September 14, 2004
A La Recherche Watch
This evening I caught part of a Dave Letterman rerun on the Trio Channel. It was a 1986 show featuring Jonathan Winters, viewer mail and Kevin Sandborne sitting in with Paul and the Band.
Damn, thems was the days. I don't watch much tee-vee and never have. But in the mid-80's when I was in college, Thursday night was a solid NBC lock. Remember that?
8:00 - The Cosby Show. (Before it got weird.)
8:30 - Family Ties. (Ditto.)
9:00 - Cheers. (Okay, I thought Shelley Long was seriously hot in a repressed-English Major way. We were all extremely emotionally involved over whether she and Sammy would ever get together.)
9:30 - Night Court. (I must be the only person who preferred Ellen Whatsername to Markie Post.)
10:00 - Hill Street Blues. ("Let's be careful out there." All police dramas since then pale in comparison.)
11:00 - 12:30 - Minimal study to skate through Friday classes. Or else just starting the weekend early. Oh, and don't forget to order the pizza.
12:30 - Dave Letterman. Viewer Mail night. How's it hanging? Sky-cam. Chris Elliot as the Guy Under the Seats. Throwing things off a ten story building. Bud Melman.
Classic.
Life Imitates MTV
This evening I climbed aboard my old Stairmaster for the evening workout. While I have a treadmill, I do the stairs about one out of every four or five times just to mix things up a bit.
Anyway, the Stairmaster is tucked away in my workshop in the basement. The only light in there at the moment is provided by a couple of elderly flourescent bulbs that no longer can reach full illumination, but instead produce a subdued glow punctuated by flickers of full light.
As is often my habit, I popped Duran Duran's Decade CD in as suitable workout music. The effect was rather interesting. Here you had this goofy, at times dreamy 80's music, coupled with light that bore a remarkable resemblance to lightning on a sultry summer's night. I figured there must be a video in there somewhere.
This got me thinking about the hey-day of MTV. (Full disclosure: I haven't watched the damn channel in over 15 years, so don't really know what I'm talking about.) I used to see it sometimes in college in its first, fresh, vibrant phase. Looking back, I can only remember a few videos that I liked. Here, to the best of my memory, is the list:
- The Police: Every Breath You Take. (Sting bashing rows of candles for no apparent reason.)
- The Police: Little Black Spot. (If memory serves, the black spot looked more like a distant pterodactyl than anything else.)
- Men At Work: It's A Mistake. I just remember that shot of the guys walking along a road in camo and thinking that I wish I had a bush hat like that.
- Falco: Rock Me, Amadeus. Don't even ask. It was a favorite among my crew buddies. Steve-O knows.
- Sam Kinneson covering Wild Thing. 'Nuff said.
- Thomas Dolby: Airhead. I was a Dolby geek up through Aliens Ate My Buick, then sort of lost interest.
Okay, you know what's coming. What were your favorites?
Gratuitous Llama-ette Posting
This is what happens when I razz one of my children (see below):
- I got home this evening and my six year old came running out as I fetched the mail. The first thing she told me was that she had played some sort of sweepstakes game on a cereal box to win a Jimmy Neutron playhouse and lost. (Sorry! Play again! was the result she had got.) She didn't mind at all, she said, because she already has a very nice playhouse and didn't want to be greedy about things. (Swack!)
- She also was telling me again about the plans she and one of her friends have to set up a lemonade stand in the neighborhood. The latest twist is that she plans to donate all the money she earns to charity "to help people who don't have anything to eat." (Swish-Swack!)
- By a nice coincidence, the book her new teacher is reading to her class is C.S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew. I say this because I read this book to her not a month ago. At bath time this evening, she was opining about what a spineless coward Uncle Andrew was for forcing someone else to try the magic rings instead of trying them himself. (Pow!)
- For story time, we currently are reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe for the third time. This evening, the girl insisted on reading a passage to me herself. I am reasonably certain that she had been practicing, because she had not just the words but the inflection down to a tee. (Game, set and match.)
Friends, there are plenty of times when I want to strangle the child but I am just overwhelmed by all this.
Evil Spock Universe News Update
Rusty drives the Sandcrawler into a ditch---empty tequila bottles, open cans of paint thinner, and 23 empty tubes of Testors model airplane glue found in the back.
My best advice is: leave the substance abuse to the experts, Rusty, those of us with tenure!
Seriously, though, I think the strategy of generating linkage by being the one-stop-shop for Islamic terrorist snuff films is backfiring on morale......
Hedging the bets
Larry Sabato, one of the most astute political analysts around, is starting to give credence to the idea that the election results might not be all that close:
By and large, 2004 is not about the Democrats, but Bush has still had some success already in typecasting John Kerry as a classic liberal, elitist Massachusetts Democrat. Kerry's weaknesses, and a recovering economy, can give Bush hope. At the same time, everything so far suggests that the 2004 presidential contest will be exceedingly competitive, hard-fought (nasty, that is), and possibly close. (Since America has not had two consecutive close presidential elections since the four elections between 1876 and 1888, we wonder if November will really turn out to be a squeaker.)
This is a different trend than what he saw a month ago (which I foolishly failed to blog and link at the time), in which he argued that everything would have to break perfectly for a Bush reelection.
For the Senate races, of the six unsafe Democratic seats he has two going to the Republicans (Georgia and South Carolina), three "toss-ups" (Florida, Louisiana and South Dakota), and only one staying with the Democrats (North Carolina). For the Republicans, they have five unsafe seats, but Sabato projects two staying with the Republicans (Oklahoma and Pennsylvania), two "toss-ups" (Alaska and Colorado), with only Illinois switching to the Democrats.
We'll stay tuned.
Danger Will Robinson! Danger! Danger!
Robbo has discovered how to upload pictures and paste them into the blog, as indicated by the posting below.....
RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!
I think we are about to be indulged by Robbo's, er, Mia Hamm fetish...
Lil' Llamas Secret Decoder Message and Response for the Day...
Yahoo search entry that brought a reader here: leprechauns don't play fetch compare the specials
Our reply: Admiral, the kumquats filibustered tithes of waving melodies. Proceed to ogle the banshees as planned.
That is all.
Gonna Be A Loooong Season....
I happen to think Gregg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback is the all-around best weekly football column out there and no, it isn't just because of his obsession with cheer-babes. He's funny, caustic and right - the perfect, er, post hoc quarterback.
Given this, however, I kinda shudder about what he might do to us this year, especially after our miserable opening day.
Maybe the 'Fins should all start wearing glasses. You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses on, would you?
Electronic Political Futures Market Update
At British firm Tradesports.com:
Bush reelect: $63.0 (total volume of contracts 503,301)
Kerry elected: $35.2
Bush wins popular vote: $59.6 (up $4.6 today, up from $42 one month ago)
Kerry wins popular vote: $42.0 (down $3.0 today, down from $57 one month ago)
Here's the lifetime chart for the Bush Re-elect contract:
UPDATE: Baby Seal Club has the polling roundup. Biggest surprise: New Jersey has Bush within the margin of error behind Kerry (46-43).
However.....
here's what Tradesports has on the contract "Bush wins electoral votes of NJ"
For comparison, here's Ohio:
and Florida:
two states Bush needs to win to get to 270 in the Electoral College.
Hurricane Llama-Ette
Pursuant to my post below, here is my eldest already busy trying to drown me a couple weeks back.
(This is my very first picture post, btw.)
Neener, neener!
Kathy is bitching about being left off the list of hurricane names for the forseeable future.
Well, no Roberts there, of course, but I'm delighted to see my oldest girl makes the list for 2009. Lessee, that will make her eleven at the time, probably just teeing up for pre-adolescence.
Catgory 5. I'd bet money right now.
This is Just Wrong
Jessica Simpson to play Daisy Duke.
The whole concept of a movie version of The Dukes of Hazzard - with different people playing the characters - is just plain wrong. Wrong, wrong. wrong.
Give me just one example of a really successful movie remake of an iconic television series. Just one. Jeesh. Might as well get Leonardo DiCaprio to play Jim Kirk, David Spade to play Gilligan and Pamela Anderson to play Mary Richards while we're at it.
BTW, I still haven't got the faintest idea who this Jessica Simpson person is anyway.
What the.....?
I was going to post this picture, and then decided not to. Life's too short, and for a llama, I'm a chicken.
I link, you decide.....
(totally work safe, just absolutely ridiculous).
Make the Voices Stop, Dave!
I'm working on a project that involves the hiring of management level employees. As I sit here trying to proofread several docs I have to turn in today, I am bedevilled by the voice of Eric Idle yelling, "Manager! Manager!" in the Michael Ellis episode of Monty Python.
Despite the absense of John Cleese, I've always thought this was one of the best Flying Circuseseses ever. The Victorian Poetry Reading bit is a family favorite and we routinely speak of William Wadsworth, Percy Bysshe, Mr. John Coot and Alfred Lord Tennisball. Tea and pramwiches, anybody?
I really think I need to see somebody......[I assure you you do, Mr. Ellis - Ed.]
Your official Llamabutcher "Why is Hillary smiling?" update
Nader ordered on the ballot in Florida.
Eerily lifelike.
UPDATE: More smiles for Hillary, as the AP declares "Despite Edwards, NC Leans Republican."
Holy crap!
An important rule of media dynamics is when an attack on a candidate fails (as the Bush/AWOL story has, spectacularly), then there is an almost inevitable reaction against the other candidate on the same general issue: if he's clean as a whistle, fine, but if there's any potential of a story, watch out. Is it fair? Absolutely not. But it's the media's version of the law of thermodynamics calling for every action to have an equal and opposite reaction.
We wrote about this back on February 24th:
The second mistake was his "How dare you talk about Vietnam" letter of yesterday. I think this is why reports that his campaign was less than pleased with Terry MacAuliffe's playing of the Bush National Guard card so early make sense: the story raged for a week, but then burned out for lack of, well, substance. However, stories like that never just die--they tend to then rebound and lash back at the other side. In this case, it's not Kerry's service in country that's the problem, but rather what he did when he got home with the "Junkie Vets," as many referred to the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Kerry needed to get his image and perceptions set with the public before the story inevitably turned to the early 1970s, which he then could distance himself from. Instead, he now has to address this issue as most of the general public is getting their first full look at him. So which is he--the saluting guy with the medals in his ads, or the long haired guy throwing his medals over a fence? The problem is for Kerry that he's both: and this whole point of Kerry's having it both ways is the opening move that the Republicans are going to make on him. Worse, he's got himself in a classic two-front bind--by opening up on Bush and Vietnam, his party's leaders in effect kicked off the general election campaign before Kerry had sewed up the nomination. Terry Mac "misunderestimated" Dubya once again: they thought if they opened up on Bush and the Guard, that he wouldn't respond, at least until later. It's insane in politics to make such an assumption--they should only have raised the Guard issue if they had the proof of their charges. Instead, they've accidentally started the general election, but in a way that's going to hurt Kerry. John Edwards doesn't have to go negative on Kerry: Dubya's folks are going to do that for him. The last element to this is that letter's such as Kerry sent have the opposite effect: instead of focusing the issue back on Bush, they in effect call in the fire on Kerry himself. Kerry--if he becomes the nominee--might have to run not only against Dubya and Ralph Nader, but also against the haggard long haired John Kerry of 1971. And that's not the way to win 270 electoral votes.
Reviewing the story on April 27th, we said this:
That's why Terry Mac starting the general campaign boasting about John Kerry's "chestful of medals" and attacking Bush for being AWOL [without the proof to seal the deal] was politically insane.As I said yesterday, it's almost as if Terry Mac wants Kerry to lose.
Oh, yeah, I forgot....
So, what does this mean? Say hello to more prime time coverage for the Swift Vets who, after establishing that John Kerry has lied for years about being in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968, and causing the Kerry campaign to concede the basic issues over the first purple heart, are now zeroing in on the Silver Star, as their charge that Kerry had written the after-action report are now confirmed.
I confess I misunderestimated this angle--I thought it was insanely foolish to pursue this story. Now, I'm having real doubts. If any of this sticks, Kerry's toast. And if it's true, there'll be no helping him.
HEY, hey, hey!
TRAGEDY struck suburban Nashville Sunday as diners at the Golden Corral's $3.99 All-U-Can-Eat Sunday brunch buffet were subjected to a deranged Al Gore who, under the influence of gravy, mistook the gathering for a political rally, and proceeded to harrangue the diners with his views on global warming, flatulence, and the Chimperor's meglomaniacal desire to rid the world of safe, decent, affordable pecan pie.
After twenty minutes, Al was led away by Tipper and a group of orderlies from the Shady Grove Rest Home disguised as Secret Service Agents.
Ranking Game
This is a cool little game for anyone wanting to take a break from RatherGate this morning. The lists started out in alphabetical order. I switched them to reflect my preferences in order of rank. Now it's your turn:
1. Reagan, Bush II, Bush I, Clinton [Of course, the verdict is still out on Dubya, depending on what happens his second term.]
2. Jerry, Elaine, Kramer, George
3. Coke, Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi [Not that I drink any of it.]
4. Ringo, Paul, John, George [Ringo wins for his work as the Stationmaster on Thomas the Tank Engine.]
5. Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Mickey Dolenz [at least Nesmith has a modicum of talent, even if he's a tool.]
6. Fonzie, Richie, Potsy, Ralph
7. NKJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV [Actually, it's straight King James Version for me and be damned to all substitutes!]
8. Blanche, Dorothy, Rose, Sophia [Golden Girls. Never watched 'em. No preferences.]
9. Superman, Superman II, Superman III, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace [Actually, didn't like any of them.]
10. Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Rocky V [Actually, never SAW any of them.]
11. Luke, Matthew, John, Mark
12. Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Job, Proverbs
13. Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Numbers [Half of these books are a gripping account of a people's cultural and religious history. The other half are about as exciting as reading the Code of Federal Regulations.]
14. Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Aquaman
15. Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White [Snow White always annoyed me with that damn trilly voice.]
16. Chandler, Joey, Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Ross
17. Linus, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Peppermint Patty [Sorry, Sir!]
18. Baseball, Football, Soccer, Basketball
19. Hardees, McDonald’s, Burger King, Jack in the Box
20. Donald Duck, Goofy, Mickey Mouse, Pluto [Truth be told, I really don't like any of 'em.]
Yips! to Jordana at Curmudgeonly, who picked it up from Thinklings.