Friday, March 02, 2007

300

I can't wait for next weekend.

Mr. accent aigu

Show-off.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

March for LJ

When does the flu set in?

RE: Biggio Cliché Watch

From IMDB with apologies to Costner and Robbins:


Crash Davis: It's time to work on your interviews.

Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: My interviews? What do I gotta do?

Crash Davis: You're gonna have to learn your clichés. You're gonna have to study them, you're gonna have to know them. They're your friends. Write this down: "We gotta play it one day at a time."

Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: Got to play... it's pretty boring.

Crash Davis: 'Course it's boring, that's the point. Write it down.

Biggio cliche watch

"Former KPRC (Channel 2) sports director Chris Wragge has switched from sports to news and now anchors midday afternoon newscasts on WCBS in New York. He also will fill in next month on CBS' The Early Show. He e-mails: 'I continue to, if I may quote Craig Biggio, take it day by day and treat every newscast like it's my last.'"

Wraggee refers to Biggio's well-known penchant for giving interviews that are laden with sports cliches. If you're a sportswriter and you want a quote with some insight or originality, Bidge is not your man. It would be interesting if someone went back over the twenty years of Bidge's career and tabulated the cliches. [Note to LoveJ: Great project for your next hiatus!]

I'm second to none in my admiration for Bidge and his talents, but listening to his interviews is painful.

I heard just such an interview on the radio this morning and intended to put it up, but it doesn't look like the Chronic has it. So to demonstrate that the exception proves the rule, here is a profile of Bidge from a few days ago that is largely (and remarkably) cliche-free.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Re: Leaving the Scene of the Crime

I really did "scoot" away from the Miata. Didn't even think anything wrong about it...until I actually started to think.

Bart Whitaker

is on trial. Dad was the first witness for the prosecution. Description of creepy message Whitaker left on a gaming site lamenting the death of his brother.

Monday, February 26, 2007

LJ's commenter

"Amy" has four blogs, and two of them are in the future.

RE: I guess it was worth it

Scooter - have you seen the "Children of Men" movie? C and I went to see it about a month ago, after reading all the hype and glowing reviews. I didn't see what the fuss was all about. It was OK, but I was more interested in why the world was as it was, why children weren't being born. The movie didn't address any of that....only that it was just that way and had been for many years. Does the book, to your knowledge, address these subjects?

Re: 2008 Election

I agree with Michael at the moment that Rudy is the current hands down favorite on the Republican side. Romney has a long way to go but I think he can make a run, even if just to secure the number two spot. The big advantage over sitting senators? Execs have to do.

Senators are non-executives. Their job is to dicker, not decide. Accordingly, there is no sound any Senator loves more than his or her own voice.

The exception in this election is that there is one sitting Senator in the running with a great deal of executive experience...Hillary. She may not have been the one signing the bills or (formally) issuing orders, but she was there right next to the Arkanasas Chief Exec and the US Chief Exec for what was it..20 years? Was it 12 as gov'nuh and then, of course, the 8 as Prez? That's a lot of experience.

Re: LJ cameo

I can only attribute it to 1 of 2 things:

1) She refers to herself as a "liberal Democrat" and while I'm not a "liberal", I am a Democrat and we have a telepathic connection, thus she found SSJ and commented, or (and I think this is more likely)

2) she googled "love johnson" and since I am #1 on Google, she found SSJ.

LJ makes cameo and gets a legit comment....

I've been posting my a-- off and don't get any.

I guess it was worth it...

On Saturday I went to lunch at a newly opened Hyde Park Grill in South Austin (nowhere near Hyde Park, by the way). I pulled into a parking spot next to a new black Mazda Miata convertible with the top down. I carefully opened my door until it caught in that first groove so I wouldn’t ding him. If I’d opened the door to that last groove I would’ve dinged him for sure. I reached over to grab PD James’ Children of Men and my reading glasses when a thirty-five miles per hour gust caught my door. Ugh. It wasn’t a little ding. It was five inches in diameter and three quarters of an inch deep, high on the passenger door since my truck (even my little truck) rides so much higher than the Miata.

First reaction? You know d--n well what was my first reaction. I started the truck and moved it three rows over and went into the restaurant. I did everything right. I’m always careful. I didn’t do the slamming, the wind did.

Second reaction? Nausea. I asked the waiter for a pen, wrote a note on my business card (see World's Ugliest Business Card below) and lodged it in the driver’s seat.

He just called to thank me. Can't wait to get that bill.

Re: Sitting Senator's Direct Move to Oval Office

Only two, JFK as you mentioned and, everyone's favorite....Warren G. Harding.