just muttering 2004-2008

It's snowy and cold and windy in the northeast today. A fitting end to a strange year. It's a bit insulating as long as you're i...

Laura listed her 20 top favorite actors and it's a yummy list. Worth a visit to the post just to gaze on the gorgeous and evocative fa...

It's Marianne Faithfull's birthday. She's awesome. Listen to something by her today.

It's almost fifty hours until 2009 and if the year can start anew then so can I. Heck, the country's government will be new in three...

This is now an archive. The current blog is still muttering by myself .

In case you're curious, you can pretty much figure out what tv shows will be cancelled by checking my level of enthusiasm. Well, not a h...

Not sure why Caroline is being reviled as far as the senate seat. When Hillary moved to NY and ran for that office, her only qualifications...

This is a bit disrespectful and loony but it's awfully funny - especially if you're not entirely enamored with the insane buybuybuy ...

Watched " Two Men Went to War " last night. We had four dvds from Netflix - a virtual plethora of possibilities - but two were dre...

Sleep, Sleep, beauty bright Dreaming o'er the joys of night. Sleep, Sleep: in they sleep Little sorrows sit & weep. Sweet Babe, in t...

Talk about an important day. Many children, movie makers, movie goers and people in general should celebrate today and honor the 107th birt...

I have recently been reliably informed that chocolate may help relieve intense coughs.  How magnificent is that?!  It's meant to be dark...

The number of my descendants increased by one on November 22nd. There are now 3 cutest children in the world and since, conveniently "...

It's one day away from December now.  A new season (early winter).  And it's time to haul out the advent calendars and count down to...

After a brief hiatus, I'm going to try and revive my blogging. I've enjoyed it enormously in the past and appreciate the words of bl...

This country has many millions of people.  At times it seems that each of us has different ideas and different convictions from everyone els...

Good column on the puzzles of the McCain campaign here .  Good piece on the probable success of the Obama campaign here .

SPOILER ALERT My friend and I watched the final episode of "The Last Enemy" tonight - a five-part miniseries on PBS. It was entir...

Work.  Traveling.  Sorry about the lag in posting.

Website names are a tricky - though interesting - business. Some site names are amusing, some are cute, some are evocative, some are informa...

Here's the weekly pre-poll - now on Tuesdays just like the real thing. If the election were held today, who would you vote for? John McC...

Gorgeous fall weather all weekend and today. Temperatures in the mid-seventies, bright sun and sparkly air. Would that it could be like this...

Slow computer and busy week.  I've done all the onboard speed and functionality tests, with marginal improvements but many websites are ...

Qantas Air, long famous for its utterly unblemished safety record - even remarked upon by Dustin Hoffman's savant in Rainman - has had f...

Who'd win if the election had been held yesterday, 10/6/08 Why people choose a candidate (multiple answers allowed) McCain - Obama - 3rd...

If the election were held today, who would you vote for? John McCain Barack Obama Third party or write-in Wouldn't vote pollcode.com f...

Linda has been showing some terrific photos of Paris recently as she strolls around and looks at all kinds of things. The Art Deco grate cov...

Thanks for participating! I'll leave this up through the weekend. Who do you think won the debate? Biden by a mile Palin by a mile Bide...

McCain pulled his campaign out of Michigan yesterday. Last week, Obama withdrew his campaign from Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming and Alaska.

Let's see how good we are at predicting this. My current guess is that it will be interesting and might be informative but might be some...

Who'd win if the election had been held yesterday, September 30: Why people choose a candidate (multiple answers allowed) : McCain - Oba...

First the primaries went on for twenty-five years or so (or did it just feel that way?) and one kind of primary (Republicans) counted votes ...

If the election were held today, who would you vote for? No one - I won't vote A third-party or write-in candidate John McCain Barack Ob...

They bait ed each other . . . . ok, ok, it's a bit lame but at least I tried. There is a certain ridiculousness in using debates to lear...

Today is quite a historical moment in America. The first black candidate for president will be participating in a debate held at the Univers...

I wonder how tonight's debaters will fare... and whether the event will have any impact. Predictions?

I, like Betsy , have been startled at Bill Clinton's magnanimousness and generosity about McCain. But she says it so much better than I...

The British government has proposed some earth-shatteringly major changes to accession to the throne of England. Among (of course I meant ...

McCain has just announced that he's suspending his campaign to go to Congress and work on the financial crisis. He's called on Obama...

Even Joe Biden thought the anti-McCain technology ad was bad ( here ). One in-the-know friend of mine thinks Biden is the cat's meow an...

Who'd win if the election had been held yesterday, September 22: Why people choose a candidate (multiple answers allowed) : McCain - Oba...

Could Bill Clinton be sincere when he says he "gets" why Sarah Palin is so popular ( article here )?  Let me rephrase that.  I bel...

I'll put up these polls each Monday for the next six weeks and post the results the following morning. If the election were held today, ...

Not sure why PBS is conducting polls, but they are. It all comes off their PBS Now page. Seems a little odd on a non-profit tv station...

What do you suppose will happen on November 5th, the day after the election? This year's election will almost certainly be at least as c...

I wanted to discount it as right-wing lunacy but now I've read in more than a few people who are hearing or at least predicting that the...

In the ongoing and important discussion of what experience qualifies a person to be vice-president and/or president, and keeping in mind tha...

In case you don't already know that racism is alive and well and living in the whole world, despite what we may hope and think. And in c...

Have you found the last weeks puzzling too? I mean, Obama's meteoric rise to exciting prominence was in large account because of his ex...

If this moment wasn't on tape, I be making excuses for him because I'd be sure he was being misquoted. But Biden actually said ...

Can I say how sick I am of hearing people quote Carly Fiorina's statement about Palin not having enough experience to be a CEO? What sh...

I think there must be a few Calvinist bones lurking in my body because it always feels like giving in if I even consider admitting I'm s...

Sometimes I give in and say something personal. Can't keep it dignified all the time, right?! This time it's because if I could get ...

I would be glad to make a stink about misleading headlines about Obama, not just about McCain, if there were any that I've seen. The hea...

We watched The Counterfeiters last weekend. It's an Austrian film that won the foreign film Oscar for 2007 and it's terrific. A mast...

Peter Falk is only 3 years younger than Lauren Bacall??!!! And they are, respectively, 81 and 84 today?? Wow! Well, happy birthday to them...

Zogby's September 13th electoral college projection has Obama at 234 and McCain at 226 with 78 uncertain. (Of course technically they...

Dr. Sanity, always fascinatingly verbal and verbally fascinating (yes I intend both separately) has written a long and detailed article toda...

Is any thing reported accurately? Does any public figure tell unembellished facts about themselves? The headlines this afternoon report that...

The current head of the Roman Catholics is in Paris this weekend and appearing to huge crowds. Pope Benedict XVI may be a wonderful human be...

The terrifically fun and occasionally instructive click-and-give application, Free Rice , has added many subjects. Where once there was only...

John McCain on several subjects - July 13, 2008 interview in the NY Times. Barack Obama on several issues - March 15, 2008 interview in th...

As a philosophical / linguistic matter, I have problems with the logic that singles out one or another skill as so pivotal that not having i...

Q1. Is it just me or was the “hubris” question astonishing for its, er, hubris? And if it's an acceptable question, then he'd better...

Considering the hurricane that utterly devastated Galveston on September 8, 1900 ( details here ), it seems particularly frightening to cons...

I have to say that I think it's a ridiculous phrase no matter who uses it or about what. But what was Obama thinking to use the word lip...