All-purpose toddler explanation of how something that worked is now inoperative. Simple soundbite, sounds impressive, nonjudgmental, and a complete dodge.
Unimpressive, particularly in his shaky grasp of basic economics. He justified his plan to raise the capital gains rate as saying it would not affect those with retirement plans because the gains in the accounts are tax-deferred. The problem is, of course that raising the capital gains rate from the current 15 percent to 28 percent will hit every American right in his 401(k)/403(b)/IRA/pension plan by raising the cost of capital, depressing the market, and degrading the performance of everyone's portfolio.
Want to raise more revenue from capital gains? Cut the rate--works every time. Want to have "the rich" pay even more taxes? Cut the rate which will encourage more economic activities of the sort covered by capital gains, thus more taxable events. Ooops, can't do that--why that would be a tax cut for "the rich!" BTW, "the rich" seem to be everyone making more than $75,000 per year.
So last night Will Nieves gets his first major league homer - a walk-off ninth inning shot that wins the game against the Cubbies.
The eldest Llama-ette thought that was great.
A few minutes later Nieves is being interviewed by the MASN sports-babe. Before he can get two words out of his mouth, one of his team-mates sneaks up and smacks him in the face with a cream pie.
The eldest Llama-ette thought that was hi-larious.
Well, there's no suspense regarding the number one pick this year. The 'Fins have already locked up OT Jake Long and all that's left is the obligatory photo of him holding up the teal jersey with a big 'ol smile on his face.
A lot of teams are going to come up with some gold today as this appears to be a fairly deep draft class.
As a Giants fan, I am in unfamiliar territory. When was the last time New York went into a draft without any glaring needs? The best you could argue is that they would do well to find a strong DE in case Strahan decides to retire or to shore up their Secondary. All things being equal, GM Jerry Reese has the luxury of truly being able to go after the best player available.
There's still uncertainty as to whether or not Reese can pull off a nice picks trade for TE Jeremy Shockey, who's been injury prone and just doesn't seem to want to be in NY anymore. They should hold out for a premium pick or two or forget it. And if they do pull the trigger on a trade, than TE becomes a priority.
But, for the first time that I can remember, I can just sit back and watch Big Blue scoop up some decent talent for the future.
The clock is ticking...
Out mowing the little clearing beyond the back gate and trimming the various fence lines at Orgle Manor (neither of which tasks is included among those shoved off on my new summer helper) this afternoon. If the intensity of the bug activity is anything to go by, we're in for some par'full storming round here in the next 48 hours.
It is said that cows lie down before a storm. This I believe to be quite true based on my own empirical observation. Back in the day when the Missus was an undergrad at Sweet Briar, the school had its own working dairy and a herd of what must have amounted to several hundred head of cows. [Complete digression: Sweet Briar's colors are pink and green, the same pink and green trumpeted by Lisa Birnbach in The Official Preppy Handbook. While Sweet Briar had several references in TOPH, as did Hampster-Squidney Hampton-Sydney College, my school Washington & Lee, another Old Dominion preppy stalwart, did not. The story I heard was that Birnbach had an extremely messy break-up with somebody in the W&L administration and deliberately snubbed the school as a result.]
Where was I? Oh, yes: The dairy cows at SBC were absolutely infallible about approaching weather. If you saw them hunkered down, it simply was going to rain. No question about it.
'Course, now the girls there get drenched on a regular basis because the school had to get rid of the dairy shortly after the Missus left owing to the prohibitive expense of keeping up with the state's environmental regs. Too bad. Too bad.
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It's absolutely true. Low pressure fronts of the sort that come with a storm make the cows feel dizzy and this is why they lie down. Just drive on I-80 through Iowa when a front is coming through and you'll see there's nary a cow on its feet.
Yes, I have lived in the Midwest for way too long. Why do you ask?
Posted by: Kathy at April 25, 2008 06:02 PM (7Wsd0)
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They musta been hunkerin' real good for that may-jah rain we had the fall of '85. What a sight - cars up in the trees, the VMI footbridge bridge washed out, all the tin roofs peeled back. I think Hollins College was incapacitated for a month.
I read a fascinating fictionalized telling of the record-breaking 30-some inches of rain that fell in 5 hours in Nelson County in 1969 (the last of Hurricane Camille). Of the more than 100 people who died, eight were never identified or claimed. The book's actually not that great, but the premise is gripping. Imagine eight people, not missed or claimed by anyone? The book gives the eight names and stories, but it would make a great movie, I think, perhaps set in Katrinaville. It's called "One Day in August" by Charlotte Morgan. I wonder if there are non-fiction accounts of the flood....
Posted by: Monica at April 25, 2008 06:09 PM (7v9xV)
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Even though I went to one of those snooty TOPH schools (Colgate), my upbringing in rural VT ensured that I was a bovine Freud. Cows go to the ground when they sense an oncoming thunderstorm so as not to become live BBQ.
Posted by: Captain Ned at April 25, 2008 08:06 PM (2b8Uy)
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Monica - I read something about that Nelson County deluge, too. It sits in my mental file-o-facts right next to "When the moon comes over the mountain in Nelson County, it comes in quart jars."
Posted by: Robbo the LB at April 26, 2008 05:54 AM (PEgqL)
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Women could learn a lot from cows...a few years back (?) after a surprise and terrific storm in London, two young-ish women were found dead under trees at opposite ends of Hyde Park. There was no visible cause of death until they got the women unclothed at the morgue....
What the medical examiner saw (on each woman) was burn marks exactly replicating their underwire brazieres...He concluded that they had taken cover under the trees in the park...perhaps the most dangerous place to take cover --never do it on a golf course-- and then because their underclothes contained metal, it was literally a magnet for the electrical current...
We need to go back to using whale bones...
Posted by: Mrs. Peperium at April 26, 2008 10:50 AM (On3UH)
Regular reader Babs has been jerking my chain recently because I haven't posted about gardening at all yet this year. Well I certainly intend to return to it shortly (with pics if I can ever swipe the camera back from the Missus long enough). In the meantime, I will leave you with some tid-bits:
1. Did I mention that we actually found a neighborhood kid willing to mow the lawn for us? Woo Hoo!! I hope he's paying attention to teh weather forecast, tho, because it's supposed to storm tomorrow afternoon and the grass is already pretty high.
2. I have a ginormous Buddleia in the garden that I have nicknamed Kong. Last year, Kong got busy, with the result that lots of little Konglings sprouted up all around. I've dug up some of these and put them in half whiskey barrels on the patio and by the front walk this year. We'll see how they do - hopefully they won't become so mammoth in size as their progenitor.
3. I also got the idea to try pots of morning-glory on the back deck this year, letting them wind their way around the railing. The Missus' first reaction was, "Well how are you going to restain the deck?" Of course the answer is that I'm not. Silly Missus!
4. Last weekend I dug up some young raspberries for the headmistress at St. Marie of the Blessed Educational Method. I must say that I absolutely love the custom of people giving each other samples out of their gardens.
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3. I also got the idea to try pots of morning-glory on the back deck this year, letting them wind their way around the railing. The Missus' first reaction was, "Well how are you going to restain the deck?" Of course the answer is that I'm not. Silly Missus!
Indeed - why restain the deck when you can have pretty flowers covering it?
Posted by: diane at April 25, 2008 11:28 AM (jc9oB)
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I have hops covering my deck...same vine-y curling, but no flowers. The "cones" are pretty cool, though, and smell like, well, hops when you crush 'em in your hand. And they're perennial! The Japanese Beetles like to make whoopee in them, for some reason.
Posted by: Monica at April 25, 2008 01:05 PM (tuT1o)
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I do love sharing plants with others and getting a share from their gardens. It's obviously cheaper than going shopping, but it also means the plants sometimes come with stories.
And as for the buddleia -- I've always read that they were invasive, but have never seen any evidence of it in my own plants, but when we were in England, they were growing all over in places they obviously weren't planted. But if you're going to have an invasive plant, a pretty one that attracts butterflies isn't such a bad thing.
Posted by: Jordana at April 25, 2008 01:48 PM (QeLuW)
Pollen has returned to the Dee Cee area with its annual whoop and hollah, getting under my contact lenses and making me look like a drug addict. For some reason, as I was squinting and snuffing this morning while waiting around for my car to get inspected, a recurring thought popped into my head: Why the hell does the Nasonex Bee have a Spanish accent?
"Eet ees jess the thing for seasonal allerchies!"
I understand that in fact Antonio Banderras does the voice, although I wouldn't have thought he needed the money. But that still doesn't explain. What is the connection? Why would a bee talk that way? What gives? Is there a point?
I don't mind it that much - I really just don't get it.
Now when it comes to drug ads I do mind, certainly Viagra's aging boomers in matching bath-tubs is pretty annoying, but for downright creepiness I don't think anything matches Lunesta's Radioactive Butterfly of Death:
I'd be terrified to shut my eyes if I knew that thing was on the loose.
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The Burger King ads annoy and creep me out more than any others.
Posted by: Jordana at April 25, 2008 09:26 AM (QeLuW)
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Yup on those Burger King ads -- especially the one where the guy wakes up to find the Burger King in bed with him. Um, o.k., nothing wrong with that, it just doesn't make me want to eat a big whopper.
The bee is one of those africanized killer bees, that have come up to the US through Mexico. It's actually an anti illegal immigration ad.
Posted by: rbj at April 25, 2008 09:58 AM (ybRwv)
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I never got the bee thing either - unless it just means that Spanish-accented folk are to blame for the pollen. Which doesn't seem quite right. Of course, I've always questioned using a bee, which would by nature ENJOY pollen, as an anti-pollen reaction spokesanimal. (Though it makes more sense than bears using toilet paper.)
Regardless, know you're not alone in the whole looking like a drug addict because of pollen category. The entire Sleepy family, including the littlest, is also sporting that delightful look.
Posted by: beth at April 25, 2008 10:15 AM (AwZ3/)
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Maybe the idea of using the irritating bee (with an accent that makes you pay more attention to understand what is being said) prompts us consumers to buy Nasonex to get rid of it!!!! Buy the product to get rid of the allergies thus get rid of the bee. Yep, our family hates the accent as well. But the accented bee reminds us of an irritating relative from the extremely southern hemisphere who we wish would return there permanently! ;-)
As far as the bear in the woods using toilet paper, it occured to me one day that it ties to the old joke, "Does a bear sh*t in the woods" and connects on a sublevel of humor - thereby increasing your desire to buy because it touched your funny bone.
Yeah, I get a lot out of the psychology of selling. Have done my share of marketing, can you tell???
Posted by: JB in Florida at April 25, 2008 10:40 AM (S0z6q)
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See...I got in trouble as a kid for the bear in the woods thing - so we always used, "Does the Pope wear a funny hat?" Which, of course, doesn't help sell toilet paper at all.
Posted by: beth at April 25, 2008 11:13 AM (AwZ3/)
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You remind me of one of my favorite Thomas Dolby lyrics:
TB: "You ask me do I love you. Does the Pope live in the woods? Quod erat demonstrandum, baybee!"
Airhead: "Oooooh, you speak French!"
Posted by: Robbo the LB at April 25, 2008 12:15 PM (PEgqL)
The Nasonex adds annoy the hell out of me not mecause the bee has a latin accent, but because IT'S A MALE VOICE AND WORKER BEES ARE ALL FEMALE, DAMMIT!!!!!
Posted by: Boy Named Sous at April 26, 2008 12:38 AM (jiBuF)
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In the Lunesta ads, the creepy moth is a luna moth. And yeah, I get the alliteration, but did anyone at the drug company or the ad agency ever lay eyes on a luna moth? No. They didn't. Because they don't gently glide through the night, gracefully alight, and depart with the gracile loveliness of a ballet dancer.
Instead, the flap about, most spastically, resembling nothing so much as a crazed bat receiving repeated electrical shocks. They'll spend all night bouncing off anything light--a porch light, a caucasian face, a white t-shirt, the glow of moonlight in your eyeglasses...or your eyes. They are about the size of a three year old's hand, and just about as annoying.
Yeah. Luna moths. Lunesta. Right. If a luna moth should be associated with any drug, it should be something like crack or meth. Because nobody sleeps when there's a luna moth in the house.
I am currently reading Henry Knox: Visionary General of the American Revolution by Mark Puls. A jacket blurb by Joseph Ellis calls it "unquestionably the authoritative biography", but something tells me it is, in fact, probably the only biography.
The book is entertaining and informative so far, except that Puls makes assertions from time to time that, absent cites or more detailed explanation, one must take on a certain amount of faith. For example, Puls states that Knox's fondness for street-brawling in his yoot in Boston was a vent for his frustration over the abandonment of his family by his father and his own need to quit school and go to work to support his mother and younger brother. Well, maybe, but I generally like to see the proofs of such psycho-analysis.
Anyhoo, there are many other more concrete facts about Washington's great artillery chief that I simply did not know until now. Here are three of them:
1. Knox was an eye-witness to the Boston Massacre, apparently going so far as to (unsuccessfully) try and break things up before they got out of hand. He testified at the subsequent military inquiries and was praised by all parties for his behavior at the scene.
2. Knox married a woman named Lucy Flucker. I certainly hope her family name was pronounced "Flooker", because otherwise it would have been quite unfortunate.
3. Knox managed to shoot two fingers off his own left hand in a hunting accident in the early 1770's. He never appeared in public afterwards without a scarf or some other covering carefully wrapped around it.
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I believe he was a rope maker and gave critical testimony as to the intentions of the british officers and who actually gave the shoot order first. The things you learn while watching HBO! The John Adams miniseries began with that incident. Now I guess I am a geek too!
Posted by: Mrs. LMC at April 25, 2008 10:40 AM (XgaZ7)
Posted by: Robbo the LB at April 25, 2008 03:35 PM (PEgqL)
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I, too, have grave reservations whenever a writer tries to put historical figures on the couch. That's why I was so surprised by the new book (September, '07), For Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette and their Revolutions. Written by a man named Gaines who is a former editor of Time, Life and--are you sitting down?--People magazine, I was expecting lurid detail and loads of pop psychology. Instead Gaines counters the prevailing understanding of the Washingtton/Lafayette friendship by poo-pooing the whole surrogate-father interpretation, insisting that it belittles both men, reducing Lafayette's real esteem to a "sort of neuroses". I admit he also delves into the doings of a marginal character, one cross-dressing French spy who really has nothing to do with the story--going so far as to dedicate one entire glossy page of illusrations to him/her. But beyond that slip (so to speak) and an absence of any sort of overview or wrap-up at the end, a thoroughly enjoyable work.
Posted by: Mr. Peperium at April 26, 2008 11:55 AM (bHLoY)
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By the way, Robbo, you mentioned Joseph Ellis; have you an opinion of his stuff? I have thoroughly enjoyed everything I've read so far from his word processor (that includes Founding Brothers, American Creation and 140 pages of American Sphynx).
In spite of where he teaches I find him even-handed, plausible, insightful and even humorous. And he refuses to treat subjects like slavery and Indian policy with the usual sniffiness and lack of perspective that hampers other historians.
Posted by: Mr. Peperium at April 26, 2008 12:06 PM (bHLoY)
The next time somebody in a bar bets you that you can't name the first batter to hit a grand-slam homer in Nationals Park (and note to everyone, it's Nationals Park, NOT Nationals Stadium, dammit), you'll be able to say proudly, "Why, Jim, everyone knows it was Felipe Lopez of the Nats on April 24, 2008 against the Mets!" (Suck it, Gary!)
That oughta be worth a ten-spot at least.
Sorry - I seem to have baseball fevah.
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Well, twenty years from now you can sit in a bar and ask "When was the last year that the Nationals had a winning season series against the Mets?" and know that it's a trick question.
Cuz it won't have happened yet. ;-)
Posted by: Gary at April 25, 2008 07:30 AM (E8z8j)
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The Young Master and I will be attending a game at Nationals Park on the either May 2 or 3. Any suggestions on the best place to sit at a reasonable cost?
Posted by: the gripping hand at April 25, 2008 11:44 AM (qAl/k)
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Nope, haven't been yet. But I'm not really sure there is such a place. We just ordered tickets for a game against the Reds in early August. Five tickets, plus food & drink, plus transportation, plus miscellaneous - there's a reason we only go out once or twice per year as a family.
Posted by: Robbo the LB at April 25, 2008 12:18 PM (PEgqL)
Well, it finally had to happen. After having succesfully dodged and weaved for years and years, I have finally been assimilated into the Blackberry Collective.
Patrick O'Brian afficionados will recall a passage in one of the books in which Stephen Maturin plays a Mozart tune (or perhaps Jack plays and Stephen listens to) that he is sure must have been running through the head of the fellah who wrote the La Marseillaies.
In fact, it is from the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503.
Things That Would Make Michelle Malkin Go "Grrrrrrr..."
Why is it that my local soopermarket feels it necessary to have two separate sections, one devoted to "Hispanic food" and the other to "Tex-Mex", while it lumps pretty much every other foreign item into one big hodge-podge.
This strikes me as a bit odd.
UPDATE: Post title fixed. Bloody perfectionists.
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Smells of political correctness to me. They probably had that all lumped together, but someone probably got their panties in a know over the Chi-Chi's and Old El Paso being integrated with the "real" Mex stuff.
Posted by: GroovyVic at April 24, 2008 09:02 AM (DVkb2)
Posted by: Binks, WebElf at April 24, 2008 10:53 AM (Lqgnd)
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Is this the place where I should admit to taking way too much pleasure from the grocery store in our old neighborhood labeling a section "Oriental"?
Posted by: Jordana at April 24, 2008 11:55 AM (QeLuW)
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The local Meijers now has a long "ethnic" section with Asian, Mexican, Italian (where all the pasta is) and even French and German.
Trying to cover all bases, I guess.
Posted by: rbj at April 24, 2008 01:28 PM (UgG6+)
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Texas is, despite the assertion of their Tourism Bureau commercials, part of the U.S., and as such, Tex-Mex is NOT "Foreign" food. It is, as the name implies, Texas food inspired by its Mexican past, but with a great deal of influence from non-Hispanic sources as well. Mos non-Texan Hispanics, especially first and second heneration, would not recognize most Tex-Mex dishes, or at least would think them done all wrong, and most certainly would not be interested in purchasing Tex-Mex products when they are shopping for food to remind them of home.
As for why the Hispanics have their own section, may I respectfully suggest Occam's Razor? They make up the largest minority group in the United States, and as such are a market force to be reckoned with.
Posted by: Boy Named Sous at April 24, 2008 06:32 PM (jiBuF)
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I really think that it was probably more of a free market thinking. More people ask for more variety of Mex, and tex mex, than they do for other Foreign items. Here in hawaii most Grocery stores have huge sections devoted to asian food, where as our mexican selection pretty much sucks.
Posted by: Big Mac w/ an Egg at April 24, 2008 06:35 PM (Pi0Hl)
Looks to me as if the producers have thoroughly imbibed the LOTR Kool-aid.
This morning the eldest Llama-ette mentioned that she might go see TCONPC with her class from St. Marie of the Blessed Educational Method. She said she intended to take along a couple of notecards.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"So I can write down all the mistakes they make in the movie, of course!" was her reply.
Ah, that's me girl!
UPDATE: From an undisclosed location, Steve-O (yes, he's still alive, folks!) shoots me the link to Planet Narnia, a site set up by a Dr. Michael Ward to promote his new book by the same name which argues that Lewis secretly based the Chronicles of Narnia on medieval cosmology.
Of course, being almost completely defenseless against this kind of temptation, I immediately jumped over to the devil's website and ordered up a copy of the book myself. I'll let you know what I think.
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I'd be interested to hear what BOTH Lewis and Tolkien would have to say about this interpretation. Especially since they used to read each other's works before publication and offer their own ideas.
Posted by: Gary at April 23, 2008 01:36 PM (E8z8j)
Today is the feast day of St. George, patron of England. Here is a summary of his life, death and patronage. Frankly, very little is known about his origins.
By coincidence, I happened to have come across the passage in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire this week in which Gibbon states his belief that the original George was not a soldier around the time of Constantine, but instead one George of Cappadoccia, a villanous character and Arian heritic who warred with the great St. Athanasius over control of the Alexandrian Church. A sample of Gibbon's description:
George, from his parents and education, surnamed the Cappadocian, was born at Epiphania in Cilicia, in a fuller's shop. From this obscure and servile origin he raised himself by the talents of a parasite; and the patrons whom he assiduously flattered procured for their worthless dependent a lucrative commission, or contract, to supply the army with bacon. His employment was mean; he rendered it infamous. He accumulated wealth by the basest arts of fraud and corruption; but his malversations were so notorious, that George was compelled to escape from the pursuits of justice. After this disgrace, in which he appears to have saved his fortune at the expense of his honour, he embraced, with real or affected zeal, the profession of Arianism. From the love, or ostentation, of learning, he collected a valuable library of history, rhetoric, philosophy and theology; and the choice of the prevailing faction promoted George of Cappadocia to the throne of Athanasius. The entrance of the new archbishop was that of a barbarian conqueror; and each moment of his reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice.
Gibbon goes on for some considerable time in this vein, concluding:
The meritorious death of the archbishop obliterated the memory of his life. The rival of Athanasius was dear and sacred to the Arians, and the seeming conversion of those sectaries introduced his worship into the bosom of the catholic church. The odious stranger, disguising every circumstance of time and place, assumed the mask of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero; and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed into the renowned St. George of England, the patron of arms, of chivalry, and of the garter.
Gibbon's assertion may be based on a mistake in his source. According to the Wiki entry on St. George,
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the earliest text preserving fragments of George's narrative is in an Acta Sanctorum identified by Hippolyte Delehaye of the scholarly Bollandists to be a palimpsest of the fifth century. The compiler of this Acta, according to Delehaye "confused the martyr with his namesake, the celebrated George of Cappadocia, the Arian intruder into the see of Alexandria and enemy of St. Athanasius".
But I think he was also motivated by malice. Gibbon detested the "worship" of saints, martyrs, icons and relics, believing them to be importations into the Church from paganism, fueled by the outright ban on paganism instituted by the Emperor Theodosius in the late 4th Century.
I throw it out simply for your viewing interest.
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It was the apparitions of him at Antioch and Jerusalem during the Crusades that really put him on the map, so to speak, in the medieval mind. The Golden Legend stories also added to his popularity; I find that to fully understand the medieval veneration of saints, one has to realize that they viewed the Golden Legend as being a trustworthy document; we view them naturally as merely pious heroic tales along the lines of the Morte d'Arthur.
There is, of course, a paradox with regard to the saints. For instance, Nicholas of Smyrna. He is the root saint behind the legends of Santa Claus. But consider the rather substantial amount of time and thought devoted to Santa Claus, particularly by children. He is very real to them.
So much so, that I think the actual saint, in Heaven, gets Santa's mail, so to speak. Which is not to say that he has a workshop full of elves, lives at the north pole, etc., but that in the economy of salvation, I have to think the more serious petitions addressed to Santa are handled by someone. I'm thinking Nicholas of Smyrna is a very, very busy man at Christmas time.
And I have to think that he does, indeed, put on the red suit when a child dies and goes to heaven and is looking for a familiar face. In other words, I think that to some degree, our conceptions of the saints shape how and what the saint actually does. We have some input, so to speak, into their job description.
Just a speculation, of course; I don't think the Church has ever examined the question of how our conceptions of the saints affect the saints. But I have to think that St. George does indeed, fight dragons (There was a story a while back of one of Fr. Fortea's exorcisms where St. George was a particularly effective intercessor in confronting a particular demon), St. Joseph occasionally interests himself in real estate transactions, and St. Jude fights for a lost cause. Why? Because we ask them to.
Naturally, when a child asks me if I believe in Santa Claus, I can respond that I most certainly do. I don't even have to cross my fingers.
Posted by: The Abbot at April 23, 2008 10:10 AM (ivbbD)
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Footnotes? All the good stuff in Gibbon is in the footnotes.
Posted by: mojo at April 23, 2008 10:36 AM (g1cNf)
Oh boy, this is really getting good. Most analysts predicted that SWMNBN would need about an 8 point spread to credibly remain in the race and anything over double digits kept her mathematically viable. So she goes and wins by a spread of just under 10.
In other words, she won by enough to stay in without looking pathetic, but not enough to convince enough voters that she has a real shot (without seating Florida and Michigan, that is. And oh, what a legal brawl that will be).
But the bottom line is, she's in it until August. In two weeks, she takes the fight to Indiana, West Virginia and North Carolina. And her supporters aren't going away either. The Politico quotes a member of her campaign staff saying that between the moment that PA was called and 11:30pm EST, they pulled in $2.5 million, 80% from new donors. Wow.
Rich Galen's take on the results:
"She's never getting out. Hillary will not leave the race tonight. She will not leave the race before the convention in August. She may not leave the race ever...
...The Pennsylvania exit poll numbers I found most interesting last night tracked a Gallup poll from several weeks ago - that is the relatively huge numbers of Obama and Clinton supporters who told the pollsters they would not vote for the other candidate in November; they will stay home or vote for McCain. From the AP:
'The animosity between the two camps led more than one in seven Obama supporters to say they would vote for Republican John McCain if Clinton were the nominee. Even more Clinton supporters, one in four, said they would defect.'"
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Let the blood-letting begin!!
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Last night while watching the returns, I spoke to a Dem friend of mine. His preference was Gore, but he supported Edwards since Gore never entered the race. Now that Edwards is out, he says he will have to vote McCain.
Posted by: Hal Duston at April 23, 2008 03:32 PM (CiAHf)
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Is it even remotely possible that this race between Obama and SWMNB could end so bitterly that the loser would run as an independent?
Posted by: Boy Named Sous at April 23, 2008 11:57 PM (jiBuF)
I'm not sure what the election laws are from state to state but I'm pretty sure it would be near impossible for the loser to 1) organize third party operations and 2) get their name on the ballot as an independent in all 50 states less than 90 days before the general.
That's assuming we don't have a loser until the convention, which I'm convinced we won't as long as SWMNBN keeps up the fight. She wants the Dem nomination. If she can't get it, she'll do everything she can to sabotage Obama's to ensure he loses. Then she can try for the brass ring in 2012 (which would be her last realistic shot at the nomination).
Posted by: Gary at April 24, 2008 08:29 AM (E8z8j)
No, I don't plan to watch the results of the Pennsylvania primaries tonight to see whether Obamarama can score close enough to SWMNBN to effectively drive a wooden stake into her campaign, or whether she lives to fight another day. I leave that to our Political-Junkie-In-Residence, Gary.
Nope, if I turn on the toob tonight, it will either be to watch either my struggling Nats pay a visit to Turner Field and try to turn it around with a win against the Braves, or else to pop in The Thin Man. Mmmmmm.....Myrna Loy.....mmmmm....
UPDATE: Well, Ms. Loy will have to wait. Nice to see the Nats bust one open. Did the Caps win? I dunno - I have no interest in hockey. But I did see an awful lot of folks dressed in red this evening as I made my way home, so without understanding anything about it......Go Caps.
Posted by: ChrisN at April 22, 2008 06:57 PM (uYUye)
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"The important thing is the rhythm. Always have rhythm in your shaking. Now a Manhattan you shake to fox-trot time, a Bronx to two-step time, a dry martini you always shake to waltz time."
Better advice has never been given.
Who's got time for Myrna Loy when there's all that William Powell yumminess to be slurped up? You know, along with all the martinis.
Posted by: Kathy at April 23, 2008 12:00 AM (7Wsd0)
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Ah, to be William Powell: you get Myrna Lay + martinis.
I heard a couple of movie rumors over the weekend. The first was that Fox is planning on doing a movie version of Arrested Development.
Now I have repeated many times my firm belief that A.D. is simply the funniest damned comedy ever put on tee vee, but nonetheless I heard this news with apprehension. Good tee vee almost never translates well to the big screen. Issues such as timing, story arc and target audiences diminish the magic of the original. And I would think this would hold especially true with a format like A.D.'s, which is improvisational, full of long-running inside jokes and of a tangental, layered, herky-jerky storyline. A half hour week after week? Gold. A full-length movie? Not so much, IMHO. Thus, after mulling it over, I (reluctantly) think this is a bad idea.
The second piece of news I heard was that Pixar is planning to re-release all of its movies in 3-D. I sighed in resignation at the thought of how much money would be hoovered out of the Orgle Manor coffers as the Llama-ettes demanded the upgrade to their library. On the other hand, I couldn't help but wonder whether this wouldn't cause the longstanding debate of Elastigirl vs. Mirage to take a new and interesting turn:
Considering what a surfboard Mirage is (and there's a gratuitous A.D. reference for you!), I'd expect the advantage would be all Elastigirl.
UPDATE: Digging into the archives over at JohnL's, I see that last time around Mirage beat out Elastigirl by a whisker.
The Casemate Museum at Fort Monroe.
"Eet ees jess the thing for seasonal allerchies!"
I understand that in fact Antonio Banderras does the voice, although I wouldn't have thought he needed the money. But that still doesn't explain. What is the connection? Why would a bee talk that way? What gives? Is there a point?
I don't mind it that much - I really just don't get it.
Now when it comes to drug ads I do mind, certainly Viagra's aging boomers in matching bath-tubs is pretty annoying, but for downright creepiness I don't think anything matches Lunesta's Radioactive Butterfly of Death:
I'd be terrified to shut my eyes if I knew that thing was on the loose.
Now I have repeated many times my firm belief that A.D. is simply the funniest damned comedy ever put on tee vee, but nonetheless I heard this news with apprehension. Good tee vee almost never translates well to the big screen. Issues such as timing, story arc and target audiences diminish the magic of the original. And I would think this would hold especially true with a format like A.D.'s, which is improvisational, full of long-running inside jokes and of a tangental, layered, herky-jerky storyline. A half hour week after week? Gold. A full-length movie? Not so much, IMHO. Thus, after mulling it over, I (reluctantly) think this is a bad idea.
The second piece of news I heard was that Pixar is planning to re-release all of its movies in 3-D. I sighed in resignation at the thought of how much money would be hoovered out of the Orgle Manor coffers as the Llama-ettes demanded the upgrade to their library. On the other hand, I couldn't help but wonder whether this wouldn't cause the longstanding debate of Elastigirl vs. Mirage to take a new and interesting turn:
Considering what a surfboard Mirage is (and there's a gratuitous A.D. reference for you!), I'd expect the advantage would be all Elastigirl.
UPDATE: Digging into the archives over at JohnL's, I see that last time around Mirage beat out Elastigirl by a whisker.