July 02, 2008
From today's WaPo: Americans' love affair with 22-inch rims, eight cylinders and four-wheel drive wrapped in an 8,000-pound package is over. And the breakup is going to cost. With $4-a-gallon gas coming between drivers and their very large vehicles, consumers...
June 30, 2008
From a story in today's WaPo: On the television in his living room, Peterman has watched enough news and campaign advertisements to hear the truth: Sen. Barack Obama, born in Hawaii, is a Christian family man with a track record...
June 25, 2008
Yes, it's a pretty painting, apparently it's an important painting, and sure, Roman Abramovich (the rumored buyer) has lots of money. But over $80 million? I guess this is a sign that there's still a big market for the masters...
June 20, 2008
I know a lot of you don't like musicals, but with a cast like this I'd so be up for seeing this revival of Pal Joey....
June 15, 2008
From the NYT: Four years after Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay couples to marry, there have been blissful unions, painful divorces and everything in between. Some same-sex couples say being married has made a big difference, and...
June 11, 2008
Does the internet ruin books? For me, no, but it has ruined video and/or TV. If I click on a video and it's more than a couple of minutes long, forget it. For example, this clip of Bill Moyers giving...
June 08, 2008
May 25, 2008
Wonkette (and everyone else under the sun) shoot fish in a barrel. I find this funny because I've had the same thing happen to me. In fact, the person who had Armand's job before him was warming up to give...
May 13, 2008
He was long one of my favorite American artists. The New York Times obituary (with links to a few works) is here....
May 11, 2008
"You're certainly not."I think the most interesting point in Jeff Jensen's recap of this week's (very intriguing) Lost has to do with John and Ben's timelines - how they are related, and how they point to one of them being...
May 03, 2008
April 25, 2008
So this isn't related to anything in particular. But I just thought I'd share that my love for Becki Newton's Amanda on Ugly Betty increases by the day. If there's someone working on tv today who does a better line...
April 13, 2008
Everything you ever thought to ask about the causal relationship between red shirts and death on Star Trek. Via Kottke. Warms my geeky little sci-fi loving stats crunching heart, it does....
April 10, 2008
On Monday April 21st How I Met Your Mother is going to devote an entire episode to the backstory associated with one of their funniest gags....
April 06, 2008
Todd Van Der Werff has a great review of the first episode of Season 4....
March 23, 2008
I know everyone else means about the Iraq war, but I just have to confess, especially to Armand, that I was terribly wrong about Buffy being "teh suck."...
March 15, 2008
I seem to have an affinity (addiction) to paper magazines. I get a warm feeling having actual knowledge delivered to my house every week/month. And relatively cheaply, too. Yglesias and Ezra Klein (bigger blogs than this) started a conversation specifically...
March 14, 2008
Okay, I thought that was the worst episode of Lost we've seen this season. Well, apart from Juliet revealing Sun's secret - that was awesome. I love Juliet. But the rest seemed lame and pointless and wasn't too terribly well...
March 13, 2008
So for some time now I've been using Netflix to try to get into tv shows I've missed. And of late, since having finally gotten through all of Frasier and the new Doctor Who and Torchwood seasons that are on...
March 04, 2008
March 15-20 are "Won't You Be My Neighbor Days" in southwestern PA, and March 20 is Sweater Day. More information here. HT...
February 19, 2008
What a disappointment. Since I've fallen in love with the new Doctor Who series, and since I've loved John Barrowman since watching Putting It Together, I had high hope for this sort of X-Files-ish spin-off. But those hopes went mostly...
February 15, 2008
This is the greatest thing ever. That is all. You may now go about your business. (* - with the possible exception of alcohol. I'll have to think about that.)...
February 01, 2008
So, I'm bacheloring this weekend. Thus, I can officially take the night off. Thus, in an attempt to do some more Baltar Movie Reviews, I'm drinking, eating dinner, and watching bad movies. We'll see how it goes. I let whimsy...
January 20, 2008
Yes, it's another review/discussion of the Drive By Truckers. It's (partially) my blog, so I get to do these things. The Drive By Truckers have released a new album (Brighter Than Creation's Dark); it's substantially better than 2006's "A Blessing...
January 18, 2008
If you are looking for things to add to your Netflix queue or muse over while you eat lunch, Edward Copeland has his 10 top movies of the year up. And if you are more theater oriented, Josh R has...
Bobby Fischer has died; I used to play chess (was on the team in high school), and Bobby was always a hell of an individual (and at one point, a decent chess player). (Oh, and does anyone want to disagree...
January 14, 2008
Via LGM - what if the Republican presidential candidates were Buffy villains?...
December 18, 2007
So over the last couple of weeks I watched the penultimate season of Will & Grace on dvd. I often watch latter seasons of shows I give up on this way. And I've got to say that at least going...
December 04, 2007
There was a story about how US rankings on math and science internationally have dropped yet again. Yeah, Texas, you keep going with that, and drag the rest of us with you....
December 03, 2007
And it makes no difference whether or not they are Northern ... An old buddy has made the front page of YouTube! Here's the Safe Sex Juntoon....
December 01, 2007
Just an informational post: I found this website which is keeping track of a whole mess of "best of 2007" lists. Everything from books to music to architecture to stereo components. It's a work-in-progress, so new stuff gets added all...
November 26, 2007
via videosift.com Really; what more needs to be said?...
November 25, 2007
So I started watching Heroes this season, starting from the season premiere. And I've enjoyed it. But I thought I should catch up on what I missed at some point, so I started watching season 1 of the show and...
November 03, 2007
My damn cat stole a raw steak off a plate (next to the stove) last night. I first knew something was amiss when I saw him streaking by me (head down from the weight of the steak). I start yelling...
October 15, 2007
Showings of Once More with Feeling featuring Rocky Horror-style audience participation have been killed by Fox. Not thinking about the new generations that could get turned on to buy seven seasons of DVDs, are they? More likely thinking anything they...
October 13, 2007
To balance out the sports post below, here are some beautiful (to my eyes) paintings. I really like these....
October 04, 2007
If you like cars, F1 racing or Ferraris, you can't help but like this ad. As I said, the old ones sound much better than the new ones......
September 16, 2007
I presume no one gives a damn who wins the little gold statues. But what about the clothes? Or embarrassing dates? Or embarrassing comments? Want to share your thoughts on any of that? If so, comment below. For what it's...
September 11, 2007
The professional outraged bigot, censor, bully, asshole and general embarrasment to the gene pool has gotten the people behind the Emmys to bend to his way of thinking. That's at once horrifying (Donohue shouldn't win anything unless it's a bullying...
August 26, 2007
So since several of you have watched the series, I have this question - if you were going to show someone just a few episodes of the show as an example of what Buffy the Vampire Slayer is like, episodes...
July 28, 2007
If you have any religious questions (trying to understand the nature of the universe; what is our role; what is God's role, etc.), you can find all the answers at the Official God FAQ page. Lots of info; this clearly...
July 24, 2007
Heroine Content discusses....
July 19, 2007
Okay, I'm back here for a second. I don't know when I'll have a chance to go throw the spam and look for real comments (since there are thousands and thousands of pieces of spam), but I did want to...
July 03, 2007
Has anyone noticed that Britain's response to the round/wave of bombings is to use the law, arrest people according to the law (technically, they can "hold" them for 28 days before arresting them or letting them go, but the law...
June 21, 2007
Via Pandagon, a story in the NYT about freegans: Freegans are scavengers of the developed world, living off consumer waste in an effort to minimize their support of corporations and their impact on the planet, and to distance themselves from...
June 19, 2007
We have a different "enemy," but just about everything else is the same. Via DefenseTech, we find that the US and China are installing a "hot line" to facilitate communications during crises. Just like the Cold War (where we had...
June 15, 2007
My recent post on the rise in popularity of "Landon" got me thinking about something. Has there been research done on which parents name their children? And on whether or not that varies by the sex of the baby? I...
June 12, 2007
It's a case of dog bites man, sure. But hey it's also kind of interesting that if you ask lesbians which women are hot you're likely to get a rather different set of answers than you'd be likely to get...
June 11, 2007
Given the way the awards came down last night you can be excused for thinking there were only three shows on Broadway last year. Coast of Utopia dominated things on the side of the plays, with Spring Awakening dominating the...
June 10, 2007
Via Pharyngula, we get some initial results of the 2006 General Social Survey (GSS). The GSS is done every few years (two? four? I don't remember), and is an attempt to study the general characteristics of the population of the...
June 08, 2007
I don't miss it often, but at times I do, and I'm going to really miss it on Sunday. First, Roger Federer should be playing in the finals of the French Open that morning (presuming he wins today, and he's...
June 07, 2007
Let me get this straight: she get sentenced to 45 days, which is reduced to 23 (if she behaves herself), get special treatment (how many other people get to enter jail three minutes before midnight?), refuses to eat (uh, is...
June 06, 2007
For some reason tonight I decided to look in again at the list of the country's most popular baby names. More specifically I surfed over to the 2006 list, by state. At the top of the page is the list...
June 01, 2007
Now this is my kind of news. The man behind Veronica Mars may be taking over a show starring the comic genius who was both Kitty Sanchez and Fern/Vylette? My interest in television just tripled....
May 31, 2007
I now have a Mac. Technically, a MacBook Pro. I'm still trying to figure it out. Apple seems to do everything differently from Microsoft. I hope, in time, this will prove to be "better," not just "different." Thus far, everything...
May 29, 2007
The death of the veteran game show contestant (and actor/director) is bringing a number of tributes and remembrances. My question to you today, those of you who like me watched him on game shows when you were a kid, is...
May 16, 2007
I recently decided to revisit Will & Grace. I pretty much stopped watching the show about halfway through its run because while I didn't hate it, it was uneven, the lead characters were uninteresting and too often hard to like,...
May 14, 2007
We have intelligence that suggests that Hitler is plotting with The Legion of Doom to assassinate Jesus ... This bit from The Family Guy is hilarious - and disturbingly on target. Play the clip - that's not even the best...
At least you can if you are the Pope (emphasis mine): Pope Benedict XVI blamed Marxism and unbridled capitalism for Latin America's problems on Sunday, and urged bishops to mold a new generation of Roman Catholic leaders in politics to...
April 19, 2007
Here's a good piece on How I Met Your Mother and how weird it is that it's not a bigger show. It has everything it takes to be the current Friends - and yet for some reason it's not. It...
April 16, 2007
In reading up on the latest reports on the killings at Virginia Tech I came across this quotation from the principal at Columbine High (anyone wondering how many minutes into the shootings he started getting hounded by the press?): ``I...
April 13, 2007
Via the Associated Press: WASHINGTON (AP) -- Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex a few years later as those who did not, according to a long-awaited study mandated by Congress. Also, those...
April 03, 2007
Many regarded The Drowsy Chaperone as the last year's best Broadway musical (and some liked it even more than that). As it's still going strong the show is going through some cast changes, and one of those is the addition...
April 02, 2007
So not being around little girls too often, or for that matter families that include little girls, I'm wondering this - is it still as common as it was in the 20th century to put visions in their heads of...
March 22, 2007
Calvert DeForest, that is. But his eccentricities and the innocence he projected through the airways were real enough, and Letterman made the most of them, using Larry "Bud" Melman's combination of klutziness and guile to send up TV's insatiable thirst...
March 10, 2007
Is it a holy day? Sure, I'll buy that....
March 08, 2007
Gingrich Had Affair During Clinton Probe....
March 04, 2007
Cameron Scott has compiled this list of data on the economic benefits that would stem from legalizing gay marriage....
February 25, 2007
Via the NYT, we read about the Delta Zeta sorority at DePauw University. They had declining membership, see, and were described as "socially awkward," see. So the National came to town, and interviewed 35 of the members (what percentage that...
Headline from the New York Times: Christian Right Labors to Find '08 Candidate [Note: not opening paragraph] Many conservatives have already declared their hostility to Senator John McCain of Arizona, despite his efforts to make amends for having once denounced...
February 16, 2007
ABC: Many of those interviewed saw atheists as cultural elitists, amoral materialists, or given to criminal behavior or drugs. She states, "Our findings seem to rest on a view of atheists as self-interested individuals who are not concerned with the...
February 14, 2007
I'm not a fan of this mostly useless holiday. Falling about halfway between winter solstice and spring, I'm suspicious of some pagan origins here, but the relentless commercialism of the day makes me gag. According to the commercials, we're supposed...
February 11, 2007
Generally, everything sounds better when run through a Marshall Stack (Note: I realize this isn't true for everything (Neko Case, which I was listening to as I cooked breakfast this morning, is a clear exception), which is why I put...
February 09, 2007
"Nothing lasts forever. Even the longest and most glittering reign must come to an end some day." If there's been a better overtly political series on television than House of Cards you'll have to remind me what it was....
February 04, 2007
I missed the first 20 minutes or so of the game, but from what I saw my clear favorite was the Emerald Nuts ad with Robert Goulet. What did you think?...
January 25, 2007
In today's WaPo, in an article titled "Gore Film Sparks Parents' Anger", I want to introduce you to Frosty E. Hardiman (yes, his name is "Frosty", and yes, he has seven kids). We are not talking about slasher movies (gore...