Once I heard that Stephen Colbert was going to host last night's White House Correspondents' Dinner I knew I had to catch a rerun on C-Span. But then I just read an article about who else was there.

* Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame - other than the Iraqi lack of WMD the investigation into who leaked Plame's name to the press is the biggest disaster for the current White House. Why the hell would they invite her?

* Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges. - I love it when they call Ludacris that ... like on the Academy Awards. It's so white. So cracker. So honkified. Wait - doesn't he hate Bill OÕReilly? And isn't the White House just a subsidiary of Fox News and Haliburton now? Why the hell would he go to this?

* The actor who plays the 'hunky plumber' on "Desperate Housewives" - he's very important to the current White House administration, apparently ...

* "Dancing With the Stars" winner Drew Lachey - sadly Nick was busy, so they sent his brother instead.

* New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin - this one surprised me the most, actually.

* Tennis "player" Anna Kournikova - wait, no, this one surprised me the most.

* and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger - what?!?

04/29/06 - Anti-Johnny Damon T-shirt

Today the Boston Globe had this photo from a clever Faneuil Hall vendor. Oh man, do I want one:

04/28/06 - UPDATE: Gecko found in sandwich photo

This is 100% serious.

04/28/06 - And then he tried to sell me car insurance ...

BREAKING NEWS: One of my co-workers just found a gecko in his lunch.

Seriously.

He got an Italian sandwich and found the dead lizard in the middle of it.

I said, "The only thing worse than finding a gecko in your sandwich is finding half a gecko in your sandwich."

We're calling Amatos corp headquarters now, and maybe we'll call the TV news. See how much of a slow news day it is ...

04/28/06 - New Toy

Yesterday I got the COOLEST camera tripod ever. The GorillaPod.

Check it:

I have to get out to take some photos this weekend. I hope it's sunny and springlike ...

04/27/06 - I can't believe that they played the Keith Hernandez Seinfeld episode this week ...

I was home fairly early tonight from work, so I was able to catch some Simpsons and Seinfeld reruns between 7 pm and 8 pm. The Simpsons was the marginally funny one where Marge gets a job at the nuclear power plant, so I flipped over to Seinfeld on Fox 23, and it was the one with Keith Hernandez.

04/27/06 - Two-Light Town

So I live in rural Bridgton, Maine. It's about ten square miles with 5000 people. We have a couple of banks, a gas station, a Subway, two Big Apple convenience stores, and until this spring we had one grocery store and one stoplight.

Then we got a second grocery store.

And now today we have a second stoplight at said second grocery store.

I haven't even lived here for two years yet, only since July of 2004 (although I grew up in the town next door) but so much has changed in that time. Before Bridgton I lived in Burbank, California for three and a half years. And nothing changed in Burbank. Well, we got an Urban Outfitters and a AMC Theater, but in three years? That's not much at all.

Since then I think the biggest change is that they retrofitted my McDonalds. Yes, the McDonalds where I've eaten at least once a year from 1997 - 2005. Speaking of, I really hope that I get to Burbank this year, I mean, yeah, to visit Jill and all of my other friends, but also to eat at my McDonalds. This year would mark a decade. And honestly, how many restaurants can you say you've been to at least once each year for a decade? Well, okay, maybe that's not as big a deal as I think. But considering I only lived in LA for six years, that's pretty good ... right?

Anyway, back to Bridgton. Finding the second stoplight today made me kind of sad. And not just because my brother's house is smack dab between the two lights and traffic this summer is going to be a bastard. No, mostly because I hate change. And Bridgton being a two-light town is a big change.

04/27/06 - Futurama is getting straight-to-DVD movies!!

The have an interview with Simpsons and Futurama creator Matt Groening over at The Onion AV Club where he mentions the future of Futurama. Here's a clip:

AVC: What can you say about the Futurama movies?

MG: We're going to do four of them, straight to DVD. And as we speak, I'm exchanging e-mails and ideas with David X. Cohen and Ken Keeler, both of whom worked on the show from the very beginning. Right now we're trying to figure out whether to do a giant epic, or separate crazy movies, or what. But I wager that Bender will be featured prominently.

04/25/06 - TV Turnoff Week

Wow, IÕm not as addicted to TV as I thought I was!

Phew!

If you havenÕt seen the news, April 24 - 30 is TV Turnoff Week. No TV for a week. Yes, I know, technically it started yesterday, but I hadnÕt heard about it until today. Thus my watching Ò24Ó last night was wholly justified. Not that it was a great episode, really. Which reminds me, sometime I have to write about Ò24Ó and the very odd turns itÕs taken this season. Not a fan, really.

Regardless, after I saw it was TV Turnoff Week, I started thinking, Òwhat shows will I have to tape?Ó It seems half of the articles IÕve read are telling me what to TiVo this week while youÕre not watching the tube. Um, thatÕs skirting the rules a little, isnÕt it? ÒIÕm not going to watch TV alllllllll week, so I plan on taking May 1st and 2nd off from work to catch up.Ó

But as I sat down to draw up my list I only came up with one show to tape, The West Wing next Sunday. Sure, I love Scrubs, The Office, My Name is Earl Ð but theyÕre not Must See TV. I miss them all more than I see them, and IÕm not really sad about it.

Arrested Development was Must See TV, until Fox took it away.

Bastards.

Anyway, I realized I only watch Matt Santos and Jack Bauer now. And the Matt Santos show is a pale reflection of its former glory. WhatÕs this about Arnold Vinick being the new Vice President next week?! Um, didnÕt we already do a Republican VP when Acting President Walken appointing Bob Russell three years ago? At least Sam Seaborn is back. That was a happy surprise this week.

And Ò24Ó É I É I just canÕt get into it now. Too many twists that, in hindsight, make little to no sense. ItÕs sad.

04/23/06 - Everyone loves Coco

On Thursday I had to drive to the new Ikea in Stoughton, Mass for work. We needed these forty chairs for a program, and since temps can't get debit cards or drive rental trucks (in this case a 16 ft Ryder truck) and my office is overrun with temps, I was pretty much the only person left to do it.

It actually wasn't bad - the truck had a tape deck so I listened to the iPod at full blast all of the way down.

Driving over the Tobin Bridge reminded me of this article from the Boston Globe from the other week that I forgot to mention.

The Boston Globe
Crisp decides to sign up for three more years
By Chris Snow, Globe Staff
April 13, 2006

Just two days ago, Coco Crisp was asking a local whether there's an alternate
route to Fenway Park, so he could avoid paying the $3 toll on the Tobin Bridge.
Yesterday, he was still intent on bypassing the bridge ("That's expensive, isn't
it?" he asked), but he was undeniably better positioned to afford that toll and
just about anything else he wants.

That's because, for the second time in three days, the Red Sox signed a core
player to a long-term deal, inking Crisp to a three-year extension covering
2007, 2008, and 2009, with a team option for 2010, guaranteeing Crisp at least
$15.5 million.

04/23/06 - Air Force One Tagging a Hoax

Marc Ecko has always seemed a little "too cool for school" to me, but this is pretty clever. Very Blair Witch.

I like the the government had to look into it. I can only imagine that they had several meetings about this - first, "is it real?" and second, "could this ever really happen?" and third, "how can we make sure that it never does happen?"

Check out the video at: http://www.stillfree.com

Air Force One Subject of Internet Hoax
By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 22, 1:40 PM

WASHINGTON - A startling Internet video that shows someone spraying graffiti on
President Bush's jet looked so authentic that the Air Force wasn't immediately
certain whether the plane had been targeted.

It was all a hoax. No one actually sprayed the slogan "Still Free" on the
cowling of Air Force One.

The pranksters responsible for the grainy, two-minute Web video _ employed by a
New York fashion company _ revealed Friday how they pulled it off: a rented 747
in California painted to look almost exactly like Air Force One.

"I wanted to do something culturally significant, wanted to create a real
pop-culture moment," said Marc Ecko of Marc Ecko Enterprises. "It's this
completely irreverent, over-the-top thing that could really never happen: this
five-dollar can of paint putting a pimple on this Goliath."

The video shows hooded graffiti artists climbing barbed-wire fences and sneaking
past guards with dogs to approach the jumbo jet. They spray-paint a slogan
associated with free expression.

After the video began circulating on the Web on Tuesday, the Air Force checked
to see whether the plane had been vandalized.

"We're looking at it, too," said Lt. Col. Bruce Alexander, a spokesman for the
Air Mobility Command's 89th Airlift Wing, which operates Air Force One. "It
looks very real."

Alexander later confirmed that no such spray-painting had occurred.

Ecko acknowledged Friday that his company had rented a 747 cargo jet at San
Bernardino's airport and covertly painted one side to look like Air Force One.
Employees signed secrecy agreements and worked inside a giant hangar until the
night the video was made. Ecko declined to say how much the stunt cost.

"It's not cheap," he said. "You have to be rich."

04/20/06 - Gosh, I hope it's my ex-girlfriend

Woman Has Rare Case of Bubonic Plague
Wed Apr 19, 12:14 AM ET

LOS ANGELES - A woman is in stable condition with bubonic plague, the first
confirmed human case in Los Angeles County since 1984, health officials said
Tuesday.

The woman, who was not identified, was admitted to a hospital April 13 with a
fever, swollen lymph nodes and other symptoms. A blood test confirmed the
bacterial disease, and she was given antibiotics, officials said.

Bubonic plague is not contagious, but if left untreated it can morph into
pneumonic plague, which is. Bubonic plague is usually transmitted to humans from
the bites of fleas infected by rodents.

Health officials said they suspect the woman was exposed by fleas in her home
and that there was no cause for alarm. An estimated 10 to 20 Americans contract
plague each year, mostly in rural communities.

Bubonic plague is believed to have been the "Black Death" that killed 25 million
people in Europe between 1346 and 1351.

04/18/06 - Suri Cruise born tonight, Vatican claims as first sign of the Apocalypse

The word "antichrist" appears in just three passages in the Bible (in the New Testament letters known as 1 John and 2 John); it does not appear at all in the Book of Revelation. Nevertheless, the idea of an Antichrist is central to the apocalyptic world view that sees human history as a struggle between God and Satan for the fate of mankind.

According to most Christian prophesies of the End Time, the Antichrist will act as Satan's chief agent on earth during this period. The Antichrist -- a sort of evil twin of Jesus in many ways -- will forge a one-world government through promises of peace. But when Jesus returns, he will expose the Antichrist as an impostor, defeat him in the battle of Armageddon, and reign with the Christian martyrs for a thousand years on earth.

Robert Fuller, in his book Naming the Antichrist, notes that modern apocalypticists believe the Book of Revelation "contains much information about the Antichrist--who will emerge as a 'beast from the sea' to be Satan's ally in a last, desperate assault on Christ and his church." This "parody and mirror opposite of Christ" will be identifiable in a number of ways:

á Promising peace to those who follow him, he will rise to a position of great power.

á With the help of his own false prophet, the Antichrist will gain control of the world economy, by forcing each person "to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name . . . six hundred and sixty-six"

á One of the heads of the beast also "seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth followed the beast with wonder."

04/17/06 - Meet the Robinsons Trailer Online!!

The last movie I was working on when I left Disney almost two years ago finally has a trailer - check out Meet the Robinsons.

Why, IÕm so proud, I think IÕll bust!

See, my friend Steve is directing this movie. He's also the voice of the villian. And I'm not just saying this, but Steve's one of the nicest people I've ever met. I'm so psyched that he's had the chance to make this movie, and can't wait to see it.

04/17/06 - Forgot to watch the West Wing last night!

Aw man! I forgot The West Wing last night! Coming home from Easter dinner at the aunt and uncle's I forgot the VCR!

And now I see this article from the Times, and I really can't believe it. Why would they really do this? I say it's bunk, bogus, sucking up to the 50% of the populace that likes their President dumb, cocky and smug (i.e. Republican).

The New York Times
April 10, 2006
'West Wing' Writers' Novel Way of Picking the President
By Jacques Steinberg

Like many political campaigns, the presidential election depicted last night on
"The West Wing" on NBC would have had a different ending had it been held four
months ago.

But the reversal of fortune for Matt Santos Ñ the Democratic nominee, played by
Jimmy Smits, who was the victor Ñ had nothing to do with any shift in opinion
among voters.

Instead, Lawrence O'Donnell, an executive producer of the show, said he and his
fellow writers had declared Santos the winner only after the death, in
mid-December, of John Spencer, who portrayed Santos's running mate, Leo McGarry.
At the time of Mr. Spencer's death, the plot for last night's episode had been
set: the election was to be won by Alan Alda's Arnold Vinick, a maverick
Republican (modeled a bit on Senator John McCain), whom many Democrats
(including the Democrats who write the show) could learn to love.

But after Mr. Spencer died, Mr. O'Donnell said in a recent interview, he and his
colleagues began to confront a creative dilemma: would viewers be saddened to
see Mr. Smits's character lose both his running mate and the election? The
writers decided that such an outcome would prove too lopsided, in terms of
taxing viewers' emotions, so a script with the new, bittersweet ending Ñ
including the election-night death of Mr. Spencer's character Ñ was undertaken
by John Wells, executive producer of "The West Wing" and "E.R."

The loss of Mr. Spencer, who had been on "The West Wing" since its inception
seven years ago, imposed a layer of grief on the sadness and nostalgia the cast
would feel in the weeks leading to the final day of production. NBC announced in
January that primarily because of falling ratings, it was not renewing the
series for next season.

The final episode of "The West Wing" is not be broadcast until May 14, but the
show effectively ended for Martin Sheen, who plays President Bartlet, and for
his fellow cast members on March 31, when they filmed their last scene together.
Appropriately, it shows the president striding around the White House for final
goodbyes to the applause of his staff members, in a scene filmed on the Warner
Brothers lot in Burbank, Calif.

An impromptu cast party followed shortly thereafter in and around the trailer of
Allison Janney, who plays Bartlet's chief of staff, C. J. Cregg, said Bradley
Whitford, who portrays Josh Lyman, most recently manager of the Santos campaign.

"This show is probably the first line in my obituary," Mr. Whitford said.
"Everyone knows they got lucky with this one."

For a series that sought to provide a backstage glimpse of White House politics,
however stylized and idealized, it seems appropriate to assess its legacy,
political and otherwise, as its conclusion nears.

On that score, Mr. Sheen was offered an opportunity to see how his character's
appeal would play in a real-life campaign. Not long ago, he said, he was
approached by Democratic Party representatives from his native state, Ohio, to
see if he would be interested in running for the United States Senate after he
left the show. Though he would have had little trouble drafting a campaign
platform Ñ he is a fierce opponent of nuclear power and the war in Iraq, and a
champion of human rights Ñ he turned them down.

"I'm just not qualified," he said. "You're mistaking celebrity for credibility."

Nonetheless, Mr. O'Donnell, a onetime adviser to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
of New York, said he was especially proud of the show's response to the
increasingly shrill political debate in the real world, particularly on cable
news. As it became tougher to learn much of any substance from programs like
"Crossfire" on CNN, now defunct, "The West Wing" seemed to delve deeper into
real issues like health care and education, as exemplified by the raw, one-hour
live debate last fall between Matt Santos and Arnold Vinick.

"Political talk on TV has degenerated so much," said Mr. O'Donnell, who is also
a political analyst on MSNBC. "You can say something complex on 'The West Wing'
and you will not suffer a screaming interruption by three other panelists."

It may not come as any surprise to viewers, given that President Bartlet was a
Democrat, but there were no registered Republicans in the most recent
incarnation of the "West Wing" writers' room, which included Eli Attie, a former
speechwriter for Al Gore. Though the show began at the end of the Clinton
administration, it soon found its creative niche by evoking a parallel reality,
one that imagined how the White House might have been different if George W.
Bush had not been elected to two terms.

As the war in Iraq escalated, Mr. Sheen said he came to liken the show's role to
that of good, escapist fiction.

"In order to sometimes get a different perspective on what's going down in the
world, to reach back to your humanity, you read novels," Mr. Sheen said. "We're
like the reading of a novel."

Which is not to say that President Bartlet escaped making some of the hard
decisions that President Bush faced in real life. This year, Bartlet was shown
agonizing over whether to commit 10,000 American troops to an escalating,
fictional conflict on the border shared by Russia, Kazakhstan and China.

In deciding to put flesh on a Republican like Mr. Alda's Arnold Vinick and
committing, at least initially, to having him win, Mr. O'Donnell said he and the
other writers had delighted in playing against type. And then Mr. Spencer died.

Other than a coming episode that will linger at the funeral for Mr. Spencer's
character Ñ and include, as mourners, a parade of former cast members, including
Rob Lowe Ñ the show's final episodes will be devoted to the transition from the
Bartlet administration to that of President-elect Santos.

The actors and producers are embarking on a similar transition.

Mr. Whitford has signed on to star in "Studio 60," a one-hour drama expected to
be on the NBC schedule next fall, about life backstage at a live variety show.
It was created by Aaron Sorkin, who created "The West Wing."

Mr. O'Donnell has deliberately put off finding his next project, to savor the
last days of editing "The West Wing," though he can currently be seen in a rare
acting role, as a lawyer for the polygamist main character on the HBO drama "Big
Love."

And Mr. Sheen?

At 65, he has decided to make good on a promise he made to himself long ago: to
enroll, for the first time, in college. A graduate, though just barely, of
Chaminade High School in Dayton, Ohio, nearly five decades ago, he will began
taking classes next fall Ñ in English literature, philosophy and, he hopes,
oceanography Ñ at National University of Ireland in Galway, in the country where
his mother was born.

In describing how much he relished retreating to an ivory tower, Mr. Sheen
sounded a lot like a former president after two terms in office, even if he was
a former president whose biggest challenge was commuting to a fictional White
House.

"I'd be up at 4 in the morning, and out of the house by 5 to get on the freeway,
all so we could start at 7 o'clock," he said. "That's a lot of wear and tear on
your body."

Copyright © 2006 The New York Times Company

04/15/06 - 3 Fast, 3 Furious

I meant to write more this week, but it was a little nuts. Here are three of the entries I meant to make, but never got around to.

ENTRY ONE:
Wednesday I drove down to Concord, MA to check a proof at one of my vendors. Now, you know how I love Yahoo Maps and Google Maps and the like. But one thing that those computers still haven't figured out is how to describe rotaries. You know, roundabouts. And Massachusetts has more freaking rotaries than anyplace else.

Needless to say, I got foolishly lost because of a Yahoo Map / rotary issue.

Sadly, this isn't the first time I've been lost in Massachusetts because of rotaries, right Miranda?

The only solace I had was driving around Lexington and Concord, birthplace of the American Revolution, blasting American Idiot. Dude, I'm a rebel.

Yup. A 30-year-old-straight-white-man-driving-my-leased-Jetta-style rebel.

Rebel. Whoo!

But seriously it got me to thinking, "What would the founding fathers think about George W. Bush?" Like if the Hall of Presidents came alive, and started interacting with each other. What would Washington say to Dubya? Would Jefferson and Clinton talk politics, or chicks?

Anyway, the day was saved, luckily, by lunch at Baja Fresh.

04/14/06 - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! The Gnomes are back!

Crap. I thought this beast was dead. Crap.

Wherefore Art Thou, Gnomeo? At Miramax
Source: Miramax Films April 14, 2006

Miramax Films has announced an exclusive deal with Sir Elton John's Rocket
Pictures to develop and produce Gnomeo and Juliet, an animated twist on
Shakespeare's classic tale set in the world of tacky garden gnomes. Rocket
Pictures producing partners, David Furnish and Steve Hamilton Shaw, who are
currently finishing post-production on their latest film It's A Boy Girl Thing,
will shepherd the project with Miramax president, Daniel Battsek.

"I have had a longstanding relationship with Rocket Productions and have been
following this project since I was at BVI," said Daniel Battsek. "I was thrilled
when the opportunity arose to bring 'Gnomeo' to Miramax."

"I am very excited about working with Miramax," stated Elton John. "'Gnomeo' is
an edgy concept and Miramax is the perfect home to push the envelope in
animation.

"Academy Award ® - winning lyricist Tim Rice will collaborate with John on the
songs for the film. Four-time Academy Award ® - nominee Kate Winslet is attached to
star. Additional casting to be announced at a later date.

Gnomeo and Juliet will be animated in the UK with Academy Award ® - nominee Baker
Bloodworth (Destino, Lorenzo) serving as producer and guiding the production in
London.

Originally scripted by Rob Sprackling and John Smith, Gnomeo and Juliet was
brought to Disney several years ago by Rocket Pictures. Scribes Kevin Cecil and
Andy Riley penned the current script.

04/14/06 - Anna's back on The OC!

I haven't watched in MONTHS, but this ... this I have to see ...

Graduation is just weeks away and Ryan, Seth, Summer and Marissa leave Newport to attend their respective pre-frosh orientations at UC Berkeley and Brown. While dropping the boys off at the airport, Kirsten is surprised to see Theresa and her all-too-familiar-looking baby boy. While visiting Brown, Seth runs into Anna on the quad and they instantly connect. Could this be the end of Summer and Seth? Meanwhile, Kirsten and Sandy attend a hospital benefit where Kirsten vents her frustrations and falls back into an old habit.

04/11/06 - Just Joshing.

It just hit me today. There are more "Joshes" around than ever. It's a little odd.

Granted, at the company I work at now I'm the only Josh. And this for a company with 6 Jennifers, 5 Sarahs, 1 Sara, 5 Matts, 4 Katies, 1 Kate, 4 Julies and 4 Amandas.

Actually for most of the six or so years I was at Walt Disney Feature Animation I was the only "Josh", too.

But not anymore. "Joshes" are everwhere. Today, at the Red Sox 95th home opener at Fenway Park, we have Josh Beckett pitching for Boston. And Josh Towers pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays.

It's a "Josh" head-to-head. Thank God Josh Bard isn't catcher, or there could be a whole host of "Threes Company"-style antics.

Elsewhere in the news Josh Bolten will be the new White House Chief of Staff at the end of the week. Sure, we had Josh Lyman on The West Wing, but he's just pretend.

Yep, it's official. "Joshes" are taking over the world. Finally.

04/11/06 - Funny "24" story from last night

So last night I watched "24" with four or five high school kids and my brother Daniel at his coffee shop. Some of them had never seen the glory that is "24", so we introduced them to Jack Bauer of the Counter Terrorist Unit, savior of the free world.

At one point, during a commercial break about two-thirds of the way into the episode, my brother's cell phone rang. It was way across the shop so as he ran to get it he was cursing whoever would call him during "24". I mean, I've seen him be short with his girlfriend during "24". Homeboy takes no prisoners. Anyway, he picks up the phone, reads the caller ID, and says, "It's an 818 area code?"

"Southern California. It must be Jack," I said, meaning Daniel's college roommate who then married our cousin Karen and lives in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California, home of the 818 area code.

All of the kids, however, thought I meant Jack Bauer of "24" was calling my brother, and busted out laughing.

"Yes, Jack Bauer from CTU who is currently stuck in a bank surrounded by terrorists and who is a fictional character is calling my brother at his coffee shop in Southern Maine."

That only made them laugh harder.

But you have to think about it Ð those guys at CTU sure do use their cell phones a lot. I mean, what kind of calling plan do they have? If they go over their minutes does the government have to reimburse them? And we wonder why we have a $8.4 Trillion National Debt!! It's all CTU's fault!

Thank goodness CTU was absorbed by the Department of Homeland Security. Any organization that can wrangle FEMA is good for me.

04/09/06 - Bush, In his own words

It's fun to play on the White House web site and find all of the official transcripts of George W. Bush lying to the American people.

On September 30, 2003 Bush said, "There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. There's leaks at the executive branch; there's leaks in the legislative branch. There's just too many leaks. And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of."

"Listen, I know of nobody -- I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action. And this investigation is a good thing."

On October 7, 2003, "I don't know if we're going to find out the senior administration official. Now, this is a large administration, and there's a lot of senior officials. I don't have any idea. I'd like to. I want to know the truth. That's why I've instructed this staff of mine to cooperate fully with the investigators -- full disclosure, everything we know the investigators will find out. I have no idea whether we'll find out who the leaker is -- partially because, in all due respect to your profession, you do a very good job of protecting the leakers. But we'll find out."

Then on October 28, 2003 the president said, "It is an important investigation. I'd like to know if somebody in my White House did leak sensitive information. As you know, I've been outspoken on leaks. And whether they happened in the White House, or happened in the administration, or happened on Capitol Hill, it is a -- they can be very damaging."

04/08/06 - Holy shit George W. Bush is going to get us all killed!

I'll be the first to admit Bush is a smug, arrogant asshole, but this ... this is just fucking insane!

04/06/06 - Superboy Lawsuit

Huh. I hadn't even heard of this lawsuit.

More importantly, though, is who exactly owns the rights to the 1988 Superboy TV Show?

New York Post
SUPER TEEN'S SHOW SUED
Post staff writer

April 6, 2006 -- IT'S a bird, it's a plane, it's a lawsuit that could cost the
producers of "Smallville" millions.

A Federal judge in Los Angeles has found that "Smallville" may be infringing on
the copyrights believed to be held on the Superboy character by the widow and
daughter of Jerome Siegel, one of the two creators of Superman.

The judge ruled that there is enough evidence to find that the teenage Superman
(portayed by Tom Welling) depicted on the WB show is in fact Superboy as
originally imagined by Siegel in the late 1930s.

The ruling also called into question the ownership of every episode of
"Smallville" that has aired since November 2004, although it is still not clear
who owns Superboy, Siegel's family and associates or DC Comics.

Legal battles over who owns the rights to Superboy go all the way back to 1938
when Siegel had come up with the character and tried to convince National Comics
(predecessor of DC Comics) to publish it. But DC waited until 1945 - while
Siegel was stationed in the Pacific - to print Superboy comics.

Siegel sued the comic publisher in 1947 but settled in 1948, selling ownership
of Superboy and Superman to National.

Siegel and illustrator Joel Shuster sued to regain the copyrights in 1973 but
lost in court two years later. Siegel then launched a public-relations campaign
to protest DC Comics treatment of him and Shuster, which resulted in DC parent
Warner Communications awarding them pensions and credit as co-creators.

Shuster died in 1992; Siegel in 1996.

Copyright 2006 NYP Holdings, Inc.

04/05/06 - The tragic death of the Suburban Legends' trombone player

So about five or six months ago I wrote about the death of the trombone player from Suburban Legends (one of my So Cal ska bands).

Now Los Angeles' NBC4 has this report:

Police: Suspect In Fatal Hit-And-Run Accident Flew To Korea

UPDATED: 6:14 am PDT April 5, 2006

LOS ANGELES -- Parents of a victim in a hit-and-run accident have learned the
identity of the suspected driver, but there is a hitch.

Police say that suspect was driven to the airport after the crash and flew to
Korea.

Carlton Cook and his wife say they read the report over and over trying to make
sense of it. What became clear, they say, is that the man accused of killing
their son Ryan Dallas Cook is gone.

"It was just complete shock to get this information and have paint such a vivid
picture of what happened in this situation," said father Carlton Cook.

According to the report, 39-year-old Youn Bum Lee was with some business
associates at Seoul-Oak Korean B.B.Q. restaurant where witnesses say he drank
eight shots of Soju --a Korean rice wine.

The report says the group went to a Karaoke bar until just before midnight.

Then half an hour later a UPS driver spotted a black Hyundai drifting into the
HOV lane, as if someone had passed out and hit the center divider.

Minutes after that Ryan Cook -- a trombone player with the band Suburban Legends
-- was riding his motorcycle home from band practice. Investigators say he never
saw the parked car with its lights out. Cook died at the scene.

"After the traffic collision, Mr. Lee contacted one of the witnesses and drove
the vehicle back to the corporation where he met with one of the witnesses and
then he left the country through LAX," said Jennifer Hink with the California
Highway Patrol.

The report says Lee, who NBC4 reports works for Hyundai, showed his damaged car
to a Hyundai executive who then drove him to an attorney's office. It says Lee
got in a taxi then boarded a plane to Korea.

"What kind of a man is he who doesn't stand up for what he did. He made a
mistake and he was too cowardly to stick around and own up to his own mistakes,"
said Janet Cook.

A Hyundai spokesperson said in a statement that, "We agree this was a horrible
and tragic accident. Hyundai Corperation is cooperating fully with the CHP and
any further questions can be directed to them."

Lee is facing charges of vehicular manslaughter, felony hit-and-run and driving
under the influence.

04/05/06 - Springtime for Mainers

Maine in the spring is a crazy place.

This weekend I was raking the lawn and grilling in a tee shirt and shorts, it was in the 70s. This morning I wake up and there's a dusting of snow!

You have to love that.

04/04/06 - Fun Fact #3

Have you gotten this e-mail yet this week? Still, it's pretty cool:

On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00Êam, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

This won't ever happen again for our life time. In fact,ÊIt won't happen for another 1000 years.

04/04/06 - Red Sox fun fact #2

Mark Loretta is the 12th Sox second baseman to start on Opening Day since 1994.

04/04/06 - Red Sox Fun fact

Six of the nine Red Sox players in yesterday's Opening Day lineup did not start on Opening Day 2005.

04/04/06 - Red Swingline

So this morning I was going to write about 24 ... and then I get to work and see a mail from one of my 3 managers that the VP wants me to move my desk. After two sets of "air quotes" I get this: Pls accomplish first thing Tuesday morning. Tks.

Wow, she saved seven whole letters there by not writing out "Please" and "Thanks". Economy, people, how you get to be senior manager. Gns. (That's "genius" in economy-speak).

Anyway, I figure I can move my desk in about an hour, hour and a half. She won't know. 'Cause to her that IS first thing in the morning.

And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were married, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire...