I’m trying to think of a cliché or word of gobbledygook Governor Palin did not use. Help me out here.
Day: October 2, 2008
October Twoth
Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2nd in 1869. Groucho Marx was born on October 2nd in 1890. Coincidence? I think not.
Maury Wills is 76 today. Wills stole 104 bases in 1962 to break Ty Cobb’s 47-year-old record. So far, that hasn’t been enough to get him into the Hall of Fame.
Don McLean is 63.
Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer’s day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land.
Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they’ll listen now.
Photographer Annie Leibovitz is 59.
Gordon Sumner is 57. You know, Sting.
You’ll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You’ll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we walk in the fields of gold
So she took her love
For to gaze awhile
Upon the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
Among the fields of gold
Will you stay with me, will you be my love
Among the fields of barley
We’ll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we lie in the fields of gold
Lorraine Bracco is 54.
Graham Greene was born on October 2nd in 1904.
Graham Greene realized early in his writing career that if he wrote just 500 words a day, he would have written several million words in just a few decades. So he developed a routine of writing for exactly two hours every day, and he was so strict about stopping after exactly two hours that he often stopped writing in the middle of a sentence. And at that pace, he managed to publish 26 novels, as well as numerous short stories, plays, screenplays, memoirs, and travel books. He said, “We are all of us resigned to death: it’s life we aren’t resigned to.”
The Writer’s Almanac (2007)
Bud Abbott was born on this date in 1897. He was the thin one of Abbott and Costello.
Best Groucho lines of the day, so far
Julius Henry “Groucho” Marx was born on this date in 1890.
“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”
“I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception.”
“I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.”
“I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.”
“Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.”
“Room service? Send up a larger room.”
“I intend to live forever, or die trying.”
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them — well, I have others.”
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”
Thurgood Marshal
…was sworn in as Supreme Court Justice on this date in 1967. Marshall made the successful argument before the Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. He was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals by President Kennedy, and as Solicitor General and then to the Supreme Court by President Johnson. He was the first (of just two so far) African-American justice.
Click here to see how political cartoonist Paul Conrad depicted the loss when Marshall died in 1993 (two years after retiring from the Court).
Best line of the day, so far
“Joe Biden will be judged on whether he gets anything wrong; Palin, on whether she gets anything right.”
Insightful line of the day
“We’re debating whether being part-time mayor of a small town in Alaska qualifies you to be president.”
Best line of the day, so far
“[B]ecause of low expectations, Sarah Palin need only get through tonight’s debate without accidentally endorsing Obama in order to be successful.”
Simple thought
You know, if put on the spot, any thinking American ought to be able to name Dred Scott at least as a Supreme Court decision they disagreed with.
Hubris and its rewards
The Woman Who Struck Out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig
“I learned plenty of strange facts this weekend at the Baseball Hall of Fame. But by far, the most amazing story I heard was this one: about a 17-year old girl who struck out two of the biggest names in baseball, only to be kicked out of the sport.”
Read all about it at the mental_floss Blog. I’d never heard about Virnett Mitchell before, had you?
33 days
“Today, Barack Obama has 269 electoral votes outside the battleground zone. That is, if you only give Obama the states he is projected to win by more than five points, that is enough to get him an Electoral College tie, which is essentially the same as a win.”
FiveThirtyEight.com (the best source for polling information and forecasts).
Obama gets 269 even if the margin is upped to six points. New Mexico (+9.3%) and Colorado (+6.1%) are included in the 269.
In addition, FiveThirtyEight.com says “[W]e project Obama victories in Virginia (4.4%), New Hampshire (3.4%), Ohio (2.4%), Florida (2.4%), and Nevada (2.1%), with Indiana a tie.”
That’s 338.
But anything can happen.
Wanted, but Alive
At FunctionalAmbivalent, Tom tells of his day in custody.
A great read, complete with a best line, “It’s why my wife paid the bills for most of our marriage, until online banking turned bill paying into a kind of video game.”
Debate preview
1. A constitutional right to privacy, which Palin says we have, and Antonin Scalia, for one, says we don’t, is the very underpinning of Roe v. Wade. Palin’s answer undermines 35 years of “right to life” talking points.
2. If a right is constitutional, then under the 14th amendment states cannot abridge that right — “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Palin says the right is constitutional but up to the states. Sorry Governor, not since 1868.
The right to privacy was recognized by the Supreme Court in 1965 in Griswold v. Connecticut, a case where the Court found a Connecticut law prohibiting the distribution of contraceptives to be unconstitutional.
NewMexiKen gets email
The funniest Staff Meeting Ever!
The boss of a Madison Avenue advertising agency called a spontaneous staff meeting in the middle of a particularly stressful week. (This is one pretty sharp boss!) When everyone gathered, the boss, who understood the benefits of having fun, told the burnt out staff the purpose of the meeting was to have a quick contest. The theme: Viagra advertising slogans.
The only rule was they had to use past ad slogans, originally written for other products that captured the essence of Viagra. Slight variations were acceptable.
About 7 minutes later, they turned in their suggestions and createed a Top 10 List. With all the laughter and camaraderie, the rest of the week went very well for everyone! The top 10 were:
10. Viagra, Whaazzzz up!
9. Viagra, The quicker pecker picker upper.
8. Viagra, like a rock!
7. Viagra, When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
6. Viagra, Be all that you can be.
5. Viagra, Reach out and touch some one.
4. Viagra, Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman.
3. Viagra, Home of the whopper!
2. Viagra, We bring good things to Life!
And the unanimous number one slogan:
1. This is your peepee. This is your peepee on drugs!
Two best lines
“1) Given that Palin is now personally responsible for saving Katie Couric’s job, is there any kickback scheme in the offing?”
. . .
“3) Do we really know whether or not Sarah Palin is Sacha Baron Cohen’s greatest role?”
I didn’t vote for him
“It would have been nice to let Bush’s two terms marinate a while before invoking Herbert Hoover and James Buchanan from the cellar of worst presidents. But then — over the last two weeks — he completed the trilogy of national disasters that will be with us for a generation or more.”
Timothy Egan, who adds:
“If ever there was an argument for voting against politicians who are confident about their cluelessness, Bush is it. So it was heartening to see that a majority of the country, in some polls, now views Sarah Palin as unqualified to be president.”
Best summing up line of the day, so far
“This guy [Obama] is the furthest thing imaginable from an extremist; McCain, by his own admission, is the bomb-thrower in this race.”
And they vote
Middle aged woman #1: I saw that woman of The Cosby Show near Wall Street yesterday.
Middle aged woman #2: Wow, you did not! Which one?
Middle aged woman #1: Whoopi Goldberg–the one that was married to Bill Cosby in the show!
Middle aged woman #2: Oh yeah, I remember her. I think she changed her name to Whoopi Cosby now.
–A Train