Located in downtown Detroit adjacent to the Atheneum Hotel and near Greektown. New Orleans / Cajun style. About as good as you can get when looking for the Big Easy this far north. Nothing is as hot as I like, but you can spice it up. Fans of catfish and oysters will be disappointed, but the Creole / jambalaya / etoufee standards are good enough. They also serve several of the Dixie Brewing Company beers, including the great-but-hard-to-find Blackened Voodoo.
Again, nothing spectacular when compared to the real thing. When compared to the rest of the dining in downtown Detroit, however, Fishbones is a must-eat.
Final rating: Three out of four stolen crab forks.
Many call it the “forgotten war,” so it's fitting that today we remember the 50-year anniversary of the Korean War armistice. I recommend two things: first, take a moment to pay respect to those who served and lost. Second, visit the commemoration site created by the US Army. Go here for the Flash intro page, and here for the non-Flash intro page.
You owe yourself the visit.
Wife pointed out this afternoon that the Yahoo! directory for Business and Economy > Shopping and Services > Apparel > Men's lists a number of web-site categories you'd expect: Athletic Wear, Big and Tall, Formal Wear … Cross-Dressing? It has nearly as many sites (24) as does Formal-Wear (26). See for yourself:
Hmmm … let's see … bespoke shirt, or that slinky little black dress I so like? To make a directory list requires traffic … how well DO you know your next-door-neighbors?
For an excellent summary of the recent events in the Philippines, visit the blog of Command Post contributor Willie Galang. Willie has an excellent series of posts and screenshots of local media coverage from his “on the ground” perspective in Manilla.
And you are regularly visiting The Command Post, right?
According to the Belief-O-Matic, I could well be a Unitarian Universalist, or perhaps a Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestant. And you? Visit the Belief-O-Matic and learn “what religion (if any) you practice…or ought to consider practicing.”
I haven't ranted about Maureen Dowd in some time. But her Sunday NY Times Op-Ed on the Gray Davis recall deserves a post. Frankly, it's terrible … content aside. The writing is simply awful. Punctuated. Rambling. Rife with hyperbole. Indeed, it's nothing more than 17 two- or three-sentence paragraphs strung together.
It's bad enough that she writes from a singular and inflexible perspective. It's bad enough that she abuses her editorial license when recounting quotations. But now, she can't even indulge us with compelling sentence structures and robust argument.
Memo to Gail Collins: You're new at the helm. The news writing world expects you to inaugurate your reign and with some decision of note. Do us a favor and let it be this: send Maureen down to the minors where she belongs.
As I've posted before, about half of my readers are “mainstream” non-bloggers. That half likely does not know that today is Blogathon 2003, and that several of the bloggers I count as friends are blogging continually for the next 24 hours for charity. So please, visit the sites below, and if their cause inspires you, offer a donation.
Again, please pay a visit (or many) to each.
I can see from my site statistics that several people a day find Avocare by searching the web for items related to an “unmountable boot device” Windows error. Since I faced and fixed this problem, I'm leaving my fix in the extended entry if you happen to be such a searcher.
I had installed a new HD on an XP machine and was trying to install from the Windows XP 6-disk set-up disk set. I'd get through all six disks and then would get a blue screen of death with the UBD error.
Ultimately, the problem was that I had the wrong driver installed on the boot disk for my external CD drive (the PC is an IBM Thinkpad). I updated the driver on my boot disk, and was then able to install straight from the Windows XP CD and avoid the set-up disks altogether.
If you need more info, email me at avocare at avocare dot net.
In his analyst call today Bill Gates stated that 5 percent of all Windows-based computers now crash more than twice each day.
I guess I'm in the unlucky 5% (as is everyone else in my office). How about an informal poll. If your PC crashes more than twice a day, say so in the comments. If you enjoy greater stability (with a PC, mind you … you Mac and Linux users hold your keys), say so in the comments.
Let's see how this really plays out among the seven of us, shall we?
On June 27 I posted the first Avocare Numbers Game, in which we saw how many stories a Google News search generated for various search terms. That was the baseline; now for the one-month benchmark. Note the increase for "Iraq+Quagmire":
Iraq + Victory: 2,930 stories then, 3,160 stories nowIraq + Defeat: 2,540 stories then, 1,920 stories now
Iraq + Failure: 4,910 stories then, 5,020 stories now
Iraq + Liberation: 1,830 stories then, 2,190 stories now
Iraq + Occupation: 7,340 stories then, 9,350 stories now
Economy + 2004 + Election: 1,440 stories then, 1,280 stories now
Iraq + 2004 + Election: 1,110 stories then, 1,850 stories now
Iraq + Quagmire: 189 stories then, 1,790 stories now
Atlantic Monthly references continue. As time goes by, my affection for Tony Blair's leadership qualities grows. If his speech last week wasn't enough, here's an excellent profile on Blair from the Monthly. In particular, it provides background on Blair's upbringing, education, and political career ... details of which most Americans are unfamiliar. One enlightening snippet:
Shortly after becoming the leader of the Labour Party, Blair said, "If you really want to understand what I'm all about, you have to take a look at a guy called John Macmurray. It's all there." Macmurray was a Christian socialist who after World War II became a pacifist and joined the Society of Friends. He emphasized social action and is sometimes credited with having invented communitarianism.Macmurray rejected politics as it is traditionally understood, with its emphasis on conflict, competition, opposition groups, and partisanship. He regarded the family as the primary unit of society, and believed that people should come together to form communities based on friendship, love, and the Golden Rule. He argued that it is the job of citizens to heal rifts and build partnerships.
Obviously, Blair has not followed Macmurray all the way to his pacifist and Quaker destination ... But, influenced by Macmurray, he tends to use political means to achieve post-political ends. He can be a ruthless leader, and he has mastered all the tricks of modern politics (focus groups, sound bites, branding), but he uses them mostly in pursuit of his gauzy communitarian vision. Even more than Bill Clinton, Blair has spent his life trying to bridge the divide between left and right. Even more than Clinton, he views the family as the most important social institution, as the seedbed of love, trust, and responsibility.
Earlier this month I read this short story by Garrison Keillor in the Atlantic Monthly. It's now online, and I encourage the read. One of my favorite snippets:
Dear Eric,You need women for education, flawed or not. The maiden with little snow-white feet, the one with black black black hair, Barbary Allen, the gypsy girl, Kathleen Mavourneen, Jeannie, Fair Ellen—each woman prepares you for the next. You learn the basics from Lady A and you graduate to Lady B, who is grateful to her predecessor, as are C and D and E, and by F you are quite a fine fellow, mostly recovered from your sulky adolescence and rapacious narcissism and prepared to carry on a conversation, brighten your corner, do light housekeeping, and every so often perform amazing feats in or near the bed.
The danger is that you may turn to the woman you're with and say, "Remember that little bar in the West Sixties where we went after we saw A Chorus Line and there was that pianist with the bad toupee playing the white piano?" and she says, "That wasn't me. You were with someone else." But secretly she's grateful to that woman for teaching you whatever she taught you.
You've cheated yourself of an education, sir. Take off your glasses.
I'm back home and enjoying it. Let's enjoy a little Friday on Thursday, shall we? Here's what the people who know say about Michele ... and I'm inclined to believe them. Feel free to blink along at home. And if you're looking for something to do later on, catch this on NBC. 9:30 PM tonight. You'll be glad you did.
I'll be watching this site all day: the home page for the FAA Air Traffic Control Command Center. I'm on the little DTW dot. At 5:00 PM I hope to fly to the little PHL dot. As of this writing, the little PHL dot is already orange. This is not good, and given that it's only 12:17 EST, this suggests I may be on the little DTW dot tomorrow as well (or the PIT dot, or the CLE dot). So keep your fingers crossed.
First of all, let me say that the Hussein brothers meeting justice made my day. That said, hello from Detroit, where I share the Dearborn Hyatt with the Grand National Meet of the Early Ford V-8 Club. The typical attendee demographic: white married couple, age 73, calls Smallmidwesterntown, USA home. Still, I took some pics. Click for the full size.
Hello from Indianapolis, which is not where I intended to spend tonight. My flight to Detroit, though, was diverted to Indy for fuel (we had to fly far south because of weather), and we never left. So I now enjoy the Indy Airport Radisson for a few hours before flying to Detroit on Northworst at 7:25 AM tomorrow.
Some observations:
Always sit as far forward in the plane as you can. I was in seat 1A (on a regional jet), by design, and as a result, was first at the counter for the long, painful rebooking process.Blog you from Detroit.Always call service personnel by their first names, and tell them yours.
Never call airport personnel "asshole," as it will remain in your computer record for all time, and ensure you never, ever sit in seat 1A. (Note that I have learned this lesson by observing others, and you know who you are.)
Always keep a napkin in your pocket (credit here to my father, who has said for 40 years that with a napkin in your pocket "you'll never have to wipe with a pinecone" ... in my instance, I was able to eat pizza in a hotel bar with no napkins on-hand).
Relax when it's weather ... it's out of your hands, and the hands of the airline.
Shame on anyone who puts Grey Goose in a Bloody Mary.
For those who have not yet seen Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, it's, well, to speak in the protagonists' style, fabulous. Yet as pleasing as this show is (Wife has already rearranged our closet and sworn me away from pleated shorts), a number of journalist-quasi-pundits can't resist the urge to jump on the negative stereotype bandwagon.
I thought the bashing may have remained isolated to my Philadelphia Inquirer, until I read this post by Jane Finch, which references this article by Brent Bozell.
I wonder … when did the media start getting upset by gay stereotypes? I guess they somehow managed to miss Barney Miller, All In The Family, Soap, Three's Company, Thirtysomething, Roseanne, The Simpsons, Melrose Place, NYPD Blue, Spin City, Ellen Degeneres, Sex And The City, Will & Grace and Queer As Folk.
While blogrolling today I came across this post by Lesley, which describes her fondness for New York City. Just reading it, I smelt and felt a sliver of The City (sorry, San Fancisco, for me, NYC will forever be The City).
I very much associate New York with my professional coming of age, and reading Lesley's thoughts on the greats and not-so-greats of Manhattan brought a wry grin to the face of this Utah native.
And while putting this post together, I came across this New York City photoblog. Visit the blog, read Lesley's post, and see if you too can feel The City.
If you read this site often, you know that Michele and I often engage in "Dueling Shitty 70's Music Clips" on the weekends. She just sent this link. She wins.
And by the way ... what were those of you who bought this stuff thinking?
Nobody is really reading blogs on Saturday night ... Rachel Lucas is smart enough to toss up a dog pic on Friday and call it a weekend. In that spirit, I present Cassidy. Cos you can't write about politics all the time (unless, of course, you manage this in your spare time).
Clik on the pic for The Full Cassidy.
Oh, and a little Wrigley mixed in for good measure.
Haven't been over to Michele's yet to see what's what tonight, but I'm about to send her this. 'Cause we all remember when MJ was black without his "skin affliction."
Update: Upon reading her words here, I don't know if I should feel like I'm part of an exclusive club, or just a common loser. But whichever it is, if it's a club with Michele in it, it's a club in which I'm proud to be a member.
Ways & Means Republicans calling the Capitol Police on Ways & Means Democrats. We should all be so, so proud.
If you'd like offer the Chairman, Bill Thomas (R-CA), your opinion of this most recent display of legislative dignity, you may contact him here. If you'd like to express a similar sentiment to the ranking Democrat, Charlie Rangel (NY), you may contact him here. If you'd like to visit the elaborate website designed and hosted for Ways & Means with taxpayer dollars, go here.
For those who'd like to associate names (and records) with all those involved, I've posted the full the membership Ways & Means in the extended entry.
Republicans:
William M. Thomas, CA Chairman
Philip M. Crane, IL
E. Clay Shaw Jr. , FL
Nancy L. Johnson, CT
Amo Houghton, NY
Wally Herger, CA
Jim McCrery, LA
Dave Camp, MI
Jim Ramstad, MN
Jim Nussle, IA
Sam Johnson, TX
Jennifer Dunn, WA
Mac Collins, GA
Rob Portman, OH
Phil English, PA
J.D. Hayworth, AZ
Jerry Weller, IL
Kenny C. Hulshof, MO
Scott McInnis, CO
Ron Lewis, KY
Mark Foley, FL
Kevin Brady, TX
Paul Ryan, WI
Eric Cantor, VA
Democrats:
Charles B. Rangel, NY
Fortney Pete Stark, CA
Robert T. Matsui, CA
Sander M. Levin, MI
Benjamin L. Cardin, MD
Jim McDermott, WA
Gerald D. Kleczka, WI
John Lewis, GA
Richard E. Neal, MA
Michael R. McNulty, NY
William J. Jefferson, LA
John S. Tanner, TN
Xavier Becerra, CA
Lloyd Doggett, TX
Earl Pomeroy, ND
Max Sandlin, TX
Stephanie Tubbs Jones, OH
Dennis Miller has a piece on the Wall Street Journal Op/Ed page today about Jerry Springer's senatorial aspirations. It's quite funny; here's a taste:
It's no secret that the gene pool, in addition to being a tad brackish as of late, is also so shallow now there doesn't even need to be a lifeguard on duty. Springer has stood astride that pool like a latter day Colossus Ignoramus of Rhodes for well over a decade now.Here's the link. Unfortunately, the Journal's Op/Ed page is a subscription page. Fortunately, I think the Journal owes me a little something for my years of loyal readership. As such, there might be a little something for you in the extended entry. You know, if you wanted to maybe see what Dennis had to say? Nudge nudge …Now that's not to say I don't periodically find the "The Jerry Springer Show" intellectually stimulating. Indeed, how many times have I been walking through the parking lot of a laundromat and seen two obese women in halter tops slap fighting and thought, "Wow . . . I wonder what the back story is on that?"
Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!By DENNIS MILLER
Well, Jerry Springer is mulling over a run for the Senate and John Adams is no doubt spinning in his grave so furiously that if we could just hook up a turbine power cable to his headstone we would probably solve all our energy woes.
It's no secret that the gene pool, in addition to being a tad brackish as of late, is also so shallow now there doesn't even need to be a lifeguard on duty. Springer has stood astride that pool like a latter day Colossus Ignoramus of Rhodes for well over a decade now.
Now that's not to say I don't periodically find the "The Jerry Springer Show" intellectually stimulating. Indeed, how many times have I been walking through the parking lot of a laundromat and seen two obese women in halter tops slap fighting and thought, "Wow . . . I wonder what the back story is on that?"
But at this point, Springer would have to hire a team of sherpas to assist him on the long trek back up to the lowest common denominator. As a matter of fact, the last time I was channel surfing and stopped on the Springer show my channel flicker filed a restraining order against me.
The Pied Piper of Bottom Feeders, Ringmaster of the Cirque de Salieri and now he's set his sights on Congress. Just think of it as Mr. Registers-At-Hourly-Rates-Hotels-Under-The-Name Smith Goes To Washington.
Well, one thing's for sure. Capitol Hill hasn't seen bouncers this big since the members of the House were kiting all that bad paper during the banking scandal of '92.
But is Jerry's pluck at the Grail really that aberrant a notion? His talk-show experience will at least allow him to co-mingle easily with his fellow Senators, yet another studio audience of preening narcissists voracious for their 15 minutes but in truth needing an intermission to fill the time.
It's not like I think the Senate is a hallowed chamber where you have to be particularly smart to get in. To me, Congress is just a place where we send ofttimes mediocre men and women to be Earl Scheibed into looking kinda, sorta, vaguely consequential.
There's also a geographical track record to consider here. The good citizens of Ohio in the past have seen fit to elect Jim Traficant to Congress and trust me, Traficant makes Springer look like Hammurabi.
So I'm torn. I can't decide if Springer is underqualified or overqualified. But here's My Final Thought. One thing I do like about Springer is that he always manages to convey that he's a wee bit sheepish about it all. Not sheepish enough to resist cashing the checks mind you, but just enough to let you know that he'd like to settle up his societal karma deficit as he heads into the denouement of what has heretofore been a reasonably idiotic life.
Additionally, maybe if we one day glimpse C-Span and see Jerry Springer actually being sworn into the United States Senate it will shock us -- like Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes" looking up and seeing the chimp on top of the pony -- and trigger some much needed electoral reform. Say, an IQ Quizometer on the door of the voting booth where you have to get seven out of 10 current-events questions right before you're allowed in to cast your ballot. All right, settle down liberals. Make that 4 out of 10.
Well, I have to go now. I'm cutting the ribbon this afternoon at the newly erected Morton Downey Jr. Memorial and Secretary of the Interior Wally George is picking me up in 15 minutes. "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!"
HA HA HA HA HA!!!
I'm always pleased when pop culture openly teases stodgy establishements like the New York Times. Pearls Before Swine is created by Stephen Pastis.
Yesterday I received this email from friend Tony:
The last remaining part of modern music that took SOME talent to perform is now gone. Now people with absolutely NO talent musically can create music. What of music's future now?The link, as you’ll see, is to Yamaha’s new VOCALOID Singing Synthesis Software, which Yamaha claims to allow
song writers to generate authentic-sounding singing on their PCs by simply inputting the words and notes of their compositions … the software synthesizes the sound from ‘vocal libraries’ of recordings of actual singers, retaining the vocal qualities of the original singing voices to reproduce real-sounding vocals.Judge for yourself by listening to this VOCALOID mp3 friend Matt sent along; I think you’ll agree it’s a long way from the Commodore 64 voice synthesizer, and much closer to H.A.L. singing “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer please."
The implications of Glenn Reynolds now being able to have Instapundit sing the blog aside, here’s my response to Tony’s question:
Can't speak to the future of music, but the future of musicians is rock-solid (pardon the pun).Friend Matt also had some interesting thoughts, which I’ve posted in the extended entry.It's the same as words: nearly any asshole can write, but only a few are writers. The talent isn't in the ability to deliver the content, it's in the ability to deliver the art.
Matt's response:
For all of you who didn't get a chance to hear the Vocaloid, I've attached an MP3. I'll let you make your own opinions, but here's my prediction:Some well-connected composer or producer will write a song using Vocaloid. They'll create a fictitious 'diva' to credit the performance to. They'll create some beautiful scantily clad babe in Photoshop and make 'her' a website.
Then, the song will get sold for use in a popular movie soundtrack, and it will become a hit. The 'diva' will quickly become the center of attention on every media outlet. But her agent claims that she won't do interviews. This only spurs MTV, VH1 and others to push harder for the elusive, exclusive interview. They dream about getting the drop on everyone else by being the first to interview the most reclusive pop icon since Greta Garbo.
Meanwhile, people who can hear the difference between a computer and a real human (which is proving a more difficult task) will dismiss the song as junk. They'll claim the performer is a computer, and the song is lame (because it will be.) But alas, the critics will all be ignored and the song will continue to sell millions.
Only after the song hits radio saturation will the truth be disclosed that she was a computer the whole time. Some will be astounded. Others will demand their money back claiming that they've been 'Milli Vanillied' again. They'll demand their money back because they'll feel duped. (Someone should tell them that if they don't want to be duped, they should stop being stupid.) But, sadly, most people won't give a shit one way or the other.
The fervor makes the cover of a few magazines like Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, The National Inquirer, People, and perhaps even USA Today or Time (but only if it's a slow news week.) Headlines will read something like, "The Musical Jar-Jar Binks" and, "They've Done it to Us Again!" and, "Elvis was a Vocaloid." Now even those who never heard the song or saw the movie will know the story.
Speaking of the story, the movie producers will start working on treatments for a movie about an imaginary pop diva who was actually a computer. But the producers of the movie "Simone" (aka, S1m0ne) will sue, claiming it's too similar to their movie. They'll settle out of court for millions, the lawyers will charge a healthy fee, and the movie will get shelved. But their clients will make a little money back by working with VH1 on a 'Behind the Music; The Diva That Wasn't'.
So there you go. Just like most things in pop culture, it's much ado about nothing. Why? Because people won't realize that the song sucked in the first place.
Matt
Is Wesley Clark G.W.'s worst-case scenario? Read this Atlantic Monthly piece by Jack Beatty and draw your own conclusion.
Greetings from Detroit, MI. I don't often post about sports, but I just finished watching LeBron James' post-game interview on ESPN ... and the kid sounded spectacularly unlike a professional basketball player.
He was very well spoken. He talked about Larry Byrd and Bob Cousey. When asked if he had his "A, B or C game" tonight he said "C, because we didn't win." He talked about the importance of being humble. He said "every time I'm on the court I enjoy it ... I enjoy giving the crowd what they want to see." Oh, and he had something like 25 points in 23 minutes against veteran NBA talent.
The kid is sick good, and he's going to have all of America watching the NBA again. If you're not up to speed, get a little LeBron here.
I am officially declaring the debate about when blogs have gone / will go mainstream over, based on two news items that crossed my path today. The first is this article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer, which notes:
Sad as it may be that the Philadelphia book critic has to say it, I'm shocked, shocked, and, well, just appalled. If anyone tried to pull off this kind of inbred, taking-care-of-friends favoritism in government or business, the nation's media outlets would scream bloody murder, blogging the story to death, demanding resignations and apologies.
Emphasis mine. No footnote or parenthetical explaining what blogging is to the great unwashed ... just a verb, dropped in there like all Philadelphia readers should know what it means. (Of course we'll set aside for the moment the fact that not one of the nation's media outlets runs a truly candid blog. In fact, does this author actually think "blogging" is a synonym for "rehashing?")
That's Mainstream Sign #1. Here's #2, courtesy tomorrow's Washington Post: 'AOL Journals' To Bring Blogs To Millions. ("AOL has dubbed its service 'AOL Journals' because its surveys showed that members found the word 'blogs' confusing, said Rick Robinson, AOL's vice president for community products." Thanks for clearing that up, Rick ... we stoopid people no longer have to be confused! Sorry, have to run ... I need to finish washing the "Horseless Carriage.")
Hate to tell you, but I think we all just jumped the shark.
Newsweek has released its latest poll re: the Democratic Nomination. Bottom line: The Dean and "Don't Know" camps are cannabalizing the Liberman / Kerry / Edwards camps. See more here.
I've moved the site to a new database (SQL for interested geeky parties) and completed a full reinstall of Moveable Type ... so the comments work, and the archives are no longer screwed up. Some errors may pop up, though, as I get bugs worked out ... just click "cancel" if your browswer asks you to "debug."
In the spirit of the post below, I offer my readers, the blogosphere, and the greater Internet THIS. Hot off the TiVo at tonight's Avocare Simpsonfest. At the risk of lawsuit, and in the interest of greater humor. Because that's the kind of guy I am.
Simpsons festival at my house, right now. Y'all wish you were here. Really. To get a bit of the mood, check out this Homer Simpson Quote Generator.
Oh, and while reasearching this post (every Avocare post is thoroughly researched, if not spell-checked), I found this, which is, I think, quite wrong. To bitch at Fox, send an email to askfox@foxinc.com.
Blogging + Drinking = Blinking
Tonight, it's about contests. Since her comments work, go ahead and enter.
And here's a little something extra, just for Michele.
Go ahead! Sing along!!
Well, woke up this morning with a wine glass in my hand.
Whose wine? What wine? Where the hell did I dine?
Must have been a dream I don't believe where I've been.
Come on, let's do it again.Do you...you, feel like I do?
How'd ya feel?
Do you...you, feel like I do?My friend got busted, just the other day.
They said,"Don't walk, don't walk, don't walk away."
Drove him to a taxi, bent the boot, hit the bag.
Had to play some music, wonder why's he [brag or drag].Do you...you, feel like I do?
How'd ya [turns from mic, can't catch it]?
Do you...you, feel like I...Do you...you, feel like I do?
Yes ya do.
Do you...you, feel like I do?Champagne for breakfast and a Sherman in my hand.
Peached up, Peached Ale, never fails.
Must have been a dream I don't believe where I've been.
Come on, let's do it again.Do you...you, feel like I do?
How'd ya feel?
Do you...you, feel like I..."Bob Mayo, on the keyboards. Bob Mayo"
Do you feel like we do?
Do you feel like we do?
Oh, that's true.
Do you feel like we do?
Get back.
Do you feel..do you feel like we do?Oh baby do you feel?
Oh baby do you feel, feel like we do?
Do you feel...do you feel...like we do?
I want to thank you.
Do you feel like we do?
That's alright, that's alright to feel you'd like,
Feel you'd like, a good time.
We'll goto bed and good night.
Good night, good night, good night, good night, good night.
Just another little post in our journal o' life. Back in Philly; Detroit was a rush of there to there with very little here in between. But it's always good to return home, and although Wife is enjoying Apples, I'm biding time until her return by siting on the deck, in a perfect evening breeze, digging the 70's DirecTV music channel, and grilling a burger.
Oh, and of course, getting my drink and smoke on.
I wonder what Michele's up to? Is tonight ABBA or Tool? Jose or Merlot? Wagers, anyone?
Of course, if the freakin' comments worked, you could place a bet. But since they don't, you can't. So we'll all just speculate amongst ourselves.
Was just wrapping up this slick and scintilating post about my day in Minneapolis, the things I learned today, and my observations whilst blogging wirelessly from the Minneapolis Intnl. Airport Food Court (e.g., "younger and younger women are wearing thongs these days"), when, when posting a link to Eminem's website, my Explorer crashes, and I lose the whole thing.
Lesson: Regardless of design, from a technical perspective Eminem's website sucks. Don't go there. And here I was about to give my props to 8-Mile.
Off to Detroit, blog you from there.
Back in business, baby!
The ThinkPad is again humming away. An easy fix, really: all it took was installing the new hard drive, creating a custom boot disk, partitioning the drive, formatting the drive, reformatting the drive so it would boot as a system disk, finding the custom external CD drivers, further customizing the boot disk to load said drivers, spending three days researching why large executable files wouldn't load off the CD and why the six-floppy set of Windows XP boot disks produced a Blue Screen Of Death with an “UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_DEVICE” error, exploring possible USB CD drive driver alternatives, and finally, finding and downloading a CD driver boot disk off a Russian-language web site, rebooting, and loading Windows XP setup.
Did I mention I'd like one of these?
Oh, and I hope to get the comments here fixed ... this weekend? Bear with me, please.
This is a bit late, but before Independence Day cools to room temperature, you may want to visit Sheila O'Malley's site and read from her collection of 7/4 postings. She's posted some interesting material from a variety of sources; history buffs will be particularly pleased. Besides: redheads rock.
Oh, and my cohort Michele has the 7/4 linkage going on, too.
And finally, don't miss that we've launched a "2004 US Presidential Election" page over at The Command Post.
Here's hoping, if you're a Yank, you had a good one. It was certainly good here in the cradle of democracy.
For me, Independence Day is a favorite holiday. My tradition is to spend the day chasing one interest after the next, and then as night falls, smoke a cigar, drink a glass of very fine, very old scotch, and read the Declaration of Independence and Gettysburg Address.
Tonight Wife and I even added the community fireworks display, sharing the "oohs" and "ahhs" with several thousand fellow citizens. The night was without a cloud, the temperature warm and comfortably humid, our fellow Americans in good spirits.
If that's not cause for a favorite holiday, well, you shouldn't enjoy a favorite.
Some other things that make Independence Day special:
A Capitol FourthThis particular Independence Day is also special because today Michele and I started this web site. Without asking any government for permission. With access to a free press. Without fear of reprisal.
We could do so for two reasons: these people believed in ideas, and they believed some ideas are so important as to be worth extreme personal risk.
And finally, today is special because of this man's sacrifice, and the sacrifice of his peers. May their families find peace.
This is a holiday of fun, family, and fireworks. But it should also be a holiday, if only for a moment, of reflection. Here's a link to the Declaration of Independence. Read it. Start a tradition of your own.
First the cell phone, then the laptop, now the blog. Yes, the comments and trackback aren't working. Seems to be a database problem, and I hope to fix it tomorrow.
Remember this mantra: "Shackle the new media."
Tony forwards a link that will bring back great memories for anyone from Gen W or X. It may also keep you from accomplishing anything productive for the next 60 minutes. Go here, and have fun.
Just returned from Detroit, and because my laptop is still functional only as a very, very expensive paperweight, I wasn't able to post while away. Sorrys all around.
I was able, however, to spend the flight time digesting the latest Atlantic Monthly, which as usual served up several items of interest. One was an article by several Rand analysts about "ten international-security developments that aren't getting the attention they deserve." They are:
The Wall (that Israel is building)How many of these issues are on your foreign policy radar screen? Read the article here.
A Shrinking Russia
The Hindu-Muslim Divide
AIDS And African Armies
The Tehran-New Delhi Axis
Anti-Satellite Attack
Defense-Industry Goliaths
The Carrier Shortage
The Indus Water Fight
Urban Warfare
Also in this month's AM is this article about the clemency memos Alberto R. Gonzales—widely regarded as a likely future Supreme Court nominee—prepared for GW when he was Gov of Texas. In the words of the author, "they suggest that Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise Bush of some of the most salient issues in the cases at hand." Both I and an esteemed colleague read this piece and found it very compelling ... read it, and be the first on your block to say you saw the confirmation fight coming.