Why do radio stations have the absolute worst Web pages on the Internet? I mean, okay — someone has to have the worst pages. But why is it radio stations, which are owned by media companies that specialize in communication?
I've yet to see a radio station Web page that doesn't look like it was built in 1998, complete with blinking text and icons all over the place.
Reflecting last night on John McCain's victory in Florida, CNN's Anderson Cooper said, "What an extraordinary win when you consider a few months ago, he was walking through the airport carrying his own bags."
It's true. Corespondent LAL saw the senator walking through National Airport in August carrying his own bags.
Why is it that a graduate-level course means the same thing as a postgraduate-level course?
Reading the hard-copy of the newspaper forces me to come come across stories I wouldn't otherwise see.
Today, for instance, I noticed an article about a large U.S. spy satellite that has lost power and is heading toward Earth. It contains hazardous materials and is expected to hit our planet in late February or March.
The story reminded me of an article from last month warning that a jet of highly charged radiation from a supermassive black hole is shooting toward a nearby galaxy. If the jet were to hit Earth, it would destroy the ozone layer and collapse the magnetosphere, ending life on our planet. (But don't worry — the jet is 1.4 billion light-years away.)
Concert coverage often includes a phrase saying a particular band is "on tour to support its new album."
In an age when many listeners prefer buying songs piecemeal on iTunes, album sales aren't what they used to be.1
However, concerts revenue is immune from digital file sharing. While listening to a downloaded MP3 is pretty darn similar to listening to a full-price CD, there's no shortcut to an in-person concert experience.
Thus, bands shouldn't be on tour to support their new albums. Bands ought to release CDs to support their tours.
Instead of traveling around the country to drum up business for a new CD, bands should put out new CDs in order to rally support for its upcoming concert tour.
1It's more complicated than that. Sales for the top artists are doing just fine, thank you. But I'm simplifying things here. Don't make me get bogged down with details.
In September, two of my friends began an effort to watch the entire three seasons of Lost on DVD. They've completed the mission just in time for the fourth season, which begins airing next month.
For those of you, like me, who don't have the patience that those two friends exhibited, iTunes is offering a free eight-minute recap of the entire series to date.
Click here to view the Cliff's Notes version, although the explanation of what's happening goes so fast that you may have to watch it twice. Still, 16 minutes for three seasons is pretty good.
In article called "The Unbearable Inanity of Tim Russert," Matthew Yglesias picks apart the journalistic idea that the most important question to any politician is whether he1 has ever changed his mind. That is, if a candidate ever makes a statement that differs in any way from something he said a decade ago, he is a hypocrite or a liar. Or both.
It's a good observation. But it's not going to make me cancel my season pass of Meet The Press.
1Or she. I really hate our language, sometimes, for doing this to me. Yeah, I could write around it. But I'm lazy, which incidentally is another trait of journalists.
As you know, it is redundant to say that the Green Bay Packers will be playing this weekend on the "frozen tundra" of Lambeau Field ("tundra" means permanently frozen earth).
In fact, it's not even natural tundra. Or at least not 100 percent natural.
The playing surface at Lambeau Field is a "DD GrassMaster" hybrid of natural grass and indestructible blades of synthetic fiber. The manufacturer, Desso DLW Sports Systems, says it is about 97 percent natural grass and 3 percent polypropylene.
Until recently, I thought those little self-retracting measuring tools were called tape measurers. It turns out that they are tape measures.
Whenever a player at Milwaukee County Stadium hit a home run, the scoreboard had a "Tale Of The Tape" display that would say, for instance, that Rob Deer's homer had traveled 412 feet. It always bothered me that it wasn't much of a "tale" at all.
If they wanted to tell a real tale, it should have said: "Once upon a time there was a home run. It was 412 feet long. The end."
As a follow-up to our discussion last week about whether Axel Foley was gay, Bill Simmons writes:
"That reminds me, the Axel Foley stuff generated a ton of e-mails, including roughly 1 million readers who couldn't believe I left out the incredible "banana in the tailpipe" scene as part of my case. (You're right. I'm an idiot.)"
I'm skeptical of the significant credit and blame NFL coaches get for their team's successes and failures. We football fans frequently hear stories about how NFL coaches work 20-hour days and sleep in their offices because they are so consumed with preparing their team for upcoming games.
With that in mind, I listened yesterday to Green Bay Packers WR Greg Jennings discuss the 15-yard touchdown pass that he caught from Brett Favre in the 1st quarter of Sunday's game. As Jennings told WHGQ radio host Brian Nelson, the coaching staff called a running play. But Favre winked at Jennings and ended up throwing him a pass. Brilliant coaching?
Brian Nelson: What was the call in the huddle? What was the play that was called?
Greg Jennings: It was a run play.
Brian Nelson: They showed that on TV. A little wink and a nod.
Greg Jennings: I have no clue what he gave me.
Brian Nelson: Really?
Greg Jennings: He just winked and nodded. And I'm like, "What in the world?" So I just ran and looked back at him the entire time because I knew he was just going to throw it up.
Brian Nelson: What do you mean ? How would he give you a route to run?
Greg Jennings: He looked at me and kind of nodded his head and pointed his finger, like he wanted me to just go. But I was on the front side of the run and you normally don't throw to the front side of the run. So I'm like, "Okay, uhhh." So I just ran and then he threw it and I reacted.
SJB was an extra on "How I Met Your Mother." For awhile, that impressed me.
But my jealousy came to an end the other day when I came across an episode of that program that aired more than a year earlier than SJB's appearance. The episode, titled "Drumroll Please," began with a black-and-white montage of wedding photos, including the one shown above.
Wait a minute. That's me! That's totally me! I was in an episode before SJB!
Marnie, who has grown tired of me pausing the DVD to admire my likeness, claims that the photo isn't of me. I've never had facial hair that looked like that, she pointed out.
I mentioned the other day that I watched "Beverly Hills Cop" for the first time, noting that it was refreshing to have an action movie without a contrived love interest plotline. But on second thought, I wrote, it was probably because movie producers in 1984 were afraid to feature an interracial couple in a mainstream action flick.
Bill Simmons, the Sports Guy on ESPN Page 2, has a different theory.
He too watched the film the other day (it was on HDnet, you see) and posed this question: Was Axel Foley secretly gay? His conclusion, buried in this column about NFL pre-game shows, is that we won't know for sure unless the film starts airing on Logo, the cable network targeting the LGBT community.
It's sad when houses take down their holiday decorations, cities remove the festive street lights and malls take down the garland. "Okay, people. Time to let everything look ugly again."
This week is the least wonderful time of the year.
In response to my question of whether I am the only Jew who likes Christmastide, Amy sent me this article by a Jewish woman who likes Christmas sweaters. (My friendship with Christmas stops short of those cheesy sweaters — blech!)
Anyway, I'm comfortable walking around malls decorated for Christmas. I like the front-yard light displays. And I love the music.
But when the actual religion comes into play, that's another matter. The virgin birth of Jesus? Sigh. That's when it's time for me to leave and think about college football bowl games.
How do people get to them?
Is the hanger inside security?
Does the crowd have to walk through the airport and then out onto the tarmac to get to the rally?
Do they have to pay for parking at the airport? Or does the hanger have its own parking?
At Saturday's presidential debate at St. Anselm College, ABC moderator Charlie Gibson quizzed Hillary Clinton on whether she would raise taxes on wealthy American families.
CLINTON: One of the problems with George Bush's tax policy has been the way he has tilted it for the wealthy and the well-connected.According to U.S. Census data, only 3.4 percent of U.S. households have an income of $200,000 or more. And the American Association of University Professors says that a full professor at St. Anselm in has an average salary of $77,400 while assistant professors earn $49,600.
GIBSON: If you take a family of two professors, here at Saint Anselm, they're going to be in the $200,000 category that you're talking about lifting the taxes on.
AUDIENCE: (LAUGHTER)
GIBSON: And...
AUDIENCE: (LAUGHTER)
EDWARDS: Oh, I don't think they agree with you.
OBAMA: I'm not sure that that
CLINTON: That may be NYU, Charlie. I don't think it's St. Anselm.
GIBSON: Two public school teachers in New York?
Marnie took her Christmas tree to the curb the other day, which got me thinking: has anyone capitalized on my Jesus Mulch idea yet?
The University of Maryland is trying to build a "town center" for its College Park campus.
Bridget Warren of the project's community review steering committee told the Washington Post that the goal is to make College Park look more like Madison, Wis., than nearby cities Silver Spring or Gaithersburg.
That sounds good to me, of course. Then again, Madison is falling in the polls. Plus, some Madison drunken idiots clog the streets and mark the territory with litter and bodily fluids.
Oh, were you expecting a holiday card from Marnie & me?
It's coming — but it may end up being a Martin Luther King Jr. Day card.
Prior to heading from Brookland to Samantha's Restaurant in Silver Spring the other day, I consulted Google Maps for directions.
The advice was thus: take a bunch of streets, then at the very end do a U-turn and head back in the opposite direction.
Really, a U-turn? That's the best way to get there, Google?
I initially mocked these directions, but upon closer inspection it does appear the U-turn was the best way to do it.
