Blue Armadillo weblog

Thursday, July 05, 2001

Rich Galen steers away from the right-wing hoo-hah he usually writes for a special Independence Day reflection on the contributions of the greatest and most influential Congressional staffer in history: Charles Thompson, secretary of the Continental Congress.
posted by John Heaton 5:39 PM | link

I'm as outraged as the next guy by the cost of movie tickets, but it never would have occured to me to file a class-action lawsuit against the studios because a quote in an advertisement for the film led me to believe that the film would be better than it was. A good rule of thumb: if the quote is attributed to a reviewer for a publication or a TV/radio station you've never heard of, ignore it. If it's by Jeff Craig, skip the movie altogether.
posted by John Heaton 5:05 PM | link

Wednesday, July 04, 2001

Dahlia Lithwick covers the Supreme Court for slate.com. She is one of the few reporters to write comprehensive reports on oral arguments before the Court, and her dispatches are never anything but fascinating and hilarious. Now that the Court's term is over, she provides an excellent analysis of the Court's recent schizophrenic behavior.
posted by John Heaton 11:40 PM | link

Well, the new Virginia congressional map has been issued, and they did not gerrymander Oliver North into a Congressional district held by a Democrat, so I won't be forced to move. But now I hear reports that Florida Secretary of State/coup participant Katherine Harris is thinking about running for Congress. The horror, the horror ...
posted by John Heaton 9:55 PM | link

Tuesday, July 03, 2001

I'm going to see a minor league baseball game tonight, so I went to the Frederick Keys web site to find out who was playing. I saw a link to minorleaguebaseball.com; I clicked through, hoping to find an explanation of the difference between A teams and A Advanced teams. I checked the FAQ, and while I didn't find the answer to my question, I did find this:

5) How can I get permission to add a link to www.minorleaguebaseball.com to my website?

To request permission to place a graphic or hypertext link to www.minorleaguebaseball.com on your website, simply follow the instructions below.

1. Print and complete two (2) originals of the Web Linking Request. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. Click here to download.)
2. Be sure all of the requested information is complete and accurate and that both originals are signed.
3. Submit both originals to:

Assistant Director of Licensing
Minor League Baseball
P.O. Box A
St. Petersburg, FL 33701

4. All Web Linking Requests are subject to approval by Minor League Baseball.
5. Approved agreements will be executed by Minor League Baseball and returned to the attention of the applicant with web link artwork included. No rights or privileges are conveyed until applicant receives a fully executed agreement.

Well, fuck that.
posted by John Heaton 2:59 PM | link

Carbonated Fruit. Ew?
posted by John Heaton 1:15 PM | link

I like it when reporters criticize other erporters for sloppy reporting, so I was interested to read a column by Washington Post legal writer James Grimaldi, which criticizes press coverage of recent developments in the Microsoft antitrust case.
posted by John Heaton 1:07 PM | link

Speaking of the Onion AV Club, I also liked this interview with ventriloquist Willie Tyler. The interview itself is pretty interesting, but the best thing about it is the accompanying photo, which shows Tyler with his dummy Lester but is captioned "Roger Angell and David Cone."
posted by John Heaton 12:45 PM | link

I love Bob Barker. When I worked for the Senate, I would frequently tune the TV on my desk -- ostensibly there so I could follow the action on the Senate floor -- to The Price Is Right, because Bob Barker makes it so much fun to watch. He is a great performer and, as Rod Roddy points out in a sidebar to this Onion A.V. Club interview with Barker, "the consummate emcee."
posted by John Heaton 12:38 PM | link

Rob Dieterich suggests in salon.com that the White House is lying about how quickly Vice President Cheney recovered from and was able to return to work following his surgery to install a heart defibrillator. Obviously, Dieterich's article is an anecdotal account of one person's experience with a similar procedure, but I think the White House probably is lying to downplay the seriousness of the procedure.
posted by John Heaton 11:40 AM | link

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