The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases . . .

. . . according to TV Land, are here. Conspicuously absent:

• "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" (Michael Palin as Cardinal Ximinez, "Monty Python's Flying Circus")
• "This . . . is CNN." (James Earl Jones, CNN ad)
• "Of course I do, don't be ridiculous." (Balki Bartokomous, "Perfect Strangers")
• "Did I do that?" (Steve Urkel, "Family Matters")
• "Make it so." (Jean-Luc Picard, "Star Trek: The Next Generation")
• "Let's hug it out, bitch." (Ari Gold, "Entourage")
• "Trust me, I know what I'm doing." (Sledge Hammer, "Sledgehammer")
• "A paperclip can be a wondrous thing. More times than I can remember, one of these has gotten me out of a tight spot." (MacGyver, "MacGyver")
• "Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong." (Dennis Miller, "Dennis Miller Live")
• Some Chick Hearn basketball hyperbole

Also, Craig Kilborn, not Jon Stewart, first said "here it is: your Moment of Zen" or something a lot like it.

Snowbound

There's a snowstorm outside, although it's a balmy 32F/0C outside. I always did like it warm and windy!

It's been a nice lazy long weekend--a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat (without any of the other elements of Alice's Restaurant), followed by three days of utter sloth. I finally saw The Paper Chase . . . after living it!

Two more weeks of work until my birthday, and two more until my big Christmas-New Year's trip.

I'm sure I've missed some things going on in the world--back to our regularly scheduled blog shortly.

Connect the dots

Natural gas behemoth Gazprom is buying Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia's most widely read newspaper. The Kremlin is majority owner of Gazprom. Gaaaaaaaaaah! Vlad, baby, isn't it enough to control the TV airwaves and to be able to convict journalists that make you look bad?

There are very few things that make me grateful for the "independent" news media in the U.S.. What head of state wouldn't want the country's biggest newspaper in his or her pocket?

Woohoo Holidays

It's warmed up to about 19F/-7C, and I'm the only lawyer in the office. I made cookies for the office this week, and there is still an overabundance of snickerdoodles in the breakroom. Looking forward to a quiet Thanksgiving weekend here in town, but really looking forward to Christmas in Chicago with the family and New Year's in San Francisco with good friends. I just bought my tickets, and the best deal I found on Orbitz includes 4 different airlines, takes me from Anchorage to O'Hare via Phoenix (but First Class all the way) and has me flying into and out of San Jose instead of San Francisco. Good enough, and I'll have a lot of fun anyways.

R.I.P. Robert Altman

Wow, one of the all-time great filmmakers is dead at 81. Thanks for launching Lyle Lovett's acting career. Thanks for all the awesome movies: MASH, Nashville, Popeye, The Player, Short Cuts, Pret-a-Porter, Kansas City, Cookie's Fortune, Dr. T and the Women, Gosford Park, A Prairie Home Companion, and all the others I have yet to see.

Newsflash: Russia has a xenophobia problem

In other news: Bill Clinton likes the ladies, George W. Bush is not so smart, and Adolf Hitler was a naughty, naughty man.

Crowded Moscow Metro

This makes me nostalgic--I loved riding the Metro to school (and everywhere else in town) when I lived in Moscow. The stations are really aesthetically pleasing--you'll notice the chandelier-type things in the video. Can't recall/tell which station this is. My favorite was Mayakovskaya, with its metallic arches--it has kind of a timeless yet industrial-age look to it.



The video gets it right--Metro trains and stations are JAM PACKED during rush hour (and at other times). I even got my wallet taken on a crowded train once, only to have it returned by a courteous pickpocket who cleaned out all the rubles first.

UPDATE: It's the Prospekt Mira ("Avenue of Peace") station on the Ring Line. I knew it looked familiar. 11/21/06

I though the Giuliani Regime had made it illegal to be homeless

A trial judge in Manhattan ruled yesterday that the City has to notify Legal Aid before evicting homeless people from its shelters. Bravo--seems like an easy procedural due process question to me. I'm sure the City will appeal.

This has been an ongoing case, in which a consent decree from 1981 stated that the City can't evict someone for failure to comply with shelter rules when a mental or physical impairment prevents them from doing so. Again, seems pretty straightforward--when someone's in danger of losing the roof over their head, they should probably have access to a lawyer.

Surely there's room for this guy on the federal bench? You know, it would be a nice change from the corporate and evangelical lackeys Bush has been appointing.

Smile--Jesus Loves You, Sucker

Heehee. I am waaaaaay too easily amused some days. Thanks to that blasphemous laugh factory that is Jesus of the Week.

Holy Crap

The Simpsons did an Army recruiting episode, just like last week's Family Guy. The real "holy crap" moment, however, came when the recruiting video used the score from Alexander Nevsky, written by Sergei Prokofiev for Sergei Eisenstein's classic film. I consider it the best film score ever written, although the original was recorded on shoddy Soviet sound equipment. The show ain't what it used to be, but they've got some smart writers. The song immediately segued into something a lot like "Communications Breakdown" by Zeppelin. Weird. The Abu Ghraib joke with Cletus's Christmas card was pretty amusing too.

The Simpsons movie trailer? A little too slapsticky for my tastes. Of course I'm gonna see the thing, though.

Alibi Network

I bet these guys could have done a better job with the White House's Iraq War spin. Sadly, they probably make plenty of money helping regular folks lie and get away with it.

It's been a quiet weekend on the tundra. Really warm today: 22 F/-6 C right now, and a few degrees warmer when I ran this afternoon. I'm sure it'll be cold again in no time!

Election hilarity

The right was right about the left? Some of my favorites:

Introduce the new Destruction of Marriage Act

Osama Bin Laden to be Secretary of State

Jane Fonda to be appointed Secretary of Appeasement

Ban Christmas: replace with Celebrate our Monkey Ancestors Day

All hail BoingBoing!

It's good to be a Demmiecrat!

Speaker Pelosi. That doesn't sound scary to me at all. "House Judiciary Chairman Conyers" is music to my ears. Senate's within reach, which I wouldn't have predicted. No more Rick Santorum, Mike DeWine, or Conrad Burns. Nice. I wish Alaska would get in on this "voting Democrat" craze.

My head hurts.

Army recruiters are flat out lying to teenagers, telling them that the war in Iraq is over, and that soldiers are coming home, so new enlistees don't have to worry about being sent to Iraq. Reminds me of last night's "Family Guy," in which an Army recruiting video ended with the fine print "actual experience may vary." But that is a new low--duping high school students with information clearly contradicting what's in the newspaper and on the TV news (they run the truth, every now and again). Teenagers can be easily intimidated by people in positions of authority, so if someone in an Army uniform says it with great confidence, how many kids would speak up to contradict it? I hope the NLG Military Law Task Force and other counter-recruitment outfits are all over this.

Winter is here!

I would write "winter is coming," but I don't know how many of you, my dear readers, are George R. R. Martin fans. Anyway, it was a brisk 16F/-9C this morning, and we've had snow on the ground since Thursday night. It's about time--I love the sound of the snow crunching under my feet when I run, much more than I enjoy the mud that seems to get on me everywhere from my knees down when it's rainy. Here's the view out my front window as of 2:00 this afternoon:



And here's someone fascinated by the reflection of my watch crystal on the walls:

Army Times: "Time for Rumsfeld to go"

Why does Army Times hate America? Turns out it's published by Gannett newspapers, not exactly a hotbed of liberalism, although they bring you lots of pretty graphs every day in USA Today.

From the editorial itself:

It is one thing for the majority of Americans to think Rumsfeld has failed. But when the nation's current military leaders start to break publicly with their defense secretary, then it is clear that he is losing control of the institution he ostensibly leads.

These officers have been loyal public promoters of a war policy many privately feared would fail. They have kept their counsel private, adhering to more than two centuries of American tradition of subordination of the military to civilian authority.

And although that tradition, and the officers' deep sense of honor, prevent them from saying this publicly, more and more of them believe it.

Rumsfeld has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large. His strategy has failed, and his ability to lead is compromised. And although the blame for our failures in Iraq rests with the secretary, it will be the troops who bear its brunt.

More pretty pictures

toothpastefordinner.com

Fun with Pie Charts

Because writing content is too much work. (Click to enlarge.)