Seems as though it's always a bad time to buy a new TV: "Not since the first commercial cathode ray tube TV was developed seven decades ago has here been so much choice in televisions."

Seattle PI: Coalition presses on to save woodland: "The view from this ghost town is a crazy quilt of clearcuts etched across the surrounding hills, as if some giant barber had gone mad with his shears.

"Below, invasive weeds creep across the valley. High-tension wires slice the flank of Bald Mountain, which, true to its name, is mowed nearly treeless. Decrepit buildings mark what's left of this former railroad company town.

"What could environmentalists possibly want to save?"

Tinfoil Hats Uncover the Wellstone Conspiracy: "The most detrimental aspect of conspiracy theories surrounding the deaths of prominent politicians, particularly Democrats like JFK or Wellstone, is the inflation of their actual achievements plus the vast inflation of what they might have done had they lived that invariably follows their untimely deaths."

NYTimes (free reg required): The Corporate Blog Is Catching On: "Once you get to the point where lawyers review everything in a blog, it ain't a blog anymore"

Harry Haun:

“Gregory Peck, in the last almost-60 years, gave us a lot to watch, and, lucky for us, he left a lot of it on film. Throughout, he remained true to his credo — which was advice that Walter Huston had given him early on: “Give ’em a good show, and always travel first class.

“That surely was Gregory Peck: a class actor.”

Christ.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Sometimes, of course, a business lunch is a bad idea to begin with.

Joshua Allen: Behind the Retro Curve

Why do the anti-war, anti-Bush protesters have such a hard time getting anything to stick?

In my opinion, they fail because they have failed to recognize the diminishing subliminal effectiveness of 60's and 70's pop-culture messages, and the Bush team has effectively marshalled 80's pop-culture engrams to appeal to today's young adults.

First, watch any video footage of George W. Bush walking -- notice how his chest rises and his arms hang a bit away from his sides when he walks, as if he has just been pumping iron and has too much muscle for his arms to fit flush to his sides. Notice how his shoulders never move independently of one another, like a plastic action hero.  Now look at the pictures below, and tell me the resemblence is not deliberate and calculated.

Today's young adults don't see anything wrong with the fact that Saddam and Bin Laden haven't yet turned up dead. If He-Man had ever killed Skeletor for good, what would we do for the next episode? You see, a good He-Man always wins, but he doesn't need no stinkin' DNA to prove it!

This is truly the dullest blog in the World.

Mark Simonson: The Scourge of Arial

Arial is everywhere. If you don't know what it is, you don't use a modern personal computer. Arial is a font that is familiar to anyone who uses Microsoft products, whether on a PC or a Mac. It has spread like a virus through the typographic landscape and illustrates the pervasiveness of Microsoft's influence in the world.