2002-09-05 2:15 PM
What's Shiny Today (Hell in a Handbasket Edition)
Back in junior high, we would get at least one good teacher freakout per class per year. It usually took at least 20 minutes of time we'd otherwise have to waste, y'know, learning, and ended with the teacher purple or screaming or both.
I'm not sure if it was because most of us were pampered suburbanites in an area where most of our teachers couldn't afford to live, or because we were preteens, or because our teachers were stuck with us through all three years and grew to dread seeing our little faces, or some combination of the above. All I know is that one of the more memorable moments in junior high was the day in 7th grade it was Mrs. B's turn to lose it, and she ended her purple, screaming 20-minute rant with, "You're all going to HELL in a HANDBASKET!"
Thus, the Hell in a Handbasket edition of What's Shiny. Here's hoping Mrs. B. now has a good cardiologist, or at least a big, cold pitcher of gin and tonics.
- As everyone but my one loyal reader
has heard by now, the A's
won number 20 -- though by all rights they shouldn't have. How can you
go and blow an 11-run lead and still squeak out a win? This is the worst
unrealized potential disaster the A's have managed since they went and
traded Jeremy Giambi for John Freakin' Mabry. I mean, I'll take it, but still.
- OK, so it's now officially not about his daughter's upbringing.
Michael Newdow, the suburban Sacramento lawyer of Pledge of Allegiance infamy,
is now going to court again, this time over having a chaplain in
Congress. Any good he may have inadvertently managed with the Pledge decision
has now been torpedoed.
- Do the
shortcomings of "socially-responsible" investment funds get you down?
Why not go for some socially irresponsible investing instead?
- Go see the pretty
redwoods while you still can.
- Check out the changes to Jar Jar Binks that didn't make it into the last Star Wars movie.
(OK, so it didn't happen, but is it so hard to believe it could have?)
- Californians will not be surprised in the least to hear that there's
not a lot of love out there for either of our probable future
governors, Bill Simon and Grey Davis. What you may find surprising is that,
while at this point in most elections the pool of undecided voters is
dwindling, this time it's actually increasing, as each side effectively
highlights the putrid scumminess of the other without doing much to clean up
their own guy's image. (The latest: Simon's furious backpeda
ling on a gay rights questionnaire he filled out -- not because it said
he didn't support a statewide Gay Pride day, but because it said he did.
Way to strengthen Davis' lead in the Bay Area and LA, dumbass.)
For prime examples of both, check out eGray (funny as hell, until you realize it's probably sponsored by the Simon campaign; note the frequent use of Simon buzzwords "pay-for-play government") and Simon Says, Gray Davis' campaign's "bad news about Simon" page.
- "You'd love to have a hardy breakfast every morning, right?" Er, a hearty
breakfast, maybe, but wouldn't a hardy one be tough to chew?
See, this is what happens when you get a gold membership and start paying attention to your stats. While D'land superstars such as Marn have at least three loyal readers, I've found through my logs that I have exactly one, who's a, er, student at Napa State. He doesn't get ESPN, and he also doesn't get out much (except for the occasional stroll around "campus"), so he apparently counts on me to keep in touch with the world, poor sap.