Batman unbound

	Separated at Birth?

Over at "news from me" Mark Evanier has another funny and thought-provoking post on the ah, "gayness" of the Dark Knight.

Dr. Fredric Wertham, who looks surprisingly like The Meanest Old Man in the World (on the other hand, why is that a surprise?) wrote a book, as you probably know, called "Seduction of the Innocent" and suceeded in making my childhood life a living hell. For several years, I had to hide my comic books from my father who would trash them upon discovery, convinced as he was that comics would lead me to J.D.ism, depravity, drugs and wild sex with blonde bombshells who smoked a lot and carried pistols in their purses (well, I was hoping for that last one). I'm not sure my Dad ever actually ever read Wertham''s book, but he had somehow picked up the gist of it and I suffered mightily as a consequence. After awhile my father gave up on trying to wean me away from comics, more put out by that time that I was now openly reading Playboy and Penthouse.

One of Wertham's more provocative claims was that Batman annd Robin were gay, although as Mark points out, that's not what he said, but rather something to the effect that their lifestyle was "...like a wish dream of two homosexuals living together." I know very few homosexuals whose wish dream is to beat up criminals on a nightly basis, well maybe a couple into S&M, but I'm digressing. Mark wrote a book with the joking title, "Wertham was Right" (at least about some stuff) where he noted:

In one issue of Justice League of America in the sixties, the heroes discover they have contracted a cosmic plague that will doom everyone they've recently touched. Green Lantern shudders to think that he has infected his eternal fiancée, Carol Ferris. The Flash realizes he has doomed his beloved, Iris West. Even the Atom thinks about the fate that will befall the woman in his life, Jean Loring...

Batman, meanwhile, thinks: "Robin...what have I done to you?"

There is a wonderful copy of that comics panel at the link above. As Mark says, the great Gardner Fox probably dissolved into giggles while writing that scene. It's amazing that D.C. let it go.

Liveplasma

An affinity search engine that I've been having fun with over the past several days. Hooked into Amazon data, Liveplasma displays a visual map of music/movies that you might like based on your selection of other music/movies.

via John Battelle

Hello, it's fucking radioactive!

Since it was filed under the heading, "Diamonds are for Pussies", one could safely assume that most readers would figure out that Xeni Jardin's post on giving your sweetheart a highly radioactive uranium ore sample as a Valentine's Day gift was a joke.

But this is after all, the internets, and Xeni later posted a clarification explaining that irradiating your lover is probably not the most romantic thing to do, as well as a PC acknowledgement that... "it appears to be a product of the same deeply corrupt, violent economic system that surrounds production of most of the world's diamonds..."

Cyber romance ends in divorce

I suspect this is a little too perfect to be true, but what the heck.

A budding romance between a Jordanian man and woman turned into an ugly
public divorce when the couple found out that they were in fact man and wife,
state media reported.

via BoingBoing

You're better off shoplifting than downloading

Here's one of those items that just make you stop and realize how crazy the world is. Not-a -lawyer, Karl Wagenfuehr, posts an article on the Penalties of Stealing vs. Infringment.

Summary

	Stealing	Infringing
Absolute Minimum	$0 no jail	$4,400
Absolute Maximum	$100,000 1 year jail	$3,400,000 1 year jail lawyer fees and costs
Real World Example	Winona Ryder*: $2,700 fine $6,355 restitution $1,000 court cost 3 years probation	An Average RIAA settlement**: $14,875

via BoingBoing

Tired of seeing some OTHER guy win the big stuffed animal?

Impress your girlfriend/wife (preferably not simultaneously). Be THE MAN!

Knock down those milk cans, shoot the red star out of the card, get the hoop over those blocks! Now you can, or at least have a better shot, with the self-published, "The Secrets of Amusement Park Games... Revealed! (Third Edition)"

via BoingBoing

Blog at Google at your peril

A Google employee, who blogged about the company's activities, has left Google, according to John Battelle. The ex-employee, Mark Jen, wrote on January 26th:

i goofed and put some stuff up on my blog that's not supposed to be there. nothing serious and they didn't ask me to take anything down (even the stuff where i'm critical about the company). i'm learning that google is understandably careful about disclosing sensitive information, even vague financial-related things. the quickest way for me to fix the situation at the time was to take it all down. now i'm back up. just so you know, google was pretty cool about all this. thanks for and sorry for the frenzy of speculation.

Apparently Google wasn't as cool as Mark thought. Fired, quit, or something in-between? We'll probably never know for sure.

Google was the second super-secretive company I worked for (as a Google Answers contractor. Google would take the position I never actually "worked" for them), so paranoid about revealing any information that in my year's employment, I never knew the names of anyone at Google I worked for/with. The Google Answers editors -- themselves rumored to be contractors - preferred to hide behind the portmanteau "Google Answers Team" title and email address and used much of their anonymous correspondence to remind researchers that we were never, ever to reveal any information about GA or Google itself that we might become privy to.

About the only pieces of information I can remember that I did discover were that the engineer charged with maintaining the GA system had a pair of ferrets and wasn't good about doing her laundry, and that I didn't want to work for Google, either as a contractor or otherwise.

To my knowledge, at least three Google Answers Researchers (or "GARs") were either fired/suspended/quit over Google secrecy paranoia. Again, with Google you're never completely sure what is going on. At least one of those people thought she had been fired from Google Answers, but they claimed a suspension/misunderstanding and that she could regain researcher status by acknowledging that she'd never write about Google Answers again without first being vetted by Google. She refused.

Me, I just got frustrated with GA editorial incompetence, finally said the Bad Word to an editor in an email, and quit shortly thereafter.

The CEO of the other super-secretive company I worked for, which is now out-of-business but still shall remain nameless, once told me when I complained about the virtual information vacuum everyone labored under, "I like not revealing too much. I think it makes me more... intimidating."

Personally, I thought she was an idiot.

My Life with Pets

Everyone who loves animals has one of these, if only as a mental image. As Scott says, it would make a great poster.

Way cool

... is the new Google Maps application, full of the "Wow" factor. Wonder how long it will be before they hook into a satellite map?

(via BoingBoing)

Complete Calvin & Hobbes available as pre-order on Amazon

The Complete Calvin & Hobbes, three hardcover, four-color volumes, 1440 pages, in a slipcase edition, is now available for pre-order at Amazon at more than a 1/3 discount on pre-orders. Getting to September is going to be a long wait.

One percent of Dutch Boy

is worth $178.50, according to the market.

Now that'd be an interesting idea, which somebody has probably come up with already - a poker players market. Buy, sell. and trade shares in pro poker players, market prices based on how well they're doing on the circuit.

Boyd has taken grief on selling stakes in himself, but I suspect it's the wave of the future for players .

"Toot Sweet" => "It's Really Love" => "Johnny's Song"

Mark Evanier posts a fascinating history of "The Tonight Show" theme, including a link to an MP3 excerpt of Annette Funicello (!!!) singing "It's Really Love", written for her by Paul Anka, who had recycled the song from an earlier Anka composition, "Toot Sweet" as he would recycle it again into "Johnny's Song."

Apropos of nothing, all men of a certain age had the hots for Annette, as I did, and as I did for Hayley Mills. Annette wrote a charming autobiography several years ago titled, A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes, which I heartily recommend if no other reason that it's one of the few autobiographies I've read where there are no stories of exploitation, abuse, or backstabbing.

If not fully a charmed life, as she now suffers from multiple sclerosis, Annette seems to have had a pretty good one, and one that she's appreciated even through illness.

Deep Throat's identity may soon be revealed

according to an L.A. times article.

Bob Woodward, a reporter on the team that covered the Watergate story, has advised his executive editor at the Washington Post that Throat is ill. And Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Post and one of the few people to whom Woodward confided his source's identity, has publicly acknowledged that he has written Throat's obituary.

via Mark Evanier

Send some mojo...

...to Sketch, Wil Wheaton's cat, please, who at last report is doing better. But Wil is going through a rough time, as we all do when a pet is sick. Peg and I still miss Speedy Tomato something awful, even after almost four years.

Hah! As I started to write this, "Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats" started playing on MusicChoice. A good sign, Wil.

Death on Wheels

A man, a plan, and a car named Alexi.

Propane is actually pretty damned safe, at least as safe as you get when you are in the market of 15 foot fireballs.

via William Gibson

Blinds and Kings were my undoing

I placed a respectable, but out-of the-money, 39th out of 151 entrants in the World Poker Blogger Tour tourney last night, 21 slots away from any winnings. But I had fun.

Sometime in Hour 1 the Big Blind went all-in with about $2k worth of chips after I raised with pocket Ks. He had a pair of 9s. I got burnt by the “maldito rio” when another 9 surfaced on the river and Sinatra sang in my head, “Kings don’t mean a thing…” It took me a moment to realize that I wasn’t out of the game, but still had a meager $350 stack left.

My luck, she decided to turn at this point, and I was dealt suited AJ, AQ, and an unsuited Big Slick in close succession. Called each time on all three all-ins, I tripled my stack in about 15 minutes back to where it had been before being crippled by the 9s. Someone commented at this point that if I succeeded in doubling up a couple more times I would have gone from last place to chip leader in five hands.

But my luck, she decided to go out for a drink and the cards stopped coming. I finished Hour 1 with around $2,900 in chips. Sometime before getting stripped of my stack and recovering I had been dealt the infamous Poker blogger hammer while in mid-position. Everyone in front of me having folded, I threw out a triple the BB raise, about $600 in chips I think at that point. And everyone folded. And of course I showed my cards and crowed. And everyone congratulated me.

Iggy would have been proud.

My stack yo-yoed up-`n-down in Hour 2. I picked up a few hands, but lost more, and the blinds continued to increase. At some point I was moved to a new table, which also threw me off my stride. Probably like most players I play better the longer I stay at the same table. You tend to pick up the rhythm of the table and the other player’s betting patterns.

Someone once said that it’s never the hand that you go out on that’s beaten you, but usually several hands before. I think the game changer for me was when I called in late position with a suited K7, and one other player called. The flop showed a rainbow 77J, and I went all-in with my set. After a few moments my opponent called and flipped over a Q7. So he also had the set with a weaker kicker and I thought I was on my way to doubling my $1,600 in chips if I could avoid the Q. As it turned out, the board paired the J on the turn, and we ended up chopping the pot with a board full house.

Chopping’s better than losing, of course, but missing that pot really took the wind out of my sails, as it had been the best hand I had seen in the past 45 minutes. And the pitiless blinds kept eroding my stack.

About five minutes before the close of Hour 2 and the start of the next break I was in mid-position again when The Hammer reappeared in my hand. Everyone in front of me folded again and I raised to $800 with half my remaining stack. I thought I had the blinds stolen as I watched a succession of folds until the BB re-raised. Calling him would put me all-in with my remaining $835 of chips.

At this point ricoM is faced with a decision. I have a 7 deuce off-suit, the well-known “worse starting hand in poker” and the chances are better than good that whatever Mr. BB has it’s more powerful than what I have. On the other hand, letting the $800 I’ve already committed to the pot go leaves me with a pitiful short stack and I’m then going to need a series of monster hands and successive all-ins to survive much longer.

And, after all, it’s pre-flop, where Spring is in the air and anything seems possible. And it is The Hammer, and it is a poker blogger tourney. As someone who regularly plays the blogger tables had said earlier, “Welcome to my world, where 7 and 2s on the flop are more feared than As and Ks.”

I call.

I flip my Hammer, getting a laugh from the table, and the BB shows what I had lost with much earlier in the tourney, a pair of Kings. The poker gods, being the whimsical characters they are, give my opponent a scare and me some hope when the flop shows a 7. Another 7, or a deuce, and avoiding a K would make me a winner, but the turn and river bring no joy and I’m out in position 39.

“Good try,” someone notes in the chat box. And you know what? I’m satisfied, loose crazy move that it was. You’re usually only one card away from winning, and I was.

Less chat than I expected in this tourney, maybe because there seemed to be less bloggers and more readers this time around. Or maybe I was just at the wrong tables. Many of the heavyweight bloggers whose names I recognized finished early. One-armed Iggy went out very early at place 102, maybe due to his game being off from his recent operation. Again, I didn’t get to play at a table with him, something I’ve always wanted to do, but maybe next time. If Fast Eddie was in this one, he was under a new handle I didn’t recognize. Wil Wheaton didn’t play this time either as far as I could tell. I think life has been getting in the way of Wil over the past few days. He has a sick Maine Coon, btw, and Bear and I are beaming “get well” thoughts to Sketch in California as I write this.

One chat conversation that did annoy me happened during Hour 2, where a player complained when another player re-raised him and forced him to fold. In the subsequent play, #2 won the pot and knocked an all-in out. Player #1 apparently had the strongest hand and would have won the pot if he had stayed in, and went into the usual whine about “How could you raise like that with that hand?” #2 politely noted his thinking, which just infuriated #1 more. “Bad move,” he said. “Okay,” said #2.

“You know,” I wrote in the chat box, “I think I’d rather win than be right.”

“Thank you, rico,” Player #2 replied.

The $22 buy-in shrunk my stake by half, but I’ve been playing off my winnings from the last blogger tourney in October for the past three months, and I’m okay with that. At one point I was up to $150, but variance, bad beats, and bad play when I tried to force hands have taken their toll. I was planning on hitting a live tourney this Saturday with a $50 buy-in, but I think I’m going to drop some more change into PokerStars instead.

“You need some socialization past Bear and Kittenish,” says Peg, but you know, I have a pretty active social life, even though it’s with people I never see.

A day without a crash would be like a day with sunshine

If you're watching carefully, you'll note that the two Blox apps to the right are no longer with us. As Roseann Roseanna Danna used to say, "If it's not one thing, it's two things." My Dell laptop, my primary work PC during the winter months, has been having serious crashes on a near-daily basis during the past week or so. I haven't been able to identify what's going on, as symptoms vary, but one suspect on my list is Firefox having some sort of problem with more than one Flash app loading at a time...and that can possibly be traced to the Lazlo "Blox" apps.

Ironically, I found a possible reference to the problem on John Dowdell's blog. "Ironically" because Dowdell, whose on-line personality could best be described as this in my opinion, and I used to exchange barbs on a semi-regular basis on the DIRECT-L mailing list back when I was doing Director work.

In any case, one error message I'm getting on a regular basis when in Firefox is about the Flash plug-in. And I usually crash when I have the fhb site open in Firefox (that's not much of a clue, because I usually have the fhb site open). So, I'm disabling the Blox applications -- at least for a bit -- to test and see whether that will make the problem go away. I've never been real happy with the LinkBlox app in any case and, the WeatherBox app, while cute, can be replaced with something else if necessary.

At some point I'm going to redesign "fhb" once more again, as it's become a pretty hacked-together piece of work.

Merle Haggard to join Dylan on next tour

Bob Dylan will be doing March and April concerts in five cities, including multi-night runs in Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago. Joining him on the tour--which is dubbed "The Bob Dylan Show"--will be Merle Haggard and The Strangers, as well as Amos Lee.

The hippo and the whale might be cousins

ahem, a zen poem

The problem with hippos is

A group of four-footed mammals that flourished
worldwide
for 40 million
(40 million!)
years
and then died out in the ice ages
is the missing link between the whale and its not-so-obvious nearest relative,

the hippopotamus.

The hippo and the whale might be cousins
the loon and the vulture bros
The hippo and the whale might be cousins
one sleek, one not necessarily so.

Peeing your way out of trouble

A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it.

(via Rising Slowly)

I'm feeling tricksy

Fark, which is a site hard to explain, even if you read its FARQ, ah, FAQ, is having a "hack Google's interface with Photoshop" contest. Many of the results are hilarious. Here's my current favorite, which would be the result if MiddleEarth had had a Google.

(via John Battelle's Searchblog)

MOJO's Top 100 Soundtracks of All Time List

Maybe it just reflects my tastes for music of the `60s (not just R&R, but anything from the `60s. I'm an unrepentent Bacharach & Davis fan, f'r instance) but I think this is one of those lists where you could simply go through it and buy each pick and be pretty much happy.

A little earlier in time than most of the picks is #4 - Miles Davis' "Ascenseur pour l'echfaud" (Lift to the Scaffold), a soundtrack to an early Lous Malle film noir that I had never heard of. I bought it on Friday, and love it.

(via BoingBoing)

In more pleasant news

After dealing with snow, bruised trees, and crumpled cars yesterday (see below) I went back to the Web, and eventually looked at my blog stats during lunch. I had a cascade of hits -- "cascade" being many more than my usual handful of daily visits, most from family and friends, plus the usual odd visit from people looking for the First Hawaiian Bank, which shares my initials.

Almost all the hits were originating from Mark Evaniers' site, so I went to see why and found to my delight that Mark had "cribbed" (his word), my story about the Rose Marie segment on Carson, linking back to me in the process. As could be expected, not only did Mark remember the segment, he remembered it much better than I did (a little scary for me as Mark and I are the same age and I, or at least used to, pride myself on my memory), even to the point of naming the other guests that night (John Byner???). There's a bit of recursion for you. You can go to Mark's blog, back to my story, and then back to Mark's posting about my story if you follow those links.

Mark pegs the show airing circa 1969 or `70, which would have made us both between 17 and 18 and, if he's right, means I was living in a different city (L.A.) than I thought, and it was a different summer. But I was pretty much the nightbird from age 15 to around 25, when I was out of the Army, went back to college, and started keeping more regular hours, so it's possible. Anyway, as I suspected, as I've never seen that segment again, and it would have been a natural for any "Best of" special (certainly equal to the overused Ed Ames tomahawk segment), Mark thinks the show was probably one of the many that were lost, taped over, by NBC, who apparently had no sense of history at the time.

However, there still may be copies in existence. Stay tuned.

A Winter's Tale

It's another winter in New England. Snow again yesterday, an additional 5 to 7 inches. Temperatures relatively warm, in the 20s. Peg hit a patch of ice on the way to work yesterday morning, spun out, bounced off a telephone pole and ended up in a snowdrift with the SUV's crumpled nose resting against a tree.

She called me about 10 minutes after leaving the house, so I jumped into the Mini and went to get her. She was less than a mile up the back road, the Rodeo off to the side, facing the wrong way. Peg was unhurt having worn her seatbelt, although upset, as anyone would be. But it was an ice patch on a snowy back road, and if you've ever hit one just the right way you know you have as little control as if you were on ball bearings or an oil slick. All you can do is steer, wait for traction, and ride it out. Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes you don't. A few miles up the road Peg might have ended up in an open field or might have ended up in someone's yard, as she later saw another car had done.

I put her in the Mini, checked out the Rodeo, and after some effort, was able to get it back out on the road. The Rodeo was still drivable... or was after I pried some stuff away from the driver's side tire.

I took it home, and Peg, conscientious do-bee she is, went on to work in the Mini. `Bout five minutes after I got back inside, Peg called me on my cell phone (hers having died right after she called me), and near-gives me a heart attack as I think she's been in another accident. But she's just wants to tell me that she's now stuck in traffic as another car has slid off the road - the car in the front yard - and they're trying to pull it out. Twenty minutes later she calls to let me know she's finally at work.

I've called Allstate and our mechanic, and brought the Rodeo into Paul's this morning to see what's what. And I need to call Allstate Claims to see if I can pin down when the claims adjuster might come to look at it past "before next Tuesday", as I was told yesterday.

My biggest concern is that they'll try to total the Rodeo rather than pay the full repair amount, given that it's a seven-year-old car with 106,000 miles on it. Yesterday I was guessing about $3-4k worth of work, but in this morning's light it looks like the whole front end, hood, and driver's side bumper will need replacement... and that's before any assessment of the famous "hidden damage." Fair value on a Rodeo with that age/mileage ranges around $6 to 7K, so I think we're going to be on the edge of being totaled. We still have payments on the Mini and I don't want two car payments if I can avoid it. But, there's no use obsessing about it yet, Fred tells his Monk-self.

Definitely an AWD car the next time around, but preferably not for this year.

The answer is: "I'll be right back"

and the question to Johnny Carson was, "What would you like your epitaph to be?"

Pre-SNL, pre-anything except bad old movies and a revolving cast of competitors on the other channels, the chances were you watched Carson if you were watching late night TV at all. And you either said, "Johnny Carson" or just "Carson." I don't think I ever heard anyone ever refer to it as the "Tonight Show" except in commercials or Ed McMahon in the intro.

I had a summer in my life, probably around age 15, where I never went to bed before 2 a.m. and seldom got up before noon. And each night, if I was home, I watched Carson alone in the living room of my parent's house.

One of the funniest live moments I ever saw was on the Carson show during that summer -- a guest appearance by Rose Marie (of "Dick Van Dyke" fame), whose age Carson had jokingly referred to in his introduction. Another guest - whose identity I've long forgotten - mentioned the joke to Rose Marie, and compounded it by saying that Carson had claimed that when they were building the first stage, Rose Marie held the hammer.

"Ooookay," a mock-angry Rose Marie said, smiled at Carson, stood up and walked off the set. In close order, each of the other guests got up, smiled at Carson, and also left, until only McMahon was there. And then he got up and left, leaving Carson with what must have been the living embodiment of a talk show host's nightmare.

"Is it time to go to a commercial?" he asked. "Not for five minutes," came the offstage reply as the audience roared.

A desperate Carson eventually went into a stripper act, peeling down to his bare chest, as the orchestra blared out "The Stripper." And then all the male guests returned to the stage, each of them bare-chested too, as the audience went into hysterics.

Well, you had to be there. And it was funny, funny enough to me that I can still remember the details from a show I saw only once nearly 40 years ago. They cut to a commercial, and when the show came back on, Carson and the bare-chested guests were seated and he looked into the camera and dead-panned, "Welcome to Rawhide."

I stopped watching Carson regularly long before he retired, as much because I had stopped staying up late as the fact that the guests he had on were of no interest to me. But there were moments: I made a special effort to watch the show when Robert Blake was a guest, back in his "Baretta" days. Carson seemed to have a special fondness for Blake and his war against "the suits." There was once a very funny interchange between Blake and Carson when Carson had Blake interview him in the persona of a sullen actor, who eventually dropped his pants and mooned the audience.

The first time I ever saw Andy Kaufman was on Carson, as Kaufman did his "foreigner does terrible imitations and then turns into Elvis" routine to an audience that had no idea where he was going.

Truman Capote. Robert Goulet. Carl Sagan. Bob Hope -- one of the few guests that could walk on to the set, say a few words, usually about whatever special he was flogging that week, and then leave without having to stay through the full show. An enormous Orson Welles. A very drunk Peter Falk, who told an endless story about drinking with Patrick McGoohan and who Carson kept encouraging to leave. "Well I know you have to go now." "I don't need to be anywhere," Falk replied.

Barbra Streisand reneging on her commitment to appear on Carson with opera star, Beverly Sills. After advertising Streisand's appearance for a full week, Carson told the audience, "Miss Streisand called and said she will not be on the show tonight. Nor will Miss Streisand be on any other night as long as I'm host."

The death of Robert Kennedy, and Carson doing a round table to discuss violence in America in lieu of the regular show. Carson in a Nehru jacket in the late `60s. The "Johnny Carson" line of clothing, which I always thought was pretty cool.

As one could expect, Mark Evanier has a slew of commentary and links about Carson, well worth reading, especially this article that Evanier originally wrote in 1990.

The World Poker Blogger Tour...

...continues.

Feb 2nd, 9pm EST
PokerStars
$20+2 buyin, NL tournament
Password: thehammer

Currently 20 sign-ups as of today, and a $400 pool. I haven't signed up, although I'm planning to. 133 entrants the last game, and lots of fun.

Mavis Staples and Dylan a One-time "Item"

In a recent interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the 63 year-old vocalist, Mavis Staples known for such soul classics as "I'll Take You There", told of a romantic relationship with Bob Dylan.

Definition of Fred

Fred: Great coolness instincts, shitty business instincts.

I have a tendency, as Peg will tell you, to champion very cool but ultimately unsuccessful technology. I'm praying that TiVo, which I love, doesn't become another "but it was so cool!" discard on the dust-bin of Fred history (howza `bout that for dramatic overstatement, huh?). The signs aren't good, but on the other hand, I've proclaimed the death of Apple and Amazon at various times, too (see definition of Fred again above).

Rather than provide all the links, here's the uber-link to Mark Evanier's posting on TiVo troubles.

Comcast or Time-Warner, buy my bankrupt, evil pirate cable company soon, please.

"Damn it, sheep, stay in line."

"It's not my job to make it easy for people..." -- ABC scheduling chief Jeff Bader

Gotta love that `tude. Bader's job, according to Bader, "..is to get people to stay with [ABC] from 8 to 11." To do so, ABC and other major networks are trying to "break" TiVos and other PVRs by scheduling shows to start just slightly off the usual hour/half-hour schedule.

Shows running a minute or more over their scheduled time period for the week ending Nov. 21 according to the USA Today article, included:

- Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS)

-Trading Spouses (Fox)

-Lost (ABC)

-That '70s Show (Fox)

-CSI (CBS)

-ER (NBC)

-The O.C. (Fox)

-Desperate Housewives (ABC)

-The Simpsons (Fox)

Except for Lost, whose storyline I gave up on too, there's nothing there I watch, but I bet the trend is pissing off a lot of people. I first noticed this in action (I think more in WB's attempt to pack as many commercials in as possible rather than to deliberately foil recording), when I started to TiVO the new "The Batman" animated series, which consistently starts and ends as much as 2 minutes off-schedule.

In honor of MLK and REL

A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent, once remarked that God created Mississippi in order for the other Deep South states to have someplace to make fun of too. This MP3 file seems proof.

Partial transcript for those who don't want to play the MP3 file:

"You've reached the Mississippi State Tax Commission. On Monday January the 17^th the State Tax Commission offices will be closed in observance of Robert E. Lee and Dr. Martin Luther King's birthdays. Tax Commission offices will re-open on Tuesday January 18^th..."

The South does not need to rise again. It's never fallen in Mississippi. (via BoingBoing)

More pieces of Dutch Boyd for sale

I think it'd be fairly easy to write an article with the general theme of, "the pissy world of professional poker", as the current scene is primarily composed of very intelligent, but generally very unsocialized, very young men who spend as much time sniping at each other as they do playing. Kind of makes you long for the days of the Texas road crews, where arguments were settled with double-ought.

Dutch Boyd's ebay auction of himself was removed by the eBay gods. According to Boyd:

"...Grrrr... so after a few days of getting bids, I got an email from eBay on Friday saying they were taking the auction down because (1) I had a link to the site and (2) I had some search terms in the title that didn't relate to the auction (WPT?). I think it's for the best... got an email from a guy who said that the Copenhagen tournament was already sold out, so I'd probably have been in a bad spot if the listing DID sell."

Uh, yes. Bad spot, Dutch. Boyd is now auctioning 1 percent stakes in any winnings he earns in the San Diego WSOP Circuit main event on February 27th. An ex-colleague, Brett Jungblut, who terms himself "2004 WSOP Omaha Hi/low World Champion, and FORMER member of THE CREW" and who doesn't appear to want to head the Dutch Boyd fan club, has posted a pseudo-auction on eBay with the description:

"As a profesional poker player and former friend and colleague of Dutch Boyd, I felt obligated to tell you that I cut off all business and personal relationships with Dutch because I felt VERY uncomfortable trusting him on any level. Since he is using my picture in his auction, I wanted to make clear that I do not support him in anyway. Winning bidder of this auction will win 1/2 hour of phone time with me, to be used for poker/life related questions. [sic]"

I'm compiling a list of suitable life-related questions for Brett, so far including:

1. Do you need to spel gud to be a successful pro?
2. Where can you find a good nickel cigar?
3. When is the right time to use THE HAMMER?
4. Can I get Shana Hiatt's phone number?

The Hammer Redux

If you check out the comments link in my previous "Hammer" posting, you'll note that both Felicia Lee (the "another blogger" of the previous entry) and the Blogfather of Poker himself, Iggy, dropped by. Nice to see them both here and I appreciate their taking the time to comment... and also neither of them tasking me on the fact that the Hammer story as originally written would have made it impossible for me to win. I've corrected the play-by-play, but in all honesty I don't remember what the cards were (chalk it up to advancing age), except that I won an all-in with a 7 7 2 2 2 full house, and it drove my adversary bonkers, as all good Hammer wins should.

Felicia noted that closing her public blog was "because of hate mail containing lightly veiled threats", an unfortunate too often by-blow of writing outspoken commentary on-line. As I said, a pity she closed her public Weblog, although she generously (since I'm a stranger to her) gave me access to her new, restricted blog. How long she'll be willing to maintain even a restricted blog is an open question, as the problems are apparently continuing.

As to the "Hammer" debate, some more reading has left me more bemused, or confused, or whatever. Although I didn't think it a thing worth debating, I had thought Iggy's reference to the "Stripper by Night" as a "troll" was somewhat off-base. I think of on-line trolls as people who deliberately write provocative statements to generate reaction. A "Dylan has a voice like a frog and stole all his material to boot" posting in rec.music.dylan would be an example of a troll trolling.

The interchanges between Felicia and the "Stripper" (whose name, if it's real, I've forgotten) seemed more like the typical on-line feud, with various people lining up on one side or another, themselves generating sub-branches of arguments. The whole Hammer thread is a perfect example: Is it usually stupid to play, let alone raise with? Yes. Does that have anything to do with the blogger poker meme (as Iggy so elegantly puts it in his comments) that you should always raise with the Hammer, especially in a game with other poker bloggers? No.

One mark of maturity is the ability to hold two conflicting thoughts in mind at the same time.

Anyway, now I'm not so sure whether Iggy was wrong, as several bloggers are advancing the theory that the "Stripper" is a fake, and may be someone's elaborate hoax. And, just to keep the pot boiling at a fine froth, The Stripper is now claiming that her (or his) true identity has been uncovered and she (or he) is now receiving phone calls about his (or her) blog.

The Hammer Strikes

Time for a poker posting, not least `cause the next Bloggers tourney is in the midst of being scheduled, (currently set for Wednesday, Feb 2nd at 9pm EST) and there’s a faction that wants it to be bloggers only. Why, only the proponents know. I suspect it's for the same reason sf fans call the general populace, "mundanes." It's an "us vs. them, that ant's the wrong color, that lamb don't smell right" sort of thing.

But thus, consider this the official poker blog of ricoM, by God, where we don’t do anything but eat, sleep, read, and write about poker. We even occasionally play. Our top subjects:

1. All online poker is rigged.
   
   
2. How could that idiot call me with that hand?
   
   
3. How could that idiot have beaten me with that hand (see #1)?
   
   
4. Sign up at (insert name here) using bonus code (insert bonus code here)
   
   
5. I’m giving up my job and becoming a pro.
   
   
6. The pros and cons of using THE HAMMER

Well, maybe not that last, as there has been a furor in the poker corner of the blogosphere over the past couple of weeks that was apparently first triggered by one bloggers’ commentary that raising with the so-called “hammer” (7 2 off-suit, usually termed “the worst starting hand in hold `em”) is a “stupid move.” These two words unleashed an unbelievable torrent of criticisms, counter-arguments, personal vendettas, and escalating insults in different blogs. “Unbelievable”, of course unless you’re familiar with on-line communities, where every molehill has the potential to grow into Everest.

Apparently because of this another blogger has closed her blog to all but visitors she authorizes. A pity, as I enjoyed reading her postings, although though I thought she was a tad touchy even before this incident – especially with people who disagreed with her. And I’m using “apparently” repeatedly because the arguments seem to have been conducted equally through blog postings, emails, and commentary in several different blogs, making it extremely difficult to determine exactly what everyone is getting so crazy about. UPDATE: See Felicia's note in the comments on her reasons for closing her blog.

I’m not quite sure why, maybe it’s the nature of the beast, but most poker bloggers, and most poker players come to think of it, are very opinionated about play. Very sensitive when they feel their strategy is being criticized; very outspoken about other players’ strategy… especially if they consider a play a bonehead move, and even more especially when stupidity is rewarded, which it often is.

Poker tends to reflect the real world.

As I play more, I’m coming to the belief that most of the advice or commentary I read doesn’t have much to do with what I’m doing. As it stands, I do enough self-criticism of my own play to suffice the entire Red Chinese Army, as Peg will tell you, and I’ve found trying to apply someone else’s style to my play makes me resemble the centipede who was asked how he was able to keep his legs marching in sequence… and was never able to walk again.

I think it may be because my focus is on SnG’s and tournament play, or it may that I’m just not at the level yet where I can apply some strategies. Dunno. But much of the ring game strategy I read doesn’t work for those variants in my experience – or only will work in certain exceptional situations, at least for me. When you’re starting with a limited stack, and you’re gone when that stack is gone, you can’t play too aggressively or loosely. Can you raise with the Hammer and get away with it now and then? Sure, as you can in any game. But, get crazy, raise $200 with a $1,000 stack, get called, and any face card flops, now you’re faced with the decision of getting even more aggressive, with the potential to lose even more, or to cut your losses at $200.

And you’re down to $800. Make a few more loose moves, and you’re gone, unless you get lucky fast.

And before I invite my own firestorm of commentary (not from my handful of regular readers, who are a polite bunch, but if you happen to stumble across this by accident): IMO, only, `kay? Please keep your opinions to yourself. If you’re a poker blogger who has taken offense, go find me on PokerStars or Party and whup my poor little stake, if that’s your pleasure. But please keep how you think I should play to yourself, and I’ll do the same.

Having said that, here’s my personal Hammer story: I was playing in a PokerStars SnG, which is where I make most of my little money. It’s early in the game, still $10/20 blinds. I’m UTG and get 7 2 off-suit. “What the heck,” lil’ Rico thinks, and raises to $60, which I can afford to lose. Everybody folds up to the Button, who just calls me. The SB folds and the BB calls.

The flop hits 7, 2, K, and I have two pair, which ain’t bad, Rico thinks, and he bets $120. I get one fold and one call.

The turn is a nothing card, so I see how Mr. Caller feels and double up again to $240.

He calls. And the flop is a 2, giving me a full house. I go All-In… and he calls. He has two aces in his hand, which he’s been slow-playing.

The loser, who has been providing free advice to everyone on nearly every deal, goes ballistic when he sees what he’s lost to. He goes into the familiar on-line player, “You’re so dumb, how could you play that crap?” refrain where the lyrics change but the song remains the same.

I can’t resist. “THE HAMMER,” I taunt, “is Mighty!” The guy rants so much and for long that I think the Admin guys finally shut him off, at least he gets cut off in mid-rant.

In regards to another situation I recently told Peg, “The only thing better than getting money is taking money from someone you really don’t like.” That’s as true in poker as in anything else. My favorite line from the Hammer debate has been, “To be honest, if she liked me, I wouldn't like myself.” While it wouldn’t end the debate, nor make anyone love anyone else better, it’d be fun to see the various parties squaring off at each other at the tables. Probably won’t happen… but it’d be fun to watch.

The Nastiest Missle Ever Planned...

... may have been SLAM, a Supersonic Low-Altitude Missile, using nuclear ramjet power. The project to build the weapon's nuclear reactor was given the code name "Pluto," which ultimately became the name of the weapon itself.

"...a locomotive-size missile that would travel at near-treetop level at three times the speed of sound, tossing out hydrogen bombs as it roared overhead. Pluto's designers calculated that its shock wave alone might kill people on the ground....In addition to gamma and neutron radiation from the unshielded reactor, Pluto's nuclear ramjet would spew fission fragments out in its exhaust as it flew by."

Happily, on July 1, 1964, seven years and six months after it was born, Project Pluto was cancelled, for a variety of reasons, chief among them that Pluto would have irradiated our allies on its way to flatten the Soviet Union. Testing would also have been something of a problem. Where do you test-flight something that, "spews out fission fragments as it flies by"?

A peaceful counterpoint to Pluto was Project Orion, an atomic bomb-powered spacecraft conceived by Freeman Dyson that a group of scientists planned to use for a Grand Tour of the solar system... and reach Saturn by 1970. In some alternate, Heinleinesque, universe I hope they did it, and there is a base on the Moon, space stations orbiting their Earth, a small, growing colony on Mars, and explorers pushing out to the Asteroid Belt. It's a future I would like to have seen.

But I still have time.

First mention of...

Fun for geeks. Google holds over 20 years of Usenet postings -- more than 800 million messages, most of which are a waste of space -- in its Google Groups archives. Google posted a 20-year Usenet timeline page sometime in 2003, and recently re-publicized it to advertise their remake of the Google Groups interface.

If you're into productivity-busting mode, cruise on over and read such interesting postings as the first mention of Microsoft; Apple's Lisa; the first "me too" post; and much, much more.

Boxing Dylan

In a somewhat surrealistic interview, Sean Penn notes that he and Dylan used to box together at his house...

Q: You're the reader on the audio version of Bob Dylan's "Chronicles." How'd that come about?

A: He called. You don't say no to Bob. It's the first and last time I'll do it though. It's a big job.

Q: Are you friends?

A: Friendly acquaintances. I've never known him very well. There was a period of time when we used to box together. I had a ring at my house.

Q: Who came out ahead in those matches?

A: The interest was serious, but it was just for enjoyment.

Q: No broken bones?

A: No broken bones. No trips to the emergency room.

Q: You don't want to be the guy who put Bob Dylan in the hospital.

A: No. Or have it be the other way around.

Q: You say you'd never do another one of these audiobooks, but, you know, Dylan says he has two more volumes coming.

A: Yeah, I know. (Laughs) I've changed my number. (Laughs) I think you should only read books aloud for people who are shorter than you.

The full interview is here.

The Meanest Old Man in the World Hits 100

Charles Lane really isn't the meanest old man in the world, he just has played one numerous times in films and on TV.

You might remember him as Homer Bedloe, the mean old man who was always trying to shut down the Hooterville Cannonball on Petticoat Junction, but he's usually been some mean old man in whatever show or film he appeared in, an impressive list that includes, according to Mark Evanier, It's a Wonderful Life, 42nd Street, The Twentieth Century, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can't Take It With You, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, The Big Store, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Music Man, State of the Union and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, one of Evanier's faves, and one of mine, too (I used to live in the guest cottage on the estate where the Big W was located).

Later this month Lane will reach his 100th birthday, and Evanier is organizing a campaign to send him congratulatory emails. More info here.

Show "Random Selection" from ANYWHERE

BoingBoing has been doing a series of posts on unsecured web cams that can be accessed through a Google search.

An enterprising (is there any other kind?) blogger uses the Google API to put together a neat page that lets you easily see screen captures from various cameras from around the world. Click on an image to go to a (sometimes) live video feed.

The Robin Hood of Poker...

... is a gentleman named Barry Greenstein, a self-made millionaire turned poker pro at age 36, who donates the bulk of his poker winnings to charity - over $2 million in 2004. Greenstein has a new book (as what pro doesn't) coming out this year, which I suspect will be more interesting reading than the majority of poker books. As valuable as Super System is claimed to be (and I'm in the minority opinion that I don't think it's all that good), stylistically it's almost unreadable.

You too can be a venture capitalist

Tempting. If I had a $2k poker stake - which I don't - I might consider this investment. Pro poker player, Dutch Boyd, is auctioning 50% of any earnings he wins at the European Poker Tour Copenhagen event being played at the end of this month for a current stake price of $1,825.00. Boyd is also willing to wear a t-shirt/hat with your logo, and will ...commit a couple hours to helping the winning bidder with their own poker game."

On the other hand, if I could get Boyd to wear "www.fredbals.com" gear, I suppose I could take off the cost next year as an advertising expense. Hmmmm. (via Iggy at Guinness and Poker).

UPDATE: The auction was apparently removed and re-listed. I've fixed the link (There's currently one bid).
UPDATE YET AGAIN: The auction was ultimately removed by eBay. More info here.

Winter Wonderland

Not from Merrimack, but from Vancouver, B.C. via William Gibson...

Working with the dead

All the entries from the Best of Still Photojournalism site are worth viewing, but this stunning set of photos from the Riverside County Sheriff Coroner's office are like a mini film noir, each photo by itself could generate a complete novel. Warning, though, many of the images are very graphic and disturbing. Not workplace-safe and not for children. (via BoingBoing)

R.I.P. Will Eisner

I was never all that big a fan of his storytelling, but I loved his art, especially his "The Spirit" splash pages. Among many other things, Eisner is acknowledged as the creator of the graphic novel genre. Here's a detailed biography of Eisner's life and accomplishments.

More signposts from the future

Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel cannot sue a Web site that published a photo of him with two women above a caption reading "You're never too old to be a pimp," a U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

The term "pimp" was probably intended as a compliment, the court said.

In keeping with this line of reasoning, Knievel complimented the court by responding, "What good is law in the United States of America if five or six goddamn bimbos are going to rule against it?"

sigh. Some days you can't tell the internets from The Onion. Link

A 5,0000-year-old comic "book"

The article calls it "the world's first animation", but Scott is right, it may be the first comic book ever made. You'll need to have read "Understanding Comics" to see why.

Nota bene: Although it's slow, be sure to watch the video animation. Link at the end of the article.

More signposts from the future

Her name is Dylan, she's 11. She's the youngest video blogger in the world. She's famous.

"My sister said she felt like she was going to pee in her pants after she saw it."

Signposts from the Future Department

From BoingBoing...

Futurismic's publishing some amazing science fiction and this story doesn't disappoint. It's a great 10 minute read, perfect for the Web.

Can "it's a great 10-second read, perfect for the iPod" be far away?

Red Sonja & the Savior of Comics

In the early `70s, the comic book industry was on its last legs (the comic book industry tends to get wobbly legs on an average 10 year cycle. It’s going through another down period as I write this). Mark Evanier has an interesting article about Phil Seuling, probably one of the most influential people in the industry that you’ve never heard of, who near-single-handedly convinced the major publishers that the direct market would be far more efficient than the traditional news stand distribution.

Seuling was right, Marvel and DC eventually bought into the idea, and now most comic fans go to a specialty comic book store rather than the corner drug store (sorry, Jill).

The photo in the link shows Seuling on the set of the Mike Douglas show with Douglas, Jamie Farr, and Wendy Pini(!!) costumed as Red Sonja. If you’re a comics fan, you know Pini as the co-creator of Elfquest, one of the first independent comics. I tend to forget how many authors and artists started as fans – not that surprising when you think about it.

I had an “I’m getting old” moment while reading Evanier’s teaser to the full article, when he found it necessary to explain exactly who Mike Douglas was. Since M.A.S.H. is still in re-runs, I’m assuming Mark was just covering the bases when he also felt the need to explain who Jamie Farr was. I hope, at least.

Things to do in 2005

I don't believe in making resolutions, as my "resolve" usually falters quickly. Instead, I've come up with a list of things I'd like to do in the coming year... some that I'm fairly certain I'll get to, others more problematic. In no particular order:

Return to the Birmingham-Southern College Conference "Writing Today" conference in March and see my `Bama family again. Last year was a little wild as my friend Jill's mother was in the hospital undergoing cardiac bypass surgery (she's now fully recovered), but a Saturday barbecue at her sister Leigh's house still remains as one the highlights of 2004 for me.

Go soaring. Think I'll try the Greater Boston Soaring Club first when spring comes. If they're not around in Sterling anymore, maybe a day trip up to Franconia to check out the Franconia Soaring Association.

Entice Peggy to the top of Mt. Washington for the MAMA Minis-on-top rally.

Win a "big" Texas Hold `Em tourney. I'm still working on the definition of what I think qualifies as satisfactorily "big", but the PartyPoker.com Million tournament is definitely on that plane.

Related to the above, I've been playing No Limit Hold `Em for a little over a year now, mostly on-line, and just recently for money. I think I’ve improved my game over the year, mainly by moving away from the on-line free-roll* tournaments (which have as little in common with real Texas Hold `Em poker tournaments as an Ashlee Simpson performance does with a real concert) and focusing on cash Sit-n-Goes.* I’ve tripled my stake (although it’s been recently been beaten down by my losing attempts at the progressive jackpot at Party Poker – a subject that deserves a post to itself), finished in 8^th place in a 133-player money tournament (the October Poker bloggers tourney), and tried my hand at a live tourney.

In 2005 I want the same steady progression. I want to be comfortable with bigger buy-ins… and I want to make some money not just from poker but from writing about poker.

We’ll see if I have anything interesting to say.

*“free-roll”: A tournament that doesn’t require money to enter. Most on-line free-rolls will get you an entry into another, often money, tourney if you place high enough. On-line free-rolls are characterized by high number of entries – several thousand isn’t unusual – and loose, often extremely stupid, play, especially in the first hour. Part of this is due to the theory that the best way of winning a free-roll is to build a large a stack as possible in the first hour. Most of this is due to the fact that many people playing free-rolls are bored, looking for action, and don’t care whether they win or lose.

**“Sit-n’-Goes”: a.k.a. SNGs. SNGs are mini-tourneys of 9 or 10 (or more) people. The name comes from when a table is filled, play begins. I do better at SNGs than I do at any other type of table. I suspect this is because I tend to lose my focus after a couple of hours of play, especially when the cards aren’t coming.

Back

A new year deserves a new epigram. This one's from Jim Harrison's valuable memoir, "Off to the Side." More tomorrow.

Last thoughts on the "Queen of Sky" and Warholism

I think this will probably be my last entry on the "Queen of Sky" (who's self-proclaimed title I'm finally writing correctly), as I'm finding her and her "adventures" more pitiful than entertaining.

The QoS, with lawyer, was on a Today Show segment a few weeks back, during the period I was off blogging. Although she was obviously terrified, as opposed to her defiant print interviews and blog postings, she came across as a somewhat clueless young woman who just wanted her job back. She reiterated her claim that she had started her blog in reaction to the death of her mother, but then, when asked about the pictures that prompted her termination from Delta, responded that she had posted them in reaction to the death of her grandmother, leaving Matt Lauer, and presumably most of the audience, bemused and trying to figure out the connection. In explanation on her site, the QoS writes, "My blog is therapy to me, and the photos are part of that therapy... It been a stressful year (even more so now), and my blog lets me let off steam and have fun. "

The opportunity for more "fun" increases for QoS on a daily basis, unfortunately. Although I didn't note it for what I hope were obvious reasons, I googled QoS real name +Texas after she went public, and got back both her address and telephone on the first page of results. As anyone, except apparently Ms. Simonetti, could have anticipated, I wasn't the only one who thought of that, and her blog is now alternately filled with pleading and threatening entries about the phone calls she's receiving from various crazies. A fast review of her postings also reveals that she's being threatened with a defamation of character suit by another blogger and also is being accused of various unsavory things in her "Guestbook."

As I've said before, the `Net is a very nice place in the same way that the Amazon Basin is a very nice place. The fact that it may be beautiful and even entertaining doesn't mean that you can't get eaten alive. I suspect QoS is about 14 minutes and 55 seconds into her Warholian moment. I hope she survives it.

Early thoughts on the Dylan interview...

...mostly random notes, nothing cohesive at this point...

I mentioned to Peg while we were watching that Dylan looked very nervous, as he repeatedly twirled a pen between his fingers, but "nervous" is the wrong term. "Uncomfortable" better describes it, and "reactive." "Reactive" in the sense that I got the impression that most of the questions Bradley asked aren't questions that Dylan spends any time thinking about and he answered only because they were asked.

In the so-called "Rome Interview" conducted with a group of European journalists in July 2001, a very engaged Dylan spends a significant part of the interview talking about the "sound" he's trying to create -- a subject which you can tell the musician is very interested in. The same sense of engagement comes through loud and clear in Volume One of "Chronicles" when Dylan writes about the New Orleans sessions that produced, "Oh Mercy."

The dichotomy between the media/public-created "Dylan" and the musician who goes on stage every night and thinks about the music he's creating becomes more stark with each public statement, and I find I like and identify with the musician more and more.

Other things: It'll be interesting, and nice to see, if the complete out-takes from the reported 90 minute interview ever surface. I'm guessing it must have been a frustrating interview for Bradley and producers, as from a "sound bite" perspective, only Dylan's statement that he couldn't now write something like "It's Alright, Ma..." at the beginning and his closing remark about "holding up his end of the bargain" were the only two provocative segments. You can almost see the 60 Minutes teasers being born: "Big Bubba of Rebellion Sez He Doesn't Have Right Stuff Anymore!" and "Song and Dance Man Admits Bargain with `Chief Commander!'"

Fan Frustration: Trying to take the Nickel Tour

No, this doesn't have anything to do with the Freudian joke below. For well over a year I've periodically tried to purchase, "Disneyland the Nickel Tour", a massive collection of the complete set of postcards issued by the theme park, plus a history of Disneyland from opening to present day. To date I've been unsuccessful, though I just tried Amazon yet again.

If you follow the link to Amazon, you'll note that the book's availability is listed as "1 to 2 months", the first hint of weirdness. You'll also note that used editions of the book are going for several hundred dollars from various sellers, far above what I want to pay, while Amazon lists a new edition (from January, 2000) at half-price, $47.25 -- a price that I can justify paying for a book as yet unseen.

You'll also note that there's a review of the book from January 2004, which would be indicative, Watson, that the book is available. But, noooo. I tried buying "The Nickel Tour" again early this year, only to receive an auto-response from Amazon after a few weeks that they had been unable to contact the publisher and were canceling the order, which is also what I expect to happen this time around, too. I put a comment in the Amazon "review" section noting the book's unavailability... and the comment, which had to go through Amazon editorial review, was never published.

We pause for the Twilight Zone theme music.

Sometime in the summer, I got het up about "The Nickel Tour" once again after reading another glowing review and this time went to the effort of tracking down the publisher, "Camphor Tree." Go and check their site out, if you like. I'll wait.

Nice, if a little sparse, site, huh? If you click on "The Nickel Tour" link, you'll see you can purchase the book directly from them for $75, plus $7 s&h. Yikes! But what the hey, Fred's got the bit between his teeth at this point, and $82 is still better than $200 - 300. If worse gets to worse, I can always re-sell it on eBay, right?

Peg, if she's reading this, LoL at this point. :-)

If you're following along interactively with this saga, you can try purchasing "The Nickel Tour", or, for that matter, any book offered by Camphor Tree and this is what I bet you'll see, as the message hasn't changed in six months...

This supplier's CCNow store is currently unavailable. To our client: please log into your account and read an important message from CCNow.

I engage in idle speculation at this point and mention that I suspect that the "important message" is CCNow advising Camphor Tree that their account is long expired.

OOOOkay. What's left for Fred, who by this time had gone into his full rico-ga research mode and is determined to track down the Camphor boys (or girls, as the case may be). Well, there's an email address, and predictably, there's no response to the message I send in the summer. They're in Santa Clarita, CA, and a little research uncovers their snailmail address (predictably, a P.O. Box) and a phone number...

... which I call and reach an answering machine, or at least did when I tried this summer. And I leave a message. And (here comes that word again) predictably receive zero response. Zilch. Nothingness. The Big Nada.

That was this summer, and thus stymied (a word that always reminds me of one of the characters on "The Little Rascals"), I went on to other passions, which, as Peg can tell you, occur on the average of one a minute.

So, I'm blogging around this a.m. and go to the Disney Blog, where the author notes that this is one of his "favorite books", suggests it as a great gift idea, and even provides a link to Amazon. I go retrace the path I took in the summer, nothing has changed at Camphor Tree, but I click on the Amazon "buy" button, `cause what the heck, maybe the book is really now available, and go back to the Disney Blog and put a comment in the entry summarizing my tale of woe...

... and first I think it's been deleted ("Twilight Zone" music again) by the blogger, Mr. Frost, but what he's done is created a new entry with this remark at the same time I've been typing this entry...

Update: Looks like Amazon is out of stock on this item. I'll try to find out if there is a supply of these books out there anywhere. The untimely death of David Mumford, one half of the authorship and part owner of Camphor Tree Publishing, has made these books quite scarce. It might be a question of market demand. I think the minimum run for small presses is 10,000. They might just feel that's not warranted right now.

... and there we are. In the big scheme of things, the death of the co-author/publisher is a little more important, of course, and explains the unresponsiveness, and I'm sorry for the many Bad Things I've been thinking about Camphor Tree...

...but I sure wish I could find "The Nickel Tour."

Freudian Joke

that made me LoL, startling Bear this morning as he lay beside the laptop.

Courtesy of Scott McCloud, who notes on his blog that he first heard it on "Prairie Home Companion." I can't resist, btw. For $20, Scott, how do you spell the name of that game show again? :-)

My Neighbor's Wife

A noirish blend of poetry, graphics, and music that will haunt you for hours.

Ewwwww!

Your child's umbilical cord as a permanent memory. Call me old-fashioned, but baby shoes are good enough for me. (via BoingBoing)

Jim McManus watch

As friend and family know, Jim McManus' article in the Atlantic, "Fortune's Smile" is to blame for my current obsession with poker of the Texas Hold `Em variety. McManus later lengthened that excellent article to a not-quite-as-good book, "Positively Fifth Street", which I thought flawed by the dual story line of McManus' play in the World Series of Poker and his report of the probable murder of casino heir, Ted Binion. The book is still a more than worthwhile read, especially if you're interested in the current fascination with poker, which, as a gambling buddy of mine likes to put it, is becoming "this generation's Bridge."

McManus is reportedly now working on a history of poker, according to this article I found in D magazine. The story mostly concerns the sniping and maneuvering between billionaire Andy Beal and the so-called "Corporation" as both sides try to get an advantage in Beal's proposed $40 million "Big Game."

If you've followed the Binion murder trial story, you probably know that his live-in girlfriend and her boyfriend were recently retried and found innocent, at least of Binion's murder, this time around. Although as a writer Steve Miller makes an excellent former Las Vegas City Councilman, his article on the $5,000 "chocolate chip" and its possible role in Binion's death, is a fascinating read.

The Ten Geekiest Hobbies

I should be concerned -- but am not -- that two of my hobbies are listed. :-) Furry/Plushy sex, however, is not one of them.

Fred is...

A very long Googlism. I think my favorite is, " Fred is always convinced that his parents are about to give him a cat when obstacles suddenly arise." Story of my life. I also like the listing for my niece, Electra.

Fred is...

A very long Googlism. I think my favorite is, " Fred is always convinced that his parents are about to give him a cat when obstacles suddenly arise." Story of my life. I also like the listing for my neice, Electra.

TRIO Cable Channel may be off air soon

Thanks to my brother, Lee, a cable channel I don't even receive, TRIO, is high on my list of favorites. I suspect if I got TRIO directly my TiVo would be getting a regular work-out, but Lee has been good enough to provide me with tapes of such oddities as the Johnny Staccato series and Peckinpah's warped movie, "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" and in return I burn him a DVD of whatever he's sent when I make myself a copy.

Unfortunately, TRIO is probably not much longer for this world, according to Mark Evanier. The channel's primary outlet, DirecTV, is dropping it at the end of December, and the oft-cited "industry sources" say that TRIO will probably not survive into 2005.

As much as cable was supposed to broaden our choices -- and I suppose it has to some extent when you look at the days of three dominant channels and local UHF programming -- it's sad that no one still seems able to come up with a viable strategy to serve fringe markets. For example, any fan worth the name could come up with a schedule that would be better than what the SF Channel currently offers. The SF Channel had much more diversity in its in its early days and should be so much better than it is now , but programs unwatchable junk at least 60 percent of its air time, and re-runs the same series ad infinitum.

I had never even heard of Johnny Staccato prior to TRIO, yet John Cassavettes over-the-top series turned into one of Peg's and my favorites. I suspect there are many things floating out in the TV wasteland that would only appeal to a very small audience. With TRIO going, the chances of finding those things becomes a little harder.

The Future of TiVo

When not worrying about global warming and nuclear catastrophe, I worry about what I'm going to do if TiVo goes under (actually, I probably spend more time worrying about that than the other two put together). But, as Mark Evanier says, the demise of the company doesn't mean the demise of the technology, just that those of us who laid out the $299 for a TiVo "lifetime subscription" rather than monthly fees will probably end up paying those fees to someone else:

TiVo technicians have quietly leaked word to the electronics community that if they crash and burn, the company will release the source codes that will make it easy for someone else to offer a TiVo Data Subscription Service.

TiVo in some ways reminds me of Apple, an innovative company that never was able to capitalize on its innovation... until the iPod, at least.

Dylan to be on 60 Minutes December 5th

The New York Post reports that Dylan spoke to reporter Ed Bradley for 90 minutes about "his career, fame, troubled relationship with the media and his affiliation with his dad."

Segment to air December 5th.

I'm back, btw. :-)

On holiday

fhb is going on hiatus while I work on some other projects. Although I may come back earlier, I'm currently planning on restarting the blog in early January, 2005, so, if you're a reader, check in then.

Resistance is Futile - the 6th Movement

Warning: this one is not workplace-friendly. Music, btw, is from "Let it Be" by Laibach

Patience during the reign of witches

A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt......If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.

-- Thomas Jefferson, from a letter he sent in 1798 after the passage of the Sedition Act

This Jefferson quote has been making the blog rounds over the past several days. I saw it again this morning on John Perry Barlow's blog, where a commentor has the interesting - and insightful question, "...The identity of the letter's recipient would be [a] revealing fact, as well."

A Google search revealed that Jefferson had addressed the letter to a John Taylor of Virginia, a politician and writer who served in the Virginia house of delegates and in the United States Senate. A little more searching uncovered the letter itself, which is as fascinating and as timely in its entirety (after you get past the detailed description of a mould board in the opening paragraphs :-)) as the "reign of witches" excerpt. Consider this:

"It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order, and those who have once got an ascendency and possessed themselves of all the resources of the nation, their revenues and offices, have immense means for retaining their advantages. But our present situation is not a natural one."

or this...

"Time alone would bring round an order of things more correspondent to the sentiments of our constituents; but are there not events impending which will do it within a few months? The invasion of England, the public and authentic avowal of sentiments hostile to the leading principles of our Constitution, the prospect of a war in which we shall stand alone, land-tax, stamp-tax, increase of public debt, &c."

Substitute "Iraq" for "England" and you have a fairly close correspondence to our present situation; the prospect of a war in which we shall stand alone, increase of public debt.

Best to read the full letter for yourself, especially my Southern friends, as Jefferson eerily -- or perhaps not so eerily in 1798 - predicts the damage that secession will have upon the United States.

As Jefferson closes his letter, "better luck, therefore, to us all..."

Common ground for the Boy Scout and the renegade

"... We both represent aspects of the American psyche that need each other, the jock and the intellectual, the Boy Scout and the renegade, the guardian and the wild card. We both love this great and terrible country, even as we fear one another's excessive influence on it, and part of what we love is the creative fever that arises from our division. As we need each other, however unwillingly, so America needs us both.

Perhaps it's just the bargaining phase of grief, but I can see that one of the things I must do to feel less a stranger in my own land is to have more conversations like the one I had with Dale. Indeed, as I've said repeatedly before, we must do our collective best to shatter the fetters of intolerance and live more in the necessary amnesty of interdependence. We need to quit scaring each other. Both sides are convinced that the other is trying to impose his culture on us, whether by law or by Internet. Fear of the Other, whether Bush or bin Laden, whether terror without or terror within, has been murdering reason and civility in America. We need to look one another in the eyes and see the human being behind the enemy. If we're not going to start shooting each other over the next 4 years, we will need to do that a lot...."

Post-election commentary from John Perry Barlow, writer, gentleman rancher, and one-time Grateful Dead lyricist.

Cease fire

So, yes, okay, fine. I'm a terrible person -- barely a person at all, really, and certainly not a real American -- because I voted for the losing candidate on Tuesday. If you insist -- and you do -- I will rethink my fundamental beliefs from scratch because they are shared by only 47 percent of the electorate...

... I mean, look at it this way. (If you don't mind, that is.) It's true that people on my side of the divide want to live in a society where women are free to choose abortion and where gay relationships have full civil equality with straight ones. And you want to live in a society where the opposite is true. These are some of those conflicting values everyone is talking about. But at least my values -- as deplorable as I'm sure they are -- don't involve any direct imposition on you. We don't want to force you to have an abortion or to marry someone of the same gender, whereas you do want to close out those possibilities for us. ...

Yes. More from Michael Kinsley's Washington Post column here. You'll have to sign up. But it's free, and if you agree with those excerpts, as I do, you'll want to read the rest.

if I looking for frog

Here's the story...

A child in New York City loses his pet frog, "Hopkin Green Frog," What to do? Put out a hand-drawn flier- "PS: I'll find my frog/Who took my frog/Who found my frog" in an attempt to recover Hopkin.

From that start, a group of artists created a Photoshop slideshow of the search for Hopkin. Funny and touching, and currently my favorite site of 2004.

Resistance is futile Part the 5th

Well, that didn't take long.

Resistance is futile - Part 4

Four more years.

What he said

Iggy pretty much has my feelings down on the reliability of Blogger.

Blogger was out of service most of yesterday, proving the old adage that you get what you pay for. I've been working with Typepad on another project, and have been pretty impressed with the hosting service. Some bells-`n-whistles that Blogger doesn't have, but I'm surprised that there doesn't seem to be a spell-checker, meaning I end up using something like Word and then pasting the copy into the Typepad compose window.

Typepad hosting costs ranges between $4.95 and $14.95 per month, not an attractive alternative for something I view as essentially a hobby and personal journal. I have this thing about making money, rather than spending it... except about poker, of course. But, I've been considering getting hosted at GoDaddy, the company I use for my domain registration/renewal anyway and moving my site from Adelphia. A GoDaddy Web site would run me about $45 a year, is probably tax deductible, and means that I could set up a Blog area, use something like Movable Type or WordPress, or even simply Dreamweaver, which I already know and use, and not be dependent on a slow, unreliable host. Blogger support claims that many of the problems will go away when they complete their move to Google's servers, and who knows, perhaps they will.

Decisions, decisions. In any case, it took me years - and a career change - to finally build my own site and become master of my domain. It's not dark yet for Blogger. But it's getting there.

Resistance is futile - Part 3

A reader’s guide to expatriating.

On the other hand, Jill and Leigh, you could just move to New Hampshire. :-)

Resistance is futile - Part 2

An actual email spam received after the election...

From: "Mia Wang"
Date: November 3, 2004 9:28:10 AM EST
To: Taylor
Subject: Bush Gets Re-elected
Reply-To: "Mia Wang"
With 4 more years of Bush coming you need some prozac. Get it here.

Trust me, it'll make you feel better.

ST0P
Don't those singers dislike playing carelessly?
Did Roy love working on the top of the mountain?
I didn't dislike cooking at home.
tomorrow i will wash my hair and go to the salon
--------------------------------------------

via BoingBoing. Tomorrow I will wash my hair.

From "The Cincinnati Enquirer"

Visual poetry

The Visual Poetry Google hack, "translates any text into a series of images by looking up the words on Google image search and projecting the most relevant results as a slide show."

In honor of my friend Jill's love of John Lennon, I tried this (you'll need to scroll down a bit to see the results).

On your vote (throwing away thereof)

I deliberately have tried to keep fhb non-political, although it's obvious which side I fall on. I've made my decision on what I'll do tomorrow, but in the perfect world, I'd follow Kris Lachowski's sentiments, eloquently stated in this on-line comic strip. There's more than one way of throwing away your vote -- for example, by not voting your conscience.

Aside from Kris' message, it's interesting to see how much he's absorbed Scott McCloud's style. Many of the panels could have come from "Understanding Comics", a perfect intermix of art and text delivering content together much more effectively than either could by itself. It's why I love comics. There's a handful of work that could not have produced any way except in the comics medium.

Ironically, McCloud feels the same way that I do...

Two words, Kris: Run-offs. (Or is that one word?)

... and tomorrow conscience takes a back seat to pragmatism.

"Queen of the Sky" fired

From a 10/30 posting at the "Diary of an ex-Flight Attendant" blog.

1.) Yes, you read correctly... Queen of Sky was fired yesterday (actually effective Monday). Big blunder on Delta's part, if you ask me (see #2)

2.) Q of S has hired a PR firm, as she has received so many interview requests.

3.) A BIG lawsuit is coming for Delta Air Lines.

4.) Q of S is going to send her resume to Richard Branson this week.

5.) Q of S hopes Delta doesn't go bankrupt, because all of her friends still work there.

6.) Q of S and her PR firm are working on T-shirts to support her cause. Also, Q of S is thinking about going on a "laptop signing" tour :) But that does not mean, as one of her fans suggested, that she will be sitting on top of your lap as she signs :O

The air war heats up, with Delta firing the QotS on Friday, October 29th, purportedly (according to the QotS, as is all the following information) for posting photos of herself in uniform. The photos are now back up on the QotS blog, including the much-discussed "cleavage" shot.

The QotS does not use permalinks, and there are many photos on the site, so expect a slow load.

Da-da-da-da-da-da

Batman!

"Not too long ago, I got a bug in my head to put a blinking Batphone on my
desk at work..."

...writes Mr. Stinkhead of the "Millionaire Playboy" site, and then proceeds with detailed instructions on how to build your own Batphone. Sounds like it'd be a good winter project. (via BoingBoing)

What, us work? Today is Red Sox Nation day!

Go Sox!
from left: Jess, Jill, Mary Jo, Peg, and Sam

(click the photo to see a large image)