Playtime

Read my Daily Page review of "Toy Stories," an exhibit at the Wisconsin History Museum.

Good word

"If you could use stem cells to prove that life begins at foreplay, the pope would turn the Vatican into a lab."

-- Bill Maher

Life is suffering

Spotted on Langdon Street:

Good word

"But your flag decal won't get you into heaven any more
They're already overcrowded from your dirty little war
Now Jesus don't like killin' no matter what the reason's for
And your flag decal won't get you into heaven any more"

-- John Prine

Informed, or something

Regarding my query yesterday as to which is the best local news telecast: I just set the TiVo to record, over the next few days, all of them. So I'll watch and decide for myself. Though really, nothing is the same since Renee Charles left channel 57's "Nine O'Clock News."

This just in

A question for you Madison readers: What, in your opinion, is the best local television newscast? I know, I know.

I won't pardon the pun

I was struck by a sentence in a recent PC Magazine review, by Joel Santo Domingo, of a new eMachines computer (yes, this is what I read in my spare time):

"A big (pardon the pun) plus is the roomy 250GB hard drive."

Now, I'm not sure I would have even realized there was a pun without the silly parenthetical aside. In fact, I'm not convinced there is a pun, or at least a pun worth mentioning.

The pardon-the-pun/no-pun-intended locution is overused. It's like a comedian telling you he's funny. If he has to tell you, is he funny? True, Steve Martin used to do that in the '70s and it was funny. But that was different.

What I'm saying is, writers, why not let readers find the jokes on their own? And if you need to flag a joke with a lame cliche, maybe it's not a joke.

Ahoy from the mid to late early middle 30s

A thought occurred to me in December when I greeted the airline pilot who flew me to Tennessee: Since when are the professionals to whom I entrust my life younger than me?

Good word

"You can't judge a book by its cover, and some people can't even judge one by its contents."

-- Dick Cavett

Good word

"Rulers make bad lovers."

-- Stevie Nicks