Enough Said

Michael Bérubé has the perfect rejoinder to all those people -- and I hope it's not too many -- who are still considering voting for Ralph Nader or other "other" candidates:

It would especially help if you began all letters, emails, speeches, essays, books, and other “interventions” by saying, “I am a crusader for peace and social justice for all peoples, but in 2004 I could not be bothered to concern myself with the question of whether the world’s most powerful nation would continue to be run by evangelical Christian nutcases and far-right sociopaths.” That way, the rest of us will know just how seriously we’re supposed to take you. Thanks!

When the Weimar Republic is on the ropes, you have to vote for a party willing to preserve the parliamentary system. Tom Delay's Republicans? They're printing T-shirts that read, "Don't hesitate to invoke Article 48."

A Meme Worth Perpetuating

I'm not one to follow the herd when it comes to memes, but this one is too good to ignore. Thanks to synecdoche for the provocation. I offer my reflections following the chart:

How common are cbertsch's interests

Universal none

Popular lord of the rings (93179) punk (93639)

Common italian food (15302) sonic youth (13878)

Specialist bay area (1442) berkeley (2058) college basketball (1715) etymology (2286) home movies (5050) neko case (1099) pavement (8781) theory (1721)

Unusual avant-garde film (12) cal bears (36) creative non-fiction (152) don delillo (714) espn classic (41) fassbinder (143) german language (469) leftism (251) mcsweeney's (413) michel foucault (440) midriffs (45) san francisco giants (555) tucson (762) university of arizona (273) university of california (94) walter benjamin (191) weasels (584) zine culture (12)

Rare lists like this one (3)

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InterestRank was bought to you by _imran_ and MemeLand.org

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I suppose it makes sense that Lord of the Rings and punk are my most common interests and "lists like this one" my least common interest. But it seems really strange to me that 2286 people share my interest in etymology while only 45 join me in fetishizing midriffs. And how many of the 440 people interested in Michel Foucault do you suppose are also included among the 584 interested in weasels?

Pure

Now that's baseball: three passed balls and a knuckle ball that didn't get away to end the inning. I don't want this game to end.

Two Pure

It doesn't get any better than that when you don't really care a great deal who wins. First the Yankees-Red Sox odyssey, with Ortiz fighting off foul ball after foul ball before finally winning it, not with a blast this time, but Luis Gonzalez-style. Then the Cardinals-Astros pitching duel, no score in the bottom of the ninth, and La Russa & Co. make Jeff Kent mad by walking Berkman to pitch to him. The mad part is probably irrelevant, as Steven would point out, but it makes for better theater. And the first-pitch rocket was impressive enough to make me temporarily forget the truck-washing and trash-talking in favor of the women's sports-supporting Bear whose autographed picture resided on our bookshelf "mantlepiece" throughout the 2002 postseason. Maybe if I write about sports often enough I'll morph into a simulacral Kerouac.