The Tin Man » 2007

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Here’s a map of many of the locations in AMC’s TV series “Mad Men,” which recently concluded its first season.

I totally got into this show. Did any of you watch it? What did you think?

12:41 PM | 3 drops of oil

Friday, November 2, 2007

In my work as an editor, one of the publications I edit is a manual of terms for the oil and gas industry.

Some of the terms being added to this year’s edition are bottom hole severance clause, downhole commingling, squeeze job, and underreaming.

Tee hee hee.

Yes, today I am a twelve-year-old boy.

10:30 AM | 2 drops of oil

Monday, November 5, 2007

Thank you and thank you and thank you. It’s nice to see people tear apart Maureen Dowd’s idiotic hatchet job yesterday about Hillary Clinton’s debate performance.

Two errors in particular stuck out in her column.

One, Clinton doesn’t want to “have it both ways on illegal immigrants getting driver’s licenses,” Maureen. As Tom Cole puts it:

The simple fact of the matter is there is no good answer to the mess of illegal immigration, Spitzer is trying to do something, anything, to gain some order, and Hillary may not like it (I certainly don’t), but recognizes the value in what he is attempting to do. That isn’t double-talk or flip-flopping. It is called dealing with reality.

Two, by far the most egregious sentence about Clinton in Dowd’s column was this: “If she could become a senator by playing the victim after Monica, surely she can become president by playing the victim now.”

Is Dowd really that stupid? Does she care at all about being accurate?

Whiskey Fire responds to her inane assertion:

Hillary won her Senate seat because she busted her fucking ass. I know the cocktail party circuit isn’t so interested in the problems of rural upstate, but she was. She sat down with factory workers and farmers, she visited small towns and places where the population was hemorrhaging. I know, MoDo, I lived there. I live there still, and let me tell you, we don’t really care, up here, if someone is a “real feminist”–we care if they will represent our interests.

I went to several campaign events in 2000, and you know what? She never mentioned Monica once. Bill wasn’t with her. She wasn’t a victim, she was a person with policies.

I don’t understand Maureen Dowd. She’s obsessed with gender herself, but then she accuses Clinton of playing the gender card. She makes fun of some men for being too macho (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush), but she makes fun of other men for not being macho enough (Gore). She criticizes Hillary Clinton for making too much of her womanhood, but then she criticizes her for being too ambitious (isn’t it antifeminist to think that women shouldn’t be “ambitious”?). She insults men by asking, “Are men necessary?”, and then she wonders why she can’t find one. Yeah… it must be their fault that they can’t put up with her.

Does Maureen Dowd like anyone? Does she even know what she wants?

She’s nothing but an inkstain on the New York Times op-ed page.

11:45 AM | 1 drop of oil

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Best New York Times letters ever.

10:33 AM | oil me

Friday, November 9, 2007

I’m no fan of Mike Huckabee’s policies, but a comment in this article about his rising prospects in Iowa encapsulates what bothers me about political campaigns today.

Mr. Laudner said prospects beyond Iowa remained Mr. Huckabee’s chief hurdle among politically savvy caucusgoers. “If there isn’t going to be enough money to compete beyond Iowa and New Hampshire,” he said, “that goes to the heart of the viability question. That’s his No. 1 limit here.”

In theory, it should cost zero dollars to compete, or at least zero dollars beyond whatever filing fees are required to get on the various ballots. After all, it doesn’t cost any money to vote. In an ideal world, all voters would be informed enough to examine the various candidates, all candidates would get equal news coverage, and there would be no polls subtly influencing our choices (”I like Candidate X a lot, but he’s only polling 3 percent so I should vote for Candidate Y instead”). In theory, a poor person should be able to get elected president, given wide enough appeal.

In the early years of our republic, candidates didn’t run for election; they “stood” for election. It was seen as undignified to campaign. Of course, in the early years, the general public had much less influence on presidential politics. In half the states, the public wasn’t even allowed to vote for presidential electors. And it’s only in the 20th century that the public began having a say in presidential primaries. The wider the voter base, the more energy a candidate has to expend appealing to it.

One could argue that the influence of money isn’t that distorting, because money reflects support. For instance, maybe if Huckabee were a stronger candidate, he’d be getting more donations. But if a candidate appeals to a wide swath a poor people and opposes the interests of the rich, the rich potential donors aren’t going to give that candidate money and he won’t get any traction.

Still, it seems odd to me that it’s a given that a candidate needs a ton of money to compete. Why will Huckabee need money to “compete” beyond Iowa and New Hampshire? If he does well enough in those states, he’ll get favorable media coverage, which will influence the public.

Of course, I’m probably wildly out of touch with “the people.” I choose my candidates by following the news, not by watching TV ads. The undecideds, those who make a difference in elections, probably watch the ads.

Still, it sucks that things are the way they are.

12:12 PM | 2 drops of oil

It turns out that the celebrity real-estate agent found dead a few days ago in her posh East Side apartment was murdered by her fed-up personal assistant. “It was that Linda just kept yelling at her, over everything,” a law-enforcement official said.

Coming this Sunday or next: a feature article on the front page of the New York Times Style section about the frustrations of being a personal assistant in Manhattan. “No doubt personal assistants all over Manhattan secretly applauded when they learned the identity of Linda Stein’s killer,” the article will begin. “But what is the life of a personal assistant really like?” The article will include several quotes from harried twentysomething personal assistants and at least one reference to “The Devil Wears Prada.”

You can bet on it.

12:22 PM | 1 drop of oil

It’s fun to troll through the New York Times archives. For some reason I’ve always remembered a particular end-of-year editorial that summed up the year 1997. I remember reading it and wondering how it would read years later. Now I know.

Here it is, dated January 1, 1998. How times have changed - but in some ways, not.

The Year of Living Smugly

Perhaps the most striking thing about 1997 was its power to divert. The robust economy, the continued decline in crime and the blessed respite from terrorist violence on home soil gave the nation an opportunity to focus on intensely personal news events with little overarching import — the death of Princess Diana, the ”nanny” trial and the birth of American septuplets.

It seemed, in many senses, the best of times — even the prosperous, placid 1950’s had been overshadowed by the cold war. Now, the United States is the planet’s only remaining superpower. Its most ambitious hopes for furthering Middle Eastern peace or smoothing China’s emergence as an economic and political power may not have been realized, but 1997 was still a year marked by uneasy peace in places where the mere absence of armed conflict must be counted as achievement. At home, the stock market rose more than 20 percent for the third straight year, and it was no surprise that Wall Street traders ended 1997 by releasing balloons in honor of the new horde of millionaires the market had created.

(more…)

4:28 PM | oil me

Cripes. First the TV writers go on strike and now the Broadway stagehands. What’s a New Yorker supposed to do at night?

Oh, well. I guess I can still surf the Web.

If the Internet goes on strike, I’ll really be screwed.

11:48 PM | 1 drop of oil

Monday, November 12, 2007

Interesting Wikipedia page: List of last occurrences.

12:30 PM | oil me

Apparently, among the 50 states, Virginia has the highest proportion of cars with vanity license plates.

This doesn’t surprise me in the least. They were all over the place when I lived there.

3:44 PM | 1 drop of oil

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Charles Isherwood to the striking, out-of-work Hollywood writers: come to New York and write plays. I would love to see more well-written plays.

12:33 PM | oil me

I can’t get enough of “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah,” even though it aired a month ago. When I saw the short clip on “30 Rock” last month I laughed my head off. If I’d been drinking something I would have spit it all over the coffee table. That’s what I love about “30 Rock” - unexpectedly hilarious jokes fly at you from out of nowhere.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s the original clip (just the first 10 seconds or so). Here’s the full-length video. The original clip is funnier because it’s short and completely random.

And here’s the inevitable New York Times article.

It took three days to prepare the set, a combination of a rented spooky backdrop, branches hanging from metal light stands and carved-foam Jewish tombstones. The segment was shot on video — four takes totaling about 15 minutes, Mr. Carlock said — and was intended to look shlocky, “like Tracy was rushing to get it done in time for bar mitzvah season.”

Boys becoming men… men becoming wolves!

12:52 PM | oil me

I’ve generally been going with the flow lately. We’ve been settling into our (temporary) apartment, work’s not bad, I go to chorus rehearsals on Tuesday night, I haven’t been to the gym in ages. (There’s no New York Sports Club within walking distance of our new place.)

We managed to get in several Broadway shows before the stagehands’ strike. I should point out that we see most shows for cheap because Matt works in higher education and gets great discounts - I’d never be able to see all this stuff at full price. In the past couple of weeks we’ve seen:

The Little Mermaid. Disney musicals really aren’t my cup of tea, but it was better than I’d expected. Certainly better than Tarzan, which isn’t saying much, and somewhat better than Mary Poppins, too. Colorful sets and costumes, catchy new tunes. Call me a theater snob, though, because I hate the audiences that show up for these things. Everyone cheers and shouts as the lights go down (you’ve never seen theater lights go down before?), and a totally undeserved standing ovation at the end (though that seems to happen at every show these days). The couple sitting next to me in the very last row of the balcony was a guy and a girl from either New Jersey or Long Island. I could tell by the guy’s accent. He was sorta hunky, and when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him put on his glasses right after the lights went down, he got a tiny bit cuter.

Cymbeline. One of Shakespeare’s late plays. I’d never read or seen it before. Great cast, although Phylicia Rashad talked like she was wearing dentures. This is a long show - it ended at just about 11:00. After it ended, I said to Matt, “Well, it’s still in previews, so maybe the writer will make some cuts.” Some weird set choices toward the end. I more or less liked this - it was just long.

The Seafarer. A new Irish play by Connor McPherson. There’s a twist toward the end of Act One that virtually every news article about the show has given away — even a Playbill article about the show gives it away. The play is spooky, with some terrific acting, but it doesn’t have much of a plot and the second act goes on forever. I liked McPherson’s previous play, Shining City, better.

The Drowsy Chaperone. We saw this for the second time, for free, as part of a trip with some of Matt’s coworkers. Currently starring as Man in Chair is Bob Saget. Although he’s no Bob Martin, he was better than I thought he’d be - this is still an enjoyable show. Matt thought that Beth Leavel has become a bit too carried away as the Chaperone, but I still liked it.

The Farnsworth Invention. This is Aaron Sorkin’s newest, about the invention of television. (Eat your heart out, David!) Fast-paced in that “West Wing” way. I really enjoyed this. Lots of fun.

Young Frankenstein. I liked this more than the critics seem to. I’ve never seen the movie, so I don’t have any comparison. It’s not The Producers, but it’s still probably the funniest new show this fall.

The other day we optimistically ordered tickets to see August: Osage County late next week, hoping that the strike will be over by then. At this point it’s looking unlikely. Hopefully we can get a refund.

As for the other strike: with no new “Daily Shows” or “Colbert Reports,” I’ve been getting to bed earlier. So that’s nice.

3:36 PM | oil me

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

This is funny.

I don’t for the life of me understand why bloggers who post hot shirtless pics of themselves all over their blogs get so many readers. Do gay men really fall for this shit?

Oh, who am I kidding. Of course I understand it and of course they do. It’s just that I resent it.

11:52 AM | 6 drops of oil

Damn right.

To the Editor:

Many thanks to Frank Rich for reminding people that after 9/11 Rudolph W. Giuliani tried to destroy democracy in New York City by urging that our elections be postponed so that he could overstay his term. In my experience, many people here have forgotten this shameful attempt at a power grab.

Whenever Mr. Giuliani the candidate says that “they” attacked us because they hate our freedoms and our rights, people should be reminded that his first response to this hatred was to try to strip away our most precious right: the right to vote.

The rest of America needs to know that the person they call “America’s mayor” desperately tried to become “New York’s autocrat.” Mayor Giuliani responded to an emergency by attacking the right of the people to vote. How would a President Giuliani react to an emergency?

Eliot Camaren
New York, Nov. 11, 2007

12:31 PM | oil me

A member of our chorus passed away a few weeks ago. He was 33 years old. He died of cancer.

He was sick for a year and a half. During that time, he got sick and went to the hospital, got better and left the hospital, and then got sick and went to the hospital again. During that entire time, I never visited him in the hospital. Not once. I deeply regret this. I kept intending to visit, but I “never got around to it.” I didn’t even know when he was nearing the end. During the announcements in the middle of rehearsal a few weeks ago, our conductor told us that Devin had passed away the night before. I had to leave the room as unobtrusively as possible because my eyes were welling up and they wouldn’t stop.

The last time I saw Devin was at a friend’s birthday party last year. It was at the end of October, so it was the same night as numerous Halloween parties, and he showed up in costume. He was dressed as a fairy “godfather” - he wore a light-blue fairy outfit, complete with wings, with black boots on his feet, a bowler hat on his head, and an unlit cigar in his mouth.

Our chorus is singing at a memorial service for him on Friday. We rehearsed the pieces last night, and a few former members joined us, as they will on Friday. It was nice to see them.

Afterwards, several of us went to the bar across the street, as some of the guys always do after rehearsal. It was my first time at the bar this fall - I just felt a need to hang out with some of my fellow singers. It was pretty somber. Not completely, but more somber than usual, and lots of talk of cancer and dying young.

I didn’t know Devin as well as some of the other guys in the group did. I didn’t really see him outside of rehearsal. Still, I didn’t sleep well last night. I kept drifting in and out of dreams about Devin and some of the other chorus members. I woke up several times.

Sometimes it’s not that death is sad, so much as that it’s profound. It’s hard for the human mind to contemplate an absence. An absence is, by nature, intangible. How do you register that? Especially when the presence who’s now absent was so young?

It’s not easy.

4:32 PM | oil me

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Bob Herbert is underappreciated.

If you’re not a New York Times junkie like me, you probably don’t know who he is — he’s one of the paper’s seven or eight op-ed columnists. Others — Maureen Dowd, Tom Friedman, David Brooks, Paul Krugman — they’ve got buzz. Bob Herbert? More of a buzzkill. He writes largely about the (primarily black) disenfranchised among us — those in the inner cities, those who are poor, those without health insurance.

T.A. Franks in the Washington Monthly asks: Why is Bob Herbert boring?

His underlying problem turns out to be simple: he doesn’t write with his audience in mind…. If he’d overcome his indifference to “chatter” and elite opinion and instead try to attract and coopt it—in other words, think about who his audience is and what he wants it to do—he could be one of the most powerful liberal voices in the country.

Herbert’s writing isn’t usually flashy or sexy or witty, but he almost always makes great points. It’s too bad more people don’t read him.

3:06 PM | 1 drop of oil

I wonder about the future of “The Daily Show.”

I don’t mean because of the writers’ strike — hopefully that will end and the show will come back before, say, next summer’s presidential conventions.

What I wonder about is whether, if a Democrat wins the presidency, “The Daily Show” will be as popular in 2009 as it is right now.

The Bush administration, while it has ruined the country and the world, has been a boon to Jon Stewart. It’s not just that Bush is so idiotic and loathed that the headlines write themselves; it’s not just that Stewart’s audience is pretty liberal and that we love to see Bush and other Republicans get skewered. (I always laugh at Stewart’s fake Bush cackle, no matter how many times he does it.) The main reason Stewart’s popularity has grown in the last few years is because we feel so angry at what Bush has done, so aghast that he’s been able to get away with it, and so powerless to change anything about it — so outraged and depressed at the same time — that the only non-destructive outlet we have is laughter. We’ve needed Jon Stewart during the Bush years, in a deep psychological sense.

What happens after?

There was a telling moment on the show this past summer. Stewart did a sequence of Hillary Clinton jokes. This was before Obama and Edwards started getting more aggressive against her, before the media started picking up the “Hillary’s making missteps” narrative. Outrage against the Iraq “surge” was at its height, General Petraeus’s testimony was approaching, and we still felt pumped about there being a chance to turn the surge around — before Congress folded and apathy set in again. We were angry.

And Stewart did some Hillary Clinton jokes.

The audience reaction was tepid, at best. Stewart eventually had to tweak the audience.

I guess it’s partly that the jokes weren’t very funny, but it’s also that the audience wasn’t with Stewart. We wanted more cathartic comedic exasperation at the state of the world; we weren’t looking for anti-Hillary jokes.

Maybe it will be different if Hillary gets elected. She’ll hold power, she’ll be the president, so she’ll be a legitimate comedic target. (The powerful always get skewed.)

When Stewart made fun of Hillary that night, it almost seemed as if he was trying to remind us that he’s an equal-opportunity offender — warning us that we shouldn’t get too comfortable.

3:57 PM | 3 drops of oil

Saturday, November 17, 2007

You like football players? You like opera singers? Here’s a Harvard fullback who sings opera.

Be sure to check out the accompanying video clip.

12:19 PM | 1 drop of oil

Monday, November 19, 2007

Republican Senator John Ensign: “The American people, I think, would rather have General Petraeus running the war than members of Congress.”

Fuck you, senator. In this country, civilians control the military, not the other way around.

Fuck. You.

10:41 AM | 1 drop of oil

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Early last week, we optimistically bought tickets to August: Osage County through TDF for this Friday, thinking that the stagehand strike would be over by then. So much for that.

Even so — this is going to sound strange, but I felt a twinge of disappointment late last week when I read that the two sides were going to sit down for talks, and a bit of excitement when I read that the talks had failed. This has nothing to do with the real-world impact of the strike - stagehands, actors, restauranteurs, bartenders, and store owners are all hurting, and they deserve their livelihoods back. It’s more a feeling of curiosity on my part. The novelty of it. Disruptions of the normal routine are exciting, in a sense. I’m not sure what this says about my day-to-day life.

My odd feelings about the strike are also because I’m a news junkie. I’m a news junkie because I’m not just interested in what happens in the world; I’m interested in seeing how what happens in the world is covered. That’s why I’m an obituary geek and why I like newspaper front pages. I’m interested in seeing how things are covered day by day. I like that every day lately, the headline lead article on the Playbill website tells what day of the strike this is.

I know I shouldn’t feel this way about the strike. And if it were affecting me more personally, I wouldn’t. And I don’t really feel this way deep down. It’s just that it’s something different. And sometimes, something different can be bracing.

10:21 AM | 2 drops of oil

R.I.P., Mr. Whipple.

In his honor, here’s a curious Charmin commercial I just found on YouTube.

10:40 AM | oil me

This past weekend was a bit of an emotional roller coaster.

On Friday evening, I went to the memorial service for my fellow chorus member Devin, who died a few weeks ago of lymphoma at age 33.

The service was at the church where our chorus rehearses every week (although it wasn’t a religious service). There must have been at least 200 people there, and there were several terrific, heartbreaking eulogies. Our chorus sang two pieces, and let me tell you, it’s hard to keep it together when tears are pouring from your conductor’s eyes while he waves his arms. I’d never seen him cry before. It was… hard.

In a completely different vein, on Saturday night I teared up again but this was for a good occasion: I went to a same-sex wedding for the first time. This was for a friend of mine whom I met about seven years ago. He and his partner have been together since the summer of 2001 (when they were in their mid-20s), and they finally decided to tie the knot. It wasn’t a legal ceremony — they will do that later in Canada — but they wanted the big celebration to be in New York, since they live here. And they did sign some legal papers during the ceremony, in the presence of a lawyer.

The event was at the Prospect Park Picnic House in Park Slope. The program contained silhouette drawings of the two grooms. The grooms processed in to Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors.” Someone sang an operatic rendition of “Simple Little Things” from 110 in the Shade. There were delicious hors d’oeuvres, and the main meal was served buffet style - a “comfort station” containing macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, salad, and something else that I can’t remember - and all that, too, was delicious.

The event was so wonderful and tasteful and I think my friend has a second career as a wedding planner if he wants it.

On Sunday afternoon we had a respite from all the emotion. We went to see an Off-Broadway play: Things We Want, starring Peter Dinklage, Paul Dano (the depressed mute teenager from “Little Miss Sunshine”), Josh Hamilton, and Zoe Kazan. We were in the front row of this small theater, pressed right up against the front of the stage, and we were therefore THISCLOSE to Josh Hamilton in his underwear. And Peter Dinklage, not in his underwear. And Paul Dano, who had his shirt off at one point and is completely skinny with not an OUNCE of body fat on him. We were close enough to see that his belly button is an outie, which always skeeves me out a bit (as do uncircumcised dicks, but that’s beside the point).

The play was okay - it was well acted, with great dialogue, but I didn’t buy the second act at all.

So that was my weekend.

This week I’m going to make two quiches to bring to my brother and his wife’s apartment for Thanksgiving. I’ve never baked a quiche before.

If real men don’t eat quiche, what does that say about someone who bakes quiche?

Anyway… wish me luck.

3:34 PM | 5 drops of oil

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

In honor of Thanksgiving:

God, I miss that show.

6:17 PM | 4 drops of oil

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Here’s a great recap of Rudy vs. Hillary in 2000.

(See previously.)

3:06 PM | oil me

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Here’s yet another article about Giuliani and Clinton running against each other in 2000, this one from the front page of today’s NY Times.

10:12 AM | oil me

“Lord of the Rings” movie fans, note: The Return of the King: The Complete Recordings was released last week. Four CDs of music, plus an audio DVD containing the same music in surround sound. This completes the Complete Recordings, a total of 10 CDs containing the complete score of all three films. Isn’t that insane?

I’ve got my copy, though I haven’t had a chance to listen to much of it yet (nor have I yet listened to even half of “The Two Towers”).

Here’s a review.

Also, the writer of the liner notes for all the complete recordings, Doug Adams (not this one, of course) is writing a book, The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films, due out next fall. And the book has a blog.

3:15 PM | oil me

My chorus, the Empire City Men’s Chorus (formerly the Gay Gotham Chorus), is performing its annual holiday concert next Friday night, December 7 (Pearl Harbor Day!). We’ll be performing at:

The Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew
263 West 86th Street at West End Avenue
8:00 p.m.
[map]

We’ll be joined for one number by Barbara Walsh, who recently performed as Joanne (”Here’s to the ladies who lunch”) in John Doyle’s revival of “Company” on Broadway.

We’ll also be joined by the brass-playing members of the Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps, a.k.a. “the gay band.”

Oh my god — we rehearsed for the first time last night with the brass, and this one brass player was SO hot. He had glasses and a light-brown beard and wore a tight black t-shirt over his muscular arms. He was playing what looked like a tuba that stands on the ground — I’m not sure what it was. But several of us were talking about him after rehearsal.

And don’t make a joke about “asking to see his instrument” — too easy.

So come see us! Our holiday concert is typically our most highly-attended concert of the year.

And you can see a hot tuba-like-instrument player.

4:06 PM | 1 drop of oil

Flipping through the channels, I see that the Republicans are having a debate on CNN. It’s being moderated by Anderson Cooper.

The idea of a gay man moderating a Republican presidential primary is just too bizarre for words. I wonder if the candidates know? I wonder if the viewers know?

9:01 PM | 1 drop of oil

Hooray!

(Update: In what other city but New York can you watch live TV coverage of the end of a Broadway strike?)

10:40 PM | 3 drops of oil

Thursday, November 29, 2007

How and when did illegal immigration became such a hot topic in this country? I don’t remember anyone even talking about this in the presidential election four years ago. There have long been parts of the nation where it was a big issue, but somehow in the past two years it became this pressing national controversy that masses of people are worried about.

Wikipedia, as usual, provides some enlightenment here.

I guess it doesn’t help that there’s a wide-open Republican primary full of candidates trying to pander to extremists on this issue — people who seem to care less about illegal immigration and more about being overrun by dark-skinned people in general.

As for me, I can’t get myself to worry much about it. I chalk it up to having spent my high school years overseas. Living in Japan for three years permanently changed my perspective on America’s relationship to the rest of the world. I don’t think this country is better than any other country. It’s better in some ways, worse in others. (Many others, yes, but just as we’re not angels, we’re not Satan either.)

More important than our individual national identities are our identities as citizens of the world. Our common humanity is more important than any national allegiance.

There are swaths of ordinary people on this planet who couldn’t care less about the United States. They spend days on end living their lives, going to work and eating and entertaining themselves, hardly thinking about Americans or the United States at all. Fancy that!

And I don’t think there’s a fixed American identity, at least not one that’s going to change just because we let lots of dark-skinned people come over the border. And Dick Cheney and David Addington have fucked up our constitutional system of government more than hordes of immigrants ever could.

It’s not that I don’t think people should come legally instead of illegally. It’s that I just can’t seem to get myself worried about it.

Xenophobia isn’t unique to Americans, by the way, or even to caucasians. For instance, Japan has long dealt with its own ethnic issues.

Someday every human being is going to be the color of coffee ice cream, and then we’ll find other stuff to fight about.

1:03 PM | 7 drops of oil

Friday, November 30, 2007

Two influential New York newspapers have front-page stories this morning about how Rudy Giuliani lies. One of them is a tabloid, so the story is splashed across the cover and will influence the masses:

Rudy Lies

Arguably more important, the New York Times has this on its front page: Citing Statistics, Giuliani Misses Time and Again. The article points to several statements Giuliani has made and says, “All of these statements are incomplete, exaggerated or just plain wrong.”

Does this mean a meme is finally taking root that it’s a Republican candidate who exaggerates?

It’s seeming less and less likely to me that Giuliani will be the Republican nominee (but what the hell do I know - I predicted a couple of months ago on Mike’s blog that it would be Fred Thompson). So these stories might be coming just a bit too early.

Still, after Gore and Kerry got raked over the coals for alleged lying and exaggerations, it’s nice to see the shoe on the other foot for once.

(Ooh, two metaphors in one sentence. Always wear shoes when walking over coals, I guess.)

10:32 AM | 1 drop of oil

Given the name of this blog, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out this miniseries, which starts on the Sci Fi channel on Sunday night.

And no, it’s not a miniseries about me. It’s about the other Tin Man. I think.

We’re TiVoing it.

3:34 PM | oil me