Archive for October 2004

There cannot be a better way to go out from this world than on holiday. Godspeed, Mr. Peel.
News can travel slow from Peru to the UK to Seattle. Influential British DJ John Peel passed away on Monday from a heart attack. I have never owned a “The Peel Sessions” album or disc of one band […]

according to the sacramento bee and our friends at clairol, brunettes are big. and by that i mean women are increasingly down with brown.
and by that i mean “bah.”
not that i have anything against brunettes. or blondes, for that matter. let’s face it, i love women of all stripes. but there can be no argument: […]

Recently, I paid one of my many debts to society. Pray for my soul. I served jury duty.
Growing up on the mean streets of Mercer Island, Washington (an affluent, white, white suburban Seattle community) my thoughts on justice ran parallel to my thoughts on teenage sex. It was to be swift; if you delayed, it […]

no, I’m not scared. but i am a little worried.

Terrorists in the park?
Add Magnolia’s Discovery Park to the locations of alleged terrorist surveillance efforts in the Puget Sound area. According to two women who refused to identify themselves to police, two Middle Eastern men on the afternoon of Oct. 11 were “definitely watching ferries through […]

When I ran across that headline — William Shatner, Has Been — a couple of weeks ago, my first thought was: true enough. My second thought was that The Guardian was being a bit harsh. My third thought, the actual question of whether or not to read the article, was swiftly followed by my fourth […]

So, I’m listening to Judy Woodruff on CNN while the footage of Kerry in his scary, hunter’s Halloween costume is being shown. Judy is explaining that Kerry’s attempt to court gun owners apparently didn’t go so well, and that the NRA released an ad in response that says, “If John Kerry thinks the Second Amendment […]

Disappointing Yankees: Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter were part of the most expensive sports team ever assembled. (Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

Last night the Boston Red Sox defied history and became the first baseball team to come from being down 3-0 to win a seven game playoff series. In their path was the dynastic team from New […]

i hate to keep picking on charles krauthammer, but the boy clearly is losing it.
in his most recent column he goes ballistic on john edwards. because edwards, in a forward-looking statement, said something hopeful about paralysis victims regaining the ability to walk.
for this scurrilous lie, chuck says, edwards is equivalent to the worst humanity has […]

The Motorcycle Diaries, a beautiful film by Walter Salles, was possibly the best movie I could have watched amidst the tremendously boring 2004 presidential campaign. For at least a couple of days, I temporarily escaped the bickering over war, taxes, and homosexuals, and with blissful ignorance joined the Cult of Che.
In some ways, I feel […]

last week i received in the mail not one but two absentee ballots for the upcoming election.
and while this is not quite as thrilling as holding, say, two winning lottery tickets, it’s still very interesting.
the weight of my vote has just doubled. if this were florida, power brokers would be lining up at my door […]

vice president dick cheney is not too concerned about aids victims. he doesn’t care about their pain, suffering and untimely demise. what chokes him up, aids-wise, is the money. damn, aids costs a lot.
you don’t have to take my word for it. with the help of our handy tfloss translator, you can sample cheney’s response […]

my wife and i rarely discuss politics, mostly because we agree on just about everything. some people would see this as boring. i see it as marriage insurance.
anyhoo, we were driving a couple days ago, and the subject of mary cheney came up. actually, it was foisted upon us by npr—regardless, there it was, in […]

Believe nothing because a wise man said it,
Believe nothing because it is generally known.
Believe nothing because it is written.
Believe nothing because it is said to be divine.
Believe nothing because someone else believes it.
But believe only what you yourself judge to be true.
- The Buddha
I don’t believe in magic
I don’t believe in I-ching
I don’t believe in […]

Bush: My opponent is a flip-floppin’, baby killin’, high taxin’, big spendin’, tree-huggin’, French-lookin’ liberal!
Kerry: I have a plan…
Me: yawn. YAWN. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz