Bad word

"Among new information surfacing from inside the McCain campaign is that Palin didn't know that Africa is a continent rather than a country unto itself."

-- Kathleen Parker

Match made in Valhalla

Some weeks back I posted about a computer video card I briefly owned. The card -- which is meant to go inside a computer, mind you -- was emblazoned with an illustration of a pretty, busty young woman brandishing some sort of martial arts weapon. What's it all about? I wondered.

I'm still not ready to answer the question, but I do have a response of sorts. I just bought still another video card, and on the outside of the box is an illustration of a pretty, busty young man who appears to be a bit player in Norse mythology, or else a professional wrestler.

So how can we get these kids together?

He is special

Charlie Rose's 1994 interview with Fred Rogers makes me weep continuously.

Stiff upper lip

There aren't enough mustaches in presidential politics. For a mustachioed major-party candidate, I think you have to go back to 1948. And what a year that was.

Good word

"Sarah Palin didn't need the best clothing and stylists money could buy; she needed tutoring and coaching on the issues."

-- Joan Walsh

Good word

"As for our current adventure in Mesopotamia, consider this lustrous alumni roster. Bush 43: Yale. Rumsfeld: Princeton. Paul Bremer: Yale and Harvard. What do they all have in common? Andover! The best and the brightest."

-- Christopher Buckley

Viva Berrymans

In my new editing gig at Isthmus I don't have much time to write magazine-length features. That's too bad, since that writing is the most satisfying work I do, and also the most challenging.

But I'm delighted that in this week's paper is an article I wrote about Lou and Peter Berryman, the local legends of comic folk music. It is here. I hope you read it. I am proud of it.