Weird-o letters to the editor

Check out the WalMart one. Even if you like WalMart, you have to admit that it's pretty weird that they were ringing up her purcahses while -- oh, it just has to be read to be believed.

(The high school parking one is weird, too)

*Nemesis hat-tip*

The least of all evils

Interesting Chron story on Toyota

A good point from Romenesko

Real journalism is difficult and bloggers want no part of it

Philadelphia Inquirer

Jonathan V. Last says bloggers are always saying how easy journalism is,
yet very few of them have ever really practiced it. "Real journalism --
the practice of adding to the store of public knowledge by reporting
news -- is a difficult, thankless, and often unpleasant task. Bloggers
want no part of it. Everyone wants E.J. Dionne's job; no one wants to be
Michael Dobbs. ...Taken as a whole, the Old Media performs an enormous and
valuable function that the New Media is neither able, nor inclined, to
emulate."

Good news!

I'm looking forward to the $5 mark.

Bay Area journalism heads further down the toilet

The Bay Area newspaper landscape could undergo a seismic change if Denver's MediaNews Group purchases from Sacramento's McClatchy Co. the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times and two other papers in a $1 billion deal that a published report said might happen this week.

MediaNews, the country's seventh-largest newspaper publisher, owns the Oakland Tribune, Marin Independent Journal and several other local papers. It would immediately become the biggest newspaper operation in the Bay Area if it were to acquire the Mercury News and Contra Costa Times.

...

A MediaNews purchase could face such obstacles as antitrust scrutiny, labor opposition and shareholder inquiries about whether McClatchy got the best price. But experts said a deal would probably overcome those hurdles.

...

Selling the papers to MediaNews would help McClatchy raise more than $2 billion from the sale of the 12 papers. And it would provide MediaNews and its CEO, William Dean Singleton, with a more powerful presence throughout the Bay Area.

Singleton has built a newspaper empire through a strategy of "clustering" -- owning groups of nearby newspapers that can share resources like printing presses and staff, and can offer a larger circulation reach for advertisers.

The Cubs are screwed

I was actually starting to feel the tiniest bit optimistic in spite of myself. And now this. Serves me right.

NYTimes: Billionaire sells Jackie Kennedy's apartment

The $32 mil place was too small, apparently.

I just stumbled on this story on the NYT web site. This quote left me dumbstruck:

Mr. Koch said that his wife is now expecting their third child in June, and Ms. Onassis' former apartment will be too small for their expanded family. "There's just no way we could fit another child in that apartment," he said.

The Fifth Avenue apartment has four bedrooms, two dressing rooms, a staff room, a library, living room, dining room, conservatory, two terraces, three fireplaces, five and a half bathrooms and a wine room, according to a floor plan provided by the broker who will be selling it, Leighton Candler, a senior vice president of the Corcoran Group.

The article doesn't say what the place's square footage is, but it's probably twice that of the biggest house owned by anyone who reads this...

Thank you Harry Taylor

We are screwed

Is anyone who isn't in the oil industry really still doubting global warming?

And, if the Dodger game I have tickets to gets rained out this Saturday, can I sue the Bush Administration?

Daylight Savings Time

This story is a little over the top, but has a point. I identify mainly with its discussion about rising with the sun. When my in-laws took us on a rafting trip through the Grand Canyon two years ago, we rose each day around 5:30 (just as the sky was lightening) and went to bed each night just after the sun went down. It felt so natural, just like it felt natural to walk around on the sandy banks of the Colorado River barefoot. I so wanted to cling to this natural wake-sleep schedule when we got home, but it was impossible. Oh well.

Shameless bating

This is mostly aimed at Nemesis, but others are more than welcome to comment as well.

Over the last year and a half, I have visited the Los Angeles area at least half a dozen times to visit my sister-in-law and her adorable (see pic) little girl (not to mention my best friend from high school). My expectations were not high, given the venomous hatred many of my fellow Bay Area residents harbor for our neighbors to the south. However, I have found the area to be just fine, with lots of culture to be had, in addition to the natural beauty and climate. On the downside, there certainly is a lot of traffic. But there is here, too. Down there, there are freeways that always have bad traffic, but we have places like that up here, too (880, anyone?).

So, L.A.-haters, what is it that makes SoCal so bad? Or is it just some bizarre NorCal inferiority complex?

How to spot a baby conservative

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.

GOP is in 'deep funk' over Bush spending

Woo hoo!

Speaking of presidents...

and we're talking fictionally now, who would you vote for?

MacKenzie Allen
Jed Bartlet
Charles Logan
David Palmer

Others?

2008 is just around the corner...

I heard a bit on NPR the other day about Hillary as a presidential candidate. If you had asked me five years ago if I thought a woman would get ellected president in the next 20 years, I would have said "no." Maybe I'm not clued-in on this, or maybe things have changed. Anyway, it looks like this is now a strong possibility.

Thoughts? And who are the other viable candidates starting to emerge?

SF City Hall cracks me up

At the movies...

Saw Brokeback Mountain today. It is not overrated.

By the way, if you are thinking about seeing "Memoiurs of a Geisha," please read the book first. There is no way the movie could be as good (though I haven't seen it). Same applies to "Girl With a Pearl Earring," from a couple years ago, and I have seen that one.

"Mind-boggling" Idol

Yes, it certainly does boggle the mind.

When I saw the title of the graphic "Who's Watching American Idol?", I was really hoping I would just see the word "morons" when I clicked the link.

We are solar!

Last month we had solar panels installed on our roof. So far, the system has generated 1.21 gigawatts! Just kidding. It's 245 kilowatt hours(kWh). Put one way, that's enough electricity to power 10 100-watt lightbulbs for 245 hours. Put another, our house typically uses 900 kWh per month.

Of course, the system will generate much more electricity during the long, cloudless days of summer.

We got our system from REgrid Power, btw.

My favorite show is ending...

But one of my old favorites is coming back!

It makes sense for the West Wing to bow out now. No one was really interested in seeing another president and his staff move in. To me, at least, the characters are the strongest aspect of the show.