Open Thread: The Finale of The Shield

I don't write much about television or sports here, because if I started, I'd be tempted to write too often on those subjects. However, given that within the realm of television, tonight's final episode of The Shield is arguably the most anticipated final episode of a television series since the finale of Seinfeld, I'll bend the rule against no-TV talk ever so slightly, and give anyone interested a chance to comment on whether they think the universe of The Shield, in the words of Lt. Jon Kavanaugh, takes its garbage out tonight, or whether Vic Mackey gets away with it one last time.

What kind of bloggers are we?

Here's one of those weekend fluff things to do. The "Typealyzer" (h/t) claims to be able to analyze the content and writing of a blog and then categorize its character. Type in the URL of your favorite blog and away you go. Not for nothing, but both Anchor Rising and, er, Not for Nothing come out as "Thinkers":

The logical and analytical type. They are especialy attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications.

They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality. Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about.

Heh. Anyway, the folks over at RI Future are "Guardians."

The organizing and efficient type. They are especially attuned to setting goals and managing available resources to get the job done. Once they´ve made up their mind on something, it can be quite difficult to convince otherwise. They listen to hard facts and can have a hard time accepting new or innovative ways of doing things.

The Guardians are often happy working in highly structured work environments where everyone knows the rules of the job. They respect authority and are loyal team players.

The future is more of the same!? Local blogs Kmeraka and The Ocean State Republican both are "Mechanics":

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

Blog action heroes? Whoda thunk. Finally, the Libertarian Observer and Antiprotester are "Scientists":

The long-range thinking and individualistic type. They are especially good at looking at almost anything and figuring out a way of improving it - often with a highly creative and imaginative touch. They are intellectually curious and daring, but might be physically hesitant to try new things.

The Scientists enjoy theoretical work that allows them to use their strong minds and bold creativity. Since they tend to be so abstract and theoretical in their communication they often have a problem communicating their visions to other people and need to learn patience and use concrete examples. Since they are extremely good at concentrating they often have no trouble working alone.

As in most general psychological analysis tools, there is a good bit of truth in all of these (cutting both ways).

Please Get Your Python Fix from the Official Source

Here, to be exact. So sayeth Cleese, Gilliam, Idle, Jones and Palin:

Little Guy Finishes First

Dan Barbarisi:

All over New England yesterday, the little guy pumped his fist in victory.

The kid who was too small to make the team, the one who was told he didn’t have the arm, or was too slow, now has a reason to go into the backyard and take some more groundballs.

Yesterday, Dustin Pedroia, the biggest little guy in New England, won the American League MVP award and gave an entire generation of those too small, too slow, not-going-to-make-it guys a reason to believe.

Generously listed at 5-foot-9 in the media guide, Boston’s second baseman has been proving his doubters wrong his whole life. After yesterday, he’ll never have to prove anything ever again.

“I’m not the biggest guy in the world, I don’t have that many tools. Looking at me, if I’m walking down the street, you wouldn’t think I’m a baseball player,” Pedroia said after winning. “That’s been the biggest thing in my life — that I have to overcome everything to prove people wrong. And so far I’ve been doing that.”

Pedroia, 25, becomes the third player to win the MVP the year after winning Rookie of the Year, joining Cal Ripken Jr. and Ryan Howard — two of the largest players ever to play their positions. Pedroia hit .326 with 17 home runs and 83 RBI, but his real specialty came in getting to second base and scoring. He led the league with 54 doubles and 118 runs scored.

Way to go Pedey. Now who can inspire us short AND old guys?

This Carp Public Service Announcement Brought to You by Several Over-Eager FM Radio Stations

It is way too early to be playing Christmas music.

Thank you. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program of slightly more substantive issues and discussions.

Joe Biden's Flashbacks

... not to a drug incident but to a prior campaign. From Toby Harnden, US Editor of the Telegraph (UK); h/t the Drudge Report.

Joe Biden is enjoying himself so much on the campaign trail that occasionally he gets to thinking he's about to become president. "In a Biden...an Obama-Biden administration," he said during an event at an American Legion hall here in Rochester, New Hampshire this morning, catching himself just in time.

"We know, we know," he responded jovially as the crowd realised what he'd said. "It's hard to get used to. We got his thing the right way."

* * *

Last month at an event in Fort Myers, Florida, he referred to the "Biden administration" before correcting the phrase and adding as he laughed and crossed himself: "Believe me, that wasn't a Freudian slip. Oh Lordy day, I tell ya."

A Welcome Idea

I can't say I've got a problem with this:

So you think junior is a little too lead-footed when he drives the family car? Starting next year, Ford Motor Co. will give you the power to do something about it.

The company will roll out a new feature on many 2010 models that can limit teen drivers to 80 mph, using a computer chip in the key.

Parents also have the option of programming the teen's key to limit the audio system's volume, and to sound continuous alerts if the driver doesn't wear a seat belt.

Of course, nothing beats prior education and trust, but my teenage years were a testament to the case-by-case ineffectuality of that strategy.

Surprisingly Accurate SNL Skit about the Financial Mess

H/T NewsBusters.

Update: Click on this link to view.

(Pop) Psychology of a State

FWIW, according the Wall Street Journal, new study has tried to identify regional personality traits. Probably more akin to pop psychology than science, but what the heck...consider this lunchtime reading.

In the past decade, [cross-cultural psychology] has been reinvigorated by the development of a 44-question personality test that evaluates five traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness. Some psychologists disagree with this matrix; others would add traits such as honesty. But the assessment, called the Big Five Inventory, has been widely used in scientific research.

Mr. [Peter Jason] Rentfrow [of the University of Cambridge in England] came to the field full of questions gleaned from a life spent hop-scotching across America. Why were his neighbors in Texas so relaxed, so courteous, so obsessed with sports? Why did New Yorkers seem so tense and inward-focused, often brusque to the point of rudeness?

Eager to dig deeper, Mr. Rentfrow turned to a huge collection of psychological tests administered online from 1999 to 2005.

The assessments were linked to each respondent's current residence, so there was no way to tell if a New Yorker was a New Yorker born and bred, or had just moved from Kansas. But that suited Mr. Rentfrow's purposes. He wasn't trying to gauge how life in New York had shaped any one individual. His goal was a psychological snapshot of the state, and for that he needed to include even recent migrants -- who may, after all, have been drawn to New York because the big-city bustle suited their personality.

Mr. Rentfrow said his sample was proportionate to the U.S. population by state and race. Though it underrepresented the extremes of poor and rich, that shouldn't skew the results, he said.

While the findings broadly uphold regional stereotypes, there are more than a few surprises. The flinty pragmatists of New England? They're not as dutiful as they may seem, ranking at the bottom of the "conscientious" scale. High scores for openness to new ideas strongly correlates to liberal social values and Democratic voting habits. But three of the top ten "open" states -- Nevada, Colorado and Virginia -- traditionally vote Republican in presidential politics. (All three are prime battlegrounds this election.)

Anyway, apparently Rhode Islanders stand out even amongst our New England brethren. We are fairly "open" (28th), which can be read as "liberal", are strongly "introverted" (40th in extroversion) and are among the most "disagreeable" (45th in agreeableness), "unconscientious" (48th in conscientiousness) "neurotics" (# 2--Yay!--in neuroticism) in the country. That could explain some things.

Milking It

PETA's latest crusade is aimed at those paragon's of ultra-conservative, right-wing, free-market capitalists....Ben and Jerry. What did they do wrong? Well, milk does come from cows and, in the eyes of PETA, Ben and Jerry just aren't towing the ideological line close enough, I suppose. But PETA has a solution!

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.

Huh. Let's set aside the, oh-I-don't-know, craziness of it all and imagine what kind of manufacturing reconfiguration, workforce retraining and supply chain modifications this would take.

Torn Between Conservatism and Fandom, 2008 Version

'Tis time for my becoming-annual lament: The series between the Red Sox and Rays beginning tonight would be much more exciting in the old two-division system, where a playoff berth would really be on the line. As it is, this is almost like a pre-playoff exhibition tournament.

As a Red Sox fan, of course, I'll take the increased margin for error.

Time for Some Campaignin'

In the spirit of bipartisanship, I offer this to everyone of any political persuasion for your viewing pleasure (click on the picture to view):

Please Do Your Bounding Part to Save the Planet

Actually, global warming stopped ten years ago and the planet has entered a cooling trend. But isn't it time we expanded our meat repertoire? [Courtesty BBC online news.]

The methane gas produced by sheep and cows through belching and flatulence is more potent than carbon dioxide in the damage it can cause to the environment.

But kangaroos produce virtually no methane because their digestive systems are different.

Dr George Wilson, of the Australian Wildlife Services, urges farming them.

He says they have a different set of micro-organisms in their guts to cows and sheep.

Sheep and cattle account for 11% of Australia's carbon footprint and over the years, there have been various proposals to deal with the problem.

Now Dr Wilson believes kangaroos might hold the answer.

He said: "It tastes excellent, not unlike venison - only a different flavour."

Manny's Gone

Manny Ramirez was traded from the Red Sox to the Dodgers last week. Tim Abbott has some thoughts on how to tell the kids.

Emily gave her heart unconditionally to Manny Ramirez.

I haven't yet had the heart to tell her he's gone....

Emily fell for Manny at first sight. How could she not? He was not the silent leader, brilliant behind the plate but woeful beside it. He was not the fleet-footed infielder, that springbok in a herd of wildebeest. No, she loved the class clown, charismatic and cute in his baggy uniform and oh so free and easy. I knew with certainty what every father of a tender-hearted daughter learns; this love would end in heartbreak, and there was nothing I could do to spare her. Perhaps postpone it for a day, but no more....

Will her love turn to loathing, her tender heart tenderized with a 33 oz bat? Will she carry a torch even as he wears the Dodger Blue? Or will she, with the wellsprings of an 8-year-old's empathy, somehow see through the casual clown to the tears within...?

I can tell her that this will pass, and share my own stories of Red Sox hope and heartbreak. I can hope that she falls for that nice kid Pedroia, or wingfooted Ellsbury. None of that will matter. Her heart is her own. It will find its way.

Play ball.

Mine was Carlton Fisk. And Freddie Lynn. But then I learned my lesson and came to acknowledge the Seinfeldian truth that we really just cheer for laundry. At least that's what we like to tell ourselves.

A Memory Revisited

Way back in the early '80s, HBO used to show video shorts between movies, and one of them (which I only recall seeing once) really made an impression on me. So much so that I've found it coming to mind from time to time ever since.

Well, wouldn't you know, YouTube has "Arcade Attack" in both the long and cut to the good part versions. It's clearly outdated, but it still holds up pretty well.

Now if somebody would post episodes of Under the Mountain, perhaps I could start making sense of my childhood...

Senator Whitehouse in Action on the Judiciary Committee: Tackling the Important Issues

[Starts at minute 4:50]

Fair Is Fair

Wholly with the intention of making light of an increasingly threatening strain in the opposition's demeanor, I offer the following for your chuckling amusement. The sad thing is that the picture isn't doctored. The redeeming thing is that it's thirteen years old. (Fortunately, the hairstyle simply wasn't possible in Rhode Island's Ocean State atmosphere.)

(The Photoshop bonus challenge would be to blend the picture with the source of this post's title, which dates me even more than the picture.)

There's More to Life...

Yes, politics, wonkery, ideology are part of the AR raison d'etre, but Peter Robinson lends some nice perspective:

Opening my in box just now for the first time in some 30 hours, I found several emails asking if I’d like to comment on Barack Obama’s speech this afternoon. I missed it. When the senator rose in Berlin, I was in Brunswick, Maine, joining my oldest son and daughter on a tour of Bowdoin. A compact, exquisite campus dominated by several elegantly simple brick halls from the late eighteenth century and a series of imposing stone structures from the nineteenth. Oaks on the central green and dark, aromatic pines on the edges of the campus. Lowering skies. Gusting sea breezes. Tablets commemorating Hawthorne and Longfellow, and a fine bronze statue of Joshua Chamberlain, the professor who commanded the 20th Maine at Gettysburg, saving Little Round Top—and the Union. And, through an open window somewhere, the sounds of a violinist practicing for the summer music festival.

As Jeff Hart once remarked, life consists of more, thank God, than politics.

I'm sure this resonated with me because I'm a Maniac myself and spent many-a day on the "campii" of various small Maine colleges attending sports camps (or meetings) of one sort or another while growing up. Of course, as a kid focused on training for a sport, I didn't appreciate the aesthetics then as much as I do now. Politics has its place, but we should be wary of having our lives swing into orbit around a political sun.

Fenway: Should You Have to Be This Tall To Get In?

Over at Not For Nothing, Ian Donnis raises the critical question of youngsters - real young youngsters - at the ball park.

In the course of a recent discussion of Pink Hats (male and female), some of the hosts on WEEI vented about what they called an excess of babies and toddlers during games at Fenway, as well as too many fans who are utterly oblivious to the game and/or ignorant about Sox history.

N4N had the good fortune to be there yesterday for the 2-1 win that moved Boston into first place, ahead of the Rays. And, yes, there were three toddlers (all under three years old) within about 15 feet of me, causing a stream of anxiety about whether they'd provide a caterwauling soundtrack for Dice-K's start.

To his credit, the 13-month-old to my left tolerated the afternoon heat in RF Box 87 like a champ, without benefit of a few of those $7.50 cups of Sam Adams, and the other kids weren't bad, other than being cute and vying for occasional attention.

Still, let's be real, people. Do children under six really belong at a baseball game? Are they even going to remember it? Are their caretakers going to spend too much time fussing about them instead of mulling Youk's VORP?

Cleaning the Attic

Time to clean out the "To do" link "attic" I keep handy. So, before they vanish into the ether, here are some that may be interesting to others.

Part I: Politics and Economy

Obama, Shaman by Michael Knox Beran:

Obama-mania is bound in the end to disappoint. Not only does it teach us to despise our political system’s wise recognition of human imperfection and the pursuit of private happiness; it encourages us to seek for perfection where we will not find it, in politics, in the hero worship of a charismatic shaman, in the speciousness of a secular millennium.

But Obama is for school choice...and for union "card-checks," as Mickey Kaus mentions in his refutation of the same:

It seems to me that a) a tight 90s-style labor market and b) direct government provision of benefits (e.g. health care, OSHA) accomplishes what we want traditional unions to accomplish, but on a broader basis and without encouraging a sclerotic, adversarial bureaucracy that gets in the way of the productive organization of work.

A Newsweek report on the economic feasibility of oil shale.

Megan McCardle on Sweden, cultural homogeneity and the welfare state.

"A behavioral economist explores the interaction of moral sentiments and self-interest." Surprise! The guy who wrote about the "Invisible Hand" and The Theory of Moral Sentiments was on to something.

Part II: History

A piece on America's "special grace" :

If America has been given a special grace, it is because its founders as well as every generation of its people have taken as the basis of America's legitimacy the Judeo-Christian belief that God loves every individual, and most of all the humblest. Rights under law, from the American vantage point, are sacred, not utilitarian, convenient or consensual. America does not of course honor the sanctity of individual rights at all times and in all circumstances, but the belief that rights are sacred rather than customary or constructed never has been abandoned.

"The Paranoid Style Is American Politics" reminds that conspiracy theories have abounded in American politics since, and including, the American Revolution. Mentions one of my favorites, Bernard Bailyn.

How "luck" is an important, if often overlooked, factor in American History (or any History, for that matter). It's not all about conspiracy or inevitability.

A long and interesting piece on Herodotus and why he wrote his history (from the New Yorker--if you're not banning it or anything...).

Book review of Sean Wilentz's Age of Reagan.

A review of a book about the "Black Death."

Part III: Culture

A "conservative" review of Iron Man (I haven't seen it):

The fantasy wish-fulfillment that makes Iron Man so winning is not being a guy who can fly around and shoot fire from his robot suit. It's being the guy with all the money in the world, the guy who can afford to make that suit.

In "Cleavers to Lohans: The Downhill Slide of the American TV Family", Katherine Berry traces the devolution of "quality family TV" to the reduced importance of parental figures. (Isn't the Lohan show reality tv?).

"Violence and the Video Game Paradox," a fairly recent ProJo op-ed by Dr. Gregory K. Fritz:

...the boom in violent video games correlates with the sharpest decline in youth violence in many decades....The answer to this apparent paradox is that correlation does not prove causation.

But, says Dr. Fritz, parents should still pay attention!

Finally, Where'd Generation X go?

Dolphins on the Greens

Semi-retired columnist Dave Barry attended the Miami Dolphins' annual charity golf tournament a couple of weeks ago and files a report of sorts on the Dolphins, who apparently did not do so well last season.

I decided to go scout the Miami Dolphins on Monday, to see how they look this year. This is important, because the Dolphins represent South Florida's manhood, and last season we had the same community testosterone level as the audience for a Barbra Streisand concert. The Dolphins lost 15 games and won only one, which I believe was against Princeton.

So there's a lot of pressure on them to not suck so much this year. But the preseason news has been troubling, especially the feud between Jason Taylor and the Big Tuna.

[Click here for the entire column. Courtesy the Miami Herald.]

Happy Independence Day!!!

Plain Distraction

I have to admit a passing addiction to a Flash game called Swinging Ball. Simple, and yet somehow intriguing.

Rolling and swinging a simple line-drawing ball around puzzles brings to mind the importance of mechanics. The images could have been anything, really — Spider-man would have been one obvious trapping. I know nothing about game designing, but I wonder whether it's often done with boxes and balls and then fleshed out later, or whether it's just as easy to develop the fancy graphics in tandem with the coding of the gameplay.

Hit The Beach

Rhode Island beaches open this weekend.

In a couple of cartoons from last year, Charlie Hall reminds us to get our beach passes and warns us about beach ... perils.

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Turning the Nanny State to Your Advantage

Since it looks like the red light cameras are a go again, I wonder if some local entrepreneurial band will take a cue from Britain's The Get Out Clause and turn nanny-statism to their advantage:

Unable to afford a proper camera crew and equipment, The Get Out Clause, an unsigned band from [Manchester, England], decided to make use of the cameras seen all over British streets.

With an estimated 13 million CCTV cameras in Britain, suitable locations were not hard to come by.

They set up their equipment, drum kit and all, in eighty locations around Manchester – including on a bus – and proceeded to play to the cameras.

Afterwards they wrote to the companies or organisations involved and asked for the footage under the Freedom of Information Act.

"We wanted to produce something that looked good and that wasn't too expensive to do," guitarist Tony Churnside told Sky News.

"We hit upon the idea of going into Manchester and setting up in front of cameras we knew would be filming and then requesting that footage under the Freedom Of Information act."

Only a quarter of the organisations contacted fulfilled their obligation to hand over the footage – perhaps predictably, bigger firms were reluctant, while smaller companies were more helpful – but that still provided enough for a video with 20 locations.

"We had a number of different excuses as to why we weren't given the footage, like they didn't have the footage. They delete after a certain amount of time, so if they procrastinate for long enough, they can claim it's been deleted," Mr Churnside said.

Here's a link to the video. As they say, "good on you" boys.

Bracing for Sunday's ProJo

... or, more specifically, what's-his-name's column, about which in recent months has been vocalized much disapproval from several quarters.

It appears that Charlie Hall would not disagree.

News"flash": 1918 Series Win Tainted?

Some recently discovered documents indicate that the Chicago Black Sox of 1919 may have been "inspired" by the Chicago Cubs of 1918. You know, the team that lost to the Boston Red Sox...

[I]n the gambling scandal that never was, the '18 Cubs just might have laid down for that year's A.L. champ, the Red Sox....Now, it cannot be said for certain that gamblers got to the '18 Cubs. But Eddie Cicotte, pitcher and one of the eight White Sox outcasts from the '19 World Series, did say in a newly found affidavit he gave to the 1920 Cook County grand jury that the Cubs influenced the Black Sox. Cicotte said the notion of throwing a World Series first came up when the White Sox were on a train to New York. The team was discussing the previous year's World Series, which had been fixed, according to players. Some members of the Sox tried to figure how many players it would take to throw a Series. From that conversation, Cicotte said, a scandal was born....

The Cubs were 84-45 that year and serious favorites. Cicotte is not alone in suggesting they had been paid off. The lost diary of Charles Comiskey's righthand man, Harry Grabiner, supposedly indicates that the 1918 World Series was fixed. The reporting of baseball columnist Hugh Fullerton -- the man who eventually blew the whistle on baseball's gambling problem -- also suggested that something was afoul in 1918. Fullerton's accounts of those games repeatedly point out bizarre baserunning mistakes and defensive flubs.

The box scores support his descriptions. The Cubs were picked off three times, including twice in the decisive Game 6. That game was lost, 2-1, on a 2-run error by Cubs right fielder Max Flack. Game 4 had been tied, 2-2, in the eighth inning, when Cubs pitcher Shufflin' Phil Douglas gave up a single, followed by a passed ball, followed by an errant throw on a bunt attempt that allowed the winning run to score.

So that Yankee fan "1918" chant may have been wrong. And as for the so-called Curse....

A Dilbert Delay

It's too bad today's Dilbert cartoon wasn't published in closer proximity to the percentage of a percentage debate here on Anchor Rising.

Although, the stink eye is much less effective in the comment sections than in a boardroom.

Transformation Complete: Yankees Become Red Sox of Old

OK, so a Sox-loving NYer buries a Big Papi shirt in the new Yankee Stadium concrete and fess's up. The NY Post's description of what happened is priceless, especially how new Yanks Boss Hank Steinbrenner "doesn't care".....

But it was the betrayal of his borough that elicited Bronx cheers from many Yankee fans - including the new Boss, Hank Steinbrenner.

"I hope his coworkers kick the s- - - out of him," said George's boy, who now runs the team with his brother Hal.

Hank put no stock in talk of curses or in Castignoli's cruel bid to hex the Yankees' new $1.3 billion home.

A buried jersey, he reassured worried fans, means nothing.

"It's a bunch of bull- - - -," Hank said.

But Castignoli scoffed at the top Yankee honcho's ready dismissal.

"So, then, why is he making such a big stink about it?" asked the would-be hexer. "If it's no big deal, why not let it lay? Apparently, it's bothering him.

"Tell Hank he can come meet me if he wants to try - and tell him to bring [catcher Jorge] Posada, because he's the one Yankee I can't stand."

Meanwhile, Yankee fans attending last night's game at Boston's Fenway Park cheered the find.

"Dig it up, and get it out of there," said Norberto Diaz, 35. "They should give the next guy $156 an hour to dig it up."

Yes, Steinbrenner didn't care to the extent that he had a few guys employ a jackhammer on 3 feet of concrete to remove the jersey. Whose afraid of a "curse" now?

Sox Start for Real Tonight

OK, technically they've already played two games that count, going 1-1, over in Japan. But the sorta surreal beginning to the season is over and the usual ebb and flow can now begin tonight in Oakland around 10 PM. Ian has more and the ProJo staff makes their picks. Me? They win the division, but they were pretty unscathed last year....I think injuries may play a factor in '08. So playoffs yes. Back to back? Nope. But there will be some summer nights spent with a good brew and the Sox and all will seem right in the world.

A New Island State?

New York Newsday columnist Ellis Henican has this to say about the budding movement (who knew?) to make Long Island into its own state…

We have deeply embedded corruption, ancient ethnic rivalries, even an NHL team - what else does a self-respecting state need these days?...

And what about the name? (Has anyone considered Long Island? It's no dumber than Rhode Island. Who's Rhode, anyway?)

2 out of 3 lets us keep our statehood here in RI, right?

Keeping Busy Until April 22

Writing in the Seacoast Online, "The Source for Seacoast NH and Southern ME", Dr. Electoralitis (Michael McCord) has a suggestion for political-heads who are in primary withdrawal until Pennsylvania.

Start an office pool.

Call it March-April madness and the point is to make sizable, risk-taking bets to revitalize the speculative muscles. The wagers could include:

1) How many ways will Hillary and/or her campaign find to demean states (and the voters in those states) she didn't win to make the Orwellian point that some states are more equal than others? Extra bonus point accrued when the total number of slights reaches more than 100.

2) Will Obama finally show the political courage to reject and denounce his middle name so he won't have to be fearful of Republican attacks if he becomes the nominee?

3) Will Florida and Michigan redo their primaries? Or will Hillary Clinton simply declare herself the winner and award herself all the delegates?

4) Make a futures bet on the combined average of the 1,648 polls that will publish results in the two weeks before the primary.

5) How many times will political talk show host Chris Matthews talk sentimentally about a Philadelphia — the city of brotherly love and fantastically corrupt ward bosses — that no longer exists? The over/under is 912.

6) How will the Pennsylvania Amish vote break?

7) How many times will pundits say "make or break" about Hillary Clinton's latest last stand? The over/under is 1,336,557.

8) Bet on the number of campaign staff members who will say nice things about their opponent — such as: "There is no way Sen. Obama could be a monster" or "Sen. Clinton's stature has nothing to do with being a lucky woman" — and have to resign in the next six weeks.

It's a Game; It's a Quiz

For some light, educational weekend entertainment, give Questionaut a try. Solve simple point-and-click puzzles in a well set world in order to spur the characters to quiz you on various topics so that you may rise to the next level.

Adults should find the questions pretty easy, but be aware that the makers are European, so certain differences may obtain (as, for example, with punctuation).

NRO's Double Agent

If you needed any further evidence that National Review Online's Jonah Goldberg is a left-wing double agent tasked with distracting and immobilizing thirty-something conservatives, look no farther than this post, into which he slyly slips a link to 100 classic Nintendo games playable online.

Well, I suppose it has been awhile since I won CastleVania.

If I'm Tearing Up...

.. it must be the glass that I'm chewing. It certainly couldn't have anything to do with a song about dancing with one's daughter before "the clock strikes midnight."

I pass this along because I'm not sure how many New Englanders allow their radio dials to pause on 91.1FM. It's an "inspirational" station. [Whisper] That means "Christian."

Senator Pichardo and the After Hours Dog

This is possibly an insignificant incident but too fun to pass up.

"Do you know who I am?"

One of my favorite expressions, often used by an elected official or semi-famous person in a jam or trying to get his or her way. Generally delivered in an imperious rather than a tactful tone, it is a wonderful statement because it instantly conveys something quite different than the speaker intends.

Intended message: "I am an important person. How dare you question or hinder me?"

Received message: "I am a jackass."

This MSNBC link to a Turn to Ten I-Team story does not report whether State Senator Juan Pichardo (D-Pawtucket) actually used that phrase during his attempts to get into a closed hot dog restaurant in Olneyville shortly after 1:00 am last week. But when a New York Systems Wieners' staffer informed Senator Pichardo that he could not be allowed into the restaurant because it was closed, he certainly made it clear who he was, flashing his i.d., emphasizing his elected rank and insisting that he be let in to eat. In his own words:

"I would like to see if I could eat inside," Pichardo said. "He said, 'Well, we're closed.' I said, "Well, there's still some people there.' I said, 'I'm a state senator.'"

It worked, though with attendant commotion. When the Senator was finally inside, restaurant regular Scott Bonelli pointed out to the Senator and then to Jim Taricani that Pichardo was

using his position of authority for an embarrassing reason, to be seated at a hotdog joint at quarter past one [in the morning]

And Greg Stevens, the restaurant's owner, said

I'm not commenting on this incident; but in general, it's inappropriate for politicians to abuse their office.

You know, there are some smart people in Olneyville.

UPDATE - The Pichardo Card

Helen Glover at 920 WHJJ recommends an excellent new product.

(Thanks to Helen's producer Tim Staskiewicz for the heads-up.)

The Baseball Steroid Thing

Yeah, I caught quite a bit of the dog-and-pony show that was the Congressional hearing on steroids. On one hand, I agree with those who wonder why Congress is wasting time and money looking into it. On the other, I'm glad they are wasting their time (if not the money) on this and not screwing something else up. As for what we learned? Well, that people lie, some better than others and sometimes liars tell the truth about their lying and sometimes they don't. If you believed Rogahhh or The Accuser going in, you probably felt the same way going out (though most people--and body language experts--think Rogahhh came off bad). The only burning question that remains: How the hell did this become a partisan issue, with all of the Republicans seemingly siding with Rogahhh and the Democrats siding with The Accuser?

Snow Storm Arrival - Update

They had said it would arrive at 2:00 pm this afternoon. Now it's projected to arrive at 6:00 pm, thereby pre-empting the opportunity for work day mayhem.

Nevertheless, this is the radar loop to track the storm.

And for those of us working until 6:00 or later today, here are DOT highway cameras to keep an on traffic, road conditions and to map our route home via bread-and-milk sources.

Looking for a Good Beer?

If your looking for a good quality beer sometime over the weekend, Ian may have some pointers for you as he discusses Rhode Island's contributions to the burgeoning craft beer movement. He also places craft beer making (and imbibing) into a wider social and cultural context:

... the craft beer movement represents meritocracy at work, since small brewers — thanks to the quality of their products and the ensuing consumer demand — are succeeding in an industry still dominated by the majors. In this respect, supporting the efforts of small brewers, even if many drinkers might not think of it just so, is a pint-sized vote for variety.

Plus it tastes good. Cheers!

Now We're Getting Lost Somewhere

I think they're managing to bring Lost back from the dead.

That is all.

The Political Game

Think you've got what it takes to win an election? Well, try your hand at a campaign flash game. (It would have been better if the candidates had different attacks...)

U.K. to Release U.F.O. Files

Rejoice, flying saucer buffs. Following the example of France this past March, the British Ministry of Defense is releasing its U.F.O. files.

The public opening of the MoD archive will expose the once highly classified work of the intelligence branch DI55, whose mission was to investigate UFO reports and whose existence was denied by the government until recently. Reports into about 7,000 UFO sightings investigated by defence officials - every single claim lodged over the past 30 years - are included in the files, whose staged release will begin in spring.

The decision to release Whitehall's full back-catalogue of UFO investigations was taken last month after the Directorate of Air Space Policy, the government agency responsible for filtering sensitive reports, gave its permission to publish the biggest single release of documents in MoD history.

One of the items that will be looked for in these files is the location or disposition of the radar film of this incident:

Another case reported to the intelligence branch DI55 - Britain's version of the 'Men In Black' - chronicles a series of reports sent to RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, by the crew of a Vulcan bomber on exercise over the Bay of Biscay early on 26 May 1977. According to documents seen by The Observer, five crewmen, including the captain, co-pilot and navigators, watched 'an object' approach their aircraft at 43,000ft above the Atlantic. The mysterious craft then appeared to turn and follow their precise course from a distance of four miles.

Initially, the crew said the object resembled landing lights 'with a long pencil beam of light ahead' but as it turned towards them the lights suddenly went out leaving a diffuse orange glow with a bright fluorescent green spot in its bottom right-hand corner. Then, according to signals sent back to Scampton, the crew noted a mystery object 'leaving from the middle of the glow on a westerly track... climbing at very high speed at an angle of 45 degrees'.

Followers of the U.S. Presidential race will be watching to see if Dennis Kucinich takes time off from campaigning this spring to do some research.

One of a Kind in the East Bay

Nobody who knows him will have any difficulty picking out the quotation from Rocco DiPippo from the Sakonnet Times's "Who said it?" list of "memorable quotes overheard around our cities and towns in 2007":

1. "I even ate sugared grasshoppers at a Sportsmen's banquet in Maine."
2. "I had no thoughts in my head except to kill the first guy that got into that car."
3. "I'm just in love with that girl and my wife is cool with it ... I think."
4. "I know a little something about this Valentine's Day thing. Every once in a while my wife reminds me that I have to do something."
5. "God, we give you thanks for both the chicken and the egg."
6. "I've seen more skin than the public toilet seat!"
7. "Don't ever — ever — rob a bank. I'm dead serious. Don't even be an accessory, like driving the car."
8. "The wig, man. I'm sweating."
9. "People who hated me before are hating me now."
10. "When you rest, you rust."
11. "I annoy my boss."
12. "I hid under my desk. Everybody was gaping at me."
13. "Please don't take the cows away."

A Mythical Rejection Slip

Official Notification of the Contest Judges
December 31, 1987

Dear Mr. Morse:

Thank you for your submission to our "Future of New England" essay contest. Unfortunately, we are unable to include your submission in our final collection. While your extrapolations about New England becoming a world-class leader in the areas of alternative energy (especially wind power), transportation infrastructure, and convenient access to health care are all reasonable in light of the region's noble traditions of progressive development, your predictions that the Red Sox will one day rebound from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the New York Yankees in an American League Championship Series en route to a World Series victory and that the Patriots will have a 16-0 regular season are simply too fantastic to be believed.

Best of luck with your future endeavors.

Help for the Last Minute Christmas Shopper Courtesy of George Washington

For the second year in a row, I predict more mayhem than usual for last-minute Christmas shoppers. Christmas this year falls on a Tuesday, meaning that all of the slackers who waited until the last weekend before starting their shopping (I've heard that such people exist) are going to realize within the next 48-hours that they have only Monday as a buffer, if they can't finish up everything they need to do by Sunday. The result will be both more intense shopping activity than usual during the weekend-proper, and an entire sum of week-of-the-holiday shopping desperation packed into a single day before Christmas.

From this point forward, for help in surviving the commercial aspects of the Christmas season, I recommend the eggnog recipe favored by the First President of the United States, George Washington…

• One quart cream
• One quart milk
• One dozen tablespoons sugar
• One pint brandy
• 1/2 pint rye whiskey
• 1/2 pint Jamaica rum
• 1/4 pint sherry

Mix liquor first, then separate yolks and whites of eggs, add sugar to beaten yolks, mix well. Add liquor to mixture drop by drop at first, slowly beating. Add milk and cream, slowly beating. Beat whites of eggs until stiff and fold slowly into mixture. Let set in cool place for several days. Taste frequently.

Er, after re-reading the recipe, let me be sure to be clear: I am only recommending the frequent tasting of our first President's eggnog recipe after a safe return home from your Christmas shopping!