Posted 5:08 PM by Gene

FLIP....

President Barack Obama on Saturday sought to defuse the controversy over his remarks on plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero, insisting that he wasn’t endorsing the specific project but making a general plea for religious tolerance toward all.

"In this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion,” Obama told reporters Saturday when asked about his remarks at a White House dinner marking the start of Ramadan.

“I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there,” Obama continued. “I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding...."

------------------------------------

But let me be clear. As a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. (Applause.) And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America. [Emphasis added]

FLOP!

Posted 1:59 PM by Gene

TRANSLATION: Twenty-five years ago King Mark would have been LEGENDARY WELCH. Today we see him for what he was: an imperial SOB.

(Via a contributor to WOLFFMAN!!!!!)

Posted 1:13 PM by Gene

One of the WAX's assistants started an argument by saying movee houses will disappear in ten years. His follow up isn't so enticing. We all know movee houses are obsolete, but what will replace them is television. Yes, it may be on one of THE LORD GOD STEVE's FOXCONN-assembled wonders, and yes you'll be able to see a movee ANYWHERE, but that makes it PAY TV, and that is no advancement. As we said before many if not most "movies" are shot on video equipment already. And it will be more difficult to sell movees as special when they become indistinguishable from specials except for their CGI. The movees, in short, will become a slightly more pretentious form of television, and this peon can't tell one kind of TV from the next, except when he has to pay for it.

Posted 10:11 AM by Gene

Look at these names: Matt Kuchar, Nick Watley, Jim Furyk, Jason Dufner, Bryce Molder, Dustin Johnson, Seung Yul Noh, Rory McIlroy, Zach Johnson, Simon Kahn. This is why golf is destined for the wilderness for a very long time.

Posted 10:06 AM by Gene

It's official: His Omnipotence is president of the hard left. Where's the president for the rest of us?



Strangely news-hack celebrations seem muted, perhaps because KAPLAN, INC. is at $343, over $200 off its dirt-cheap most undervalued premium. (The FEDERAL-SHAKEDOWN DIVISION appears in the THIRD-TO-LAST GRAF, a reminder that two letters of ALAN ABELSON's name are B and S.)

Also SLIMDOM is almost half-off its highs, McCLATCHY BANKRUPTCY COMPANY is sixty percent off -- we may never see GanNETt at single digits again but things are looking up for those who love the press!

Posted 3:01 PM by Gene

The shorts are betting AGAINST ST. WARREN????? Heaven forfend!!!!!

Being an EDUCRAT will do that to you!

Posted 12:14 PM by Gene

It's limo-ensconced FATSO, but he's on to something:

[T]he entire business world has figured out how to make huge buckets of money without hiring us to work for them. I'm not sure how in the long run this benefits these companies. Maybe the same robots who make most things now are also programmed to buy them?

Posted 11:14 AM by Gene

We just started one of the biggest government boondoggles in history and the voters aren't giving us CREDIT?!?!?

Posted 11:11 AM by Gene

Jeff "Tony Hayward" Bew-KES is making a BUGS BUNNY LIVE-ACTION/CGI!

WHAT A MAROON!

Posted 11:09 AM by Gene

JOKE OF THE DAY: A bank has foreclosed on the home owned by the head of the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

Posted 9:39 AM by Gene

Thanks to a wasteful acquisition FORBESLIST.com is slowly transforming itself into a glorified blog, with predictable results. Today this typist laments that men don't go to see "chick flicks". Truly the piece deserves a P-Ulitzer for its insight! A romantic comedy could appeal to men if it served them enough cheesecake (see above). Unfortunately, today's female ac-TORS cannot combine good comedy and good looks, being in short supply of both, and shorter supply of the latter (see here).

Posted 9:34 AM by Gene

Another stroke of genius for fans of ARCHDaily!

(Via the usual AHTSJournal)

Posted 9:16 AM by Gene

BRIAN ROBBER! ABANDON BATTLESHIP!

Fogelson also said the studio has planned carefully in preparing to shoot on the water, dismissing critics citing the "water issue." If water movies were invariably troubled, he said, "Disney shouldn't have made 'Pirates of the Caribbean'." That franchise has brought in $1.6 billion; Disney, in fact, has tightened its script for the now-shooting 'Pirates 4" to make it less water-based than the previous films.

Universal was swamped with negative press in 1995 when it produced Kevin Costner's "Waterworld," which had a budget that soared to a then-record $175 million. That troubled production had to deal with a set-destroying hurricane, and Costner seemed lost at sea as a director. James Cameron also faced much-publicized challenges while making "The Abyss," which ended up grossing $54 million in 1989.

One way Universal has kept "Battleship" from going over the brink was organizing the shoot in a way that keeps it on land as much as possible.

This film needs a torpedo -- or an iceberg.

Posted 8:54 AM by Gene

Six of one: A talk-radio loudmouth using a bad word.

Half-a-dozen of the other: REV. AL getting more face time to complain.

A special PC demerit to the TWXSTERS!

Posted 8:46 AM by Gene

Gee whiz, don't YOU wish YOU had a Congressman friend who could always get YOU out of trouble?

Posted 8:44 AM by Gene

An ad link in COMMENTARYMAGAZINE.COM.

JPOD, aren't we a little...desperate?

Posted 8:41 AM by Gene

``THERE'S A MILLION PEOPLE NOT WORKING IN FLORIDA. WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT THE YACHT ALL THE TIME?!?!?'' [Not-working overemphasis added]

Because lack of judgment in a prospective senator is always far more interesting.

Posted 8:38 AM by Gene

"This will be an irreversible step."

Okay NUKEMAN, now you can start planning for TEL AVIV!

Posted 5:53 PM by Gene

Dan Quail, Quaayl, QUAYLE spelled it p-o-t-a-t-o-e. His son spells it S-E-X.

Posted 2:53 PM by Gene

When will it occur to the stalwart defenders of FREE EN-TER-PRISE: nickel-and-dime your workers' safety and you could pay millions in fines?

Posted 1:54 PM by Gene

An honorary member of JournOList resigns.

Who knew it had members in the state houses?

Posted 11:35 AM by Gene

Now blow out the candles -- but before you do, wish for another twenty terms!

Posted 9:50 AM by Gene

Wait a second! Here the hacks were calling the late KING MARK of HP a HERO for having been such brilliant royalty -- and now they're saying all he did was SLASH JOBS?

Well there's an answer for "top-line growth" -- charge more for printer cartridges!

Posted 9:22 AM by Gene

And the sad thing is for all the ANDY "SELLER" SEILERS and SUSAN W's and CLAUDIA PIG -- PUIGS who've written ad copy there are one or two people at that paper who have an idea what they're doing -- as witness this account of how news hacks generally didn't know Iraq from a hole in the ground.

(Via -- alas -- MS. TRAVERS!)

Posted 8:26 AM by Gene

Notice anything here?

This movee revue is missing a byline!

We have often thought USAOKAY!!!!! should fire its entire show-biz advertising unit. Maybe they've gone and done it!

P. S. at 9:29 a. m. They had to fix it: it's Claudia Pig -- PUIG!

Posted 8:23 AM by Gene

Obama says worst of recession is over amid turmoil on Wall St.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Wednesday said it will take "quite a bit of time" to move on from the recession given the collapse of the financial industry and the huge housing crisis. [Eighth graf]

I like these coordinated messages, don't you?

Posted 8:19 AM by Gene

Sen. Boobs McKeating is back to seeking cameos in grossout comedies!

Is OL' WHISKEY SLOSH still alive?

P. S. at 6:00 p. m. We are aware that BOURBON BREATH has been alcohol-free since 1987, but we would not be surprised to learn that he consumed enough liquor to be drunk every day of his adult life. And what is more, an alcoholic is always "recovering". For all the wonderful things he has done we will continue to call him names like ROTGUT REEK, OL' WHISKEY SLOSH, and BOURBON BREATH.

Posted 8:06 AM by Gene

North Korea investigated for punishing World Cup soccer team

Oh dear, who would have thought?!?!?

And now FIFA can do its best impersonation of the League of Nations and forget about it.

Sepp Blatter, president of the International Federation of Association Football, or Fifa....

NUF SAID.

Posted 9:13 PM by Gene

TRANSLATION: TGSM is in the stupid Ryder Cup because the corner-office KINGS still want him there.

Remember -- he got caught.

Posted 9:05 PM by Gene

`Cathy' comic strip ending after 34 years

What will refrigerators do?

Posted 8:46 PM by Gene

Here’s the rundown of Newsweek’s assets and liabilities to date:

—In 2009, Newsweek lost $26.5 million [Is THAT ALL?]
—Net accounts receivable of $21.9 million and other current assets of $5.8 million
—Goodwill of $24.5 million [TRANSLATION: ZERO] and other non-current assets of $2.7 million
—Current salaries and “accrued expenses” of $14.1 million
—Current and non-current deferred revenue of $50.8 million [Divided by 20 equals....]
—In terms of costs, in Q2, Newsweek had $3.9 million in write downs related to property and equipment. Additional writedowns in this area are expected in WaPo’s Q3 results, naturally. [Naturally!]

Some of the stipulations in the sale agreement call for WaPo to provide Harman with “target working capital and selected equipment used in the business.” In return, he agrees to fulfill Newsweek’s subscription obligations.

Against our better judgment we would not be surprised if SID!!!!! pulls it off. On the other hand we wouldn't be surprised if SID!!!!! doesn't pull it off.

...And as WaPo becomes more reliant [?] on its Kaplan education business....

It will STILL call Itself The Washington Post Company.

Which alas, maybe It should.

Posted 5:43 PM by Gene

On the other hand, there were THESE Kings, although most of Them have probably earned back Their losses because Wall Street believes in fairy tales.

Then again....

(First link via the tantrum Consumerist)

Posted 5:35 PM by Gene

I'm convinced the upcoming alleged change in Congressional power will do no good. Both parties favor income redistribution -- Democrats through wasteful government spending, Republicans by giving everything away to big business and the hyperrich. And they both amply reward the most tone-deaf partisans and love imposing rules on everyone but themselves. One hopes when BANEHEAD fails that finally we can get a third party, a party with at least a little SENSE.

Posted 5:26 PM by Gene

At the local dollar store where I go for snacks General Mills raised the price of Bugles by 25 percent, in that way beloved of CEOs -- reducing the package size. This is why most people hate CEOs, because such stratagems are designed to increase the CEO's pay. It's comforting to hear food companies say they're in trouble but they still reserve their inalienable right to stick it to their customers.

Ken Powell, the King of General Mills, got a 105-percent pay hike last year. Yes, mostly in options, but it's still 105 percent. I'm not financing THAT anymore.

Posted 3:54 PM by Gene

ROBERT "SMUG" GIBBS IS RUNNING FOR CONGRESS AGAIN!

Posted 1:05 PM by Gene

Rosty, the corrupt pol who created ObamaCare before its time, has died. RIP.

(Via ASSPress)

Posted 8:32 AM by Gene

A LARGE, YELLOW CARSON WATERMARK: Look, I think it's grand that you guys are turning out fifty of Johnny's episodes on DVD, but next time, remember to PAY for the ad.



A NEUHARTHISM OF THE MONTH AWARD TO MATEA!



P. S. Did it have to appear THIS PROMINENTLY on your home page?

Posted 8:31 AM by Gene

David Bergstein, the troubled Hollywood financier whose credits include -- oddly enough -- helping orchestrate the recent sale of Miramax, was arrested in Florida last November over bad checks and unpaid gambling debts involving multiple Las Vegas casinos, TheWrap has learned.

TRANSLATION: He has a bright future in Hollywood!

Posted 8:26 AM by Gene

We are pleased to see CHICKEN ZAKARIA has evidently turned down the SIDSWEEK!!!!! editing job, meaning more time for $100,000 speeches and Cable Nuisance Net, and that Norman Thomas's Grandson who Saw Kind-of God is leaving the rag, so SID!!!!! had better hope his fortune sells more high-end stereo equipment -- or he may have to write the whole thing himself.

Posted 8:23 AM by Gene

Uh Eric, is this the same zero-tolerance ethics policy you guys had before you relinquished the throne?

Posted 7:45 PM by Gene

Wells Fargo & Co. should pay about $203 million to customers who say the bank manipulated debit-card transactions without their knowledge to increase revenue from overdraft fees, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco issued the ruling Tuesday, deciding the case without a jury.

Wells Fargo changed the way it treated customers' daily debit transactions and cash withdrawals in December 2001, according to the lawsuit filed in 2007. Transactions with the highest dollar amount posted first, rather than in the order they occurred.

The practice resulted in more overdrafts, with customers overdrawing their accounts by small amounts multiple times a day, according to the complaint. The change allegedly was intended to boost revenue from overdraft fees, which ranged from $18 to $35 for each overdraft.

Another honest, ethical business practice from the HOLY KINGDOM OF ST. WARREN!

Posted 2:16 PM by Gene

Rupert Murdoch claims to own the 'Sky' in 'Skype'

Why not? Doesn't He own the SUN?

He could sue every time someone uses it without His permission!

(Via IWantMedia)

Posted 1:57 PM by Gene

"I deserve and demand the right to be heard!!!!!" [Privileged overemphasis added]

The louder the better!

Posted 12:54 PM by Gene

Ted Stevens will always be remembered for the Bridge to Nowhere (and "a series of tubes") and for having been railroaded by the Feds. A man should not be prosecuted for pork yet thanks to his illustrious career the man almost invited it.

Nonetheless we thought of Will Rogers and Wiley Post today, and cannot help thinking of this without a tinge of sadness.

(Removed at 2:00 p. m. thanks to news hack confusion; re-posted at 5:00 p. m.)

Posted 11:38 AM by Gene

AHTSJournal, again:

It's Never Been Easier To Publish A Book

...for an audience of zero.

Posted 11:22 AM by Gene

A married couple from Connecticut, whose son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter were killed on a flight that hit the World Trade Center, wrote to The New York Times to oppose the project on the grounds that it “has the trappings of a victory mosque”. That expression captures a lot. People around the world will differ over the meaning of September 11 2001, but there can be no doubting that it is one of America’s most consequential military defeats. It led to a stalemate in Afghanistan and a war in Iraq that undermined the US’s standing in the world. By providing another reason for low interest rates and easy credit, it helped spur the present economic crisis. Whether or not this was inevitable, it happened. Osama bin Laden’s strategic calculus – that the US lacked either the resolve, the cohesion or the cultural self-confidence to stand up to a mighty blow – has in many ways been vindicated.

We would dispute that we've "lost" these two wars but given a few of our posts today it's hard to dispute that last sentence.

This introspection-provoking zinger comes via Marty Peretz -- and we'd have gotten it sooner if FT.com hadn't contorted itself into a pretzel trying to ward off the hoi-polloi.

Posted 11:09 AM by Gene

This me-me-me jackassery shows why the word "nonjudgmental" has become as soiled as "tolerance."

Posted 11:04 AM by Gene

The press secretary dismissed the “professional left” in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.”

ROBERT "SMUG" GIBBS IS RUNNING FOR CONGRESS!!!!!

P. S. at 1:00 p. m. ROBERT "SMUG" GIBBS IS NOT RUNNING FOR CONGRESS!!!!!

(First link via SUPERADAM!!!!!)

Posted 11:01 AM by Gene

Let me guess: The poor don't give to the Democratic Party.

Posted 10:59 AM by Gene

We hope the ASSPress will not mind our posting this in full:

Nicklaus, Palmer christen new Michigan course

By MIKE HOUSEHOLDER
Associated Press Writer

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- Four of the biggest names in the history of golf are playing a round together to commemorate the opening of a new course located in one of Michigan's most impoverished communities.

Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Johnny Miller teed off Tuesday morning along Lake Michigan in Benton Harbor, site of the Nicklaus-designed Golf Club at Harbor Shores.

The par-71 course is the centerpiece of a 530-acre resort that eventually will include 800 residences, a deep water marina and shops and restaurants.

The 18-hole scramble is a skins match. Nicklaus says it is an opportunity to highlight how golf can help with "social and economic revitalization."

Don't tell me the game's getting stimulus money!

Posted 9:27 AM by Gene

A certain imam spreads TOLERANCE on OUR frequent-flyer miles:

Crowley said no fund-raising for the mosque and cultural center during the trip would be permitted. "That would not be something he could do as part of our program," he said.

And I'm sure THAT wouldn't be part of OUR program either.

Posted 9:17 AM by Gene

The Most Obtuse Link of the Year:

Sex and the City's Samantha Would Want You to Get Her Box Set

NO THANK YOU.



AND A NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD TO THE APTLY NAMED EUNICE!

Posted 9:09 AM by Gene

Here, in paragraph 27, the one that begins with "Most", we have the aptest possible eulogy for Gerry "Pardon" Ford and his sidekick Henry the K.

Posted 8:42 AM by Gene

You're looking at your generation's Cher.

More meaningless fake iconoclasm from a biz that creates GODDESSES.

Now how can we do to the Web what Joseph Epstein did to "the liberals' Glenn Beck" and the rest of The Paper of Re-CORD?

Posted 8:37 AM by Gene

When You make as much money from cable-subscribing turnips as SUMNER does You can employ $100,000 TWITS, because You're not paying for them.

Posted 8:23 AM by Gene

CARLOS THE JACKASS! The wall! THE WALL!!!!!

Posted 8:12 AM by Gene

For-Profit Colleges Draw Most Veterans on New GI Bill

Show 'em your patriotism, St. Warren!

Posted 6:46 PM by Gene

[F]acing a historic economic crisis and the prosecution of two ongoing wars, Obama may have been playing some bad political chess when he decided to make health-care reform his first-year priority. As it turned out, health care was the trigger for a popular reaction against “too much government.” Shierholz says, “The health-care bill was a hugely important foundation for big change. But the way it worked out, we didn’t get a real discussion about another huge stimulus package.” Now, with his support so thin on Capitol Hill, Obama will have trouble getting any major new measure passed.



NOW SIDSWEEK tells us!

Posted 10:22 AM by Gene

Also via the usual Romy: Just what we need -- feminist men's magazines!

Posted 10:16 AM by Gene

TRANSLATION: The Econowiz is engaging in exactly the same kind of gimmicks as the dinorags! "45 percent of Economist subscribers are customers for six months or less, according to the latest circulation figures." That wouldn't mean -- cut-rate, would it? How can a rag that thumpingly lands on every CEO's desk thanks to the sainted BUGMEISTER (and resoundingly goes unread) ever stoop so low?

(Via the usual Romy)

Posted 10:09 AM by Gene

Justin Bieber's -- "MEMOIR" (snicker snicker, chortle chortle) is one heckuva good reason for bookstores to disappear -- and possibly "books" too, in whatever guise.

And of COURSE SLIME has to "publish" it. If anyone can do a vanishing act on "books" it's SLIME. He did a vanishing act on The Times.

The WHAT?

P. S. We suspect half the SLIME's staff "wrote" it.

Posted 9:43 AM by Gene

Meantime some German officials are proving not-so-tolerant, perhaps because the people using this mosque may be not-so-tolerant.

Posted 9:33 AM by Gene

SIDSWEEK has a take on TOLERANCE, which judging from what I can skim of this verbose piece errs on the TOLERANT side. SID!!!!! will learn quickly no amount of high-end stereo equipment will keep people from chucking His magazine if it keeps running CW, as SID!!!!! obviously wants it to.

Posted 9:28 AM by Gene

We are sorry to learn Jerry Flint, the very-long-time and very-hard-nosed writer on the auto biz, and on whom we depended too in a little way, has died. Now there's one less reason to read FORBESLIST.

Posted 9:26 AM by Gene

"The emphasis on marketing and [ad] spending and the attention that marketing gets from senior management at any company is far and away more important than not just R&D, but also the quality function," Mr. Riker said. "[Quality] is the orphan function. It's rarely represented in any boardroom setting unless there's some emergency."

Jeez -- I wonder why. Could it be you can't schmooze in Hollywood by spending on QUALITY?

Posted 8:43 AM by Gene

ANOTHER IRRITANT FROM AHTSJOURNAL: For years revuers have gushed about DARK!!!!! EDGY!!!!! entertainment, so here comes this Denver typist who says in his own ten-thumbed way that maybe dark and edgy aren't as good as people in his income bracket insist. We would ask that news hacks think before they type but we wonder how, they having no brains.

Posted 8:00 PM by Gene

We hate to link to this but we must say it is not enough that the news hacks' heroes be figuratively naked; they must be, like Hans Christian Andersen's emperor, literally naked too. That does not make their PR any less threadbare, or their emperors any more noble.

Don't these imbeciles have anything better to do with their time than lulling themselves into a mental coma with their fractured fairy tales, and lulling into complete torpor the peons their readers?

Posted 6:11 PM by Gene

ARCHDaily!



An argument against war: Without war, starchitects wouldn't need to put up buildings like THIS.

Posted 5:55 PM by Gene

It took this whole long 2,201-WORD thumb-sucking DIALOGUE to boil the problem with the kind of hole-in-the-wall thea-TAH news hacks mistake for GENIUS down to TWO WORDS:

"[B]rilliant amateurism."

And we're not sure about the BRILLIANT.

(Via the usual irritating AHTSJournal)

Posted 5:33 PM by Gene

You may recall how the pompous educrats of KAPLAN, INC. refused NEWSMAX!!!!!'s bid for SIDSWEEK because it was...conservative. Well we were just in our local Barnes and Noble and did something very few people have done -- we skimmed through NEWSMAX!!!!! Magazine. One article caught our eye: "Sixty is Sexy!" was inspired by YOU-KNOW-WHO and struck us as a cross between the worst of Reader's Digest and the worst of Useless News. KAPLAN, INC. had good reasons for turning down NEWSMAX!!!!!. Why did they have to be the wrong ones?

Posted 3:40 PM by Gene

In SIDSWEEK.com:

Flipboard Turns Twitter Into Your Own Magazine

So who needs YOU?

Posted 3:38 PM by Gene

An international Christian aid group denied on Sunday Taliban accusations that its team of foreign medical workers killed in Afghanistan's remote northeast had been proselytizing.

How would the clockwork liberal mind rationalize such a thing? We can imagine.

Posted 11:10 AM by Gene

Well, I finally did it -- I decided on my new computer. I'm building one myself. I must confess the prospect jitters my nerves but I think I can do it. I'd have liked one of those refurbished HP Pavilion Elites but the Pegatron Truckee (which HP still uses) and paying $100 for a SquareTrade warranty vanquished that idea. A 15-percent Bing Cashback rebate for TigerDirect goaded me along. Even so it's not entirely pleasant to decide among parts and I was deciding up to the last second. You also learn there's not as much competition in some niches of the computer biz as you may think.

Now to bore you: For the motherboard I got the EVGA X58 SLI thanks to high NewEgg rankings and the fact the company's mobos seem reliable through the whole product line. My ideal choice would have been the ASUS (AY-suhs, Ah-SOOS) P6X58D but it was considerably more expensive and some ASUS 1366 boards don't rate that well with NewEgg customers, and the low-end P6T SE works its way into ready-builts by CyberpowerPC and IBuyPower that don't rate that well either -- and what's more, PEGATRON is ASUSTeK's (AY-suhsTeK's, Ah-SOOSTeK's) OEM division. I'm worried because the EVGA board is said to have had sporadic troubles with its USB ports -- but Tom's Hardware's pick the Gigabyte X58A-UD3R had so many DOAs and RMAs and "issues" it was unacceptable; and MSI's X58 Pro-E board had heat problems; choosing was a process of elimination. This was $199 after rebates but before shipping; and even here I had to pay $26 more for the "A1" board with its dubious lifetime warranty as Systemax conveniently ran out of the cheaper "TR" version -- only to sell a "limited quantity" in-store through Circuit City. I may e-mail.

For the graphics card: the EVGA GTX 460 768MB Superclocked. This too was a last-minute choice. I'd decided on an ASUS HD5770 card if only because it was cheap but then somehow I learned of this item that's become a favorite among the people who write up their free parts; and even there I had to squinch because this card has less memory than the other card in that nVidia line (1.024GB), which the free-part procurers made a point of pretentiously noting. Then NewEgg threw a foot-long monkey wrench in my plans with the briefest of sales on an MSI HD5830 card for $150 but I wasn't sure I wanted a GPU taking up my whole case. Really I could have gotten a $40 card but there must be more to videogames than first-person shooters. I'm getting a second card next year for SLI, practical or not. This was $178 before shipping.

For the memory: the Corsair TR3X6G1600C9. (I HATE catalog numbers!) I was all set on some A-Data memory but TigerDirect didn't discount it and after multiple rebates this was roughly $117 -- $39 a stick, which is unheard of. (But not a year ago.) I was a little flustered because this has a 9 latency and other Corsair sticks have 8, but the problem with finding computer parts is you get hopelessly mired in all the minutiae and trivia of fanboys -- and all I wanted was the cheapest top-quality parts. I'm worried here too because this isn't on the EVGA board's QVL (you learn acronyms VERY quickly in this trade) but there's nothing a BIOS tweaking can't fix -- as if I know how to do that. Well, always a first time.

For the PSU: the Corsair HX750W. This is universally praised and well-built -- it even comes with a velvet pouch! -- although I see Corsair has just introduced a superduperduper line-up of PSUs to please that social climbing streak in the geeks. I'd thought of the 850 but it had an extra set of built-in case-cluttering cords, and I'm NOT moron enough to triple-SLI or Crossfire -- nor do I have THAT much money for electricity. Both PSUs are modular, meaning not so much spaghetti wire. This was roughly $102 after multiple rebates.

For the case: the AzZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! Helios 910. (These NAMES!) Again my first choice was a Cooler Master 690 series but nobody seemed to discount it when I wanted it and after a rebate and credits from the two sets of CFL bulbs I returned this was $6 from Amazon.com. NewEgg's customers seem enthusiastic toward the brand -- at least the higher end. (Who wouldn't be with a name like AzZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!?) It's a nice looking case except from the side a big fan turns it into a front-loading washing machine, and it must have blue fan LEDs. Can't the geeks grow up? One possible problem is the four built-in motherboard standoffs which several sources allege can short out a board. But it does have four BIG fans.

The other items merit little comment: a Seagate 1.5TB hard drive for $65 after a rebate (a dubious value as it's gotten lots of pans from customers at many sites, not least of them Seagate's, but at 1.5TB there wasn't much choice); a Lite-On DVD burner for $19; Windows 7 Ultimate System Builder for $161. I almost got in trouble here for lots of Mug Whitman's ardent Chinese followers sell pirated MSDN keys with credible looking "retail" boxes and discs; I nearly bought a copy thinking it was gray-market. (Although the one with the peeling label on the disc WASN'T.) eBay's motto is Caveat Emp -- ALL PEOPLE ARE GOOD.

What remains now is the chip, which most likely I'll have to trudge for at a nearby MicroCenter. I still need to know if the story of the 950 price cut is a fairy tale; meantime I've learned the outfit has a very limited quantity -- ONE -- of the 920 at $169. My deadline is two weeks as I have to cut all the bar codes off all the packages to get all the rebates. With almost $300 from these and the late lamented Bing Cashback there's no way I'd have made the plunge otherwise.

P. S. There is unsubstantiated talk that THE LORD GOD STEVE's favorite supplier FOXCONN makes EVGA boards, an annoyance; but shouldn't we assume worker abuse and computer parts just go together?

CORRECTION ON 8/10/2010 at 11:50 a. m. ASUSTeK spun off Pegatron as part of a complicated restructuring in June, but it still has a 25-percent interest, and the companies must have shared plants. (Link via Wikipedia)