Best line of the day, so far

“Pandas are animals blessed with a great color scheme. Endangered in the wild, they’ve been the subject of a massive, worldwide marketing campaign that emphasizes their cuteness without so much as mentioning their nasty side. In this way, they’re like former First lady Barbara Bush.”

FunctionalAmbivalent

Go read Tom’s whole take on pandas and “Another Case Where Marketing Endangers Lives.”

Best sports line of the day

On the first play of the second half, the Lions broke the huddle with 12 men. The first play of the second half. Now, it’s important to keep two things in mind:

1. The Lions had known for nearly two hours that they would have the ball at the start of the second half.

2. Only 11 men are allowed on the field at a time. That is a new rule for the 2008 season. Oh, wait, my bad: That’s actually been the rule for, like, 100 years.

Michael Rosenberg writing about the futility of the 0-15 Detroit Lions.

Best new cliché of the day

“Take a moment here to refer to the performance of Viola Davis in the role of Donald’s mother: If she doesn’t get an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress I’ll throw shoes.”

Frank McCourt in his look at the movie Doubt.

A stong-willed nun in the 1960s. Imagine that.

“You haven’t the slightest proof of anything,” Father Flynn.

“But I have my certainty,” Sister Aloysius.

Best Christmas isn’t all in New England line of the day, so far

No where in the collection of holiday songs is the singer lamenting for Christmas of their youth were it was 65 and sunny.

Or having tamales to eat on Christmas Eve.

Or plucking a piñon tannenbaum out of the pile for 15 bucks a piece at the flea market.

Or filling paper bags with sand.

No, the “east coast bias” that applies to sports seems to infiltrate the holiday as well.

Karen Fayeth

Click to see Karen’s photo of another Albuquerque Christmas tradition.

Tysonic

From TPM Reader DM …

Bill Simmons, a sportswriter for ESPN, coined the term “Tysonic”. It refers to Mike Tyson, and applies to anyone who has entered a sphere of existence so bizarre, you will believe any news you hear about them, no matter how absurd. Aside from Mike Tyson, Britney Spears is Tysonic. After the turkey interview, I classify Sarah Palin as Tysonic.
As a native Chicagoan, I say Blogo is definitely Tysonic. If someone told me, “Hear about Blogo? He dressed himself up as Elvis, highjacked an Air Yugo flight from O’Hare to Belgrade, and is now living under the protection of Serbia… And he’s formed an exploratory committee for 2016.”

I’d pause for a moment and say, “Yeah, that sounds right.”

Talking Points Memo

Best line of late night last night

“According to a new survey that just came out, the most admired profession is doctor. Doctor is the most admired profession. Yeah. The least admired profession? Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s barber.”

Conan O’Brien

Runner-up:

“I tell you, the economy’s rough. People are standing behind President Bush just to get the free shoes.”

Jay Leno

Best line of the day, so far

Al Unser Jr. paid an undisclosed sum to an extortionist who threatened to release a “compromising” videotape of the two-time Indy 500 winner, AP reported.

Though New Mexico prosecutor Mark Drebing picked an inopportune time to invoke Unser’s nickname when he said, “I don’t think Little Al did anything wrong.”

Sideline Chatter

Best Christmas line of the day, so far

When I was a child, I tell my offspring, my brother and I often would receive just one present at Christmastime, typically an individual crayon. It wouldn’t even be a full crayon, but merely a stub. Still, we’d be grateful and would pretend that “brown” was our favorite of the 64 Crayola colors. We would talk about how great this crayon would be if only we could afford paper.

Joel Achenbach

[First posted here three years ago.]

Best reactions of the morning, so far

A bailout was necessary — but this bailout is an outrage: a lousy deal for the taxpayers, no accountability for management, and just to make things perfect, quite possibly inadequate, so that Citi will be back for more.”

Paul Krugman


“Citigroup management gets a great deal; you and I not so much.” 

Simon Johnson


“The Washington Post, which is obsessed with cutting the pay of autoworkers earning $57,000 a year, did not even bother to tell readers what pay cuts Robert Rubin and other top executives at Citibank will receive as a result of conditions in its latest government bailout.”

Dean Baker