10/11/00 - The portal has been updated again.

Trendsetter: Two weeks after Phish called it quits, Phish call it quits.

Ok, I had a 9am meeting this morning with about ten people, a 9:30am meeting with ten other people, and an 11am briefing in the head office here with ten other people. So why is that I walk into the bathroom at 2pm and discover that I never finished tying my tie this morning? (Berkeley started scratching at the door just as I had gotten to the penultimate stage of a half-windsor, when you insert the long tie part through the knot.) That's just embarrassing...you'd think somebody would have given me a heads up a little earlier that I looked like a walking advertisment for the short bus. As Elaine can tell you, I'm not much of a clothes horse, but this is ridiculous.

Feed Magazine looks at the ugly truth about aging and the brain, and why almost all of History's greatest scientists did their best work before 30.

About damn time. Florence County is where I grew up, but to be honest this is the first I've ever heard of the case.

Gore promises to "get his facts straight" in tonight's debate. How sad is it that the Democratic candidate for President has to reassure the voters beforehand that he won't be lying his ass off for ninety minutes?

Seth Stevenson on Bush/Gore stiffarming the cyberdebates.

Looks like Liz Hurley has started a trend. Starring as the Devil in an update of The Devil and Daniel Webster is Party of Five goodie-goodie Jennifer Love Hewitt (I'll confess to enjoying Party back in the day, especially when Bailey was always wasted.)Adding some heft to the cast will be Sir Anthony Hopkins (as Daniel Webster) and Alec Baldwin (as the writer who sells his soul.)

Oops, sorry I subjected you to an embarrassing illegal strip-search for no reason, kids! Here, have a Coke(tm) and a smile.

The New York Times editorial board concurs with the FCC's proposal to accelerate DTV transition unveiled yesterday.

Arianna Huffington on the modern-day Salem witch trials in Tulia, TX.

10/10/00 - Get yer neon frisbees while you can - Tron 2.0 is a go!

They haven't even started drawing Jar Jar all over Episode II, and already the weird Episode III rumors are gearing up: When confirming his role in Ivan Reitman's Evolution, David Duchovny states that Lucas has a part for him in the final act. He's not playing Tarkin, is he?

Busted. In a very Giuliani-esque move, the NYPD arrests two graffiti artists as they set up their SoHo gallery exhibition.

Not to be outdone by the Times, Modern Humorist apologizes to Wen Ho Lee.

Hmmm. Large, rusty nail - yep, that'll do it.

Twelve is the loneliest number... Somebody found this weblog this past weekend by searching for the number "12." I don't know what's stranger, that someone did a search for 12, that my page came up, or that somebody chose my page to visit out of the ridiculous number of sites that must have been listed.

Ralph Nader and Reed Hundt, former FCC Chairman, debate telecommunications policy in Wired this week. Hmmm...I'm not sure how I'm going to come down on this one (birddogged by Genehack).

Ooooh...stylin' new dumbmonkey. Very nice layout, JP. And the new DonkeyMon looks pretty fresh too.

Chris Stern of The Washington Post and Jube Shiver of the Los Angeles Times preview FCC Chairman Kennard's Public Interest/DTV speech today. NYT columnist William Safire also concurred with the speech yesterday (although he did find one particular analogy "homely.")

In related news, the Chairman is profiled in today's USA Today's Money section cover story.

The Boston Globe delves into why public cellphone use is so annoying.

Tom Friedman talks about Dubya's (lack of) foreign policy: Mr. Bush seems to believe that by simply mentioning the name Colin Powell on foreign policy, he has a foreign policy.

Elsewhere, Cheney draws fire from the Right for his states' rights, "live and let live" stance on gay marriage in last week's debate.

Gov. Pataki makes an idiot of himself regarding Charlotte's Web author E.B. White. Nice job, Yalie.

Courtside regular Woody Allen says Goodbye to the big fella. In his wake, Captain Sprewell?

Get well soon, 'Zo. It'll be bad enough without Patrick, but arguably the greatest rivalry in today's sports world would mean less than nothing without Mourning manning the paint for the Heat. Here's hoping everything turns out all right.

In better news for the Democrats, taking back the House seems more and more likely.

Unfortunately, somewhere in the work crunch of the last week, I seem to have misplaced my copy of A Man in Full, so it's been put back in the queue for Cryptonomicon until I can locate it. The difference is moot, though, since most of my reading time right now has been swallowed by the black hole of fun that is Baldur's Gate II. "We are all heroes...you and I and Boo, hamsters and rangers everywhere...rejoice!"

10/6/00 - Sorry about the lack of updates lately. Big speech coming up Tuesday, and it looks like it will consume my weekend too.

A nightmare story for Team Gore: The paper of record lists Gore's most recent litany of unnecessary exaggerations and wonders aloud about a possible psychiatric reason for them.

Man, what a debate. Lieberman and Cheney made their standard-bearers look so not ready for prime time. It's just sad when both Presidential candidates are upstaged by their respective running mates.

Matt Drudge doesn't spread the love.

Dream job or discrimination?: A man gets paid to do forty hours of nothing for the Boston T.

10/5/00 - No doubt encouraged by the soul-killing dreariness of Tuesday's debate, Nat Hentoff makes a final plea for Nader. Meanwhile Salon wonders what went wrong.

Mariah Carey plays Wonder Woman? There's absolutely no reason to go there.

10/4/00 - China plans missions to the moon and Mars.

Hoops TV offers a wry set of NBA team rankings...The Knicks are like a Twinkie - soft and white in the middle.

Here's the deal: if Nader can't get in, then y'all won't get out.

Malkovich purportedly drops the goblin.

Switzerland decriminalizes marijuana.

10/3/00 - My God, man, show some respect. Don't you know who that is? That's Professor Nigel F. Breckinridge III, the world's foremost authority on airplane food!

In a surprising moment of honesty, Arnold Schwarzenegger finally admits that Yoda could beat the crap out of him.

White parents in Georgia try to ban FUBU apparel at school in retaliation for a Confederate flag ban. That's just plain ignorant. As if there's any parallel between a decade-old clothing company that markets to black youth and a 150-year-old battle flag that markets the enslaving, disenfranchising, dehumanizing, and lynching of black youth. It's stories like these that make me embarrassed to hail from South Carolina.

Democratic Senator John Kerrey and former Republican Governor William Weld offer their experience in how to run a Senate campaign (relatively) untainted by cash.

10/2/00 - Paging 007: Saddam Hussein commissions a version of the Koran written in his own blood. If I saw it in a Bond flick, I'd think it was hokey.

ESPN highlights Vinsanity's megadunk over Frederic Weis in Sydney last week.

Perhaps they're sick of all the "over the fence" shots around the Internet. At any rate, Lucasfilms released some official looking Episode 2 stills in the French version of Star Wars Insider last week. To the right, obviously, is Hayden Christiansen as Anakin/Vader.

Um, ok...uh, thanks for your vote. Marilyn Manson picks Dubya.

In Newsweek, old-school debates new-school about the current direction of hip-hop. Some of the rap luminaries who weigh in on in the piece include Mos Def, Ice T, and the incomparable Chuck D.

When it rains, it pours. New Knick center Luc Longley gets hurt at the Olympics and will be out until November. So much for time to gel.

Arianna Huffington compares the failed drug war to Jim Crow. In related news, the LA Times laments the surge in drug use among the digerati.

48 hours before the first debate hits the JFK Library, Nader draws 12,000 at a Boston rally.

I found out this weekend that my brother and sister-in-law will be moving to the area next week, which should make this seething cauldron of politics and ruthlessness they call the Beltway that much more friendly and entertaining in the future. Excellent news!

9/29/00 - Sorry about the lack of permalinks, Cluttered. It's what comes from remaining stubbornly Blogger-independent (although the Cauldron is Bloggerized to allow multiple updaters) without having enough design knowledge to compensate.

An interesting piece on RU-486, and how the real opportunitiy for an historic pro-choice milestone may lay in its application rather than its approval. Either way, it's about time America got on board.

Does Clint Eastwood discriminate (that is, against people other than ill-minded rapscallions with black clothes and lousy shots)?

Nader voters institute an informal vote swap program. C'mon, now, this is ridiculous. Also in the Voice, Libertarian candidate Harry Browne may also be reaching spoiler status this year (which might explain why My Cluttered Desk has issues with Mike/WOIFM's informed decision to vote Browne.)

[rant]You know, one of the main things that sucks about working for the government these days is that dispersed throughout the agencies are tons of people who took a few months off to go work somewhere for the Gore primary campaign. And invariably I end up meeting these folks in semisocial gatherings around the building or the District and find myself forced to listen to smug nostalgia-laden tales of how-we-screwed-over-Bradley in some county, event, precinct, or news story. Anyone's who read this weblog for over a week is going to know how much these impromptu storytimes aggravate me. And yet I'm not really in any kind of position at the office to let it be known to all that I think Gore is an unbelievable chump change, since most people's jobs here are riding on the outcome of this election (mine is too, but I nevertheless can't help but feel ambivalent about the eventual outcome.) Needless to say, these individuals also loathe Nader, and when they're not guffawing about Dollar Bill they're speaking in hushed tones about the evils of "self-righteous Ralph." Anyway, it happened again today, and I came really close to blowing my cover, going Irish, and raging all over Mediscare Al. Ugh, where all the other disaffected progressives? Probably in journalism or academia, I guess, and I suppose that's where I should be heading.[/rant]

Paul Newman as Bruce Wayne in Batman Beyond? Sheah.

And she doesn't look a day over 110.

The trailer for Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows hits the web. You know, I'll probably go see this one, if only because I'm always scared of Stepford children-type ghosts (an unfortunate result of seeing The Shining at an early age...don't tell Joe Lieberman.)

Nader does Letterman and Latifah.

You know, it's not that don't want a free Tivo. It's just that I can't think of anything to say about 'em (and I just don't think Tivo tivo bo bivo banana nana fo fivo is going to cut it.) Which, if you consider my profession, is rather pathetic. It might be because I helped a friend of mine install his (purchased) Tivo, and it turned out to be a frozen-screen clunker. From what I gather, the technology just isn't quite ready for prime time. Not to rain on anyone's free TiVo parade, though...if you won one, I say get on with your bad self.

Wow. The US Men's Basketball team squeak by Lithuania 85-83 to make it to the Gold Medal round. And to think what might have happened if Sabonis or Ilgauskas could have suited up...it would have been a bigger upset than 1980 Hockey, that's for sure.