Posted 9:14 PM by Gene

And in more of the peace-and-love festival whose values a certain blithering jackass from Oak Brook would like to emulate, the Austrians didn't show much peace or love toward our pin-up girl, which we'll take as par for the course on all sides.

Posted 1:35 PM by Gene

You may have heard Center City Philthydelphia had some bad PR lately -- but happily THE MAN WHO INVENTED RENDELLISM is on the case:

"Center City is the job engine; it's also the tax engine, and we've got to fight to keep it in good shape." [Emphasis added]

TRANSLATION: The rest of the city doesn't exist. How can it when RENDELLISM's chief function is to bring in TOURISTS who'll make all those jobs for waiters and janitors and bellhops who'll power the 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMY? How many tourists you gonna get in West Philly?

Hey EDDIE! Think we're game for the GAMES? Maybe we can build a new stadium around TEMPLE! They can use it to win the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!

Posted 11:44 AM by Gene

Could Russia gain an ice dancing edge because of judging controversy?

I thought we solved that problem! PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT!!!!!

Posted 9:43 AM by Gene

One very annoying form of RENDELLISM is cheering for the nation's home team. We should remember TGSM has been in six Ryder Cups. A big reason the supposed "Miracle on Ice" resonated is it took place in the annus horribilis of 1980, of JIMMAH and the hostage crisis; All Things Considered (CLUNKclunk CLUNKclunk CLUNKclunk CLUNKclunk) played The Unanswered Question and mourned for our demise. The "Miracle" only underlined the self-pity. Of course national heroes can "choke" too. A nation that must rely on athletes for self-confidence fundamentally lacks it. Look at what's happened to Greece.

Posted 9:36 AM by Gene

Gen. Alexander Haig, the man who was president for a day, has died. RIP.

Posted 5:16 PM by Gene

It is somewhat ironical that a University of Chicago graduate and once lecturer at Duke who's stepped up to zillionaire pundit at The Paper of Effete Snobs -- from Toronto, no less -- should mourn the failure of "the meritocracy", but we'll take it. We have to because no one else is selling it.

Posted 10:06 AM by Gene

"Mr. Zucker and Mr. Roberts, I see that nowhere in your statements do you mention lower cable rates as a consumer benefit of your merger, so at least you are not trying to sell us that bill of goods."

If Russ Feingold were a Republican he would not have said that. Why must so many beliefs stop at the party line?

Posted 9:22 AM by Gene

Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols says he's going on a hunger strike because he claims prison officials don't provide him a fiber-rich diet.

The longer the better!

Posted 9:01 AM by Gene

TRANSLATION: Ub Iger wasted His money on Marvel Films.

Posted 8:50 AM by Gene

Our fervent hope: that GE BANCORP NETWORK's ratings are lower after the two-week-plus MICKEY D-'n'-COKE fest.

JUT-JAW will help.

Last month, NBC Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin told EW that the network will promote Leno’s return “with some humor and a wink, not a sledgehammer. We will certainly be more subtle.”

Since when is a sledgehammer subtle?

(Via -- oh well -- VULTURE)

Posted 8:49 PM by Gene

"He will still sell a lot of golf clubs, but I would no longer be pitching him to corporations that were using him simply as an image of their hard work and integrity," said Robert Boland, professor of sports management at New York University.

"If he does announce that he is coming back and when, that will be a big positive for the PGA Tour, sponsors and the other players on the Tour, because he personally adds a significant amount of visibility," Marc Ganis, president of Chicago sports consulting firm Sportscorp Ltd said.

"With success and with time, people start to forget a lot of things," said Matt Delzell, group account manager with brand consulting firm Davie Brown.

"He's still the single most valuable thing to the PGA Tour this side of Augusta, and that won't change," Boland said. "In fact, it will probably be heightened because the curiosity factor is so great."

"The PGA Tour demonstrably needs Tiger Woods back," said Rick Horrow, a sports lecturer at the Harvard Law School.

"If Tiger wins, and wins consistently, he may in fact broaden interest in the PGA and open up new, nontraditional sponsors for the game of golf," said David Carter, executive director with the USC Sports Business Institute.

1. EVERYONE WANTS TO BE THAT BLITHERING IDIOT PERFESSER THOMPSON! 2. News isn't reporting, it's sound-bite editing.

Posted 7:43 PM by Gene

Toyota CEO to Testify Before Congress Next Wednesday

How can he pull the fake customer-service "I'm-sorry"?

Posted 5:51 PM by Gene

John Boehner: Speaker of the House?

Our definition of:

Posted 3:41 PM by Gene

Now -- A MEA CULPA FROM THE AD BIZ!

Posted 2:51 PM by Gene

Usually when people look for pictures around these parts they're looking for PR0N. Today they're looking for pictures of broccoli. We'd rather they came for broccoli than PR0N. Thanks Marc!

Posted 2:33 PM by Gene

We must thank God only a handful were hurt in this vicious nut-crime. Already con-SER-va-tives are in CYA mode as this psycho sounds like a RIGHT-WINGER. But the leftists have skeletons of their own in their very capacious closets, and both sides like to plead insanity first.

P. S. at 3:40 p. m. And here in a nutshell is why I do not trust knee-jerk locksteps: This pundit's first instinct was to engage in defense; rather than say, "This was an awful crime", he said "Geez -- we'll get blamed for it! Better point to the kooks on the other side." This is what liberals did after the Ft. Hood holy roller. Too many people have computers in their brains that emit the verbal equivalent of the Blue Screen of Death. Can we get replacements?

Posted 11:33 AM by Gene

To the uninitiated, it raises basic questions: Is this acting, or is it animation? And, does this suggest that actors could become obsolete?

1. I'm not uninitiated, and the answer is, it's animation. 2. Aren't they already?

(Via the usual AHTSJournal)

Posted 10:24 AM by Gene

Click on FORBESLIST.com and you get:



...followed seconds later by:



Hey Bono! You playing with the computers again?

Posted 9:14 AM by Gene

If Daimler says "there is no reason to assume that the crisis is over", may we assume it isn't?

Posted 8:36 AM by Gene

The incompetent ex-speaker DENNY has a sweet tooth!

Posted 7:41 PM by Gene

Proof the Wall Street Casino is full of it: SIRIUS at over $1.

Posted 6:52 PM by Gene

My downloading mania led me to YouTube of all places to capture the marvelous 1961 theme song of To Tell the Truth (not stereo, very unfortunately). A man with the peculiar name of Robert Cobert (how do you pronounce it?) wrote it, and though he's better known for the daytime gothic soap opera Dark Shadows and some miniseries to me he will always live through his themes for Password, and this one, yes, very much of a kind with the stock music of its day*, but also a kind of instrumental version of that masterpiece "The Trolley Song", itself a reason to live. Just to hear it would have overpowered the bottles of Geritol hawked on the show. Only now do we know just how good some TV themes were. "To Tell the Truth" was buried with low-fi speakers and audience applause and Johnny Olson's yammering and promos, and it never played beyond halfway through the song. Partly for that we thought of Carl Stalling and Vic Mizzy and Alexander Courage as hacks, and dismissed them as no better than the hack work they accompanied -- no doubt the composers dismissed themselves too. Of course it's hard to look at that picture of the original Superman and Tom Poston and Mrs. Hart and Orson Bean, Peggy Cass unaccountably missing (and all dead save for Bean, now in his eighties and forever known as a sex quack), and not feel the pang of remorse for the past, which steeps those old themes even more savorly. And those who overpraise our current musical genius should know that it may not have the minimal excellence to save it from the future.

*If you want to hear stock music listen to the original theme from 1956. And a lot of that music didn't deserve the ignominy of television either -- and a lot of it wasn't stock music.

Posted 3:42 PM by Gene

This will be as productive as a press conference by Marcel Marceau with blind newsmen.

Posted 12:00 PM by Gene

As i prepare to send a complaint to that incompetent jackass Thompson, judging from the way MICK handled my two phone calls last night I'd say it's an airline.

SAME DIFFERENCE.

Posted 11:54 AM by Gene

SO! Emceeing a stupid morning plugfest IS ROCKET SCIENCE!

Especially when you have to DUMB YOURSELF DOWN for it!

Posted 11:21 AM by Gene

Well! Here's one Canadian writer who doesn't blame the problems at the GE BANCORP-MICKEY-D-COKE-MOON-'n'-STARS GAMES on the BRITISH.

Posted 10:22 PM by Gene

And blithering Thompsons bellow for their RIGHT to $10,000 seats -- and then they have the gall not to show for THEIR games!

Vancouver hoping for bums on seats

They have them -- and their names include Thompson, Kent and McDonald.

Posted 9:00 PM by Gene

“The goals, visions and values of the Olympic games are aligned with McDonalds.”

In response to the drooling numskull Thompson -- GEORGE ORWELL and "The Sporting Spirit":

Now that the brief visit of the Dynamo football team has come to an end,
it is possible to say publicly what many thinking people were saying
privately before the Dynamos ever arrived. That is, that sport is an
unfailing cause of ill-will, and that if such a visit as this had any
effect at all on Anglo-Soviet relations, it could only be to make them
slightly worse than before.

Even the newspapers have been unable to conceal the fact that at least
two of the four matches played led to much bad feeling. At the Arsenal
match, I am told by someone who was there, a British and a Russian player
came to blows and the crowd booed the referee. The Glasgow match, someone
else informs me, was simply a free-for-all from the start. And then there
was the controversy, typical of our nationalistic age, about the
composition of the Arsenal team. Was it really an all-England team, as
claimed by the Russians, or merely a league team, as claimed by the
British? And did the Dynamos end their tour abruptly in order to avoid
playing an all-England team? As usual, everyone answers these questions
according to his political predilections. Not quite everyone, however. I
noted with interest, as an instance of the vicious passions that football
provokes, that the sporting correspondent of the russophile NEWS
CHRONICLE took the anti-Russian line and maintained that Arsenal was NOT
an all-England team. No doubt the controversy will continue to echo for
years in the footnotes of history books. Meanwhile the result of the
Dynamos' tour, in so far as it has had any result, will have been to
create fresh animosity on both sides.

And how could it be otherwise? I am always amazed when I hear people
saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations, and that if only
the common peoples of the world could meet one another at football or
cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the battlefield. Even
if one didn't know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympic Games, for
instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred,
one could deduce it from general principles.

Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive. You play to
win, and the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win. On
the village green, where you pick up sides and no feeling of local
patriotism is involved. it is possible to play simply for the fun and
exercise: but as soon as the question of prestige arises, as soon as you
feel that you and some larger unit will be disgraced if you lose, the
most savage combative instincts are aroused. Anyone who has played even
in a school football match knows this. At the international level sport
is frankly mimic warfare. But the significant thing is not the behaviour
of the players but the attitude of the spectators: and, behind the
spectators, of the nations who work themselves into furies over these
absurd contests, and seriously believe--at any rate for short
periods--that running, jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national
virtue.

Even a leisurely game like cricket, demanding grace rather than strength,
can cause much ill-will, as we saw in the controversy over body-line
bowling and over the rough tactics of the Australian team that visited
England in 1921. Football, a game in which everyone gets hurt and every
nation has its own style of play which seems unfair to foreigners, is far
worse. Worst of all is boxing. One of the most horrible sights in the
world is a fight between white and coloured boxers before a mixed
audience. But a boxing audience is always disgusting, and the behaviour
of the women, in particular, is such that the army, I believe, does not
allow them to attend its contests. At any rate, two or three years ago,
when Home Guards and regular troops were holding a boxing tournament, I
was placed on guard at the door of the hall, with orders to keep the
women out.

In England, the obsession with sport is bad enough, but even fiercer
passions are aroused in young countries where games playing and
nationalism are both recent developments. In countries like India or
Burma, it is necessary at football matches to have strong cordons of
police to keep the crowd from invading the field. In Burma, I have seen
the supporters of one side break through the police and disable the
goalkeeper of the opposing side at a critical moment. The first big
football match that was played in Spain about fifteen years ago led to an
uncontrollable riot. As soon as strong feelings of rivalry are aroused,
the notion of playing the game according to the rules always vanishes.
People want to see one side on top and the other side humiliated, and
they forget that victory gained through cheating or through the
intervention of the crowd is meaningless. Even when the spectators don't
intervene physically they try to influence the game by cheering their own
side and "rattling" opposing players with boos and insults. Serious sport
has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy,
boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing
violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.

Instead of blah-blahing about the clean, healthy rivalry of the football
field and the great part played by the Olympic Games in bringing the
nations together, it is more useful to inquire how and why this modern
cult of sport arose. Most of the games we now play are of ancient origin,
but sport does not seem to have been taken very seriously between Roman
times and the nineteenth century. Even in the English public schools the
games cult did not start till the later part of the last century. Dr
Arnold, generally regarded as the founder of the modern public school,
looked on games as simply a waste of time. Then, chiefly in England and
the United States, games were built up into a heavily-financed activity,
capable of attracting vast crowds and rousing savage passions, and the
infection spread from country to country. It is the most violently
combative sports, football and boxing, that have spread the widest. There
cannot be much doubt that the whole thing is bound up with the rise of
nationalism--that is, with the lunatic modern habit of identifying
oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of
competitive prestige. Also, organised games are more likely to flourish
in urban communities where the average human being lives a sedentary or
at least a confined life, and does not get much opportunity for creative
labour. In a rustic community a boy or young man works off a good deal of
his surplus energy by walking, swimming, snowballing, climbing trees,
riding horses, and by various sports involving cruelty to animals, such
as fishing, cock-fighting and ferreting for rats. In a big town one must
indulge in group activities if one wants an outlet for one's physical
strength or for one's sadistic impulses. Games are taken seriously in
London and New York, and they were taken seriously in Rome and Byzantium:
in the Middle Ages they were played, and probably played with much
physical brutality, but they were not mixed up with politics nor a cause
of group hatreds.

If you wanted to add to the vast fund of ill-will existing in the world
at this moment, you could hardly do it better than by a series of
football matches between Jews and Arabs, Germans and Czechs, Indians and
British, Russians and Poles, and Italians and Jugoslavs, each match to be
watched by a mixed audience of 100,000 spectators. I do not, of course,
suggest that sport is one of the main causes of international rivalry;
big-scale sport is itself, I think, merely another effect of the causes
that have produced nationalism. Still, you do make things worse by
sending forth a team of eleven men, labelled as national champions, to do
battle against some rival team, and allowing it to be felt on all sides
that whichever nation is defeated will "lose face".

I hope, therefore, that we shan't follow up the visit of the Dynamos by
sending a British team to the USSR. If we must do so, then let us
send a second-rate team which is sure to be beaten and cannot be claimed
to represent Britain as a whole. There are quite enough real causes of
trouble already, and we need not add to them by encouraging young men to
kick each other on the shins amid the roars of infuriated spectators.

Yes, it's from 1945. Nothing has changed since.

Posted 7:27 PM by Gene

Hey JEFF ZUCK! If everything's so HUNKY-DORY why not ask your sponsors for REVERSE MAKE-GOODS?

Posted 6:59 PM by Gene

This is the equivalent of a corporate mea culpa, but clearly somebody at GE BANCORP NETWORK realizes that whatever the faked or exaggerated numbers they're laying a gold-plated egg, and there is no staunching the anger -- EVEN ON GE BANCORP NETWORK'S WEB SITE.

Yes, part of it is the weather. But part of it is THE LORDS OF LAUSANNE -- AND GE BANCORP.

Meantime how about this for valuable PR?

P. S. at 8:38 p. m. Another de facto MEA CULPA from the MESS -- this time prominently linked atop the HOME PAGE.

At the Richmond Oval, the speedskating venue, the resurfacing machine went on the blink Monday. Instead of a track as smooth as glass, it left piles of slush and pools of water.

So the Olympics, which has a sponsorship deal with Olympia ice resurfacers, had to call in a different brand for replacement — a Zamboni, from a whole province over in Calgary.

NUF SAID.

Posted 11:54 AM by Gene

An enterprising firm has brought Leonard Bernstein's Omnibus programs back from the dead, inspiring this pointed comment:

Even with hundreds of cable channels to choose from today, the likelihood of running into a show like this is slim.

We will pass up the usual 500-channels trope to say that the more "diversity" our media bring us, the more homogenized they get.

(Another take here.)

Posted 11:36 AM by Gene

Now it's REUTERS's turn -- on its home page:



WHAT is going on here?

P. S. WAIT! Click on the link and it gets worse:



I repeat: WHAT is going on here?

P. S. at 12:30 p. m. Reuters typos aside this seems promising, the sort of thing His Omnipotence should have done from Day One -- but he does chicken out on the matter of waste.

Posted 11:31 AM by Gene

And from the land of the Zeitgeist:



Doesn't JonBoy know what the word "juxtaposition" means?

We don't intend to make a theme of this but sometimes they're too obvious to ignore.

Posted 10:23 AM by Gene

MICHAEL DOES IT AGAIN!



ZALES! I think you'd better have a talk with some technodweeb!

Posted 9:33 AM by Gene

Let's hope Mr. Taliban hasn't been MIRANDIZED.

Posted 9:56 PM by Gene

NBA All-Star Game down double-digits...the Pothole 500 down double-digits...maybe they need a good dose of SOCIAL NETWORKING!

Or JEFF ZUCK 'n' DICK!

Posted 9:53 PM by Gene

An apt motto to emblazon on the foreheads of the LORDS OF LAUSANNE, from the home of the Bird's Nest Snow Park:

"This is a place for rich people, not poor people like us," said Ma. "We won't be coming back."

(Via AHTSJournal)

Posted 8:33 PM by Gene

Greece now has thirty days to keep from being pelted with a bucket of wet noodles by the European Union.

Posted 7:59 PM by Gene

JEFF ZUCK or DICK!!!!! could have designed the BARRICADE around the GAMES FLAME -- and evidently that's now become enough of a PR disaster to force the LOCAL GE BANCORP SUBSID in to trying to get the fans closer.

We bring good things to light!

P. S. It's not just Whistler -- they're having problems with the Zamboni ice resurfacer* at the speed-skating rink.

(First link via theglobeandmail.com; more on the GAMES FLAME via macleans.ca)

*Correction on 2/16 at 8:44 p. m.: Wrong -- see this link.

Posted 2:28 PM by Gene

OOOoooh, HENRY HONEST just threw a TANTRUM!

Yes, GE BANCORP is to blame -- but so are the SPONSORS, the MICKEY Ds and COKEs, who finance THE GAMES so their CEOs can have paid six-month vacations, and them cram the coverage with ads so that they throw a justifying middle finger in their customers' faces. They signed off on JEFF and DICK's BRILLIANCE. THEY should be blamed FIRST.

And of course THEY will get the last laugh when JEFF and DICK can claim 500 GIGABILLION PEOPLE watched, but then we already know most of us use our TVs as night lights.

Posted 2:21 PM by Gene

A top Saudi energy official expressed serious concern Monday that world oil demand could peak in the next decade and said his country was preparing for that eventuality by diversifying its economic base.

Say maybe they could start a glass industry with all that sand!

Oil and terr -- MILITANCY: not a great base for any economy.

(Via Seeking Alpha)

Posted 2:11 PM by Gene

Good news for techies:

The Obama administration on Friday announced almost $1 billion in Recovery Act funding to stimulate the use of health information technology....

The spending is all part of the more than $20 billion in health IT funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

And how many instantly obsolete systems will this propagate?

Posted 2:00 PM by Gene

Walmart knows what many of us have known for years: there are too many aisle-cluttering me-too brands on supermarket shelves, and it won't hurt to throw them onto the historical ash heap.

And that goes double for the line extensions.

Posted 1:53 PM by Gene

Shucks, Baba Wawa is ending her Os-CAR® special.

What will the true believers in Os-CAR® do?

Of course -- watch Oprah's! Pfffffffffffffft!

Posted 1:03 PM by Gene

"I feel bad for [Elin]," she said. "She didn't deserve this, and she didn't deserve being humiliated."

Well then why did you help humiliate her?

Once we could call such women by their proper names, but that's not proper anymore.

Posted 12:58 PM by Gene

An inconceivable amazement: A fad from the last root canal that doubled as a presidential election says a politician (in this case Sen. Boobs McKeating) -- USED HIM?!?

You could knock me over with a Republican Party platform.

Posted 12:55 PM by Gene

TRANSLATION: Every Democrat is running against His Omnipotence, and Sen. Bayh is but the latest to declare it mission impossible.

Posted 12:52 PM by Gene

Hillary Clinton: 'Iran is moving towards a military dictatorship'

WHAT?!? She finally NOTICED?!?!?

Posted 12:48 PM by Gene

I guess the Greeks won't take care of their GAMES-inspired profligacy THAT fast.

Posted 12:37 PM by Gene

I'd bet a sweet little voice is still whispering in Fred's ear, "Go for it".

Meaning a sour big voice should yell in his ear, "DON'T."

To his credit Fred can write books himself, something most pols merely take credit for.

Posted 12:35 PM by Gene

Are news hacks overplaying the luge accident as a form of revenge because they can't get access to GE BANCORP'S EXCLUSIVE GAMES COVERAGE?

More managerial BRILLIANCE from VERY LITTLER JEFFY, JEFF ZUCK and DICK!

Posted 10:01 PM by Gene

DICK EBERSOL SAYS 800 MEGAZILLION PEOPLE ARE WATCHING THE GAMES!!!!!!!!!!

And that many people are running them too.

In one of the most embarrassing moments for Vanoc, the bus carrying Premier Gordon Campbell and the four chiefs of the four host first nations was delayed getting to Friday's Opening Ceremony. They missed being present in the IOC dignitaries' box for the singing of the national anthem, and their absence behind International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge and Governor-General Michaelle Jean was noted on television.

Just so long as BOB COSTAS didn't notice!

P. S.

“If winning the rights to a property brings with it hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, what have you won?”

800 MEGAZILLION VIEWERS!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 5:08 PM by Gene

If it's Sunday it must be Big Double-A-Scribble Time:

1. Surprise: Moon 'n' Stars's Expensive Razor Blade Division isn't working.

But P&G executives and some former Gillette managers say much of the deal's value is like an iceberg -- it's there, just obscured under water.

FULL SPEED AHEAD! said the captain of the Titanic.

Plus these bozos are about to turbocharge the engine room with one of those twenty-blade $10-a-blade "upgrades". Moon 'n' Stars never heard of Moore's Law.

2. Quit Complaining About More Credit-Card Offers

I'm not -- I'm flattered a few banks think highly enough of my credit rating to offer me cards. I've sent off for two zero-APR offers in the last several months. Why shouldn't I accept them? I try to live within my means; nonetheless it's nice to know my credit lines are there. I say if you get a good teaser rate and no annual fee, and intend to pay off any balance before it expires, apply!

3. Here's long term potentially very-bad news for the Ub Igers and Lowsy Mayses -- addressable ads. The only technologies that can pull it off are cable and the Web -- and if addressable ads are the usual big cream pies in the face, the viewers will throw one back. Careful targeting is the future of advertising, a future that, if done right, will mean NO MORE JUNK TV SHOWS AND THREE-SONG PLAYLISTS.

WORSE -- or better -- in a recent experiment CONCAST offered an opt-out, much as with direct mail or phone solicitations. This can only mean one thing: NO MORE TV AND RADIO FOR THE BIGGEST CREAM PIES OF ALL: AUTO ADS.

4. SOCIAL MEDIA HAVE RESCUED LIVE TV!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe. Maybe the usual people who must watch such live events found them marginally more interesting. Maybe Nielsen's tweaked its numbers (that's what WE suspect). Maybe next year people will decide to tune out the live specials again, or maybe someone will call out A. C. on his fantasy numbers. We wouldn't prolong the happy hour too many days.

5. There will be no Michael Phelps. Let's get that straight right away.

So why have you tone-deaf advertisers opened your wallets, turned them upside down and poured out tons of OUR MONEY?

Posted 5:02 PM by Gene

One other thing on mp3 players: we've noticed several stores where we wouldn't go but for necessity have turned their Muzak off. We guess it's just a technical problem. But consider: lots of people now have their own private musical worlds. And many who don't resent the infringement that is foreground Muzak. Muzak is a waste of money and electricity. Hasn't the time come for retailers to pull the plug for good?

Posted 4:10 PM by Gene

On this High Holy Day for NASCAR, maybe some of the fans have finally realized their heroes can only go around a track so many times before it gets borrrrrrrrrrrinnnnnng -- even with crashes.

Otherwise it's marketing on wheels at 200 MPH.

P. S. at 5:00 p. m. How apt: Today's High Holy Day is under a red flag thanks to a pothole.

P. P. S. at 5:56 p. m. TWICE.

Posted 3:38 PM by Gene

The man who transcribed the noble mottoes of The Troubadour of His Generation says the God was trying to START a CONVERSATION on RAAAACE, meaning whatever wind was flying in Troub's head whizzed out and struck our interviewer smack on the nose.

Because we thought He was starting a conversation on His prowess. Well, if that's what Gandhis must do to uplift the PEOPLE.

Rob Tannenbaum is a contributing editor at Playboy, and the former music editor of Blender.

We must remind ourselves now to read the end squibs. They are as useful as bylines to know what isn't worth reading.

Posted 10:42 AM by Gene

I just bought my first mp3 player. This will seem strange coming a dozen years after the introduction, and over eight years after the iPod, but I am not the early adapter. One reason I took so long is that like so much else on the Web buying something even as simple as this becomes an easy chore. For years and even after The Lord God Steve such players were flawed, first by their unease of use and then by their limited capacity. Both problems were long solved; they day will soon come when one could pack a 100,000-album library in his pocket (if one wished to be so psychotic). But which player to buy? I suppose I could have gotten one of the Lord's but something in me didn't want to march to the beat of 100 million different drummers. There has also been the obsessive-compulsive nitpicking over the iPod's alleged sound inferiority. Clearly the Lord has proved so phenomenally successful because He's paid just enough attention to tweaking the customer while pricing His products exorbitantly enough to make people think they were better. (His laptops may prove that a fallacious gospel.) Anyhow Newegg had this for $89, and it sports a -- cute color. (Thankfully it wasn't on sale in these parts in violet.) But even then I had buyer's regret because one of SUMNER's CNet hacks rather churlishly insisted this was a downgrade from a prior model. Without boring my three readers too much with the details the earlier device had a cute playlist program and a noise-canceling function -- but you couldn't use the latter without the supplied ear buds. What if you don't like ear buds? This model (unlike the other) has built-in speakers (HI-FI!) and a voice and FM recorder I'll never use, but at least I can convince myself I wasn't hoodwinked. I'm waiting for the Postal Disservice to deliver it -- God knows how many excuses the weather has made for it.

Posted 10:29 AM by Gene

It took the catastrophe of a four-year-old's shooting death to awaken this neighborhood, but at least, unlike too many neighborhoods, it awakened.