Ladies and gentlemen, the 2012 Republican presidential ticket

perfect

this here >

I'd sign this letter, too

link

cast of Enterprise 2

Cdr. Charles "Trip" Tucker III is a chimera-character. I'm prety sure he's designed to combine the homespun Southern charm, best-personal-friend-o-the-cap'n role, and emotional-homunculus-on-the-right-shoulder trope-purpose of McCoy with the more cynically targeted appeal-to-young-women function of Chekov*, wrapped up in Scotty's old crew-slot.

Unfortunately he comes across to me mostly like a Pensacola frat-boy. Since I already know he gets the girl woman Vulcaness in the end, that's kind of a drag.



* even to me, tuning in to the second-season primetime premier the night before my 8th birthday, it was clear that Chekov was a Russian Davy Jones.

Heart of Cheney

I just learned that Dick Cheney received a heart transplant a few weeks ago.
They say he had suffered "at least five" heart attacks, the first at 37 yoa. Many of us have always suspected, however, that his real cardiac problems were similar to The Grinch's:

3, maybe 4 sizes too small?

In any case, the guy's heart was so dead that for almost 2 years he was a cyborg, with an implanted pump doing the work that his left ventricle couldn't. No pulse.
here's the device:

I forget where I got this pic; maybe the NY Times.

Now it's all been pulled out and he walks yet among the living with somebody else's heart.
But it's the end of a beautiful metaphor.

On the cast of Enterprise

Hoshi is the nerd's Mary Ann to T'Pol's nerd's Ginger.

UPDATE 4/30/2012: bwa-ha!!! 2004!

100 Outstanding US Journalists. and years.

Here's the list.

All the usual suspects you'd usually suspect, but I smiled to see many of my favorites:

Steinbeck
HST
John McPhee!
Garry Trudeau
'Hitch'
Rachel Carson
Howard Cosell (yes, I'll stand by that)
Tom Wolfe

The rest (the Professor + Mary Ann), with nice bios for everybody at the link above.

an old poem

Ring around the rosie,
 a pocketful of posie.

Ashes.
Ashes.

We all fall down.

classic Star Trek dialog

Absoluely  critical moment:
Season 2, Ep. 1: Amok Time @ ~20.00:
Kirk [of Spock, to McCoy; and defying direct Starfleet orders]: I owe him my life a dozen times over: Isn't that worth a career?!
He's my friend.