The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Question time again ...

    By Deadman on Fri, 10/31/2008 - 11:47pm | Potpourri

    Happy Halloween all! Last week, I threw out a bunch of questions I had been asking myself lately, and people seemed to enjoy the post, responding with some incredibly wise and insightful, or at least terribly smartass, answers. So, I figured I'd do it again, maybe even make it a weekly thing. Without further ado ...

    1) Will there be more Jokers or Joe the Plumbers out there tonight? (If you're answering this and Halloween is already over, reply with the actual answer)

    2) Why do parents wait until the last minute to buy Halloween costumes? The costume place by me was absolutely crawling with kids last night, and there was a line to get in the store. Don't they know it comes the same time every year?

    3) If you win a World Series and no one in the world is watching, have you really won a World Series? (No offense, Philly fans, I'm just so happy you out-underrated the 2006 World Series, when my Cardinals won the title and no one seemed to care because a New York and Boston team wasn't playing)

    4) Agree or disagree: Obama's non-selection of Hillary as VP was one of his best moves of the campaign. I say yes, and not because Biden's been a big help (I'm a fan but he's been a neutral at best), but by not picking Hilary, it led McCain straight to Palin's frigid Alaskan door, and that's a gift that keeps on giving (They're now talking about her as a leading candidate in 2012, which boggles the mind but warms the heart)

    5) Give me your best guess of the percentages for voter turnout as well as Obama's popular vote total on Tuesday? I say 64 and 53, respectively.

    6) Can you think of any any worse, more terrfiying way to die than in an airplane crash? I'm talking only about relatively common and immediate forms of death, so no death by testicle tickle torture or long terminal illness. Seriously, the idea of having to endure ten or more minutes of being able to do nothing but imagine your imminent death while being surrounded by screaming people and unbelievable turbulence as a 100,000 lb. aircraft hurtles earthward at an accelerating pace, frightens me to no end. But maybe that's just me.

    7) Genghis got me thinking with his W. movie review, what was the last good Oliver Stone movie?

    8) When was the last time you listened to music on a terrestrial radio that wasn't in a car? Talk about a dead medium. And good riddance.

    9) It's not because of radio's demise, but I feel I've stopped learning about good new music. How can I fix that?

    10) And finally, shifting to a much more exciting medium, please rank the following positive, life-changing attributes of the Internet in order of greatness:

    1. E-commerce (Amazon, ebay, craigslist)
    2. E-mail and IM
    3. Comparison Shopping and Reviews
    4. Online gaming (social and multimedia)
    5. Facebook. Social Networking and the ability to transcend physical borders
    6. Maps and Step-by-step directions
    7. Free Porn available in any fetish imaginable
    8. Search, Wikipedia and the ability to find almost any piece of info
    9. dagblog.com
    10. Other (List your own piece of Internet enjoyment)

     

    Topics: 
    Potpourri

    Comments

    Halloween is over. Answer to 1. I saw a ton of Jokers but not a single Joe the Plumber. Question back at you: why do people embrace cliche? Do they not realize that their choices are trite, or do they not care?

    More answers tomorrow.


    by Michael Wolraich on Sat, 11/01/2008 - 4:35am

    Mostly they don't care. At least not enough to put in the work to come up with a creative idea and then execute it. Second, most people are not creative. Finally, people in general don't often like going out on a limb and risk looking foolish. kids want to wear what's popular and what the other kids are doing. Adults just want to look sexy and attractive.

    No Joes, huh? What about Palins?


    by Deadman on Sat, 11/01/2008 - 11:32am

    I've got no beef with the witches and cowboys. It's the trite-and-trendy that bug me. Some of the Joker constumes were detailed--the wearers weren't especially lazy, just unoriginal. I also passed a Freddy Kruger, which has now passed into retro, but back in its heyday, there were millions of Freddy Krugers running around, and some of those costumes were very elaborate. Moreover, neither Freddy nor Joker costumers are especially sexy.

    I agree with you about kids wanting to wear what's popular and wonder if there is a related appeal in the trendy adult costumes. That is to say, these guys think it's cool to be Joker in the same way that people think trendy fashions are cool, an influence from which I don't claim to be immune.

    I only saw one Palin. It's sort of a tough costume. A friend of mine said that he saw some kid whose parents had dressed him as a mini-Obama with jacket and tie.


    by Michael Wolraich on Sat, 11/01/2008 - 3:55pm

    On 9, I like the personalized web radio stations, such as pandora and launchcast/yahoo-music. I also get suggestions from friends.

    Or we could get ourselves a good music blogger. What about a certain poker-playing rabbi we know?


    by Michael Wolraich on Sat, 11/01/2008 - 4:08pm

    In answer to Question 9, have you given 101.9 RXP a try?  They took over the "Smooth Jazz CD 101.9" slot sometime this year and they kick ass.  Matt Pinfield from 6 to 10 AM every morning is a real treat.  I get more ideas for my iPod from this station than from any other source. 

    I'll come back later to answer some of the deeper stuff, when I'm awake, 'kay?

     


    by LisB on Sun, 11/02/2008 - 11:35am

    thanks for the Rec, LisB. But isn't that radio?? I don't even think I have a traditional radio handy. Can you get it online (or does that defeat the purpose?)


    by Deadman on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 12:41am

    1) I saw neither.  My girlfriend did a killer Sarah Palin and I went as Secret Service.  She wasn't quite Tina Fey good, but she's watched a lot of tape over the past couple of months and really nailed the accent and mannerisms.

    2) Don't many people just generally wait until the last minute to do things?

    3) Does a dog have buddha nature?  Woof.

    4) Absolutely agree.  Many Hillary fans still don't like it, but it was the right move.  Some even argued that he would need her to win, but I think we're about to see that theory empirically falsified.

    5) I really have no idea.

    6) If you're just talking about the horror of your own imminent death, then I think A-man may have it right.  Then again, a longer period of time may also allow you become more comfortable with the idea, but would probably maximize the amount of time you spend filled with dread.  If we're just talking gruesome ends, I'd say motorcycle crash.

    7) I had to go to IMDb for this.  Any Given Sunday was fun and I also liked U-turn, but those were ten years ago.  Really, his run from Platoon to JFK was his best stuff.  I'd say Platoon his best, followed by Wall Street and Natural Born Killers.  Also, he wrote Conan the Barbarian.

    8) I listen to a lot of NPR.  I actually have a sport radio that I use for running or to finish listening to interesting stuff after I've left the car.  Even so, I also listen to my iPod a lot.

    9) If you don't have any friends who can turn you on to new stuff, then I'd highly recommend pandora.com.  You give it an example of somthing you like and it uses that to seed a custom feed with similar stuff.  Give it a try.  I don't know anyone who's used that hasn't found something new.

    10) Aside from dagblog.com, this is the single greatest achievement of the Interent.


    by DF on Sun, 11/02/2008 - 2:04pm

    Thanks, DF.

    Id love to see a tape of your girlfriend's impression sometime!

    Motorcycle crash would be gruesome. i don't like motorcycles. I mean Im sure they're a thrill, and riding between cars stuck in traffic is a nice perk, but I don't have that risk-taking gene. Plus, I hate the noise they make.

    And I think in most cases, death by motorcycle crash would be over very quick and only gruesome for witnesses. The whole crappy thing about a plane crash is dying amidst hundreds of panicked people while knowing your life is very likely about to end

    Never saw U-Turn. Thought it looked uninteresting.

    I should try Pandora, no matter what Bluesplashy says. I just feel like my ITunes library is so full already, it's tough for me to get serious about music discovery.

    And really, what the hell was that You Tube video??


    by Deadman on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 12:39am

    "And really, what the hell was that You Tube video??"

    Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got... an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday. I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially...They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

    -- Ted Stevens, Senator of Alaska (R), former Commerce Committe chairman (in charge of regulating the Internet), and convicted felon, on Net Neutrality

    Hilarious, DF.


    by Michael Wolraich on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 1:31am

    1. Jokers - I'm just guessing.  I hate Halloween.  I have never said that in public until this year and I'm 54 but I work part time in a corner store in a college town and one of the students came in and told me she hated Halloween and that has really freed me up.  I feel much better now.  I thought I was the only one.  I may start a on-line support group and reach out to other secret Halloween haters.

    2. The thrill of it - cause by the thrill they had making the kids then realizing nothing will ever match that no matter how hard they try.

    3. Yes

    4. Agree

    5. 67 and 52.5

    6. No

    7. Don't know or care

    8. My Parents, a year ago and it was Country Western so I had to scream and they turned it off.

    9. Go back in time - it is an age thing and Pandora Radio does not help

    10.  1 email 2 email 3 email 4 on line newspapers 5 dagblog 6 other blog sites (daves garden, tpm, 538 etc) 7 business/commerce websites (on-line catalogs) but NOT ebay 8 my soon to come halloween haters support group 9 on line quit smoking support groups (just remembered how much they helped YEAHHH)


    by Bluesplashy on Sun, 11/02/2008 - 9:46pm

    I experienced a musical rebirth in my 30's. I hope to repeat it at least once a decade.


    by Michael Wolraich on Sun, 11/02/2008 - 11:55pm

    congrats on stopping smoking - that's HUGE, and very cool that an online community was able to help ...

    I have very mixed feelings about halloween - i don't generally like half-assing things, so if i do celebrate it by going out or to a party or something, i get all stressed out about what I should wear, whether I should spend an ungodly amount to look cool or scary for something i will wear once in my life probably. it seems so not worth it. but i certainly have fond memories of the holiday, both from growing up as a kid, trick or treating in my St. Louis suburb, as well as a number of post-pubescent Halloween celebrations that ended up being quite enjoyable.

    I rate the holiday a 6.5, if only because i like the fact that in general it has become an excuse for woman to dress very provocatively. it's usually the last time i see women in skimpy clothes til the following summer!

    but you wanna talk about a holiday I hate?? Oh man, don't get me started on how much I loathe New Year's ...


    by Deadman on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 12:30am

    Deadman, I may have to welcome ALL holiday haters but it will be hard to keep them separate.  Like, I for one LOVE New Years Eve.  And I get nervous at the thought of those Easter Haters hanging around any where near me - they'll probably want to get into the biting heads off chocolate bunnies thing.

    Thanks for the shout about quitting - After a couple of years I tend to forget what a big deal it is.

    I don't know why my text is different in my last comment from all the other commenters but I kinda like it - makes me stand out huh?  Wish I knew how I did it!


    by Bluesplashy on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 7:55am

    The worst holiday is Arbor Day. Dendrophobia is a debilitating disease, but all people want to do is plant more trees.


    by Michael Wolraich on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 8:26am