wasted day today. I am still on the train
to Paris, and will be for a couple more hours at least. We left Milano
almost two hours late, so I the time I thought I'd have at least to
enjoy the night in Paris has vaished. I may have to add a day to Paris
to make up for it, there really will be too much to see in not nearly
enough time. Only a handful of Americans on the train, and
announcements are in French and Italian only. I sure hope this is the
right train.

Day 11: Ciao Firenze

2006-06-09T03:34:00.000-07:00

...Is still hours away. First I have to go to Milan. We just left the
station and there's a 4+ ride ahead of me, an hour there, then another
6 hours to Paris. I'm sitting backwards, haven't really eaten today,
and the lady across the aisle has a James Brown ringtone...and yet,
I'm headed to paris so things are great. There's a real city, not like
the spring break that is Firenze. More later, I've got plenty of time
today for writing.

Day 10: Firenze

2006-06-08T08:07:00.000-07:00

Firenze is an absolutely beautiful city, but it seems to have a
problem on its hands. It relies strongly on american tourism money,
yet needs to avoid the reputation of the city being completely
American. While it's not as American as I feared, it's still easy to
walk around and hear Americans (students, ironically) not even trying
to appear or sound anything but. And that's what Firenze is known for
as much as the David.

Oh, and they've got one heckuva Duomo over here. Puts American duomos to shame.

Tragedy in Firenze

2006-06-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

It took more than a week(longer than many expected perhaps), but the
trip has had its first official disaster. While waiting in line to
climb to the top of the Duomo, my camera case slipped off my shoulder,
with camera inside. The screen is now a very pretty abstract art
design. It no longer has any useful purpose, however. It seems the
camera still works though, so not all is lost, just a lot of
convenience. I am now grieving over a calzone.

last post continued

2006-06-07T00:14:00.000-07:00

The Sopranos and the Irish ready to fight. From that pub I was walking
back to the hostel when I passed a loud one that sounded like it could
be in any college town, except the music choices were Italy,s little
way of mocking them (MC Hammer twice in an hour? Good one). I stopped
in, ended up befriending a couple brothers from chico, a girl from
atlanta, and a couple guys from houston, quite the international
group, it was. Fun was had though, and that's what matters. Well, that
and I got drunk.

Day 9: Last Night

2006-06-07T00:05:00.000-07:00

From my lost ramblings last night around Firenze, I discovered that it
is both an amazingly beautiful city and a college freshman's
initiation. American students everywhere, many loud and unfriendly and
ignorant but some actually interested in the city. I visited two irish
pubs last night, the first a two foot wide hole on a side street where
I met some Dubliners, one who was going to break my face when I told
him tony soprano dies toward the end of the season. I guess a couple
things are universal:

Day 8: Florence

2006-06-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I've posted anything, but it hasn't been for
lack of effort. Who knew blackberries in europe would be so fickle?

Another tip for would-be travelers: its usually a good idea, when in a
new city for the first time, to remember wwhich direction the sun
sets. And that's all I'll say about my time in Firenze so far.
Apparently It's west, by the way.

Day 5: From the "You'd think it would be the other way around" Department

2006-06-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

Amazingly, international toilet seats are about the same circumfrence
as American toilet bowls.

At first I thought that was weird, but then I realized that American
toilet seats need more support to hold up our huge asses.

Day 5: New Rule for Beginning Travelers

2006-06-03T05:36:00.000-07:00

Never leave your chapstick and your glue stick in the same little
compartment of your bag.

Day 4, General Observation:

2006-06-02T03:51:00.000-07:00

Nipples on TV. Fantastic.

Day 2: 8:16 pm. Day 1 Recap

2006-05-31T11:46:00.000-07:00

It's the evening of my second day in Rome. After my last post from yesterday morning, I decided to take a little nap. But instead of that, I ended up committing the most critical mistake of international travellers. I woke up six hours later, almost ensuring a lousy night's sleep.

Diego gave me a little walking tour around his neighborhood, which includes the magnificent yet highly overlooked Basilica di San Paolo, then we followed that up with some gelato. Just about as amazing as I expected, considering I'm in the birthplace of gelato. Later in the evening, Monique took me for a ride on the back of her motorino, bigger than a vespa, yet nowhere near the size of Harleys or other American bikes. Riding on one of those is like playing a real life game of Frogger, except instead of snakes, alligators, and rivers, we have to dodge speeding and parked cars, other motorbikes, crazy tourists (I'll pretend I'm above them here), and various signs, bumps, and dogs. If you ever find yourself riding in the back of a Motorino, let the driver know that you'd prefer it if he or she avoided the cobblestone.

But I must say, even though I felt a little off-balance at times and had my feet brush up against moving vehicles, my sister is quite the Motorino driver. My dad would be proud if he saw her weaving through traffic and pretending to attempt to get her passengers killed (I wonder where she gets that from?). We parked by the Coliseum, gave it a walk-around, then headed back. Of course, I didn't bring my camera with me, because who takes pictures of the Coliseum? It's not like it's a big tourist attraction/ancient historic landmark or anything. Yes, I will definitely have to go back with camera in hand this time.

After dinner, a delicious penne in a pork and tomato sauce cooked by Monique (you heard that right!), we went to a little concert in a former meat factory now inhabited by hippies and vagabonds and dubbed Villagi Globale (do you really need me to translate it for you?). It would have been a perfect fit in Venice Beach, with all the walls painted and the people friendly. The place was a prime meeting ground for Rome's 20-30 something crowd of left-leaners and sorta-hipsters (more Burning Man than Yuppie). Three bands played, Marco Fabi, totipoeta, and Leo Pari (the latter Diego's sister's boyfriend), to a crowd of probably 40-60 people. You may be asking why I am being so specific about the night; thinking it would be a big concert with a big American tourist target on my shirt, I left my camera home again. Tragic.

Finally, after the show the day was done. Unfortunately, my night was just beginning. In bed by 1:30 am, I slept for maybe 2 hours. After that, I got to lay there while listening to the early morning sounds of Rome waking up: first a few early birds fighting over worms, then a car door, a motor idling, dogs barking, an argument between two old men, the trash trucks, toilets flushing, showers running, and my head screaming at me to shut it off. That didn't happen, but luckily day 2 was not a stressful day.

The day 2 update coming after dinner and a trip to the Trastavere.

Day 1: 10:30 am, Rome

2006-05-30T01:45:00.000-07:00

After a couple of days in the beautiful meadows of New Jersey, I am now coming to you live from the somewhat more exotic location of Rome, Italy. I've been in the city for a couple hours now, was given a wonderful little tour of the commute from the airport to my sister Monique's boyfriend Diego's place (from here on referred to only as Monique and Diego), and am now relaxing in their apartment. A nap is in my sights, I've just got to get through this little update first.

The flight across the Atlantic had its amusing moments. With college semesters over and the peak of the European tourist season upon us, the plane was packed with college kids heading over for Summer programs in Florence. It felt like a flying sorority house. Let me tell you, as great as that may sound, you do not want to be stuck on a plane for 8 hours with them. A couple actual quotes: 'So my bag weighed 120 pounds. It was 70 pounds over weight.' As we approached Da Vinci Airport: 'Those trees look like broccoli.'

Fortunately, I sat to a nice American woman living the expatriate life in Florence, she told me a lot about that city and gave recommendations on places to go and places to avoid, and her and her boyfriend may take me out one night around town.

This update is taking longer than it should, since the Italian keyboards have a whole lot more going on. The @ is the third option on the ç key (the second option is ò); writing that sentence just took me 5 minutes. The pound sign is the second option above the 3; of course, its the £ and not the . . . wait a second, they don't even have a number sign option on this thing. That's insanity right there.

To see pictures from the weekend in New Jersey. . . too bad. For some reason Shutterfly is sucking and won't let me upload albums. I'll let you know when it's fixed. In the meantime, feel free to check out the pictures up there already.

Ok, nap time. More later.

A New NBA Champion?

2006-05-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

I've been pondering this subject for a couple years now, but with both defending NBA conference champions trailing in the playoffs 3 games to 2, I figure this would be the last chance I have to make this observation first.

People always talk about Major League Baseball lacking parity, that only the richest few teams win. The NFL, until recently, had one dynasty flow into the other. Yet it is in the NBA that has seen the fewest number of championship teams over the last 26 years. Number of champions from each of the four major leagues since 1980 (and yes, though it's now relegated to the Outdoor Living Network and NBC, I still consider the NHL a major sport; I'm nostalgic like that):

MLB: 18 since the '80 Phillies (in 25 seasons, minus the striked-out 1994 season)
NFL: 13 teams in 14 cities (the Raiders won the Super Bowl in Oakland and LA), with the Steelers bookending the list.
NHL: 11 Stanley Cup winners (in one less year as well, due to lockout), with the Islanders and Oilers winning 9 of the first 11.

But in the NBA: From the '79-'80 Lakers onward, only seven teams and seven cities have won championships. Seven! Only the Lakers, Celtics, 76ers, Pistons, Bulls, Rockets, and Spurs have won, with the 76ers the only one-time champion.

While every other team at one point won back-to-back titles, it is most likely a mere coincidence that the Pistons won in the late 1980's and again in 2004. The only constant from the two eras is Joe Dumars, who was an All-Star guard in the former and the General Manager in the latter (the Lakers, too, had a big gap between championships, but had the same management throughout).

What does it all mean? Probably nothing. But with the Spurs and Pistons both down in their series, another team may finally be granted entry into the NBA Pantheon.

2006-02-11T01:11:00.000-07:00

No Headline Posting, Part II

Until I learn how to use html to make a headline, I'm sticking with the basics. This humble blog will focus on a handful of subjects: politics, media and advertising, sports, and movies. All other postings will fall into a fifth category, entitled miscellaneous. We may be dipping into that bin on occasion.

[Here is an example of how things will be different. Instead of trying to think of more to add to the above thought, getting frustrated that I can't, and giving up all together before even posting what I've got for fear that it's incomplete and dull--I'm going to post it. A short, quick and consise point that doesn't need a whole lot of fluff. And if I think of something later that I should have added, I'll just make a Part III.]

2006-02-11T00:44:00.000-07:00

Okay that's it, it's time to get this wagon back on the road. I haven't blogged in a long time (two months, it tells me), so for the 10th, maybe 30th time since I started blogging in 2002, I'm making a grand return that no one is going to read about. I commend you, reader--which by "reader" I mean "me", and by "you" I mean "myself"--on returning along with me and jumping back onto the blog highway (rte. 389 South, bring change for all the tolls). The goal this time is for more postings of shorter lengths, perhaps I can get some rhythm going with my posts (it sure can't be harder than me trying to get rhythm on a dance floor, and much less painful to watch). Now if I could only figure out how to include real headlines with this template. . .

Have a Super Saturnalia!

2005-12-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

Have a Super Saturnalia!

2005-12-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

It's both mesmerizing and infuriating that the "Put the Christ back in Christmas" movement has gathered so much steam this year, considering it's based on false accusations, unchecked, incorrect facts, and hypocritical statements. This article illustrates the ineptitude, stupidity, and deceitfulness of many of the soldiers on the far right's War on Everything That is Not Protestant (we'll just ignore the time when Protestants banned Christmas entirely).

Christmas is celebrated on December 25th because the Romans celebrated Saturnalia on that day, and the Christian leaders of the day wanted to piggy-back their holiday on the much bigger celebration as an attempt at attracting potential converts. For such an un-holy beginning to a holiday, it's strongest supporters have adopted quite a "holier than thou" approach. They must not realize how intolerant, "un-Christ-like"--how. . . how. . . PAGAN--they've become.

2005-12-17T03:23:00.000-07:00

This picture comes from CNN.com. I knew it was secretive, but i had know idea that the NSA was so secretive they worked in an invisible building. Either that or the best picture CNN could find to represent the story of the President authorizing illegal wiretapping was of a sign.

Fortunately, Still in "Development"

2005-12-14T18:06:00.000-07:00

Praise be to the TV higher-ups. If this story reaches fruition, then the greatest sitcom since Seinfeld will thankfully be back on the tube next season. Like a foster child or an abandoned puppy, Arrested Development deserves a home on a station that will treat it right, giving it the respect and publicity it deserves. The Fox audience--that of American Idol, Stacked, Nanny 911, and all those other lowest common denominator shows--was not ideal for this show, which is too smart, well-written, and funny to compete with these generic watered down programs. The problem is, Arrested Development has a few things working against it: it's not a show with isolated episodes; it requires viewers to know the characters' backstories from previous episodes in order to fully appreciate the jokes. And it necessitates either a quick mind or a few viewings to get a real grasp on the humor, and only then will the true greatness of the show come into focus. Hopefully Showtime will pick it up, allowing AD to incorporate nudity and/or cursing into it and teaming it up with Weeds, another high-quality show.

If you haven't seen Arrested Development yet, WATCH IT NOW. Go to the video store and BUY THE DVDS OF THE FIRST TWO SEASONS, and TIVO THE PROGRAM TO RECORD THE SERIES, MONDAYS AT 8 PM ON FOX.

Our Societal Priorities

2005-12-11T02:34:00.000-07:00

What does it say about the state of American culture and media when the death of an influential comedian greatly overshadows that of an even more-influential senator? With hall-of-fame stand-up comic and movie star Richard Pryor and former senator and Presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy dying on the same day, CNN and other news outlets relegated the latter to a side item while giving the former frontpage headline status. This despite McCarthy changing the course of a war and the path of American political and govermental history. True that Pryor has been a great influence on the comedians of today--the Muhammad Ali for black comedians--but outside of the entertainment community, McCarthy played a much larger role in the bigger picture on a much bigger stage. Even though Pryor has had more staying power in the minds of Americans by spawning a generation of even more famous comedian-actors and by having his movies run every Saturday morning on TBS, McCarthy has made a much more significant imprint on the country's current structure.

Both will be missed, but let's be sure to put both of their lives, accomplishments, and failures into some sort of context. McCarthy's death deserves top-billing on this ticket, his impact has been felt in less obvious but more crucial ways.

ABC's 20/20 Closer to 20/10

2005-12-10T03:08:00.000-07:00

I saw a segment on ABC's perennial Friday night news show 20/20 tonight about teenagers who seek thrills through dangerous activities such as "car-surfing" and lighting each other on fire. The program's sole explanation for why kids (especially boys) today are pushing the boundaries of the extreme revolved around a recent study proclaiming that the human brain doesn't stop growing until the age of 25, as opposed to twelve, which neurologists had previously thought. Don't blame the kids, John Stossel says, it's not their fault. Then in the next breath he calls one of them "knucklehead." Which is it, Stossel? Either it's not their fault, in which case you are just name-calling (not to mention insulting those with an apparently serious neurological disorder), or it is their fault, which costs you your theory.

If 20/20 were reading from an eye-chart right now, they would only see the smallest row of letters, oblivious to the giant E at the top. They are short-sighted and tunnel-visioned, ignoring other larger factors that may play a part in child development. The problem is not binary the way ABC presents it to be. While scientists just discovered that the brain keeps growing, that does not mean this is a recent phenomenon. Brains have been growing at the same rate for centuries, if not milennia, so this discovery fails to explain why this generation is different, and what factors push today's teens to seek such extreme outlets for their angst.

The strongest influences on teenagers are peer pressure and the media. And while the show glosses over MTV's Jackass, it doesn't go nearly deep enough into the media affect on teens; not just with stunts, but with fundamental issues of growing up.

But all that point toward the most cruel issue of them all: peer pressure. Never wanting to seem uncool in the eyes of their friends, teens will dress like the rest, pick up the same hobbies and time-killing rituals, and put themselves in compromising or unsafe positions--all while trying desperately to pretend they actually like it. When one member of a group feels his status on the totem-pole slipping, he will push the limits as a way to vault back toward the top. The bar's already been set pretty high, so now the only way to raise it more and catch the attention of a group (until it gets raised again by someone else) is to perform an increasingly dangerous and/or stupid prank or stunt. It is the most fundamental form of insecurity: doing what you hope others will think is cool, against your own instincts. And if a girl is watching? Or if there's a chance the girls might find out how wild and crazy and brave you are? A guy would sand off his big toe with an emery board if it meant getting a popular girl to like him. Another reason why they tape their ridiculousness: to make sure the ladies see it. And if they haven't yet, they just did on 20/20. Way to use the system for some free publicity, you wacky teenagers

Does ABC mention peer pressure in it's report? Of course not; not enough time in the show. No matter how poetic their names sound next to each other, John Stossel is, alas, no Ted Koppel.

Meaningless "Rumors"

2005-12-08T15:06:00.000-07:00

The poster for the upcoming movie "Rumor Has It . . . " is quite possibly the most pointless and pathetic movie advertisement I have ever seen. Starring Jennifer Aniston, the poster has the actress on one side wearing a white shirt and jeans, showing a couple inches of midriff. I'm never adverse to a little bare midriff, particularly that of Aniston, but the poster makes her look awkward, a slight concavity making her appear perhaps a month pregnant. In a row to her left are head shots of co-stars Kevin Costner, Shirley McClaine, and Mark Ruffalo, all vaguely peering toward Aniston. Add a cliche cloudy sky in the background and that's that.

Not only does the poster not give any indication of what the movie is about, but it completely avoids putting any sort of hint on it (outside of a rediculously generic line that's even more unoriginal than the title; "Based on a true rumor"--thanks, that helps). The creators of the ad are banking on the film's star power, not the movie itself. And that is the problem with the studio system right there; they assume that if they can get big names in a movie, the public will clamor to see it regardless of the subject of the film or it's respective level of suckiness. And the industry wonders why it's profits are shrinking.

Theater of the Absurd

2005-08-25T16:54:00.000-07:00

There's a new technology infiltrating big-name movie multiplexes (or is it multiplexi?) that is adding to the McDonaldization of the movie industry. At the concessions stand, all human interaction has been eliminated (I won't name the theater chain because the invention is inevitably bound for all of them). Instead of telling your order to a person, you punch it into a touch-screen that relays the order to the frantic workers putting them together. You don't even hand over your $10 for a large popcorn and drink to anyone, you just slide it into the computer like a vending machine or swipe your card. You get a receipt with a number on it and wait for it to be called.

From the consumer perspective, this development is genius. No more cringing at the puss-filled zit on the forehead of the 16-year-old behind the counter as you struggle to keep eye contact as you order. No more blaming said teenager for a wrong order or incorrect change, diminishing his or her self-esteem more than the vest and hat already does). It is efficient, quick, and accurate. It is also the latest example of Corporate America's obsession with greed.

Does everything in this world need to be turned into an assembly line? Welcome to the brave new world of corporate thinking: by removing the ordering step, the theater can speed up the pace, squeezing more consumers through the line like cows through a slaughterhouse. In turn, they do not have to waste money on training employees to handle the cash register or lose valuable seconds on the employee moving between register and popcorn machine. This causes two more problems (or from the management side, fixes them): since the workers do less and need less training, they can be paid less; and the teenagers that did interact with customers now lose a valuable resource in developing people skills.

And yet, the theater still spends freely on ugly vests.

The Merry Virgin

2005-08-23T17:42:00.000-07:00

The 40-Year-Old Virgin maintains a solid balance of low-brow situational humor and Daily Show-style irony and wit. While the pop culture references were a little too dated to fulfill its topical-comedy potential--I stopped finding Arsenio Hall air-punching comical circa Hanukkah '94, and I can only hope the montage song was meant to make fun of horrible 80's movies, not emulate them--Steve Carell's Master of the Obvious style kept the movie fresh and funny the whole way through.

As Andy Stitzer, Carell's experience as a Daily Show correspondent proved vital, as it conditioned him to ask awkward or ridiculous questions with the deadpan seriousness of a seasoned Daily Show vet. But instead of asking in order to mine his interviewees for humor, using the skill against them, he asks with complete earnestness, coming across as innocent and unexpectedly naive for his age (if I need to tell you, you aren't paying close enough attention).

After learning from a coworker that the best way to pick up a girl is to only ask questions, he approaches an attractive book store employee. Everything she says to him he replies with a question, so when she says there is a Do-it-Yourself section, he responds, oblivious of the double-entendre, "Do you do it yourself?" Obviously--because it's a movie, not because it actually works in real life--the girl becomes instantly enamored with him.

Carell is a video-game playing, action-figure collecting loner who has given up on the outside world, retreating into his own geekdom of sci-fi and fantasy instead of interacting with coworkers or women. He toes the line between your average, shy, harmless guy and the mentally challenged weatherman from Anchorman; as soon as he starts making you think he is a complete idiot, he shows his human, personable side. He is one part Brick Tamland, one-part Daily Show correspondent, and one-part Tom Hanks in Big, a kid trapped in an adult's body.

His coworkers aren't much different, just switch the obsession from toys to women; the opposite of Andy, yet just as immature. His foil is co-worker David ( Paul Rudd), who has just as many problems with women as Andy just without realizing it; his failures have led to depression, while Andy's fears have led to ambivalence and introversion.

Rudd, another member of the Anchorman news team, has gained a solid foothold on the Peter Sarsgaard rung of the Hollywood hierarchy--great supporting actor in a lot of well-received films, but still more recognizable by face than name and a few films away from leading man territory. What Peter is to drama, Paul is to comedy. But I will be stunned if in five years neither of them are headliners.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin, written by Carell and Judd Apatow (yet another Anchorman holdover; he produced it), manages to stay away from your typical romantic comedy cliches. It also manages to make being a virgin cool, regardless of age, a theme that is only accentuated by the consequence of sex on Andy's peers. The message of the film, successful as the antithesis of modern times: no sex sells.

The Six Deaths of an Era

2005-08-11T10:44:00.000-07:00

While the death of Peter Jennings on Monday was certainly sad--he had the most soothing, mesmerizing voice in television news--and unfortunate, I can't get over the repetitiveness of its coverage. Yes, he was a giant figure at ABC, and yes, he will be greatly missed by those who knew him and those who watched him, but I am sick of hearing that his death signaled "the end of an era." A couple examples:

Howard Kurtz wrote on Tuesday, "With the evening newscasts steadily losing audience share amid mounting competition from cable, talk radio, Web sites and blogs, Jennings' passing does have an end-of-an-era feel."

And this from Andres Martinez in today's Los Angeles Times: "In mourning Jennings, and in previous farewells to the retiring Dan Rather and Brokaw, Americans mourned the passing of the era of mediated, shared news."

I wouldn't mind the media over-using this phrase if an had era actually ended with Jennings' passing. But this is the fourth time in less than a year they have said an event marked the end of the Omniscient Anchor Era. When Tom Brokaw became the first of the big three to retire, the media harped that the era was over, when in fact the era was just beginning to end. Next came Dan Rather's retirement, followed soon after by Jennings' revelation that he had lung cancer and would be leaving the chair to seek treatment. Both announcements were followed by end-of-era statements.

How many times can one era end? This was number four, with two more to come. The end of the "end of an era" for network news won't come until the obituaries for Brokaw and Rather are published and hour-long specials are aired, where colleagues are seen bemoaning the end of an era.

Ush-bitchin'

2005-08-08T23:44:00.000-07:00

The wonderful new Israeli film "Ushpizin" is a modern day Jewish fable in the tradition of Bernard Malamud, Saul Bellow, and the other great Jewish writers of the 20th century. Just like a Malamud short story, the movie's physical details--where and when--are irrelevant; every generation of every community shares the same conflicts between action and faith, right and wrong, innocence and corruption. No community lacks its religious core, it's disruptive fringe, and a struggle between the two, and modern-day Jerusalem, perhaps more than any place at any time, illustrates that eternal battle.

And not since the works of Malamud has a work of fiction illustrated it so beautifully. The simplicity of the story transcends time and place; Giddy Dar's direction does not try to justify the good luck bestowed upon Rabbi Moshe (Shuli Rand), the tragic hero whose patient wisdom bows only to his foolishness, and whose good deeds only lead to negative results. Instead of Moshe trying to find out who gave him and his wife $1000 when they were at their lowest points, both exhausted from praying for such a miracle, the plot moves on. Moshe dances and cries and rejoices in his prayer's accomplishments, but then unknowingly steals a Sukkah (the temporary hut built specifically for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, when the story takes place), returning the bad karma with it.

Blended into the film are prayers, life lessons, morals, and anecdotes, some from ancient religious texts, that add more weight to the story, a la Malamud. Even so, "Ushpizin" still has its incredibly lighthearted and warm moments, primarily in the love expressed between Moshe and his wife, Mali (Michal Bat-Sheva Rand, Shuli's husband; the amazing chemistry on film is practically tangible). If this were an American-made film, a Hassidic Rabbi and his large stay-at-home wife would require a fat joke every five minutes and either a large nose, cheap, or Seinfeld reference every other five. Fortunately, it was one-hundred percent Israeli made.

While this was beneficial to the plot, Dar missed a great opportunity to introduce the everyday Jerusalem to the rest of the world. The only news people outside of Israel hear about Jerusalem is bad news, even though it is sacred to three religions and home to an endless list of historic treasures and beauties. Dar could have done for Jerusalem what Woody Allen did for New York City with "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan," but except for a handful of wide shots of the city stays away from the big picture. I suppose that's what happens when you grow up in a city, you forget how beautiful it may be.

Fortunately, the film manages to stay away from current events despite lacking panoramic shots. Aside from a brief mention of Americans and the UN, the movie avoids any mention of terrorism, Palestine, etc., which would only have distracted viewers from the story. In twenty years, a hundred years, five hundred years--as long as there is love, faith, and a struggle to live the pious life, "Ushpizin" will remain fresh.

"Ushpizin" can be the ultimate Jewish response to last year's "Passion of the Christ": both stories occur in the Holy Land and are performed in ancient languages (one still alive, one long deceased), and both have a bearded Jewish protagonist. But while "Passion" glorifies a death, "Ushpizin" celebrates life; and there's nothing more beautiful than that.

Hitting the Links:

2005-07-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

This American Life coming to Showtime? I would buy the station just to watch the show. If you never listen to the radio program, give it three weeks, just an hour a week, and you'll be hooked, too. You can listen online here.

Can Hippos and Tortoises overcome their violent reputations and coexist? Apparently they can. Doesn't it make you want to buy one of each?

Hitting the Links:

2005-06-09T23:46:00.000-07:00

Anyone up for a game of Tim Russert bingo?

Hip Hop Hoodios, Rappin' Jews with Attitude

Elephantitis of the Censorship Nuts

2005-06-08T01:10:00.000-07:00

ABC Family will be airing "The Breakfast Club" soon. The movie has a special place in the hearts of many people from the 80's generation, but has also stayed fresh for later generations due to its eternal message of high school angst (as long as you ignore the music and outfits).

One of Judd Nelson's lines in the movie is, "You wanna see a picture of elephantiatis of the nuts?" The ABC Family ad-execs decided they would pick this line for the commercial, except they changed the line to say, "You wanna see a picture of elephantitis of the butt?" I suppose they were afraid of offending the censorship czars by referencing the male genatalia.

They must have been dreadfully scared of a five-year-old watching the movie, hearing that line, and, turning to his or her father, say, "Daddy, what does 'nuts' mean?"

Aside from wondering why they would even choose an edited line for the commercial in the first place, my main question is this:

What's stopping that same child from watching the movie, hearing that line, and, turning to his or her father, say, "Daddy, what does 'elephantitis' mean?"

You tell me which word is easier to explain to a five-year-old: 'nuts' or 'elephantitis'?

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION ALERT: They chose "butt" as the optimal word to replace "nuts," but if the fine folks at ABC Family decide to make this change as well, they will have a much harder time replacing "elephantitis." What word do you think they should substitute in?

Abstain from Abstinence, Part II

2005-05-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

The leading segment on 60 Minutes tonight was on government-funded abstinence only education. The people who preach abstinence only want teenagers to take a pledge saying they will not have sex until marriage. Here is the obvious problem with this logic that was completely overlooked by the segment and is the big picture fault of the entire belief in virginity pledges:

Teenagers are great at finding loopholes and solving problems in a way that benefits their objectives. Now here's a word problem, what is the answer? A teenager wants to have sex, but vowed not to have sex until he or she gets married. You have thirty seconds to answer.

Give up?

You get married!

So instead of waiting to marry someone they love, teenagers marry the first person they meet so they can finally have sex. There is a reason why the highest divorce rates are found in red states, where abstinence-only education is much more prevalent; those states also have a younger average age of marriage. So two 18 year olds will get married so they can have sex, and by the time they are 25 and have fully developed physically and emotionally, they often realize they made a mistake. Except those who preach abstinence-only also preach never-divorce, so two unhappy people are stuck together in a society that will not let them separate. No wonder those same states have higher rates of domestic abuse and alcoholism.

You think they will ever connect the dots? As long as the government keeps getting abstinence-only (slash-faith based) education funding, they have no reason to. They get their money, their numbers keep rising, their power grows; what do they care if what they teach is legitimate or not?

Bush's Energy Bull

2005-05-19T12:44:00.000-07:00

This is from the Grist environmental newsletter. It explains some of the glaring hypocrisy in President Bush's new energy bill better than I would.

"Friends With Benefits
"Saudi-owned company set to profit from proposed MTBE liability shield

"OK, kids, follow the bouncing red ball: The Republican energy bill, pending in the Senate, is advertised as a way to gain independence from Saudi Arabian oil (boing!). Part of the energy bill, included at the insistence of Texas Rep. Tom DeLay (R), is a provision shielding makers of groundwater-polluting, potentially cancer-causing gas additive MTBE from liability lawsuits, despite projected costs of $8 billion to $29 billion to clean up MTBE contamination (boing!). One of the major companies that produces MTBE and would benefit from the liability shield is SABIC -- which has spent some $1.5 million lobbying for it and happens to have a big research and technology center in Sugar Land, Texas, DeLay's home base (boing!). SABIC is largely owned by the Saudi government (boi... wait, wha?). 'The standard sound bite we've been getting for the last five years is that [the energy bill] will reduce our dependence on foreign oil,' says Keith Ashdown of the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense. 'Now it's about how to subsidize foreign oil regimes.' Boing!"

I Guess I'm a Nazi

2005-05-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Yup, your typical sensitive, neurotic, caring, Jewish Nazi.

D. James Kennedy, the leader of a 40,000 member-strong church in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla, who wants to "reclaim America for Christ" was today's guest on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He believes that the theory of evolution has lead directly to Nazism, Fascism, and Communism. Of course, it has also lead to the development of technology and sciences that have made our world better. And it will be much easier to prove my argument than his.

He added that there is no evidence to support evolution. I just have one question for him: where is your evidence of creationism?

He also said that he supports every person's right to liberty and life: okay then, so where do you stand on the death penalty? Homosexuality? Aren't convicts and gay people humans, too?

There are so many negative words I want to use for Mr. Kennedy, it's probably better I use none, so I will just say this: keep your religion out of my government.

Congressional Football

2005-05-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

With the filibuster fight heating up over judicial nominees; with an ailing and aging Supreme Court; with an energy bill, social security reform, tax code overhaul, environmental legislation and a plethora of other items on the agenda this congressional session, the Democrats have implemented a strategy that has proved to be successful over many years: I call it the Bill Parcells method. Of course, I'm talking about successful early years New York Giants Parcells, not egotistic new millenium overrated Cowboys Parcells.

Super Bowl XXV, the run-n-gun, no-huddle, fast-moving and high-scoring Buffalo Bills against the underdog, defensive-minded, offensively-inept Giants. In order to stand a chance, Parcells came up with a game plan that was easy to implement and worked to perfection: he slowed down the game, he stalled the action and milked every second off of the clock. This kept the football out of the hands of Jim Kelley, Thurmond Thomos, Andre Reed, and the rest of the Bills offense, kept the score low and close, and gave the Giants the lead, 20-19, with three seconds left. And once the Bills' game-winning field goal missed wide right, securing the Giants upset, Parcells was immediately labeled a genius.

Flash forward now 14 years. Instead of a sixty-minute football game, we have a two-year congressional cycle. Substitute Sen. Harry Reid for Parcells, and the Republicans for the Bills. So far, Reid's strategy has worked. Slow down the game, make the Republicans work for all their nominees and bills, pick and choose which battles will reap the most rewards, and make sure that when there are only a couple seconds left on the clock--say, October 30, 2006, a few days before the next election--all the pressure is on the other side.

Putting the Corporation into Public Broadcasting

2005-05-17T13:39:00.000-07:00

With all the hubbub over public broadcasting, it's nice to know that some people haven't lost their sense of humor on the subject.

Over the past few years NPR's ratings have skyrocketed. Just as most other radio stations have lost listeners, NPR has developed a large and devoted audience. It will be interesting to see what happens if the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has its way and more blatantly conservative shows are created for PBS and NPR. One probable consequence is this will reverse public broadcasting's boon, hurting ratings and diminishing the stations' funds, which only leads to more fund drives, less quality programming, and worse coverage of world events.

What a shock, the Corporation in charge of Public Broadcasting wants to kill Public Broadcasting. Only 3.5 more years, I keep reminding myself.

Another Corrupt Gorgonization

2005-05-15T15:49:00.000-07:00

Today's word of the day: Gorgonize. Funny word, unfortunately without any connection to Gorgonzola cheese or Gorbanzo beans. Here's the definition:

Gorgonize: to have a paralyzing or mesmerizing effect on : stupefy, petrify

And, as always, an example sentence:

Tom DeLay could always have his way by goronizing his friends and enemies with the threat of blackmail, fundraising cuts, and extortion; unfortunately for him, with the Senate ethics committee already rebuking him three times and his closest allies leaping farther and farther away from him, DeLay can gorgonize no more.

Cold-Hearted Capitalism at its Finest

2005-04-28T10:43:00.000-07:00

How fair does this sound?

Polaroid, which declared bankruptcy a couple years ago, was bought yesterday for more than $400 million. In the deal, the CEO got a $21 million payout. The employees and retirees, who had relied on Polaroid for their pensions until the company decided it couldn't afford to keep paying them, received a robust $47.

That makes sense. After all, it was the employees' faults the company went bankrupt in the first place. They should have worked harder and demanded less money and benefits while spending all their paychecks on Polaroid products. The CEO, on the other hand, is just one man, he's in no position to save the company. Besides, $21 million is chump-change for CEOs nowadays, we should feel sorry for the guy.

This is another perfect example of how the system is broken and corrupt . The CEO leads the company into bankruptcy and gets a giant pay day, while the people who made the company go, the employees who dedicated 20, 30, 40 years of their lives to the company with the understanding that the company would take care of them afterward, get shafted.

Isn't big-business capitalism just wonderful sometimes?

Cruise Control Makes Me Nauseous

2005-04-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

Life just keeps getting worse for everyone not named Tom Cruise. First this, now this. And in a couple months, this. We are all in the wrong professions. Unless, of course, you are Tom Cruise and you are reading this; in which case I commend you, sir, but don't you have better things you could be doing with your time?

Idolizing Mediocrity

2005-04-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or is the whole world losing sight of who and what is really important? Today's example of society regressing its standards and expectations comes from--where else--Hollywood, where the most talented and deserving actor, television show host and radio personality in the world rightfully received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last week. Of course I'm referring to the man known the world-over as. . .Ryan Seacrest?

Is that not the most rediculous thing you've heard this week? Didn't it used to be you had to have a long and prestigious career to qualify for a star? Raise your hand if you knew who Seacrest was until he became the host of "American Idol"? Now raise your other hand if you are lying. Now try to move your mouse with both hands in the air. Difficult, huh? Well that's what you get for lying.

Ryan Seacrest is the most undeserving person to get a star south of Keanu Reeves. The committee would never let its credibility plummet even more by giving Keanu a star, right? Wrong.

Well, at least he has "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," "Point Break," and "Parenthood" to his credit. What does Seacrest have? A three-year hot streak, that's it. Apparently, that's good enough. I guess Kurt Warner, Terrell Davis, Brady Anderson, Theo Ratliff and Heathcliff Slocumb can punch their tickets to their respective Hall of Fames right now.

[Got anymore names of people to add to the list of those who had two or three good-to-great years but fall way short of respectable standards for canonization? Please share.]

Pope-pourri

2005-04-19T17:35:00.000-07:00

While I was really hoping the next Pope would be from Latin America or Africa, partly because I would love to watch American conservatives try to suppress their rage at being forced to respect a minority but mostly because it would bring much needed attention and aid to these regions since the Pope would have first-hand knowledge of the crises there, I can't really object to the selection of Cardinal Ratzinger. And much like everything else nowadays, my reasoning relates to the Red Sox.

Boston winning the 2004 World Series tasted so sweet to New Englanders and the rest of Red Sox Nation because they hadn't won since 1918, but also because the wounds from the previous year's epic collapse, when they were innings away but still lost, were still fresh and oozing. Luckily, they didn't have to wait long to let their injured souls heal. The following year, they beat the Yankees in the greatest comeback ever and went on to win.

Likewise, many hoped the Papacy would go to a cardinal from a Third World region. Instead, it went to the favorite, which greatly disappointed fans and Catholics in these areas. But while they may be in pain, thinking they had a real chance this time, their loss now will only make their eventual win that much sweeter. Pope Benedict XVI--Ratzinger's self-appointed papal name--is 78, giving him only a short stay atop the mortal religious ladder; just like the Sox only needing one season to overcome hearbreak, the next pope will come from Africa or South America. And the wait won't be very long.

The point being, if you try hard enough, you can relate anything to baseball. Of course, it also helps if the point makes sense, which I'm not quite sure if this analogy does. That's up to you to decide; it makes sense in my head, and that's all that matters.

NPR: The Future of TV News?

2005-04-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

This article explores the problems with evening network news shows and explains how NPR's formula and content could be a good model for them. Any time I get a chance to plug NPR, I will.

Happy Anniversaries

2005-04-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

Today is the 50th Anniversary of the first public announcement that the Salk Polio vaccine is safe and effective. Absolutely one of the top 5 most important revelations of the 20th century. Five years sooner and my aunt wouldn't have one leg shorter than the other. Better late than never though, especially with a disease that completely menaced children and families for centuries.

Ten years earlier to the day, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died, ending the longest (and many would argue, the most important and successful) tenure in the White House at twelve years. Luckily, Roosevelt had already lead the United States out of the depression and Allied forces through the toughest days and years of World War II, with V-E and V-J days a few months away.

Pat Buchanan's Extensive Undergird

2005-04-11T17:20:00.000-07:00

It's going to take me a few more days to put into words the amazing embarrassment that is Pat Buchanan, but first, here's another word of the day to get the blog bandwagon back on track.

Undergird: to form the basis or foundation of : strengthen, support

Sentence: While many liberals undergird their beliefs and positions with research and understanding, most conservatives just believe what the higher-ups tell them to.

Drowning in Adult Swim

2005-04-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

Cartoon Network, oh how you have broken my heart, leaving me disillusioned and cold, wallowing in my censored sorrow. I didn't think it could happen to you, I didn't think Janet Jackson's nipple ripple would reach all the way to the deep end of the cable pool, and yet, last night on your station, I was proven wrong.

Family Guy. 11 p.m. One of the five best episodes, "Wish Upon a Weinstein," is on. Granted, I'm a Jew and this episode does a pretty good job of Jew-bashing, but there was nothing more over the line than in other episodes and no Jew-hating; just a lot of jokes about Jews. I've seen the episode at least 10, maybe 20 times, both before and after JJ's TT. Yet it was last night when I noticed the very slight editing job that ruined one of the funniest lines.

Peter sings about how he needs a Jew to help him with his money problems, and toward the end of the song he quips:

"Even though they killed my Lord, I need a Jew"

Except last night it came out as:

"I don't think they killed my Lord, I need a Jew"

While I can understand how some humorless people might be extremely offended by that line, I didn't think Cartoon Network would cave into them. I thought they would have the guts to stand up to the religious right and the Parents Television Council and not let these depraved beings alter their content. What's next, putting shorts on the meatball from Aquateen HungerForce?

How dare you exhibit decency! We watch Adult Swim primarily because you lack it. I hope you reverse this trend Cartoon Network, remain independent, unique, and offensive. Do not cave. Please.

Bonus Word: Factoid

2005-04-05T15:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a factoid on "factoid": Did you know the word was created by Norman Mailer in a book about Marilyn Monroe? Well, know you do.

Factoid: 1 : an invented fact believed to be true because of its appearance in print; 2 : a briefly stated and usually trivial fact

Here's the Webster's explanation:

"We can thank Norman Mailer for the word 'factoid'; he coined the term in his 1973 book Marilyn, about Marilyn Monroe. In the book, Mailer explains that factoids are 'facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much
lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority.' In creating his coinage, Mailer relied on '-oid,' a suffix that traces back to the ancient Greek word 'eidos,' meaning 'appearance' or 'form.' Mailer followed in a long tradition when he chose '-oid'; English speakers have been making words from '-oid' since at least the 17th century."

Today's Word: Indigence

2005-03-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

Searching for new words to describe the poverty and deprivation felt by a growing percentage of Americans left behind by President Bush and his manipulative agenda? Today's word works well. Here's the definition:

Indigence : a level of poverty in which real hardship and deprivation are suffered and comforts of life are wholly lacking

And here's another sentence:

The large middle class of the thriving 1990's has fallen into a state of indigence as the money it had saved for college, retirement, and the future has disappeared due to the disastrous tax cuts that have lined the coats of the already disgustingly rich with the savings of those who actually need it.

Quite the non-partisan sentence, eh?

Schiavo: Your Thoughts?

2005-03-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

The best analysis of the Schiavo situation that I've yet to read comes courtesy of Matthew Yglesias of The American Prospect. Here's an excerpt:

". . . the Republican Party, which, as I write this, is busy casting all the values of family and the rule of law, precedent, federalism, and common decency aside to provide for the federal court system to hear the case all over again -- and not out of a genuine belief that there is any realistic possibility the courts will produce a new decision but out of a stomach-turning wish to prolong the spectacle to try to reap partisan gain. As a memo obtained by ABC News explains, Republican senators have been instructed that 'the pro-life base will be excited' by the debate, which is 'a great political issue' and 'a tough issue for Democrats.'

"Nauseating, yes, but not nearly as nauseating as the knowledge that in the state of Texas, thanks to a bill signed in 1999 by then-Governor George W. Bush, conscious, living human beings are deprived of life support against their express wishes (and those of their family) in order to save money from the Medicaid budget and make room for tax cuts."

Should she live another thirty years without living at all? Should the courts, the government, and her husband allow her to die? What do you think?

Today's Word's a Gimme

2005-03-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

It is just too easy to put today's word into a sentence. The word is "misanthrope" and its definition is:

Misanthrope: a person who hates or distrusts humankind

In a sentence: The more this country becomes a "George Bush America," with the regression of freedoms and the endorsement of ignorance, the more I feel myself becoming a misanthrope.

Life and/or Death

2005-03-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

This whole controversy over the life of Terri Schiavo is upsetting and sad, surely making as big a point on American culture as it does on this one individual's life.

Conservative Republicans harped on this issue as a way to affirm that they are "pro-life" across the board. The irony, of course, is that they also happen to be the strongest pushers of the death penalty and the most adamant supporters of sending American soldiers to fight and die in war. This leaves the Democrats, liberals, and all those who want to see Terri Schiavo finally allowed to rest in peace as "pro-death," which is, of course, a wonderful position for any politician to be in and one which nobody actually is.

Nobody is pro-death, and it is ridiculous that that is how Schiavo's right-to-death supporters are being portrayed. Why are so many people so afraid of death? Death is not merely the end of life, rather a part of life, as well. People are so stubborn and so unwilling to accept change and loss that they hold on with clenched fists to whatever semblance of the past they can, no matter how unrealistic and delusional it may be.

I hate to break the news to you: people die. You will die, I will die, America will die, the earth will die, the entire solar system will die. It's only a question of when. Once you accept that, you
can start living your life for yourself, and not spend all your time looking for ways to prevent the inevitable, whether through overt religiosity, blind faith, plastic surgery, miracle pills, or sending an armada to the new world in search of the fountain of youth (see? The issue has been around a while; bonus points if you know the explorer, mostly because I forget).

This is from my friend Cori's co-worker, regarding the debate:

"For me, watching Congress "debate" this issue last night was positively horrifying? setting aside the fact that this is not Congress' place (hello, separation of powers?!), not one Democratic
Senator got off his butt. But seriously, Terri Schiavo had a living will, making it clear that she did not want to live like this. Her husband, as next-of-kin and power of attorney, has the heartbreaking responsibility of carrying out his wife's wishes. Her parents tried to stop him by taking him to court (as they had the right to do). But the court (in a REPUBLICAN state, mind you) said no, affirming that the decision lies with Mr. Schiavo. This poor woman is in a persistent vegetative state? yes, of course there is always the possibility that her condition could improve, or that the medical field could discover some new way to help her in the future. When she wrote her living will (as every responsible adult should), I have no doubt she considered these possibilities. But the fact that there is a chance that maybe someday something could help her does NOT mean she should be kept alive, waiting for what may or may not happen. What this comes down to is it was HER DECISION. And now that she is (and has been for so many years) incapable of telling the doctors herself, it is NOT the responsibility of Congress, or pro-life groups, or even the doctors who care for her to decide her fate. I'm sure this is not by any means an easy decision for Mr. Schiavo; but at some point we all need to know when to let go, especially in a situation like this where a loved one has no quality of life and when we know she did not want to be kept alive for such an extended period of time."

Today's Secret Word: Evince

2005-03-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

Time for another installment of "Blog of Wordly Wisdom." Today's word is evince:

1 : to constitute outward evidence of
2 : to display clearly : reveal

And an obligatory sentence to fool you into thinking I know how to use the word in everyday speak:

His eyebrows ruffled and a hint of a scowl growing on his face, President Bush evinced to the reporters that he had no idea how the economy works while trying to explain his social security plan, using false information and words he didn't know the definition of to make it sound like he actually had a plan; "this is why I hate press conferences," he thought.