Now he tells us

An excellent analysis of why we shouldn’t have invaded Iraq.

From Dick Cheney.

Even more stuff

Take a Cognitive Mental Abilities IQ test from the International High IQ Society. 36 questons; takes about 12-15 minutes. Yes, it gives you your result as an IQ. (I refer to the eCMA test.)

A video of a half-time show in Korea that has to be better than the game could have been — Incredible Halftime Show.

The books may be over but J.K. Rowling goes Beyond Hogwarts in interviews.

Oh, and from Scholastic, “find out how to say Hermione, Eeylops, and Azkaban, using our handy” Harry Potter: Pronunciation Guide.

Worried About iPod Theft? Hide It In a Zune!.

Snuggly. The Security Bear.

Oldies, but goodies

According to Fred Bronson:

“Sean Kingston continues his domination of The Billboard Hot 100, as ‘Beautiful Girls’ tops the list for the second week. That chart-topper has put songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in first place for the first time in 48 years.”

Leiber and Stoller wrote such songs as “Hound Dog,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Stand By Me,” “Spanish Harlem,” “On Broadway,” “Love Potion #9,” “Kansas City,” “There Goes My Baby,” “Fools Fall In Love,” and “Ruby Baby.” And just about everything by The Coasters.

Meanwhile a song written by Lennon and McCartney is in the Country Top 100, “Revolution,” by Rascal Flatts.

And Ella Fitzgerald has an album in the Top 200, “Love Letters from Ella,” a Starbucks album. Bronson notes that Ella’s career began in 1934, her first “chart” appearance was 51 years ago.

Not an oldie, Carrie Underwood has “the highest new entry ever for a solo female artist” — “So Small.”

August 12th

If you know anything about mythology you probably learned about it first from Edith Hamilton, born on this date in 1867. Hamilton’s book Mythology, written after she had retired as a school head mistress, was published in 1942.

Mark Knopfler is 58 today. Money for nothin’ and your chicks for free.

Pete Sampras is 36.

Cantinflas, the great Mexican comedian, acrobat and musician — and bullfighter — was born on this date in 1911. His actual name was Fortino Mario Alfonso Moreno Reyes. Cantinflas was Passepartout in Michael Todd’s 1956 Around the World in Eighty Days. In English-speaking countries, David Niven was billed as the star. Elsewhere Cantinflas took top billing — he was the highest paid actor in the world at the time. He saved the movie from the stiff Niven if you ask me.

The movie producer Cecil B. DeMille was born on August 12th in 1881. Known for his extravaganzas (e.g., The Ten Commandments), DeMille won his only Oscar for The Greatest Show on Earth.

Life

“No life goes past so swiftly as an eventless one.”

— Wallace Stegner in Angle of Repose.

“The problem is it takes most of us most of our lives to understand what we should have known from the beginning.”

— Leon Uris in Trinity.

“Though finally the worst thing about regret is that it makes you duck the chance of suffering new regret just as you get a glimmer that nothing’s worth doing unless it has the potential to fuck up your whole life.”

— Richard Ford in Independence Day.

Henry Wiggen (Michael Moriarty): “Everybody’d be nice to you if they knew you were dying.”

Bruce Pearson (Robert De Niro): “Everybody knows everybody is dying. That’s why people are as good as they are.”

— Bang the Drum Slowly