Author: ssw15

Tuesday – The VP debate was odd tv viewing. Cheney was being all mean. Edwards was trying to be persuasive. Neither made much headway, in my opinion – a draw. I suppose trying to make it a roundtable made it look silly (I know that the Cheney group liked it that way, but it’s not good debating style for viewing).

The Yankees v. Twins game on Wednesday night – a neverending game; plus, I was expecting the Yankees to never say die. Ah well.

Thursday – I finished the book I read on Saturday – The Salmon of Doubt – the last book (sort of) by Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Essentially a collection of his essays, drafts, speeches, and unpublished materials (including a half-done – obviously so – novel (or novella, to be more precise)) put together by his editor. Adams died in 2001, too soon and too young – and this book was a nice homage to his intellect, his humor, and his insight. The half-done novel was… weird. There was the sense that Adams really wasn’t sure of what to do with his ideas, and just wrote them out; his editor figured that this might as well be published, even if there was no real ending (seriously, no there wasn’t). Nonetheless, this book was decent subway reading. I will get to reading the Hitchhiker’s Guide soon enough – am looking forward to it…

More presidential debating this Friday, town hall style. (sure, let’s watch a bunch of intentionally-selected Average Joe Schmoes ask their (already approved) questions to the candidates)…. (umm, pardon me for letting a little cynicism ooze there)…. 😉

I can’t resist blogging, can I?

NY Times’ columnist Thomas L. Friedman is back from sabbatical, with a clear theme in today’s column “Iraq: Politics or Policy?”: “We’re in trouble in Iraq. We have to immediately get the Democratic and Republican politics out of this policy and start honestly reassessing what is the maximum we can still achieve there and what every American is going to have to do to make it happen. If we do not, we’ll end up not only with a fractured Iraq, but with a fractured America, at war with itself and isolated from the world.” He reiterated this on “Face the Nation” on CBS this morning (I was channel-surfing and there he was, telling Bob Schaeffer the problem that the current administration has and how the Kerry camp isn’t all that much better; yep, Friedman’s back all right).

Seattle Mariners outfielder, Ichiro Suzuki, has broken a record for most hits within a season, and not only does it change the way Americans view Japanese players, Japanese people are apparently hoping Ichiro’s changing the way Americans view Japan as a nation and as a people. I don’t know if it we can makes such a conceptual leap, but at the least, baseball is a big thing to somewhere other than America.

You know the world has changed when dialing the 212 area code leads you to someone, who via cell phone, is in… Baghdad? Fascinating article by Ian Urbina on “Area Codes, Now Divorced From Their Areas.” Urbina notes:

In this era of mobile telecommunications, calls now connect people, not places. Cellular phones, changing governmental regulations and new Internet technology have torn area codes from geography, allowing people to have phone numbers with area codes distant from where they live. Though not new, the trend has kicked up a pitched debate among a colorful collection of technological pundits, telephone historians and Web preachers who specialize in the topic.

“For many people this will come as a deeply confusing development,” said James E. Katz, a sociologist and director of mobile communication studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. “You delocalize area codes, and it’s one less North Star and one less compass point that people have to help orient themselves in an increasingly complicated world.”

It is confusing – your number(s) identify you and follow you; yet these numbers were once identifying where you were, but now you’re really mobile. Um. Ok.

Have a nice Sunday.

Spent today at Alma Mater’s homecoming game against That School in Jersey, the rival that it is. (no link provided at this time – sorry). It’s not like I understand football very much (I can watch NFL or college ball on tv, but that’s because I’d be watching as a casual tv viewer and can tune out easily, and the commentators explain stuff), but I wasn’t surprised that the NJ team beat us – but such a narrow win in overtime (it helps that they’re (a) more patient, (b) have a better kicker, whereas Alma Mater did… ok (we need a better kicker)). It’s still a heartbreaker (they won by only one point), and more so since the school spirit was great and great turnout (likely due to Alma Mater’s big anniversary more than anything else). Oh well. Better luck next homecoming; or, at least, try better in next week’s game, Alma Mater.

(the subway ride… lord, going back and forth took as long as the games itself. Being in Brooklyn to head up to the tip of Manhattan ain’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially on the weekend schedule; have good reading material handy).

Slate.com had a good Bushism – straight from the presidential debate: “The enemy understands a free Iraq will be a major defeat in their ideology of hatred. That’s why they’re fighting so vociferously.” When I had heard the president say this line, I concede being confused; “vociferously”? Mr. President, vociferous means “loud.” Sure, bombs are loud, but I think he meant more than that. I think. His debating style more to be desired; he stayed on point (“My opponent is inconsistent…”) but it got repetitive. Kerry kept it short and to the point – while not really simple. At point, I sympathized with Jim Lehrer for being confused over the two’s contrasting views on the issue of foreign policy with North Korea. I watched mostly the PBS coverage, but switched to ABC for the split screen look and the better coloring/lighting on the tv screen (the tv reception at home isn’t terrific). I’ll keep my commentary to that.

Law.com posted an interesting Associated Press article on Ch. J. Rehnquist, as his birthday is looming but not his retirement. Hmm.

Enjoy the weekend.