January 2008
You are browsing the archive for January 2008.
Goose!
Congratulations to Goose Gossage for his election to the baseball Hall of Fame. He has no business there. In fact, the only relievers who belong and aren’t already in are Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman, and that’s because they’re still playing. Jim Rice just missed and should make it next year. He shouldn’t, but he […]
Customer loyalty
Just before Christmas, UPS delivered a package to our house from our cell-phone company, a box large enough to hold 3 or 4 books. I hadn’t ordered anything, so figured it had to be a prize from one of those contests you unwittingly enter simply by going about your daily business. However, underneath a bunch […]
"Friday Night Lights"
Everyone is always telling me to see this show. “You have to see Friday Night Lights. You’ve never seen Friday Night Lights?” They said it was a little jewel, and I believed them. Friday night, I watched for twenty minutes. Here is what I saw: Boys squaring off in fights. Men menacing boys. Men protecting […]
some good news
United Artists is making an interim agreement with the WGA. Tom Cruise took over UA after Sumner Redstone banished him from Viacom. None of the other moguls are happy about this deal, Redstone included. Could it be payback?
Sitcom Scenes I Hate to Write, Part One
There are certain set-ups that don’t lead to anything good. “Box canyons,” writer Don Reo used to call them. “We’re in a box canyon!” Best you can do is get out. I carry with me a mental checklist of such scenes. Sometimes the set-ups themselves are inherently flawed. Sometimes it is possible to fashion a […]
Used books
Courts across the land are presently working out the legal issues regarding downloading, duplicating and sharing of digital media. But when it comes to books, these issues were worked out long ago. When you buy a book, you are free to give it away, sell it to any buyer for any agreed-upon price, throw it […]
Rogaining update
I believe I have found a teammate. Vesa Keinanen of Finland (the person in the background) has responded to one of my many far-flung postings. He seems more talented, experienced, and serious than I am but I believe I can keep up. His name also has two dots over the a in his last name. […]
Letterman versus Leno
I’ve never met Letterman. Leno is a famously great guy. I worked with him briefly, on a show called “Television Parts,” hosted by Michael Nesmith, sometime around 1984. He was as nice as advertised. The show was an effort to do for comedy what MTV had done for music, sparked by legendary NBC president Brandon […]
Who To Vote For?
I haven’t been following the election that closely. I certainly have my impressions of the candidates, but I haven’t looked closely at their positions or really thought about who to support yet. Then today someone sent me this test: you answer a bunch of questions (not too many) about your political beliefs and it tells […]
Zeroville by Steve Erickson
Steve Erickson is a writer who lives in Topanga Canyon and has a huge cult following. His latest book has a main character who’s obsessed with film. The book itself has more interesting ideas about movies than I’ve read in years. Everyone has something to say about movies. Steve Erickson will happily sacrifice a character […]
Jack Silbert, curator