- New York Times columnist and neoconservative pundit Bill Kristol, December 17, 2006

Unfortunately, Eurovision has reverted to form and designated an unmemorable Russian entry as its winner. I will not bother you with the details of this year's winner. However, for your amusement, I present you with Finland's entry, the heavy metal band Teräsbetoni and their song Missä miehet ratsastaa ("Where the Men Ride") (lyrics):

as well as Latvia's pirate-themed entry "Wolves of the Sea":

Both get points for originally as well as providing more evidence that parts of Europe exist in a 10-20 year pop-culture lag.

White people love rules. It explains why so they get upset when people cut in line, why they tip so religiously and why they become lawyers. But without a doubt, the rule system that white people love the most is grammar. It is in their blood not only to use perfect grammar but also to spend significant portions of time pointing out the errors of others.

When asking someone about their biggest annoyances in life, you might expect responses like “hunger,” “being poor,” or “getting shot.” If you ask a white person, the most common response will likely be “people who use ‘their’ when they mean ‘there.’ Maybe comma splices, I’m not sure but it’s definitely one of the two.”

“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” - James D. Nicoll

an amazing proportion of New Yorker cartoons are improved if you replace the caption with "Geez, what an a-hole."

However, while I was at MIT over the weekend, a guy I know sought me out and told me how much he liked the post I made last year about Marilee Jones's departure from MIT and that he referred lots of other people to it for a good summary of the issues. It made me feel better that people read this every so often and occasionally find things they consider interesting. It's inspired me to at least make an attempt at getting back to a semi-regular posting schedule.

For this kind of stomach-churning comfort food and more, see The Company Cookbook and a compendium of old-school Weight Watchers recipe cards.

On that note, I think Adam Smith had a pretty good insight here:

The ordinary expense of the greater part of modern governments in time of peace being equal or nearly equal to their ordinary revenue, when war comes they are both unwilling and unable to increase their revenue in proportion to the increase of their expense. They are unwilling for fear of offending the people, who, by so great and so sudden an increase of taxes, would soon be disgusted with the war; and they are unable from not well knowing what taxes would be sufficient to produce the revenue wanted.

The facility of borrowing delivers them from the embarrassment which this fear and inability would otherwise occasion. By means of borrowing they are enabled, with a very moderate increase of taxes, to raise, from year to year, money sufficient for carrying on the war, and by the practice of perpetually funding they are enabled, with the smallest possible increase of taxes, to raise annually the largest possible sum of money.

In great empires the people who live in the capital, and in the provinces remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them, scarce any inconveniency from the war; but enjoy, at their ease, the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of their own fleets and armies. To them this amusement compensates the small difference between the taxes which they pay on account of the war, and those which they had been accustomed to pay in time of peace. They are commonly dissatisfied with the return of peace, which puts an end to their amusement, and to a thousand visionary hopes of conquest and national glory from a longer continuance of the war.

Me: So I wanted to get these posters framed at the framing store in Cambridgeport, but they wanted something like $200 for each one! So I decided against getting them framed. Then the saleswoman told me that there was a "poster special" where using a certain frame would cost only $50 for each poster, so I went for that.

Friend: You're always such a good haggler with these things.

Me: No I'm not. I'm actually way too shy for all of that kind of haggling over prices.

Friend: Oh yeah? Name the last thing you feel like you over paid for.

Me: ..... Um... Huh. I guess you have a point.

I was reminded of this conversation when I found what must be one of the most valuable posts I've ever seen on a blog: Readers share their negotiating stories. These are great tips and anecdotes.

My favorite negotiating tactic, however, is this: know exactly how much something is worth, and refuse to ever pay more than that amount of money.

One of my favorite features from Marvel Comics is their What If? series. This past month, Marvel released a What If? issue based on one of my favorite comics, the late-80s "Spiderman vs. Wolverine". This was a truly great comic. The What If? issue takes that original comic as a starting point and posits Spiderman becoming a secret agent.

That's not the point of this post, however. Reading the issue, there was this one scene where Spiderman encounters a difficult enemy in the middle of a battle:

Wait a sec... where have I seen something like this before?

Oh, yeah....

Kind of a fine line between "homage" and "plagiarism."

There was no big blowout on either side. Obama didn't make the knockout blow that he could have had he won California. This spared my neighbors the prospect of listening to me play the Obama Reggaeton song over and over again at high volume on my stereo.

Here are the big stories:

• First, for all the enthusiasm about Obama and good press he gets, Clinton is still the "default candidate." She's the candidate that low-information voters and non-activists are immediately drawn to, meaning that Obama is still an insurgent challenger. While one person derisively wrote, "Hillary Clinton really is like the McDonald's of the Democratic candidates. No good god-damn reason to go there except you've been there before and you know the brand," McDonald's is the place advertising "billions and billions served," and people are going there in much larger numbers than they patronize Le Pain Quotidien (which I recommend, by the way).
• The flip side is that whenever Obama sets his sights on a state and organizes the hell out of it, he wins, or at least fights to a tie.
• Whatever happens, Democrats are turning out in much, much larger numbers than Republicans.

On the other hand, Obama has moved his South Carolina and Missouri staffs to Ohio and Texas, putting a lot of boots on the ground in order to do what his campaign does best: organize voters and boost turnout to drive him to victory. Plus, Obama has raised almost $6 million just on Wednesday. Clinton, meanwhile, had to loan her campaign money for the next month while her staffers are voluntarily going without pay. Next week, Obama is favored to win at least 2 of the 3 primaries in Maryland, DC, and Virginia.

Personally, I'm a bit skeptical of Obama's chances. Clinton's built-in base is huge, and the candidate who gets her base almost always wins the nomination, and she proved her formidability on Tuesday, turning back strong challenges by Obama in Massachusetts and California and crushing them. If she does the same in Ohio and Texas, she wins, and the thing is that she probably will win if she just treads water. It would take an implosion of her campaign of catastrophic proportions for her to lose Ohio and Texas.

Most importantly, one reason that Obama is likely to lose -- or even why he should lose -- is as a means of giving those who express such youthful idealistic enthusiasm about his candidacy a necessary growing experience. You see, as a veteran of the Howard Dean campaign, I know what it's like to watch an insurgent campaign full of youthful enthusiasm get stamped under the boot-heel of establishment support and skepticism of the aged. It was one of those formative experiences that have helped me evolve into the cynical cranky old man that I am today and allows me to really appreciate a certain amount of Machiavellian viciousness in my candidates. Sure, I like Obama, but I'd hate to see all of his young volunteers miss out on what it's like to have their dreams squashed like a bug.

Anyway, I just wanted to highlight my favorite play from the Super Bowl Sunday night which, no doubt, annoyed my neighbors to no end as they had to listen to me screaming at the TV:

See also: A Wittgensteinian discourse on the substitution rule.

However, I will say that I enjoy seeing Boston sports fans suffer.

10:03pm update: ouch, that was tense. I thought I would have to eat my words for a second, there.

how much you enjoy Cloverfield will probably wholly depend on how detestable we find the film's characters. And since they all appear to be twentysomethings with the financial means to afford gigantic loft apartments in attractive Manhattan neighborhoods, we suspect it will be our favorite film of 2008.

Actually, the best reason to see Cloverfield was to watch this teaser trailer:

That this was the highlight of the movie reminds me how back in 1999, there were sold-out showings on opening night to see the execrable Wing Commander because we wanted to see this trailer.