And here's the inevitable Bush-Austin Powers mashup:

I've been doing a lot of research into my family history lately, for this little project I'm working on. I'm following lines back into the past, trying to figure out who came over, when they came over, etc. It's interesting stuff. So interesting that I stayed up all night on Saturday, compulsively searching for more and more information. I finally fell asleep somewhere around 6 am, and when my dog woke me at 10 to go out, I got up and started searching some more. (Which is why I was so (apparently) mean to our new guest blogger Prophet on Sunday.

Partly inspired by Prophet and his ongoing top 10 albums of 2008 series, and partly because I'm otherwise uninspired, I've decided to take a different tact for this week's questions: I am going to press shuffle on my IPod Nano and create a question somehow related to each of the first 10 songs that come up. I will also be giving some very quick commentary on the songs.

I am uncertain how well this process will lend itself to thought-provoking questions, and I will certainly be risking great personal embarrassment by exposing my music collection to the dagworld at large.

9. Neon Neon - Stainless Steel

I'm sorry but any outfit who can put out an album that sounds like the music I listened to when I was 8, and make it sound pretty fantastic along the way, deserves to be in the top 10 in this very down year for music.

1. Honestly the most impressed I've ever been with Bush

2. You heard it here first: Obama's toast in Presidential dodgeball

Yea, he's a freshman in high school.

Behold...

A few quick thoughts:

1. So if he's Barry to his father Bobby Bonds that means....oh this kid is doomed

The other night, I was talking to a friend when she suggested that feminists were to blame for the current economic crisis. It was hyperbole, I’m certain. Although at the time I changed the subject because I was so shocked to learn that she felt that way.

I've been trying for years now to track down the video of the hypothetical 'State of the Union' done by Will Farrell on the eve of the 2000 election, but the best I could ever come up with was a transcript.  If you remember, Darrell Hammond also did one where Gore went over homework that he had given out to the different States while sitting in front of a supercomputer.

I suppose now that it's almost all over, NBC finally feels that it's safe to unearth this eerie piece of prophesy that aired on November 3rd, 2000.

We'll be working our way from 10 down to one. 

Oh, by the way, just to introduce myself - I'm prophet and I know the future.

Moving on...

10. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

My reading of The American Presidency by Alan Brinkely continues. Chapter Two: John Adams. Here's what I learned...

Adams grew up in the country town of Braintree, Massachusetts. They later changed the name of the town to Quincy to disguise the fact that the uncommon intelligence of the townspeople was attributed to a tea made from the leaves of the magical tree.

You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Conspiracy Zone!


Conspiracy #1
Detroit is preparing to make the Lions the crown jewel of the city

The mob has gathered round the house of Governor Rod Blagojevich, waving their virtual pitchforks and shrieking for justice. Our own Deadman has even called him "ugly." Shame on him. Governor Blagojevich may not be married to a hot Star Trek actress, but he's a fine looking man, if a bit jowly. And no one is fooled by Aman's crocodile tears; we know that he yearns to return to his hometown and claim the office of Governor for himself. (When asked who would replace Blagojevich as Governor, he innocently shrugged in mock ignorance.)

I’ve known a lot of doctors in my life. And when I say known, I mean spent five minutes in a small room with, while I explained what was wrong with me after which they made their diagnosis and got irritated when I asked my inevitable questions.

What can I say? I like to learn stuff. I’m inquisitive that way.

My One Favorite Thing this week is Raspberry Sorbet-flavored Ice Cubes gum from Ice Breakers. It's a fucking party for your mouth every time you pop one of these babies in.

Cardboard strikes again: Jon Favreau has been busted for a facebook photo in which he was caught groping a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton. Now I can understand the allure of two-dimensional women. In college, my (coed) roommates kept a cut-out of a model stroking a massive six-foot bottle of beer in our common room.

1) How sad is this photo below? Charles Rogers was a former star Michigan State wide receiver and a first-round pick of the Detroit Lions just a few years ago. Like most of the Lions picks over the past decade, Rogers was an unmitigated disaster; doing very little on the field except suffering season-ending injury after season-ending injury. He was quickly out of the league, and apparently has since experienced only trouble. His latest arrest was for violating probation stemming from an assault and battery case in September.