tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83949222024-03-12T19:25:12.444-07:00The Columnist ManifestoSetting reasonable goals since 1985.Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.comBlogger1114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-4954228991280887692009-01-13T07:47:00.000-08:002009-01-13T07:57:20.314-08:00Bush Legacy: an American NeroThe photos of Bush with his sheepish grin on this morning's NYT cover say an awful lot.<br /><br />"Aw, shucks, I made a few mistakes. Everyone does!"<br /><br />More confirmation (as if any were needed) that the man does not live in the same country (or the same time-space continuum) as the rest of us. He shouldn't bother to show his face in public without an expression of grave and humble contrition. It's a sad testament to what happens when you install a silly little man in a position of power.Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-5552940223396741852008-09-20T07:27:00.000-07:002008-09-20T07:48:21.545-07:00Small town valuesI just attended the memorial service of a close relative in a town with a population of 1,500. A large number of neighbors and townsfolk attended, in addition to family members. After the service, we all moved to the nearby town hall, for a meal of homemade lasagna, salad and brownies.<br /><br />Although the families were Christian, they weren't "Christian." There was a brief prayer and a mention or two of God, but no officiating religious figure, no religious doctrine, and no murmuring about the lack of any of that.<br /><br />No one advocated censoring books in the local library, or breaking down the constitutional separation of church and state.<br /><br />The man whose life we were celebrating was a WWII vet; there were American flags, including a veteran's flag folded into a triangle, but there was not a buzz about "my country right or wrong," or supporting the Iraq war. There was talk of peace.<br /><br />There were deer-hunters in the assembly, but also vegans.<br /><br />My sense is that there was a diversity of opinion on such matters as choice and shotgun weddings for teenage children. There were even Obama supporters among the attendees.<br /><br />My impression of small town American values was of a place where people could vote their conscience, agree to disagree, and come together at a memorial service without shoving their beliefs in your face.<br /><br />To the GOP handlers of Sarah Palin who wish to portray small town America as a monolith of intolerant, super-religious, right-wing, wildlife-killing, book-burning opinion -- you can kiss my a**.Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-33037091885405538902008-08-23T05:40:00.000-07:002008-08-23T05:42:30.327-07:0015 Minutes of Fame -- Narrowly AvertedDriving into the gym parking lot yesterday, I came within 3 feet of having a fender-bender with a big Cadillac, which was backing out. It's slightly shocked-looking driver was none other than Gerry Torres, our university Athletic Director and former bowl-winning head football coach.<br /><br />How cool is that?Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-74346448832673906362008-08-22T07:26:00.000-07:002008-08-22T07:40:52.244-07:00Stepping out on Grandma MosesDear Dan Savage,<br /><br />When I'm in My Home Town, I probably spend 75-80% of my cafe time at <a href="http://thecolumnistmanifesto.blogspot.com/2005/07/news-flash-iced-decaf-at-grandma-moses.html">Grandma Moses</a>. I'm such a regular, that they just recently used my name and testimonial quotation in a handbill ad about their iced coffee:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">Grandma Moses makes the best iced coffee in the continental United States... and perhaps the world. I drink it year round!<br /> ---Oscar Madison</blockquote>So I feel like I'm having an illicit affair -- with The Water Nymph! It has a warm and cozy space, really good iced coffee (regular only, however), yummy non-Vegan baked goods --- and real breakfast and lunch food. And it's equidistant from my house (fortunately, in the other direction) from Grandma M.<br /><br />I really don't want to leave Grandma Moses for this new fling... but can a man be in love with two coffee shops at the same time?<br /><br />Please help me,<br /><br />SOOGMOscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-22370992696393684072008-08-20T06:42:00.000-07:002008-08-20T06:42:01.418-07:00The things we do for love (of hockey)This week, I'm on "jersey duty" for my hockey scrimmage group.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/39552096@N00/2778262374/" title="DSCN9876 by Oscar Madison, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3246/2778262374_8269130a23.jpg" width="500" height="374" alt="DSCN9876" /></a>Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-67635819893430638442008-08-19T06:34:00.000-07:002008-08-19T06:48:03.059-07:00I'm in the 23rd percentile!!When you do the NYT Crossword on line, the web page clocks you and then shows your rank among all the online solvers so far that day.<br /><br />It's kind of fun to check the fastest times -- always around 2 minutes for M-W -- and see "tylerhinman," the young puzzle phenom featured in the movie "Wordplay."<br /><br />I thought I was moving pretty fast through today's crossword, because I caught on to the theme pretty quickly and had good guesses to fill in the four 15-letter theme clues. But I got bogged down and ended up at 11 min., 30 sec., good enough to place me at #350 out of about #450 online solvers.<br /><br />I notice that #453 was "kranepool3." Could it be <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Kranepool">Ed Kranepool</a>? It would be cool to be able to say that I beat Ed Kranepool in solving the crossword puzzle. Poor Ed, the "Original Met," who spent so much of his long career as a bench player. It would be just like him to be theOscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-34423329952741905752008-08-17T14:56:00.000-07:002008-08-17T15:07:02.214-07:00Rowing Pairs DisappointOlympic rowing duo <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/2574231/Zac-Purchase-and-Mark-Hunter-win-rowing-Olympic-gold.html">Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter</a> of Great Britain won gold in the men's lightweight double scull today.<br /><br />That's all well and good, but couldn't they have worked harder to come up with a more memorable name pairing -- like the U.S. rowing team of <a href="http://www.rowinghistory-aus.info/olympic-games/1976-Montreal.php"><span style="font-size:85%;">[Calvin]</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Coffey</span> and <span style="font-size:85%;">[Michael]</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Staines</span></a>, who took the silver in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal?<br /><br />If only Purchase could have ditched Hunter for a guy named "Sayle."<br /><br />I suppose Purchase could have stepped aside in favor of a rower named "Bargain." Or even "Gatherer," if he'd have been willing to sit in the back of the boat.Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-66968853999796909382008-08-08T06:31:00.000-07:002008-08-08T06:35:45.881-07:00Memo from the Department of Useless Information RetrievalThis morning I couldn't remember, when asked by the receptionist, when I last visited the eye doctor.<br /><br />Among other potentially useful things I can't remember: anything from my graduate school statistics course.<br /><br />But with only the letter X to go on, I answered 59 Across in this morning's New York Times Crossword, "1985 Golden Globe-nominated role for Eddie Murphy."<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Answer: Axel Foley.</span>Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-72994979360435028802008-06-17T05:47:00.000-07:002008-06-17T05:56:02.723-07:00Free WillieWell, the Mets "freed" Willie Randolph from his job as manager.<br /><br />Sometimes I wonder whether there's always an "inside story" of managers kind of like there is with married couples... when they get divorced I always say, "well, you never really know what goes on between two people."<br /><br />Though maybe the better analogy is a wealthy playboy who changes his trophy girlfriend whenever he gets tired of the incumbent.<br /><br />I liked Willie a lot. He didn't strike me as obnoxious and stupid like Dallas Green or hapless and ineffectual like Art Howe. He pulled the levers competently in games, and at least until last year's meltdown, it seemed as though he brought an ethos of hustle to the team.<br /><br />Was it too much hustle that wore down Jose Reyes? Other than possibly that, I see no performance issues that can be laid on him. Carlos Delgado is aging out fairly normally and has reached a level where he's badly hurting the team, but we're stuck with him and his big contract for now. Carlos Beltran is very, very streaky, but I also think going through a natural age progression of a couple of so-so years after his career year (2006). He's in the trough between the two peaks of his "<a href="http://thecolumnistmanifesto.blogspot.com/2006/08/whale-curve-baseball-insight.html">whale curve</a>," and he'll have one more big year next year or the one after.<br /><br />The starting pitching is playing at a very unsurprising par. John Maine and Oliver Perez are good but inconsistent #3 starters, Pedro is broken down, Mike Pelfry is figuring it out, and Johann Santana is steady but yields an ungodly number of solo homers -- his 15-13 season last year is probably closer to who he is now than his previous dominating years. It seems to me that the major problem since last year has been massive bullpen inconsistency. Had they blown three fewer saves last year the Mets would have comfortably made the playoffs, and four fewer this year they'd be in second place and 2.5 games out -- and Willie would still be the manager.<br /><br />As to that, do you blame pitching coach Rick "I Can Fix Zambrano in 10 Minutes" Peterson? Or is it simply that an overperforming bullpen in 2006 and half of 2007 has returned to its statistical norm?Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-45300176734026413522008-06-13T21:31:00.000-07:002008-06-16T10:52:05.912-07:00The evening tide<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/39552096@N00/2583989079/" title="DSCN9537 by Oscar Madison, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3103/2583989079_0c7d8c6195.jpg" alt="DSCN9537" height="374" width="500" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Leaving the high-water midwest for a road trip...</span><br /><br />I love departing on a journey in the evening. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it's the leisurely, rather than rushed, lead-up to the departure in contrast to crack-of-dawn start-outs. Maybe it's the connection to sailing ships, which would often set sail on the evening tide.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/39552096@N00/2584816086/" title="DSCN9531 by Oscar Madison, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3061/2584816086_5e6fda015e_m.jpg" alt="DSCN9531" height="180" width="240" /></a><br /><br />We packed the car and then hung out at Grandma Moses coffeehouse for an hour or so, waiting for traffic to die down. Then we headed east, with the sun at our backs. This is a road trip, so we didn't put a great distance behind us before turning in for the night. But sleeping in a strange bed and contemplating the miles before us was enough to make it feel like we'd gotten far away.<br /><br />Maybe "tide" isn't the best metaphor, since by traveling east, we're leaving the Flooded Flyover States behind. Our area isn't flooded but the water is higher than usual. Those rocks below usually stick above the water by about 3 feet. And that short connecting section of the dock usually slopes sharply <span style="font-style: italic;">down</span>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/39552096@N00/2584821128/" title="DSCN9539 by Oscar Madison, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3255/2584821128_c6780a0c12.jpg" alt="DSCN9539" height="374" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/39552096@N00/2584814030/" title="DSCN9540 by Oscar Madison, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3101/2584814030_ea10d0ebca.jpg" alt="DSCN9540" height="374" width="500" /></a>Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-33555511654201979632008-06-12T08:02:00.001-07:002008-06-12T08:09:38.913-07:00Marriage-saving crossword puzzle twistB and I do the NYT Xword puzzle together most days, which usually means one of us reads clues and fills in the grid while the other sits across the table. As the reader-writer, when you know the answer immediately, it's sometimes tempting to just write it in rather than read it and give the other a moment to try to get the answer too. As the listener, you feel excluded when the reader-writer yields to that temptation.<br /><br />The other day, B was the reader-writer, and I suggested that when she knew the answer immediately, she should just write it in, say the word out loud and, without reading off the clue... let me try to guess the clue!<br /><br />It's a fun bit of reverse crosswordese, in which the game is to test your knowledge of NY Times cluing style.<br /><br />Example: the answer was "TRANS." It could have been "__ Am" or "__ World Airways" or "Conversion from foreign lang." But my guess -- pretty darn close to exactly right -- was "__ fats." <br /><br />Adds a little spice, no?Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-68330411709556708082008-06-11T06:53:00.000-07:002008-06-11T12:05:21.378-07:00Bye bye booksMy computer literacy moves forward in fits and starts. I'm above average for my age group in some things. On the other hand, it was only yesterday that I first used the resource "<a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.heinonline.org">Hein Online</a>," a web-based archive with PDF images of something close to every page of every law review ever published.<br /><br />Previously, I'd either used LEXIS or Westlaw, the two longstanding online legal databases. These are not always the best way to retrieve scholarly legal articles. Their html reformatting is not nearly as readable or visually pleasing as the original published formatting, and they don't reproduce charts and tables. Also, of course, I'd go to the actual books, though it has been some time since I got my butt out of my office and into the library stacks.<br /><br />When I did that yesterday, I learned that my institution has <span>gotten rid of</span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> </span>almost all back issues of legal periodicals predating 1990. (Not actually thrown away, thank goodness, but moved into offsite storage.) Hein Online made the books obsolete, in the library's view. I guess shelf space is too valuable to keep dusty ol' books around.<br /><br />It's true that I can browse on line and then download and print stuff I "need" to have on paper -- I just don't read with as much comprehension on the computer, and I like to mark up the texts. The latter point meant that I needed to get photocopies of the old law reviews, and now I can just print out downloads much more conveniently (and at the cost of no more trees than photocopies).<br /><br />But I have great nostalgia for my scholarly immersion experiences of sitting at a carrell deep in the library stacks surrounded by piles of old law reviews. That will never happen again -- not as long as I want to look at pre-1990 stuff, anyhow.<br /><br />I wonder whether other libraries are actually getting rid of books -- throwing them away. That would be short-sighted. What if in the near future, our society undertakes major energy conservation measures, including placing restrictions on computing time?<br /><br />I take consolation in thinking that, if the lights go out in a big way, then old legal scholarship won't be very important anyhow.Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-8093040631125333522008-06-09T05:03:00.000-07:002008-06-09T05:16:42.997-07:00Flowers for HillaryWhat's with all the metaphorical bouquets being thrown by the media at Hillary's feet as she takes her big exit curtain call? It's a little annoying. Usually, this is the winner's moment in the sun. That would be Obama.<br /><br />Okay, it's an historic campaign where for the first time a woman was a serious presidential contender, she got more votes than "any previous loser," blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.<br /><br />And it's weekend coverage, so what's the harm?<br /><br />One problem is that we don't know for sure that Hillary is in fact bowing out gracefully. While she made a more-or-less gracious concession speech (I think -- I couldn't stand listening to much of it), can she in fact support Obama in some suitable way without making an issue of herself? Will an ugly, self-centered wish that Obama loses so that she can then become the 2012 "candidate of inevitability" sprout up through the cracks in her artificial smile? Only time will tell.<br /><br />A quick review of the facts: Hillary lost my vote for her presidential campaign when, in 2002, she voted to authorize Bush to use force in Iraq and when she refused forever after to admit she made a mistake. Call me superficial, but I think that a voter's disapproval of a candidate's position on the most important issue of the decade is appropriately signaled by voting for someone else.<br /><br />Not only was Hillary dead wrong in this position, but she also revealed herself as Bill Clinton redux -- an image-driven, poll-driven centrist pol, who will do or say whatever it takes to get into power and then, once there, forget that the whole point was to use that power to do good.<br /><br />Ironically, Hillary's desperate effort to repackage herself as a tough, hawkish chief-executive-in-waiting -- again, signaled by that 2002 vote -- probably has not won her a single vote. The public perception of her as a liberal feminista -- a perception driving both the votes for and against her -- was probably immovable all along. Her best strategy would have been to stay true to the ideals of her youth.<br /><br />And now we learn that her much touted "experience" was also hogwash. Her totally botched campaign was driven repeatedly and ultimately off the rails by a motley crew of (1) foxy, unscrupulous types who were not as smart as they think they are and (2) loyal friends who are incompetent political amateurs. Apparently, there was not one authoritative person among them who could tell Hillary the bad news when she needed to hear it. Her apparently terrible executive style did not bode well for the "candidate of experience" to run the White House.<br /><br />Hillary's long run also symbolized the Democratic Party's self-destructive streak. This is the "perfect storm" for Republicans, the year they cannot possibly win -- they are responsible for (1) an unpopular and ill-conceived war that (2) has sent the economy hurtling into an impending crisis engineered by (3) a president with 25-28% approval ratings.<br /><br />But Hillary would have been a weak candidate, for all she tried to spin her self-absorbed refusal to quit as toughness. With her unredeemed Iraq war vote and the stinky cloud of questionable financial dealings that trail her and her husband everywhere, she wouldn't have been able to hit hard enough on McCain's two biggest Achilles heels -- the War and his own involvement in the Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five">the Keating Five</a>), which resonates so powerfully with the current mortgage crisis.<br /><br />Hillary was the one Democratic candidate that cannot win -- if her campaign mismanagement didn't kill us, her unusually high negatives would have. And we came within a hair's breadth of nominating her! I may not be right about her unelectability -- but thank goodness we'll never know for sure.Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-14185540909673824672008-06-08T08:17:00.001-07:002008-06-08T08:19:49.223-07:00"That information would be useless even if they had tried to get it scientifically"What my friend DT said in response to the SNY (Mets broadcast station) "In Game Fan Phone-in Poll," which asked: "Do you think Oliver Perez will pitch a good game? (a) yes (b) no."Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-21881996955845822502008-06-07T11:29:00.000-07:002008-06-07T11:31:03.901-07:00Good guess!I'm trying to book a flight to Denver on United.com. I typed in "Denber" -- note that the "v" and "b" are adjacent on the keyboard.<br /><br />The web site supposed that I meant: "Dnepropetrovsk Airport, Ukraine."Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-56491082644691320682008-06-06T09:49:00.001-07:002008-06-06T09:55:42.844-07:00How much time have you spent handling a Rubik's Cube?The other day I made up this simile in a conversation about teaching. I was trying to make the point that any teaching problem could be solved.<br /><br />For example, anything worth teaching in a law school class could be made more interesting and important than in that moment than a game of computer solitaire. Various obstacles to deploying a law school's teaching resources in a way that improves learning -- often viewed as insuperable -- can in fact be overcome.<br /><br />It's a sort of faith in the existence of a solution, at the outset of tackling a problem. "It's like a <a href="http://www.rubiks.com/">Rubik's Cube</a>," I said. "You know there's an answer even if you can't see how to get there. It takes determination and persisitence."<br /><br />Having said that, I have to admit that I found the Rubik's Cube itself so boring (a tedious process to a very unsatisfying goal) that I estimate I've spent less than 5 minutes of my life handling one.Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-6994101053013344152008-06-05T14:10:00.000-07:002008-06-05T14:20:23.861-07:00I'm badly mismanaging my Netflix queueThis morning, in conversation, I confused my "Saturn return" with "Mercury retrograde." I'm not even sure that I get a Saturn return. How dumb is that?<br /><br />What I meant to say is that I'm badly mismanaging my Netflix queue. <br /><br />Last week I got a copy of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811106/"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Ten</span></a>, a star-studded collection of vignettes based on the 10 commandments. It was truly awful -- essentially, sketch comedy that was not good enough for SCTV. At least I think so -- I couldn't watch past a minute into the second sketch. How they ever got the likes of Winona Ryder and Liev Schreiber to act in it I don't know.<br /><br />But the point is: I don't remember ever putting that movie in my queue! Before that, I wound up getting two musical star biopics, <span style="font-style: italic;">Ray</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Walk the Line</span> -- have to see 'em because they were well reviewed, but expect to be bored senseless -- in the same shipment! And today, I received <span style="font-style: italic;">Six Feet Under: Season 1, disc 4</span>. That's well enough in its way, except that what I wanted was<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> Season 4, Disc 1</span>!<br /><br />Is Netflix taking their "based on your interest in __" recommendations a step further than I realized?Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-35244913901771376232008-06-03T08:14:00.000-07:002008-06-03T08:31:53.168-07:00Wish I'd thought of that one<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Comeback Id</span>. </span>Sweet!<br /><br />If I had thought that one up, it would be the title to this blog post. But I guess Todd Purdum has <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/07/clinton200807">put it to better use</a>.<br /><br />The Clinton campaign's <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/02/vanity.fair.clinton/index.html">response</a> to the story -- which portrays Bill Clinton as a larger-than-life womanizer who loves jetting around with skanky rich guys between bouts of his explosive temper -- was weirdly, ironically right on the money:<br /><blockquote>A tawdry, anonymous quote-filled attack piece, published in this month's <a href="http://topics.cnn.com/topics/vanity_fair_magazine/" class="cnnInlineTopic">Vanity Fair</a> magazine regarding former President <a href="http://topics.cnn.com/topics/bill_clinton/" class="cnnInlineTopic">Bill Clinton</a> repeats many past attacks on him, ignores much prior positive coverage, includes numerous errors, and ultimately breaks no new ground," he added.<br /></blockquote>Breaks no new ground... we already knew that Clinton was like this!<br /><br />Frankly, I might be sympathetic to the desire of a man of humble beginnings, who has devoted most of his adult life to public service and is now a late-middle-aged heart-surgery survivor, to kick up some dust before it's too late. True, the conduct is somewhat unseemly in a former president. But what drains away my sympathy is the aspect of his palling around with <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">sleazy businessman political</span> donors while still trying, in some sense, to run the country.<br /><br />In one way, the Clinton's ongoing political partnership -- he really does want her to have her shot at the White House, it seems -- is kind of touching. I wonder if they'll stay together when her campaign ends?<br /><br />By the way, isn't there something icky and incestuous about the fact that Purdum is married to Clinton's former press secretary Dee Dee Meyers? (Do you think he's the Tim Busfield character from the West Wing?)Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-17687816694371586722008-05-30T05:40:00.000-07:002008-05-30T05:41:10.775-07:00Please, please, please ....!<span style="font-size:180%;">... do not pick Hillary as your running mate!</span><br /><br />The idea that Obama should pick Clinton as his running mate to "heal the party" or, more precisely, to increase the ticket's appeal to "white, blue collar males" is ludicrous.<br /><br />One of the facts of our political life is that Republicans win the white house more often than Democrats, even though more voters are registered as Democrats than Republicans. The reason for this is that many registered Democrats vote for the Republican presidential candidate in November.<br /><br />It stands to reason that many of those Republican-voting registered Democrats will vote in Democratic primaries, particularly this year when the primaries continue to have an impact on the nomination. I seriously doubt that, in November, Hillary would win many votes of white males who can't stomach the idea of a black man as president. Chances are they're not too keen about a white woman either. They'll vote for McCain.<br /><br />There are apparently white women who feel the same way. As for white women Democrats who would normally vote Democratic in November, but will take their ball and go home if Hillary doesn't get the nomination? How many of those are there, compared to independents among the majority of Americans who find her to be untrustworthy? The pollsters don't tell us that.<br /><br />Anyway, having Hillary on the ticket doesn't pick up a single white male vote. Well, maybe one: Bill Clinton.Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-49375454064331480202008-05-26T07:29:00.000-07:002008-05-26T07:54:07.761-07:00Clinton Unveils "Lou Gehrig Strategy"<span style="font-style: italic;"><blockquote>".... and we all remember that it was early June, 1925, when Yankees first baseman Wally Pipp went down with an injury," Senator Clinton continued. "If Lou Gehrig hadn't been right there, ready to take over, if he had simply given up because Wally Pipp was the front-runner for the first baseman job, why, history would be very, very different. Gehrig was of course the greatest first baseman of all time. And that was, I believe, June 2, which is still some days off."<br /></blockquote></span>Apparently, the legend that Pipp sat out due to an injury (a headache, in fact), is <a href="http://www.snopes.com/sports/baseball/pipp.asp">false</a>. But the point is about the distinction between a "gaffe" and a "slip of the tongue." The latter is something that a person didn't intend to say. A "gaffe" is a broader category that also includes <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">poorly chosen words</span>.<br /><br />Watch the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/23/clinton-kennedy-assassina_n_103319.html">video</a> of Hillary making the "Bobby Kennedy" comment. She was clearly in pre-fabricated "talking point" mode. It's just more of her bad campaigning.Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-69474105803929822432008-05-10T09:40:00.000-07:002008-05-10T10:00:36.307-07:00Your baby is not your rock band<span style="font-size:130%;">So why do you think it's okay to give your baby a name designed to express <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">your</span> identity?<br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br />I'm not saying that parents are naming their kids "Sonic Grease Monkey" or anything. My point is that I get the feeling that a lot of baby naming is about the personal expression of the parents-to-be. Here they are, bringing this new autonomous human being into the world, and they mark it with vicarious intentions even before it's even born.<br /><br />"I want(ed) to be totally unique, so I'll give my kid a totally unique name!"<br /><br />The category that comes to most readily to mind are girl names drawn from the 19th century American Lit survey course: for girls, "Emerson," "Whitman," "Melville" and "Fenimore."<br /><br />I was thinking if I had a baby girl, it would be kind of cool to name her "Pint o' Guinness Madison."<br /><br />But you have to think ahead, to such situations as when she signs up for cable TV service by phone:<br /><blockquote>No, it's P-I-N-T <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">space</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">small</span> O, apostrophe. .... No, <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">apostrophe</span>, the punctuation mark. Like between the I and the M in "I'm".... no, that's just an<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> example</span>! ... actually, it's pronounced "<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">pine</span>-toe," not "<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">pin</span>to." No, the space is between the T and the O!!!<br /></blockquote>A related issue: naming your kid after a cognitive impairment (hat tip to Voxwoman for this one):<br /><br /><a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alexia">Alexia</a> -- a neurologic disorder marked by loss of the ability to understand written or printed language, usually resulting from a brain lesion or a congenital defect.<br /><br /></div>Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-69595632017921693792008-05-10T09:32:00.000-07:002008-05-10T10:01:01.079-07:00Even Newer Comments PolicyIn an effort to eliminate one of the factors that has discouraged me from blogging, I will from now on be deleting comments that annoy me. If you find your comment having mysteriously disappeared, it will most likely be because it annoyed me. To the extent that I continue blogging, it's because I enjoy doing so, and not to read and sometimes respond to annoying comments.Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-78957844779588780502008-02-24T09:05:00.000-08:002008-02-24T09:08:48.313-08:00The man who deserves more credit for electing Bush than anyone other than Karl Rove...... <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/24/nader.politics/index.html?eref=rss_topstories">enters this year's presidential race</a>. Can he succeed in getting McCain elected this time?Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-11022213785229294202008-02-13T09:55:00.000-08:002008-02-13T10:23:59.645-08:00McCain's combover and "reverse Swift-boating"I have a mental image of John McCain as a basically bald guy who keeps his remaining hair in a crew cut, which is what I had in mind when writing yesterday's post. Apparently I projected the crew cut onto his head -- maybe because of his military background -- but checking old photos, it looks like he's done the combover since at least as far back as 2000.<br /><br />DBP's comment in yesterday's post is worth deconstructing:<br /><blockquote>Actually Oscar, he doesn't do it. He lost the ability to raise his arms to head-height at some point in N. Vietnam. His hair gets combed by someone else. I suppose he directs how they do it, but maybe he either doesn't care or just trusts the judgement of the comber--or comboverer, if you will.<br /></blockquote>I haven't bothered to fact-check DBP's assertion about the arm-raising thing, but either way, the comment -- a ploy to trick me into believing I'd made fun of someone's disability --succeeds only in exposing DBP's ignorance of the problems of male baldness. A combover is not a question of how you choose to <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">comb</span> your hair. It's a question of how you choose to <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">grow</span> your hair. You have to decide to grow those strands out long enough to cover all that bare scalp. (For mysef, I've already decided that if and when I have as little hair as McCain -- which I consider to be likely in my future -- I'm going crew cut or shaved head.) Few of us cut our own hair, so an arm-raising disability has nothing to do with it.<br /><br />Nice try, DBP. To paraphrase Larry David: you sir are obviously not a member of the bald community.<br /><br />But the more bothersome aspect of DBP's comment is its subtext of "reverse Swift-boating." Republicans like DBP are already girding their loins for the argument: "how dare you take potshots at John McCain, who suffered in a POW camp while serving his country and now carries the scars!"<br /><br />Of course, Republicans are no great respecters of war records of wounded Vietnam vets. It's not just their all too recent and unbearably cynical hyping of Bush's Air National Guard "service," or even the disgusting "Swift Boat" campaign from 2004. Another one of Rove's triumphs was his successful Swift-boating of Max Cleland, defeating the Georgia Senator's re-election bid. Cleland had lost both his legs in combat in Vietnam, but that didn't stop the Republican sleaze machine from raising phony questions suggesting that Cleland's injuries were somehow ignominiously received.<br /><br />So let's not here more of this "how dare you" nonsense from the GOP.Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394922.post-38639918473287037782008-02-12T08:50:00.000-08:002008-02-12T08:52:17.452-08:00How does McCain do it?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqqK2xOdCH39nF5qbTkcOcsDU-40kyq4DOMlWnVtEo9bjkfLNr8mHsVpqij45JIwIKZkTT72c_MS6A54Vau6VGbRng80OtratCoz1P80RCGvm3X9aMLEXNecUFp0JLq3Rier1G_A/s1600-h/john_mccain.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqqK2xOdCH39nF5qbTkcOcsDU-40kyq4DOMlWnVtEo9bjkfLNr8mHsVpqij45JIwIKZkTT72c_MS6A54Vau6VGbRng80OtratCoz1P80RCGvm3X9aMLEXNecUFp0JLq3Rier1G_A/s200/john_mccain.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5166137516703086050" border="0" /></a><br />He's, like, totally bald, and yet has a combover at the same time!Oscar Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558650379298098292noreply@blogger.com1