This past week I spent about an hour talking through a tiny iPhone bluetooth headset on Skype and staring at the built-in iSight of a MacBook Pro while talking to Bill Scher of Liberal Oasis. I did so at the invitation of Conn Carroll, who usually holds down the righthand slot on Bloggingheads.tv, while he was celebrating his fifth wedding anniversary (congrats, by the way). Bill was an upbeat, friendly debate partner, and so far it looks like the loyal Bloggingheads commentariat doesn’t want to kill me.
The show plays like a funky, freewheeling, not-ready-for-cable TV “Crossfire” with less point-scoring, featuring a recurring cast of quirky political bloggers and policy wonks. I’ve been a constant viewer/listener back to when it was just Bob and Mickey figuring it out as they went along.
Let’s get meta for a moment: When I arrived at work this morning, Blog P.I. hadn’t been updated for 36 hours. In my e-mail inbox, I see a WordPress trackback notification — and then another. And a comment. On a post from August? The things you can learn from trackbacks:
I think I know what state she won’t be visiting anytime soon. And I may be late to the party, but it seems the party came to me:
Frisch’s disturbing story has already been told, and I have nothing further to add, except to reaffirm the irony of the fact that Frisch’s academic focus is judgment and decision-making.
It’s plainly bad news for her — but it’s good news for Teh Squeaky Wheel — formerly known as Don’t Hire Deb — a smaller, right-wingier Eschaton created to obsess over closely follow every minor development since Frisch was first charged in Oregon. Frankly, they deserve each other. But I’ll give them a little credit for coining the word “Frischmas” — it lacks the originality of Fitzmas, but this ad hoc holiday actually arrived.
P.S. Mark my words — at some point I’ll get around to name-checking the final movie (one hopes) in this Stephen King adaptation train wreck.
P.P.S. Numbers are proprietary at least until I start tracking regularly on Alexa.
Stephen Colbert has long had it in for my home state of Oregon, alternately tagging it “California’s Canada” and “Washington’s Mexico.” We Oregonians are used to being ignored by most states and certainly the East Coast, except when we decriminalize marijuana, legalize assisted suicide, our senators grope their female colleagues, or our figure skaters take out a contract on their competition. So Colbert’s mock disdain is more than welcome.
Last night he took another whack at the Beaver State in the context of lampooning Wikipedia’s open-editing policy and bias toward triviality — “Any website that has a longer entry on ‘truthiness’ than on Lutherans has its priorities straight.” — and purported to change the entry related to his Oregon fixation, live on the air: “Now, Oregon is Idaho’s Portugal is the opinion I’ve always held. You can look it up.”
In fact, somebody with the username Stephencolbert did in fact make that very edit (as well as another one mentioned in the segment) about four hours before it aired on the East coast. Of course, the allegedly careless Wikipedia administrators are taking no chances; if you click over to “Stephencolbert”’s User Talk page, you’ll see this:
At Wikipedia, we appreciate your interest in the project, but your username matches a well known public personality and has been blocked. To protect against impersonation, please provide confirmation of your identity to regain access to this account. User:Tawker has sent an emailed request and left a voicemail with the Colbert staff requesting confirmation, let him know and this account can be re-opened.
For what it’s worth, I’m a fan of Wikipedia, and the complaints Colbert jestingly cites are fairly well-addressed in the current issue of The New Yorker. Though the site is imperfect, it’s highly perfectible. And Britannica will never collect its own List of neologisms on The Simpsons, which I require.
P.S. For more high quality Wikipedia humor, don’t miss last week’s edition of The Onion.
Sometimes They Come Back… Again
Let’s get meta for a moment: When I arrived at work this morning, Blog P.I. hadn’t been updated for 36 hours. In my e-mail inbox, I see a WordPress trackback notification — and then another. And a comment. On a post from August? The things you can learn from trackbacks:
Because she missed a court date in Denver yesterday, there now is a warrant out for the arrest of Deb Frisch in Colorado.
I think I know what state she won’t be visiting anytime soon. And I may be late to the party, but it seems the party came to me:
Frisch’s disturbing story has already been told, and I have nothing further to add, except to reaffirm the irony of the fact that Frisch’s academic focus is judgment and decision-making.
It’s plainly bad news for her — but it’s good news for Teh Squeaky Wheel — formerly known as Don’t Hire Deb — a smaller, right-wingier Eschaton created to
obsess overclosely follow every minor development since Frisch was first charged in Oregon. Frankly, they deserve each other. But I’ll give them a little credit for coining the word “Frischmas” — it lacks the originality of Fitzmas, but this ad hoc holiday actually arrived.P.S. Mark my words — at some point I’ll get around to name-checking the final movie (one hopes) in this Stephen King adaptation train wreck.
P.P.S. Numbers are proprietary at least until I start tracking regularly on Alexa.