Best line about Tiger I've seen today

“If this was a scheme concocted by your handlers, get some new people. One of the reasons you’re in this mess is because your handlers helped you craft an image that wasn’t really you. Swearing on the golf course is you. Throwing clubs is you. A lot of people took issue with those offensive jokes you told GQ’s Charles Pierce in 1997; that was you, too. But if stepping away from golf is a calculated public relations stunt meant to generate some empathy, that means you’ve learned nothing from this entire ordeal.”

Jemele Hill – ESPN

Photographing holiday lights

Some good tips from Macworld tips on photographing holiday lights. An example:

The typical shots of holiday lights—the ones you see all the time—are taken at night, long after the sun is gone and the background is in total darkness. In these photos, the lights are bursting, and the background is completely black. The result has little context, and no drama. These photos aren’t bad, but they lack a certain vitality.

The remedy? Shoot shortly after sunset, when you still have some light in the sky.

At last there's proof: 44% of Americans are crazy

James Fallows is dismayed to learn that 44% of Americans think China has the world’s largest economy. An excerpt.

You could address this point with, you know, “facts.” Almost no one in the United States is a peasant farmer. Most people in China are. Nearly everyone in America has indoor plumbing. Most people in China don’t. Japan has one-tenth as many people as China, yet its economy is larger — the second largest in the world. America’s is of course largest of all, three times larger than Japan’s and about four times larger than China’s. Name 20 large American corporations that do business worldwide. Without trying, you can probably name 50. Try to name even 10 from China. Name the most recent winner of a Nobel prize in science from a Chinese university or research institution. (Hint: this is a trick question.)

He’s got more.

And check out this visual aid I found elsewhere.

Best line of the day, so far

Further proof that college football’s so-called postseason is a joke: Even the coaches treat it like one.

Can you imagine, say, Sean Payton quitting the unbeaten New Orleans Saints on the eve of the NFC Championship Game to take his “dream job” coaching the Dallas Cowboys?

Sideline Chatter

Referring of course to coach Brian Kelly leaving his undefeated Cincinnati team to take a new job.

The FCS semi-final games were not a joke. Villanova beat William and Mary 14-13 and Montana defeated Appalachian State 24-17. Both were exciting well-played games.

The Scream

The Norwegian artist Edvard Munch was born on this date in 1863.

In 1892, he wrote in his journal: “I was walking along the road with two friends. The sun set. I felt a tinge of melancholy. Suddenly the sky became a bloody red. I stopped, leaned against the railing, dead tired, and I looked at the flaming clouds that hung like blood and a sword over the blue-black fjord and the city. My friends walked on. I stood there, trembling with fright. And I felt a loud, unending scream piercing nature.” The next year, he painted the first of several versions of his most famous painting, The Scream.

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

Lord of the Flies

Mack, the oldest of The Sweeties®, turns nine tomorrow. His birthday party is today.

Here’s what we wrote five years ago:

The oldest of the Sweeties, Mack, turns four Monday, so his parents decided to host a birthday party. To their horror, nearly everyone invited accepted — and all who accepted came. That meant that Saturday afternoon 24 three- and four-year-old boys (and one two-year-old girl cousin and one little brother) took over the island that is Mack’s playroom.

Jill, official mother of Mack, reports that the swarm was amazingly well behaved, but that it did require a periodic “Freeze!” so that a census could be taken to make certain no one had escaped to some other part of the house, or worse, outside. (”Christopher? Are you sure you dropped him off? We don’t remember seeing him.”) There were moments, Jill also reported, when the boys seemed to realize that they had the adults grossly outnumbered, but she says they were easily held at bay with the cake knife.

The ice cream and cake was delayed until the last minute so that the children could be released to the custody of their parents before the sugar fully kicked in.

NewMexiKen is sad to live so far from his grandchildren; hence the prominent display of their photos on this blog. Even so, 1900 miles seemed about right while this party was on.

And today is not a national holiday, why?

Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, 94 years ago today (1915).

This from Sinatra’s New York Times obituary in 1998:

Widely held to be the greatest singer in American pop history and one of the most successful entertainers of the 20th century, Sinatra was also the first modern pop superstar. He defined that role in the early 1940’s when his first solo appearances provoked the kind of mass pandemonium that later greeted Elvis Presley and the Beatles.

During a show business career that spanned more than 50 years and comprised recordings, film and television as well as countless performances in nightclubs, concert halls and sports arenas, Sinatra stood as a singular mirror of the American psyche.

His evolution from the idealistic crooner of the early 1940’s to the sophisticated swinger of the 50’s and 60’s seemed to personify the country’s loss of innocence.

Idle thought

Ephraim argues for wait-and-see in the face of what he thinks is uncertainty about planetary temperature changes. Of course, he is wrong to begin with. The data is conclusive. But even if we were to agree that it is not, his logic is flawed.

If we lack sufficient data, that means that margin for error in the existing data is greater. And margin of error is given as PLUS or MINUS.

The consensus among those that study the problem is that the temperature will rise by 2-3º F this century. Ephraim says their data is incomplete. That means their data has a margin of error of lets just say ±3º. So, maybe it will turn out that with better data and better models the temperature will actually be about the same in 100 years as it is today.

BUT IT IS JUST AS LIKELY with better data and better models that we will find the temperature will rise even more than the current predictions. The margin of error is PLUS or minus.

Doing nothing now is stupid.

First medical marijuana

And now this. Is life great or what?

According to Dr. Karen Weatherby, a gerontologist and author of the study, gawking at women’s breasts is a healthy practice, almost at par with an intense exercise regime, that prolongs the lifespan of a man by five years.

TheMedGuru

Most Popular Songs of the Decade

The most popular songs of the decade (2000-09) across all genres, ranked by radio airplay audience impressions…sales data…and streaming activity…

  1. We Belong Together, Mariah Carey
  2. Yeah, Usher Featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris
  3. Low, Flo Rida Featuring T-Pain
  4. How You Remind Me, Nickelback
  5. I Gotta Feeling, The Black Eyed Peas
  6. No One, Alicia Keys
  7. Boom Boom Pow, The Black Eyed Peas
  8. Let Me Love You, Mario
  9. Gold Digger, Kanye West Featuring Jamie Foxx
  10. Apologize, Timbaland Featuring OneRepublic

The top album was No Strings Attached, ‘N Sync.

Billboard has the Top 100s.

Birthday boy and girls

Brenda Mae Tarpley will be Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree this year (all four-foot-nine of her) at age 65 (today is Brenda Lee’s birthday).

John Kerry is 66.

Rita Moreno is 78 and Terri Garr is 62.

Big Game

William and Mary (11-2) at Villanova (12-1)
ESPN2 6PM MT Today

Winner advances to the Division I Football Championship Subdivision National Championship next Friday against the winner of Appalachian State (11-2) @ Montana (13-0) tomorrow at 2PM MT on ESPN.

Championship? Playoffs? Unlike the Football Bowl Subdivision presidents, the presidents of the 145 FCS schools must want to be football factories.