Slush Guzzler

In Absentia

2005-12-02T07:55:00.000-05:00

Lauren and I have had a Netflix account since we moved, and I can't recommend it highly enough. One thing it has led to, though, is me reading a lot more movie synopses than I ever have. The more you read them, the more you realize how truly ridiculous it is to try and summarize a movie in a sentence or two. Is Jaws really about a fishing trip? What if I said a movie was about "two friends and their wacky hijinks involving a corpse with a mind of its own?" Am I talking about Weekend at Bernie's or a faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, one that incorporates the Clerval storyline?

I also found this site called Ruined Endings. I realize it's stupid, but I get the idea of wanting to know the endings of movies that you'll never see. At the same time, is the ending of Hitch so unpredictable? (SPOILER ALERT: He gets the girl!) Most of the "Ruined Endings" give no background on who the characters are or the main plot points, so it seems more targeted at people who walked out of, say, Home Alone, and are now wondering if Kevin's parents ever return home (SPOILER ALERT: They don't. Kevin dies and the house goes into receivership.)

Perhaps the best spoiler is for Pearl Harbor: "The Japanese lose the war." Shut up, I haven't seen it yet!

T-giving

2005-11-22T11:21:00.000-05:00

A fan of the whole brevity thing, I'm wondering what the Slush heads think of the impending holiday of T-giving. Specifically, what's your favorite dish served at the holiday? For me, its definitely the side dishes, particularly the mashed potatoes and the stuffing (or dressing, depending on your culturally adherence). Turkey's turkey, but a truly good mashed potato or stuffing can be transcendent.

Thoughts?

Please Respect Us

2005-11-18T08:40:00.000-05:00

Have you seen this commercial on TV yet? The Dept. of Homeland Security issues a heart-rending plea to have its color code system taken seriously, but the whole thing plays like a Daily Show segment. Definitely worth watching.

Same Intelligence?

2005-11-18T06:30:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, the White House brought an interesting charge against many Congressional critics of the war in Iraq: you saw the same intelligence we did, what are you complaining about now? I don't think the partisan attacks by either side on this issue is constructive, but I think the White House's assertion of "same intelligence" is laughable at best.

Our national legislature, unlike our executive (which has several), doesn't have an intelligence agency. Congress can only evaluate the intelligence given to it by executive agencies. Now, I have no doubt that in the run up to the war, the White House gave Congress all information it believed was necessary. But it is a stretch to say that Congress had all the information that the White House did. First of all, the White House is a natural filter between the intelligence agencies and Congress. Second, and I'm no expert, most Congressmen are not privy to the full extent of intelligence that the White House does pass on. The intelligence committees get the big picture and then decide what to pass on to the full 535 members. Now, I don't know, for instance, what committees Rep. Mertha (D.-Penn) sits on, maybe he is on intelligence. However, that doesn't negate my basic point: there simply isn't any way that every member of Congress receives the exact same intelligence briefing as President Bush. The offensive argument that the White House is using now doesn't hold up to even basic examination.

Fear Of Needles

2005-11-16T08:33:00.000-05:00

Here in Massachusetts, the House on Monday passed a bill that would legalize the sale of syringes through pharmacies without a prescription. Gov. Romney is opposed to the bill, and has not announced yet whether or not he would veto the bill if it passes the Senate. The story is here.

I don't understand the opposition to this bill, though I do like how it comically takes the argument against condom distribution or marijuana legalization and mercilessly stretches that logic beyond the breaking point. Laws like this already exist in 47 other states. They have been proven in states like Connecticut and Rhode Island to dramatically reduce the transmission of diseases like AIDS and Hep. C. So where is the problem? Does anyone really think that readily available hypodermic needles will create even one more new drug user? Give me a break. The drugs people use needles for are hard drugs. No one decides to become an addict, or dust off that old heroin habit, just because clean needles are available. The idea of a drug addict refusing to use a dirty needle, holding out for a clean one, would be funny if there was anything funny about a destructively powerful physical and psychological compulsion. But there isn't. If this country has a problem it's a drug problem, not a needle problem. So the least we can do is prevent the transmission of deadly diseases while we figure out how to get these people the help they need.

McCartney: Cute Beatle, Knight of the Realm and Space Explorer?

2005-11-13T11:40:00.000-05:00

Paul McCartney self-invited himself to perform minor Beatles' classic "Good Day Sunshine" as well as his new track "English Tea" for the crew of the International Space Station this morning. The publicity stunt, hailed as the first-ever concert linkup to space, served as the two-man crew's wake-up signal.

The AP-wire had this to say:

"The performance was beamed from the West Coast to the space station crew 220 miles above Earth and broadcast on NASA television, which showed live feeds from space.

[Astronauts] McArthur and Tokarev bobbed up and down and sipped from squeeze pouches through the show, getting a rousing cheer from the audience."

'I can't believe that we're actually transmitting to space!' McCartney said. 'This is sensational. I love it.'"

McArthur, who did a couple flips, noted McCartney's creative achievements and thanked him for playing the songs."

"'That was simply magnificent,' McArthur said. 'We consider you an explorer just as we are.'"

Putting aside Paul's traditional puffery, I'd like to focus on Astronaut Bill McArthur's decision to declare Paul McCartney an "explorer." The comment reads like the typical unfortunate exaggeration that someone not used to dealing with the press comes out with. I'm sure that McArthur felt the need to say something either quotable or profound and somehow found himself placing Paul McCartney on the same pedestal as John Glenn and Neil Armstrong. One wonders if he later slapped his forehead and said, "D'oh."

Still no word on which McCartney thought was more "sensational": the transmission or the sippy squeeze pouches.

Dover, PA Sleeps With The Fishes

2005-11-11T07:19:00.000-05:00

Pat Robertson has apparently appointed himself God's mafioso lieutenant, a sort of St. Luca Brasi.

“I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God, you just rejected him from your city,” Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, “The 700 Club.”
“And don’t wonder why he hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that’s the case, don’t ask for his help because he might not be there,” he said.

Indeed, as it says in Mario 1:15, "God never asks a second favor once he's refused the first, understand?"

Like a lot of things Pat Robertson does, trying to threaten and intimidate voters is beyond ridiculous. If God really wanted those candidates to win, he should have done more than quietly endorse them. Did he do any phone banking? Voter targeting? Where was his GOTV operation?

Happy Birthday

2005-11-10T08:31:00.000-05:00

I'd like to give a shout out to St. Mose on this anniversary of his birth....

Negative Jerry

2005-11-09T18:52:00.000-05:00

And so Jerry Kilgore lost his bid for the governorship of Virginia and by 6 points no less. How could this former attorney general lose a state that Bush won twice? Negative campaigning. If you don't already know, I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. Less government, less taxes, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I didn't vote for Kilgore. I voted for his opponent, Tim Kaine and not for any particular attraction to him. I don't really know the first thing about Tim Kaine's policies, his leadership style or anything else of value about him. I do know one thing, however, he's not Jerry Kilgore.

I voted against Jerry Kilgore because he's a jerk. Or, at least, so I gathered from his commercials. He tried to trade on his western Virginia roots by dragging out his twin brother and talking in a fake accent (the guy's lived in Richmond for at least a decade). He used fearmongering tactics to accuse his opponent of coddling child molesters, trying to quadruple the gas tax and trying to eliminate school funding. However, the capstone of his attack campaign had to be his accusation that Tim Kaine wouldn't execute the laws of Virginia properly (specifically the death penalty) because he was a Catholic. Not since 1960 have I heard such blatant Catholic baiting. Kilgore did everything but claim that the Virginia state house would be moved to Rome.

If news reports can be relied upon, it was swing votes like mine that created Kaine's come from behind victory. While Kaine had a strong, motivated Democratic base and the benefit of an enormously popular outgoing Democratic governor (the ever smiley Mark Warner), Kilgore ran his own campaign into the ground with attack ads. I hope that's the lessons the 2008 presidential candidates take from Virginia's 2005 gubernatorial election.

Open Myke

2005-11-09T06:31:00.000-05:00

Scott Lingenfelter has earned political capital and now he's going to use it... that is his style.

What's on your mind today?

Kiddie Kadillac

2005-11-08T10:04:00.000-05:00

Though I want to hate this, I think I understand the reasoning behind it now. When these battery powered kiddie cars used to ape more sensible vehicles (ha) like Jeeps or monster trucks, it was frustrating that they would go for 5 minutes on a 24 hour charge. Rather than make a better battery, they've simply lowered our expectations! It still drives for only 5 minutes, but now it costs $60 to charge the battery.

Kerry Speaks

2005-11-07T09:42:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went to Tufts University in Medford, MA for a grassroots meeting featuring John Kerry as the keynote speaker. There are a few accounts of the event here and here. Let me first say that in front of a small group (or perhaps not in front of a camera) Sen. Kerry is an inspired speaker. He has actually been addressing the "morals" issue that the D raised here a few days ago, both in a speech in New Hampshire on Saturday and a point from that speech that he echoed yesterday:

"There is not anywhere in the three-year ministry of Jesus Christ, any, that remotely suggests - not one miracle, not one parable, not one utterance -that says you ought to cut children's health care or take money from the poorest people in our nation and give it to the wealthiest. Nowhere."

That got some big applause. Sen. Kerry also highlighted the importance of local organization, claiming that Ohio had no local organization last fall and so people from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and elsewhere had to come in and try to get organized (though this study would seem to dispute that).

Finally, Kerry assured us that House & Senate Democrats will be releasing a unified agenda in January. I share his optimism that this will serve to attract some disenchanted Bush supporters looking for a reality-based plan for the future. One can hope, anyway.

A group picture was taken and its distribution was promised; if I get ahold of it I'll post it.

Advise & Consent

2005-11-04T09:41:00.000-05:00

I wanted to expand a little bit on Mike's post from last night. When I consider Supreme Court nominations and confirmations my head hurts, because I have no idea what my opinion is. From what I know of Judge Alito's record, he and I would disagree on a great many things. Does that mean I don't think he should be confirmed? Not necessarily. It seems to me that the Senate's role in the confirmation process has been inflated recently. Nominating Supreme Court justices is not a group activity; it is a spoil of victory. Certainly the founding fathers knew that politicians would nominate ideological allies and, from time to time, cronies; Alexander Hamilton spoke out against the latter but was conspicuously silent on the former.

From Federalist Paper #76:
To what purpose then require the co-operation of the Senate? I answer, that the necessity of their concurrence would have a powerful, though, in general, a silent operation. It would be an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President, and would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from State prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment, or from a view to popularity.

No one should be surprised that George W. Bush has had the opportunity to put two people on the Supreme Court, nor should they be surprised that he would nominate conservatives. If it can be somehow demonstrated that Alito disregards the competing merits of a case to arrive at a predetermined result, I suppose he might be considered "unfit". But I don't think you can torpedo a nominee because you don't like his politics.

I would bet that many of the people most outraged by Alito are the same people who sit out elections and claim that there is no real difference between Democrats and Republicans these days. Is this, a justice who may be the deciding vote in eviscerating Roe, a big enough difference for you?

I don't want to see Alito on the Supreme Court, but I'm not willing to run roughshod over the Executive Branch in particular and the separation of powers in general to stop it. The time to do something about this was last November, or, if you're an optimist, November 2008.

Then again, does "consent" really mean "rubber stamp"? You see my problem here?

The Gang of 14

2005-11-03T18:25:00.000-05:00

There's be a lot on the news in the past few days about the so-called "Gang of 14." The Gang of 14 is a bi-partisan group of U.S. Senators who staved off the so-called nuclear option a few months back and have now, if you believe the media, been given single-handed control over the confirmation of Judge Alito. Now, I don't really care one way or the other personally, but I think if I was part of the so-called "Leftover 86," I would be insulted. Who decided that these 14 senators were the cool kids calling all the shots? The emphasis and pathos that the media places on these 14 chosen ones is just absurd.

Knights of the Roundtable

2005-11-03T10:10:00.000-05:00

So I was invited to participate in a roundtable discussion this weekend with none other than Sen. John Kerry. Supposedly it'll be a small group and I'll be able to ask him some germane questions, so I thought I'd turn this over to the general wisdom of the Slush G. What would you ask Sen. Kerry? Post your questions here and if I get a chance to ask them I'll report back with his answers.

Open Myke

2005-11-02T07:34:00.000-05:00

Sing it loud & proud...

Review the Reviews

2005-11-01T14:51:00.000-05:00

Nate's restaurant review seems to have gone over like Lingenfelter's proposals for Kent Memorial Library (good or bad depending upon your perspective). In that spirit, I was wondering how you the reader would feel about various other kinds of reviews here on Slush Guzzler. I'd be happy to throw out random opinions on DVDs, films, books, comics, and auto repair shops. Please do let me know your thoughs.

Swearing in Before the Bar

2005-11-01T12:26:00.000-05:00

Gas for 20-hour, 1100 mile drive from Newport to Richmond and back: $150
5 bad fast food meals: $30
Intermittent satelite radio reception: $12 a month
1 day of leave: $100

2 seconds saying "I do" in a crowded convention center before the Virginia Supreme Court: Priceless.

Wonders of the Modern World

2005-11-01T12:18:00.000-05:00

Slushheads-

Wow - I didn't even realize until today that my post of a week ago had even made it on to the board due to the slowness of my connection. Now that I know that the posts are making it through, I'll try to pick up the pace a little bit...

Thought for today: Does anyone else think it was odd that President Bush complimented Judge Alito on his taste in women yesterday when he nominated him to the high court? Talk about a ham-handed segue.

Doonesbury

2005-10-30T10:17:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post from Connecticut... my grandmother pointed out that RPI was mentioned in Doonesbury this week.

Friday Question

2005-10-28T09:04:00.000-04:00

What will you be for halloween this year?

If you answered "nothing", what WOULD you be if you weren't so lazy, busy, etc.?

The band is playing in Hartford tonight at the Hartford Independent Media Center's Halloween Party. Things are not looking good in terms of me getting together a costume by then, but stranger things have happened, I suppose. I had been thinking of being Buddy Holly, but I don't have a tuxedo. Damn formal 50's! Anyway, if you're going to be in the Greater Hartford area tonight around 9pm, why not swing by? I'll buy you a beer (and by that I mean give you one of the cans of beer I'll be bringing).

Open Myke

2005-10-26T08:45:00.000-04:00

Please keep the terseness to a minimum!

In Search of the Average

2005-10-25T15:58:00.000-04:00

The Courant had an article (and accompanying picture) today about a man who searched the country for the absolute average American and then wrote a book about that everyman. What he found may surprise you...

...but it probably won't. That guy is definitely average-looking, alright. He's a total 5!!! Anyway, it turns out that the author picked his old high school janitor, without even realizing it. In fact, the author used to have a T-shirt with the janitor's face on it, for reasons I don't understand now but would have undoubtedly found hilarious in high school. Let me be the first to say it: kids can be so cruel. Anyway, I thought this was an interesting search to undertake, and the story has a neat ending-- the author dupes the janitor (possessing an IQ of precisely 100) into changing his name to John Q Public.

After I read the article, I started googling for more articles about this "Average Joe." Instead, I found myself at the Average White Band's website. Remember them? They do that song "Pick Up The Pieces". True Story: one time I was at a town fair of sorts in Enfield, CT when all of a sudden the Average White Band appeared and started playing. Like an idiot, I stood there for a few minutes hoping they would play "Pick Up The Pieces" soon. It dawned on me that they (no doubt with rockstar hangups about the audience streaming towards the parking lot five minutes into their set) probably save that one for the end. Anyway, I started reading their old news posts, when I came across this excerpt from their Sept. 27, 2001 missive, delineating their response to Sept. 11:

The one thing that is unmoved, however, is my need to assure you all of the entire band’s shock and sadness at the scale of this atrocity, and its senseless waste of human life[...]

Like many Americans, when I heard the news of the attacks my first thought was "This was the work of that band that does 'Pick Up The Pieces'." As time went by and it was determined that Saddam Hussein was solely responsible, I dropped my suspicion toward the 'Band, for the most part. But at the same time, I wondered what the band's reaction was to the whole thing. Were they neither shocked nor saddened? They certainly didn't seek me out and tell me otherwise. To put it bluntly, I was shocked and saddened that they weren't expressing their shock and sadness. Finally, after 2+ weeks of waiting and (one can only assume) vicious infighting and hand-wringing over the ramifications such a statement would have on their big jihadist following, the band came out firmly (courageously?) on the side of anti-terrorism. Alan Gorrie (vocals/bass) was tasked with writing the majority opinion.

If anyone is still reading, my point is that in the future I'm just going to assume that most restaurants, airlines, bands, babysitters, day care centers, dog grooming businesses, and hotel chains are against wanton acts of terrorism. Certainly I understand the need to grope with disaster in both public and private ways, but you don't need to release a statement about something so obvious.

P.S. Someone tell that guy who called the blog "terse" to come read this post.

Reviewed

2005-10-25T14:12:00.000-04:00

Colin McEnroe is teaching a graduate class on blogging at Trinity College in Hartford. I came across this review of the Guzzler by one of the students in the class:

Slush Guzzler looks sharp and has some interesting, if terse, posts, but it doesn't develop the strong blogging voice I expected from its tagline: "Pickles, Law, Beer and Politics." The semi-regular posts here often seem to fall back on the "open myke," which is another way of saying NOT MUCH TO SAY.

Man, and I thought our tagline cushioned and ensconced people in its soft bigotry of low expectations! In all seriousness, I consider terseness (or at least succinctness) to be an exalted virtue in any and all forms of expression. I'd hate to hear the blog was longwinded or blowhardesque.

American Joe's Just Average

2005-10-24T13:05:00.000-04:00

This is the first in an occasional series of irritating, mostly fictional restaurant reviews.

Slush Guzzagat's Survey
American Joe's Bar & Grill
** out of 4

Last night Mike, Lauren, and I went to dine at American Joe's Bar & Grill in scenic Providence, RI. It was nobody's first choice but somebody's second choice. This "boffo" room had a "dim" ambience yet a lively, boisterous crowd. The meal started, as they so often do, with our choice of potables. Mike and I quaffed a delightful brew hereafter referred to as Sam's Octoberfest. At $4.95 a pop, I was "nonplussed"; my dining companion was "underwhelmed". By contrast, the coffee service Lauren received was a tour-de-force of hospitality; our amiable server was unflappable, going so far as to deliver both cream and milk to the table with nary a raised eyebrow.

Our eager-to-please server raved about the clam chowder, imploring us to "try it before you knock it." Finding the request both "odd" and "off-putting", we nevertheless acquiesed and were each rewarded with a hot mug of creamy chowder that was by turns "exhilirating" and "uninspired".

The main course arrived in due time. Lauren got the Joe's pizza, no sausage; by all accounts it was "bland." Mike supped on the full rack of ribs; by all outward appearance he delighted in each "smoky" bite. I had the special, a choice cut of ahi tuna. Though I ordered it rare, I was wholly unprepared for the frozen piece of fish delivered to the table. The warm room soon brought the fish to a suitable temperature, and the sides of rice pilaf and brussel sprouts were an enjoyable accouterment of the culinary variety.

Bottom Line: A workhorse of the pub fare scene, American Joe's does it best when it sticks to the vernacular of the American cookbook.