For the week of:
Saturday, September 29, 2001
From Reuters: "Half of New Jersey residents say they have no objections to authorities monitoring their phone conversations or e-mail in the wake of the Sept. 11 attack on neighboring New York City, a survey said on Friday. Fifty percent of respondents said 'yes' when asked if they themselves would be willing to have their e-mail read or telephone tapped without a warrant, said Cliff Zukin, director of the Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers poll. 'That struck me as high,' he said."1:47 PM...yes? []
Thanks to Matt at Scrubbles for the pointer to Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research Co. Beck is the co-author, with Will Friedwald, of "The Warner Brothers Cartoons" and "Loonie Tunes and Merrie Melodies," essential guides to the world of WB cartoons.12:27 PMWallabies are running wild in southeastern Pennsylvania. We have no desire to irresponsibly inflame an already tense situation, but if you're reading this in or near Ambler, PA, please be aware that the description of the animals in this wire story is partially inaccurate. Wallabies are not 30-35 lbs and docile. Rather, they stand between nine and eleven stories tall, weigh anywhere up to sixteen tons, have huge steel teeth, shoot laser death rays from their eyes, and are irredeemably vicious. If you live in the Ambler area you might want to consider running, running for your very life. And don't forget the pancake breakfast at the volunteer firehouse next Saturday, Oct. 6!10:43 AM
Friday, September 28, 2001
New at halfbakery: the Outshoutable Alarm Clock. If I had any money and a rudimentary understanding of how stocks work and I wasn't so tired and listless all the time, I would buy stock in this.12:37 PMMan, if there's one thing I hate it's waiting for the Swedish Elvis's page to Laddar Siddan. (Via Davezilla.)12:29 PM"You know, honey, I've been pretty bored since the XFL folded, and the radio show and the guest shots on the WWF just aren't filling my days, so I'm gonna go do an acting gig on 'The Young and The Restless.' But I tell you what, if that doesn't give me enough to do I might have to go out and get a job or something."
12:11 PM...Saponification, by the way, is not unheard of in modern times.11:34 AMWords you don't want to hear a medical researcher say after looking at a CT scan of your long-dead body: "There's tons of stuff in there!" Granted, the "Soap Lady" is morbidly fascinating -- the 19th-century victim of a process called saponification, in which the fat layer changes into a waxy, soapy substance called adipocere ("Now with 62% more lanolin!"). But still, if I could offer just one bit of advice to Gerald Conlogue, a professor of diagnostic imaging at Quinnipiac University, it would be this: Wipe your chin and back away from the dead lady, pal.11:30 AM
Thursday, September 27, 2001
This is AP's account of Ari Fleischer's comment on Bill Maher's "cowards" remark. (See yesterday's Blather.) This is the official transcript of Fleischer's briefing. The difference? The transcript does not include the phrase "need to watch what they say," which is clearly audible on the White House's own sound recording. (Requires RealAudio -- skip ahead to 32:25). I can think of two possible interpretations for this, and only one is that it was an honest mistake. (Via Slate's Timothy Noah and MediaNews's Jim Romenesko).9:17 PMYears after the fact, the Nixon White House tapes continue to fascinate, amuse and repel. Here's a new excerpt, as quoted by Watergate figure John Dean in his book "The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment That Redefined the Supreme Court":"I don't think a woman should be in any government job whatever. I mean, I really don't. The reason why... is mainly because they are erratic. And emotional. Men are erratic and emotional, too, but the point is a woman is more likely to be.... I'm not for women in any job. I don't want any of them around. Thank God we don't have any in the cabinet."
Wait, it gets better. The subject of this conversation was the possibility of putting a woman on the Supreme Court in the hope of picking up one to two additional points in the 1972 election. So let's get this straight: Women in the Cabinet are bad. Women on the Supreme Court, where one would sit for life and mold legal precepts for generations to come, that's okay (as long as there was a payoff in it for the Prez, and he didn't have to -- ewwww! -- sit next to her). That's governance, baby. By the way, dig Dean's creepy, halfhearted apologia for Nixon -- who is, remember, dead, and presumably beyond any ability to exact vengeance: "It's the real Nixon. He's rolling up his sleeves. He's enjoying being president." (Requires free New York Times login and password.)2:50 PM11:28 AMIt's all so simple when you explain it to me: The Commerce Commissioner of Minnesota, the Hon. Jim Bernstein, told state legislators on Tuesday that consumers were to blame for $5-a-gallon price gouging on the night of September 11th. According to AP, Bernstein said "The truth of the matter is, all too many consumers on September 11th said, 'Mr. Retailer, gouge me'... Bernstein added that some station owners believed raising prices was the only way they could prevent themselves from running out of gas. 'They sincerely thought they were doing the right thing,' he said." Bernstein then left the state capitol, climbed into a brand-new Cadillac Escalade and drove away, stopping only to top off his tank with a "Free Gas For Life" card he "found in the locker room at my gym."
11:12 AMThe Library of Congress and the Internet Archive are joining forces to produce a digital snapshot of the Web in the hours immediately after the September 11th attacks.10:57 AMHere's great news: The Mercury News reports that gun sales have surged in California since September 11th. Which is good, because, you know, 1) there aren't enough cheap handguns on the street in California, and 2) if Osama bin Laden decides to launch an anthrax attack during the Rose Parade, people can shoot the hell out of the anthrax with their 9mm Smith & Wessons.10:32 AMPoorly-made, big-eyed shredded-paper-stuffed ragdolls... for victory!
(NOTE: I plan to do one item per day with the "[insert joke here]... for victory!" formulation until the War on Terrorism is won. Cheap gags... for victory! Oh wait, that's two.)10:23 AM
Wednesday, September 26, 2001
Get your pimp freak on, via the players at Boing Boing.6:56 PMUh oh: White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, commenting on "Politically Incorrect" host Bill Maher's remarks after the attacks: "There are reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like that; there never is."2:34 PMThe New York Times on the debate over what to do with the WTC site. A huge battle is shaping up over who will actually control whatever reconstruction occurs. But -- a hopeful sign, maybe -- a few people are beginning to talk about the process as an opportunity, not just a challenge. (Requires free login and password.)11:21 AMGee thanks, fellow Americans: It was probably predictable, but still seems awfully sad, that the old email hoax about the Klingerman Virus has resurfaced in the wake of the terrorist attacks.11:09 AMTodd McFarlane, the Canadian cartoonist who paid a little over $3 million for Mark McGwire's 70th-home-run ball, shows how it's possible to mix self-promotion, shrewd investment and misguided patriotism into one loathesome package.11:03 AMThe Gate's Mark Morford, who I am proud to steal from almost each and every morning, on why small acts of random viciousness feel especially painful right now (and why mandatory lobotomies for some people might not be a bad idea).10:58 AMAnnals of Discredited Transportation: David Grant, who co-piloted the Hughes Flying Boat with Howard Hughes, has died at 84. The eccentric zillionaire apparently picked him for the other seat because Grant, then an engineer at Hughes Aircraft, didn't know much about piloting (he didn't even have a pilot's license), and Hughes didn't want anybody giving him any backtalk during the 70-second flight. Footnote: Both Grant and Hughes hated the name which has come down through history for the aircraft: The Spruce Goose. Elsewhere (well, in Detroit), General Motors has announced that its Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird, two legendary American muscle cars, will go out of production next year. Age at death: 35. Reason for demise: too well-muscled. The basic formula for both cars -- a big honkin' V8 in what amounts to a cheap steel giftwrapping -- has never varied; while Mustang, the car Camaro and Firebird were invented to knock off, now sells over 70% of its units in a stripped-down and fuel-efficient V6.
10:39 AM
Tuesday, September 25, 2001
The promise of the future is here today -- Satellite radio, broadcasting with digital clarity coast to coast! (Only available in San Diego and Dallas-Ft.Worth.)5:16 PMWith everything that's going on the world these days, it seems worth taking just a moment to note that Liz Smith has lost her mind. (Thanks to Ron Givens for the link.)11:47 AMJane Farries of the excellent Not My Dog passes along this cartoon by Brian Gable of The Toronto Globe & Mail, on the topic of celebrities and war fever. (Select the image for 9/21.) Via Slate.9:54 AMEconomic ripples, Pt. 2: The take at Atlantic City casinos is way down since the attacks. A 73-year-old Philadelphian joked that he had been dragged to the Trump Marina casino "kicking and screaming. It's my birthday, and my daughter insisted that we come down despite the turmoil. We all have to go on." Slots and shrimp cocktails... for victory!
9:39 AMMan, the war coverage is getting good. On CNN this morning, Miles O'Brien could be seen gingerly backing down the ladder of an F-15 as if a misstep, and the 24-inch fall to follow, would kill him. And over on MSNBC, Ashleigh ("I'm on TV! I'm on TV!") Banfield apparently did such a good job covering Ground Zero that the network has sent her to... Islamabad. Hey, thanks, fellas. Concomitantly, she's lost her kicky blonde gal-on-the-town hairdo for a short, slicked-back and very brunette kind of fashion statement, a statement that practically screams "Take me seriously! And also, please don't stone me to death!" Keep watching...9:19 AM
Monday, September 24, 2001
Swedish medical researchers report that women who have used hair dye for more than 20 years may be at increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Reached for comment, author and editor Helen Gurley Brown said "Owww."7:26 PMIf you haven't stopped by there lately, World New York is doing an excellent job of gathering up reportage, pro and otherwise, from and about New York City.3:48 PMA study at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health found that teenage African-American girls who live with their mothers may be less likely to engage in sexually risky behaviors. The risky behavior that's most likely to be reduced: Having sex in your mother's house.3:38 PM"Oh, look, honey, how patriotic! Somebody stuck a couple of flags on thatAAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!" (This item and the previous one via Obscure Store.)3:16 PMIt isn't surprising that a Baltimore developer has scrapped plans to build first one, then a chain of disaster-themed Crash Cafes. The surprising part is that anybody ever thought this was a good idea.3:13 PMWebvan founder Louis Borders is offering $2.5 million for the back-end technology that controlled his former company's long, slow slide onto the ash heap of history. The sale must be approved by the bankruptcy court, which managed to keep a straight face long enough to hear the formal bid before walking, then running into chambers and erupting into uncontrollable giggles.
2:57 PMRealNetworks is introducing RealOne Player, an integrated application that will seize control of all media files on your computer at once, instead of piecemeal as in the past. "We felt it was inefficient to gum up MP3s with one application and WAVs with another," a RealNetworks spokescreature said this morning as he stole a reporter's watch. "No," he continued when questioned, "this is my watch. Yes it is. Oh yes it is. It is too."2:55 PM@Home is, well, not at home right now. With any luck Blather will return this afternoon.10:03 AM
Sunday, September 23, 2001
Victory Blog on the Americathon -- "Surprisingly not annoying: Mariah Carey. Her performance left me with an odd desire not to have her dropped from a tremendous height." More here.2:42 PMHere's a RealVideo stream of Jon Stewart's remarks on the first Daily Show after the attacks. Stewart is a professional smartypants and, as I've remarked in this space before, one of the quickest-witted people on TV. What makes this clip so moving is how unquick, how halting and human he is here. Thanks to Boing Boing for the link.12:16 PM
