Just because I’m working day and night (literally) doesn’t mean you can’t run barefoot through the grassy fields of Fanatical Apathy. Have at it!
Updates: The “Wait Wait” thing is coming along nicely, this week’s “Real Time” looks great, and Sebastian likes carrots.
Also, a tip: I spend a lot of time perusing fivethirtyeight, and I recommend it highly. Not only is it a fascinating statistical approach to predicting the election (baseball fans will appreciate the proprietor’s hardcore sabermetrics pedigree), the writing and new battleground road-trip field reporting is top-notch.
Okay, I’ve just returned home after a 16 hour day and itzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..
Fanny Roborat
21 comments
Zee Man
September 24, 2008 at 3:41 am
1No, Adam. Don’t apologize for your busy schedule. Get some sleep and, in the morning, get up and keep working that mother lode you’ve discovered in the comedy mines. Life won’t always have these kinds of opportunities.
Just remember - Baz will need someone to play catch with and your lovely wife will need ………………. well …. actually, I don’t have a clue what a woman needs. If you ever find out, please let all us guys know. And when you do find out, funny it up, OK? Guys just love to guffaw and drink beer! Men are simple. Why do women have to be so damned inscrutable?
dee
September 24, 2008 at 4:12 am
2I’ve become a fivethirtyeight devotee myself over the last few weeks. I don’t pretend to understand all the hard core statistics (still trying to figure out the TIpping Point States thing) but I agree the writing and reports from the field are well done.
And I’m glad to hear Baz likes carrots. Did anyone else here ever take the OASIS test back in the day? As I recall, it was a test to determine what area of study/work you should pursue and your results were based on answers given by people who were employed in various fields. One of the questions was “Do you prefer to eat your carrots raw or cooked?” If all the accountants liked raw carrots and you didn’t, then accounting was not for you.
Scoff if you will, but it was spot on for me. My language arts/social sciences scores were in the 90’s; I distinctly remember that my Physical Science score was 8.
cooper
September 24, 2008 at 2:02 pm
3dee, I need to buff up my language arts and social skills. So which vegetable should I be eating? (I hope it’s not rutabaga.)
Dave von Ebers
September 24, 2008 at 2:15 pm
4I haven’t checked out fivethirtyeight lately; this election is making me way too nervous. I’d like to think that McCain’s attempt to back out of the Friday night debate is a sign that “it’s over,” to quote Peggy Noonan’s live-mic mishap following the selection of one Sarah Palin for the post of A Heartbeat Away From the Presidency™ … but, of course, Peggy Noonan was wrong back then, wasn’t she? (Not that I make a habit of quoting Peggy Noonan, fer Chrissakes.)
Every morning when I wake up I pray that we’ve somehow, miraculously, fast-forwarded to Nov. 5, and both the election and the World Series are over. How is a Cub fan/Obama supporter supposed to get through the next few weeks, anyways? With a handy supply of nitro pills, I suppose.
On the upside, all this wonk-ish statistical mumbo jumbo reminds me of my favorite baseball-related trivia question: Can you name all eight ways a batter can get on base? And, for purposes of this question, a hit is a hit is a hit is a hit. You can’t count singles, doubles, triples and home runs as separate ways of getting on base. (For the record Seattle D … you’re disqualified. You know too much baseball trivia.)
Dave von Ebers
September 24, 2008 at 2:20 pm
5By the way, Dee … that bit about the OASIS test is reminiscent of a great “Candid Camera” episode where they had a bunch of Ivy League students fill out some sort of career placement questionnaire; then they met with the students individually and told them things like, “Based on our research, you are ideally suited to be … a shepherd.” The kids were totally shocked, but they were too polite to object. The one who was told he should be a shepherd said something like, “Well, I’ve always liked the outdoors.” It was priceless.
SeattleDan
September 24, 2008 at 3:36 pm
6Ok, Dave, I’m putting my hand down and not pleading “Call on me, Call on me!”.
Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight is one of my favorite baseball wonks, and I say that as a fantasy baseball nerd for these past twenty years. Do check out his site.
Samuel
September 24, 2008 at 5:59 pm
7Gidget somehow came across a tape of a service at Sarah Palin’s church in 2005. Sarah is on the stage with two brethern laying on hands and behind her, the pastor of her church is praying for her political success, financial security and for the expelling of witches from Ms. Palin’s body as she began her run for the office of Governor.
Last night Marlene began organizing and packing away some of our clothing, in case we have to beat a quick retreat from DC. She shipped all of it to a storage pod I keep in New Ulm, Montana. Mainly summer clothes and items that neither of us can fit into since we began living the good life in the nation’s capital on Mr. McCain’s American Express card.
We haven’t found the mole in the campaign staff yet, but we’ve sworn a blood oath upon our first born (yes, I do have one of those somewhere in Bolivia) not to rest until we’ve run this vile human being to ground. I sleep better at night knowing that DC’s best and brightest are on the job.
Just Jay
September 24, 2008 at 6:00 pm
8Hi All,
Here’s an idea. What if, instead of giving 700 billion dollars to the people who created the mortgage mess, we used it to create a pool of money to refinance ballooning interest mortgages at a low fixed rate. Unless my math is way off, we could refinance 2.8 million homes at an average loan of $250,000. The only losers would be the bond holders who were expecting years of usorious interest, but somehow I don’t have a lot of sympathy for them. It would end the glut of foreclosed properties, help out the little people … oh, wait, the little people don’t have millions of dollars to finance election campaigns. Never mind.
Damn.
Jay
Dirk's Diary
September 25, 2008 at 3:29 am
99-25-2008
Dear Diary,
Cheney is obsessed with this supposed “mole” in the Palin/McCain campaign, but not for the reasons I assumed. Fealty to the GOP has nothing to do it. He wants to catch this mole so he can store him in one of his undisclosed locations. Then, after enough time has gone by, he wants this poor schmuck to be fattened up, renditioned to the Armstrong Ranch in Texas, where the two of them can go mano e mano out on the prairie. Of course the Cheney mano will be sporting a 30-30 rifle with laser scope and the other mano will be stripped naked and released in a clump of trees with no water. May the best man win!
Dirk
Dirk's Diary
September 26, 2008 at 4:00 am
10Some of my friends and I have started a pool at work on how long it will be before Sarah Palin uses the phrase “such as” in an interview. You know, like the Miss South Carolina beauty queen who answered a question about America’s lack of knowledge of the world by yammering on about the “shortage of maps showing the border between, such as, Afghanistan and Eye-rack.”
I thought I was going to win last night during Palin’s talk with Katie Couric. Damn, she was so close! Start your own pool with your friends and see who wins. Lots of good, clean fun - which is another thing Americans seem to lack.
Aunt Sam
September 26, 2008 at 4:31 pm
11Alright, DvE, since no one but the smart kid in class responded to your challenge, I cheated and went to Mr. Aunt Sam. This is what I got. They made sense to me at the time but I once I walked away, it all got kinda fuzzy (kinda like Sarah on foreign policy & the economy & well, everything).
1. hit
2. walk
3. wild pitch
4. dropped 3rd strike
5. error
6. fielder’s choice
7. catcher’s interference
8. batted ball hits runner
Them are my talking points.
Harold, Hillary Voter for Obama
September 26, 2008 at 5:59 pm
12…must…not…look…at…hypno-tie…
Dave von Ebers
September 26, 2008 at 7:00 pm
13Aunt Sam … Oh, so close!
1. Hit
2. Walk
3. Hit by a pitch
4. Error
5. Fielder’s choice
6. Offensive interference
7. Defensive (catcher’s) interference
8. Dropped third strike
And, if you were watching the Cubbies this evening (in lieu of the on-again, off-again “debate” …), you saw a Brewer get on base via catcher’s interference. Only to be followed by a balk.
Now, balks, of course, are a whole ‘nother matter altogether …
I have this theory that baseball appeals to lawyers and Catholics more’n anybody else, on account of all the arcane rules ‘n stuff.
Domine, domine, domine … you’re all Catholic!
Aunt Sam
September 26, 2008 at 7:24 pm
14The story I told at my dad’s memorial service was that after they met The Man Of My Dreams the first time they had 3 questions:
Which political party?
Cubs or White Sox?
What religion?
And that’s probably the order of importance too…
fortunately, as he is a member of the Church of the Apathetic Agnostic- ‘I don’t know & I don’t care’, while I am Episcopalian- ‘all the pageantry, none of the guilt.’ Plus y’know we get married, female & gay priests- sometimes all at once.
Aunt Sam
September 26, 2008 at 7:28 pm
15I also think those games with all the weird arcane rules favor kids who played with their siblings a lot growing up- the made-up games that evolve into ‘OK, after you touch the porch the first time for ghosts in the graveyard you have to run around the house 2x clockwise and 1x counterclockwise before you can touch it again. If you fail to do this, then I get to use your bike tomorrow AND borrow a shirt of my choosing to wear to school one day next week.’
Dale
September 27, 2008 at 4:58 pm
16Only child agnostic baseball nut here. Back to the drawing board on the theories, guys! (Although in the theories’ defenses I was raised Episcopalian and now I study the Inquisition, which is all about Catholic lawyers. And Sam, I played that game all the time, just with myself.)
Dave von Ebers
September 27, 2008 at 6:39 pm
17Well, okay. It was just a theory anyway. I do think that the arcane-rules part of the game appeals to the lawyer/Irish Catholic in me, though.
Although I’m much more of a baseball fan than a Catholic these days … and I say this as a Cubs fan, which ought to call my baseball bona fides into question anyways.
Dave von Ebers
September 27, 2008 at 6:40 pm
18By the way, I’m disappointed no one picked up on the Firesign Theater reference …
Zee Man
September 28, 2008 at 3:10 pm
19…“And Sam, I played that game all the time, just with myself.”
Oh, yeah? Who won?
David
October 1, 2008 at 5:23 pm
20Tonight is Grateful Dead night on WNCW, the broadcast service of Isothermal Community College in Spindale, North Carolina. Available online, in case any of you are once-a-week Deadheads.
Denice Webb
November 12, 2008 at 12:35 pm
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