Voting For McCain

Would be like taking a third bite of a shit sandwich.

Sequel I'd Like To See

A Ricky Bobby followup in which Ricky and Cal Naughton, Jr. move to Europe to race F1, on a new team managed by Jean Girard. It doesn't even have to be full length. I would pay just to watch Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly find out that in F1 they will have to turn right. And who doesn't want to see Gary Cole in Monaco?

Eurovision 2008

UK came in a well-deserved last place in the finals. My favorite, an awesomely 80s toe-tapper from Bosnia&Herzegovina, came in a disappointing tenth.

Small Cars, continued....

A couple more for the list of nice, fun, small, practical, efficient, well-built cars that are not available in the US:  the comically cute new Fiat 500 and the Seat Ibiza Ecomotive.  I saw an article about people in the US buying 12-year old Geo Metros on eBay (good god no!) because they wanted small, fuel-efficient cars. Given that level of insanity, it's hard to imagine the Fiat 500 wouldn't do well. Tell me the ladies wouldn't just love it.

Zombie Movies

I Am Legend -- Fine entertainment as a low-expectations remake of 28 Days Later. Doesn't have much to do with the excellent book.  Big letdown in IAL once things get explodey near the end. Compare the zombies-attack-the-compound scenes at the ends of each movie.  Here's the rule that 28 Days Later knows but for some maddening reason most film-makers don't:  humans are scarier than CGI.

Resident Evil: Extinction -- OK as a crap movie. Not as good as the RE games themselves. Wanders off the rails at the end due to mandatory tentacle monster boss fight. The RE movies seem to be getting slightly better with each iteration. According to my calculations, RE 17 will be a pretty good movie.

update, 22-may:  just watched I Am Legend on DVD, including the alternate ending, which was the original ending. The ending in the theatrical release was hastily shot after the morons at the studio had their say. The original ending is much, much better, and at least nudges it a tiny bit closer to the spirit of the book.

"For Pleasureable Eating"

How could I have made it this far in life without owning a titanium spork?

I'd question it, too

Great out-of-context headline:  "Republican Senator Questions Specter's Probe"

Cars

Lots of talk about oil and cars and fuel efficiency and even some news items today about Smart Fortwo US safety testing.  It's a shame the range of cars in the US is so limited.  All of these cars are available in europe and are cheaper than a Prius (which I personally can't stand) and get about the same (or better) mileage as a Prius or the little Smart car.  All of them have more room than a smart car but are still small and cute.  Just about all of them are more fun to drive, too.

• citroen C2 1.6HDi (diesel) -- 120 mph hatchback
• citroen C1 1.0i (petrol)
• peugeot 107 (petrol)
• toyota aygo (petrol)
• toyota yaris TR 1.4 D-4D (diesel) -- yaris is available in the US, but not the diesel
• vw polo 1.4 TDI (diesel)
• vw golf bluemotion S 1.9 TDI (diesel)
• ford focus econetic 1.6TDCI (diesel) -- focus is popular in the US, but this model with the excellent citroen engine is not available

And by far the nicest one:

• Mini Cooper D -- this diesel version is sadly not available in the US despite getting better mileage than the Prius or Smart ForTwo, being cheaper than the Prius, equalling the Prius in low CO2 emissions, and being, by all accounts, a blast to drive:  over 120 mph and sub-10 seconds 0-62 mph and good bmw handling

Sports & Primaries, cont.

N.B. It's not a tie if one team is ahead of another. It's not a "tie-breaker" of the non-tie if the team that's ahead pulls further ahead. Nor is it a "game changer" if the game doesn't change.

Understanding Primaries Through Sports Analogies

Holy sneezing buddha, she didn't really say this, did she??

We’re going to hit some of those balls out of this stadium and out of our country’s stadium because we’re going to go to bat and fix America together.  We’re going to go fight for America, we’re going to round the bases, we’re going to score a lot of runs, and we’re going to feel really good about the home team, namely the American team, the team we’re all a part of! --Clinton, campaigning recently in Indiana

The BoJo Era Begins

Hard to get my head around the London mayoral election. Quite refreshing, in many ways, compared to US politics. It's a shock that a conservative won the election at all. Also surprising is that he's so pro-bicycle. Biggest contrast to US elections in recent years is that, despite being a conservative, he seems to be very much policy focused, rather than politics focused. Anyway, Ken was his own worst enemy, undone by hubris. We'll see how Boris does.