9/7/00 - Clinton and Castro shake hands...And me without my Polaroid. Be prepared for much ado about nothing from the Elian fanatics.

Harry exclusively premieres the new Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon trailer. If you have a hankering for genuine kick-ass Kung Fu liberally salted with Matrix-style wirework, this could be the film of the year.

Off the hook busy around here today. Hopefully, I'll have time for a fuller update later in the day.

The Fray rips James Q. Wilson's dubious anti-legalization argument apart.

Another Law and Order spinoff? The further adventures of DA Adam Schiff, perhaps? I wouldn't mind seeing a Stone-Robinet-Kincaid reteaming.

CNN examines Nader's numbers in the Midwest.

Denethor, father of Boromir and Faramir, is cast in the Rings trilogy, and it's Aussie actor John Noble.

9/6/00 - The BeliefNet Election God-o-meter, courtesy of Unknown News.

I'll let Bill Maher come up with the punchline.

Hey, I just noticed that my change from lunch included two just-released New Hampshire quarters, featuring the famed Old Man in the Mountain. Keep an eye out for 'em.

"Richard Hatch? Richard Hatch? I got chunks of guys like him in my stool!" A slimmed down, hairy Tom Hanks goes native in Robert Zemeckis's forthcoming Castaway (Hatch pic courtesy of Lots of Co. and Leather Egg.)

The good folks at Fox have put together a short trailer for X-Files Season 8, a.k.a. The Search for Mulder. 'Tis true that this season will undoubtedly disappoint, but more of Walter Skinner can't be a bad thing.

While the other news outlets jabber and speculate about Dubya's PG-13 mouth, Slate delves to the heart of the question: Is Adam Clymer a major-league asshole?

Finishing up The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage, and I highly recommend it to all webby folk. The book examines the global social transformations accompanying the advent of the telegraph in the Nineteenth Century, and the tales Standage recounts of telegraph chat room vernacular, data encryption, erstwhile hackers, and young romantics meeting over the wires won't sound unfamiliar to the Internet users of today. I found most striking the stories of amateur telegraph users who would read their daily newspaper every morning, then continuously broadcast the headlines over the wires with their own snarky commentary. Ok, I made that up (sorry.) Next up, I hop on the Neal Stephenson bandwagon and give Snow Crash a run.

In other book news, Feed recently interviewed Scott McCloud, writer-illustrator of Understanding Comics and its recent follow-up, Reinventing Comics.

The pathetic debate debate continues. If you listen really really closely, you can hear Lincoln and Douglas turning over in their graves.

Trouble at the Bolshoi. While on the subject of Russia, it's 1905 all over again: Putin gets taken to the mat by a 10-year old Japanese girl.

Nader rails against the ban on industrial hemp.

In defense of Patrick. In related news, the Knicks come to their senses.

9/5/00 - Slate unveils Tuesday Morning Quarterback, which I think is as good a concise recap of the previous weekend's match-ups as you're going to find. Nice job, fellas.

People are crazy, times are strange. I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range. I used to care but...things have changed. Bob Dylan's recent rocker from the Wonder Boys soundtrack is a hoot to play on the guitar and, if you have a capo, it's easy too. I also finally managed to locate the tabs for "My Youngest Son Came Home Today," an Eric Bogle anti-war tune re-recorded by Billy Bragg. There's also a live version floating around with Bragg and REM, which is available at any Napster outlet near you.

Hope everyone Stateside had a happy Labor Day. Elaine and I spent the long weekend in Chesapeake, VA with the folks. It rained constantly, but fortunately there was much Unreal Tournament on the Murphy LAN to be had - after all, the family that slays together stays together.

The ubiquitous precipitation and humidity of the weekend have finally eased off today, giving outside a definite Back to School feel - cool, windy, and filled with portent...this may just be my favorite type of weather.

The Top Ten Albums of all time, according to a recent Virgin survey. Two Radiohead albums in the top 10? I don't think so. Also recently listed are the Top British TV Shows (wherein Fawlty Towers held the top spot.)

Asteroid 2000 QW7 offers a wake-up call to doomsday theorists when it zooms very, very close (cosmologically) to the Earth.

Underneath the spreading chestnut tree, I sued you and you sued me. CBS's Big Brother is sued by the fellow holding the film/tv rights to George Orwell's 1984.

Another Nader profile, this time by the NY Times.

Doh! Gotta watch those live mics, Dubya.

9/1/00 - Bruce Gottlieb, an old friend from college days, questions Lieberman's religiosity.

All kinds of Empire-like downers await in Episode 2, it seems. A week after Obi-Wan squirms like he took the brown acid, Padme/Amidala - seemingly either flogged or mauled by a clawed creature - mopes atop a pedestal (which, after CGI work, could be anything).

Bradley decides to turn down the USOC job. Meanwhile, the GOP and Dems go searching for the next Dollar Bill - Both parties are currently courting former Phoenix Sun Kevin Johnson in hopes of landing him as a political candidate.

8/31/00 - Corona uncovers the reason for Obi-Wan's distress in the Episode II photo (linked 8/25), and it is this [BIG, BIG SPOILER]: Obi-Wan is getting the Sith electroshock treatment (a la Luke in Jedi) from Chancellor Palpatine, newly revealed as Sidious in the last fifteen minutes of Episode 2. So there you have it.

A Brill's Content piece about the Spice Girls of the Gore campaign, Connelly, Seeyle, and Sobieraj. The most interesting revelation I discovered in the piece was that the editor of the Daily Howler, Bob Somersby, was a roomate of Gore's at Harvard! This is the same Daily Howler that consistently lambasted Bradley and defended Gore during the primary. For shame. The Daily Howler makes a pretense of being a non-partisan "watching the watchers" type of site. As it turns out, it might as well be run by Marty Peretz.

A government commission attempts to refute the term "going postal". Might be time to replace it with "going daytrader."

Eugene McCarthy calls out the New Piety.

Nader manages to peel away another union from Al Gore. Nevertheless, academics stand by their well-grounded prediction of a Gore victory.

A congressional rep calls for an end to racial profiling.

Will Tyler Durden play the Caped Crusader?

Salon examines the Federal Government's role in perpetuating lynching throughout the South. Pretty horrific stuff.

More pundit takes on the Dubya tape.

Kelly 3:16. Come smell what the Sue is cookin'. In related news, WWF Smackdown issues a debate invite to Bush and Gore. Can Nader get in? I betcha he's got a mean piledriver.

In the Beginning, the Carbons created Mother.

8/30/00 - Dick Cheney, poster boy for Corporate Welfare.

When Apt Pupils go bad.

Ewing traded to the Wiz? Ugh, not again.

My sister-in-law Lotta sends in The Complete Bushisms, a weekly updated index of Dubya's often tortured rhetoric.

In his next film, tough veteran cop Denzel Washington will take on hardened criminal kingpin...Eminem?

The state-by-state electoral breakdown of the Gush-Bore race. In related news, David Broder profiles the race in Michigan.

Well, it may not be a jewel thief, but according to Harry the role of The Green Goblin, Spiderman's arch-nemesis, might be filled by John Malkovich. First up for the part of Mary Jane Watson (why not Gwen Stacy?) is Kate Hudson, Goldie Hawn's daughter.

Was Bush drunk or not? The pundits weigh in on the wedding tape.

An AP profile of Winona LaDuke, running mate to Ralph Nader.

The trailer for What Women Want, a new comedy in which Mel Gibson discovers how to read the minds of the opposite sex. And they're thinking...Mel...The Patriot sucked...

Oh my goodness! Sick, dying people are finding relief! The Supreme Court has to put a stop to this before it gets out of hand!

8/29/00 - James Fallows on an important and potentially overlooked Internet development: search engine indexing fees.

Ralph Steadman is illustrating children's books?! Looks like Generation Z is going to be a very perturbed bunch of young'uns. (Via LinkMachineGo.)

West Virginia gets a radio telescope, the newest strip of bacon in Senator Robert Byrd's considerable pork empire.

The 88 Iridium satellites inch ever closer to a flaming demise.

Back off, Al: The "upper left coast" is Nader country.

Paging Craig Schwartz: Puppets take over New York. Can a 60-foot tall Belle of Amherst be far behind?

Terry Gilliam chooses his next project after Don Quixote: Neil Gaiman's Good Omens.

The Anti-Defamation League asks Lieberman to tone down the religion. Hear, hear. Lieberman's public expressions of faith have also worn thin with Salon writer Gary Kamiya.

Payback's a bitch: A federal judge decides the LAPD can be sued as a criminal enterprise under federal racketeering laws, thus tripling their financial liability. Hey, Darryl, will your crooked cops make it into the next Police Quest game?

Jack Shafer of Slate takes the Washington Post to task for their hyperbolic and unfounded drug reporting.

Bond 20 teaser poster. Because, goshdarnit, MGM hasn't yet made enough mediocre Bond movies in the past fifteen years.

The GOP relent on the minimum wage increase. You think this has anything to do with election season?

Independent Counsel Robert Ray defends his grand jury inquiry.

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