Drinky, drinky

We attended a beer tasting at a new joint opereated by one of the high school coaches. We've known this good sir for a while now, and he's hosted many fine soirees at his place. Great wife, great kids, great digs, and he's a ball of energy. He has a vineyard in his backyard, and the whole family works to harvest it for homemade wine. The new wine store opened about a month ago, and it's a small but swank outlet. It's situated between an ABC store and a high-end restaurant, so the location is just about perfect. We tasted a few beers. OK, I did. Your Sister turns her nose up at beer. Literally. She sniffs it and throws her head back in disgust. I tried an Oktoberfest beer from Flying Dog (a great label out of Colorado), Rogue Dead Man Ale (with a thick lingering taste), some apple cider, and another ale. I admit to being confused; I thought our orders were for 6-packs, not single pint bottles. But I can't complain. I'll drink the beer, and the money supports his restaurant. We drove back to Mayberry and ate Mexican, timing it just perfectly to miss the mariachi band.

I was hoping to delve deep into the college homecoming events tomorrow, but we received word yesterday that the new loveseat will be delivered sometime tomorrow. They give you a four-hour scope for their arrival, and this might scotch half the day. We'll either miss volleyball or football. And this keeps me from wandering the campus, looking for classmates. Grr. Your Sis hosts a baby shower tonight at the house, so I'll duck out and hit the gym. I must be new shoes this weekend. We decorated the house and coasters with horrible, foul, baby animal pictures. It's enough to make me empty those pint bottles right now.

Picture of the Day
Superman can have a bad day too.

In the News
The Foley scandal now becomes the Hastert scandal as the House Speaker tries to keep his job. Something I haven't heard in all of this is a reference to Brian Doyle, the Homeland Security deputy press secretary caught sending pictures of himself to a minor back in March. Of course, no one is saying the GOP is rife with pedophiles. At least, no one with any credibility. But both scandals show the reach and access made possible by the Internet. You can find anything online, including gullible teenage kids. Now I don't espouse Internet censoorship. I'm not fond of censorship of most kinds, and I believe it's fully the responisbility of the parent to protect the kid as much as is practical. And that means you instruct the kid and warn the kid and let them loose and hope they remember. I don't blame the youngsters in this. The blame of course lies with the adults hoping to take adavanatage of younger folks. Not that they're evil or amoral. They simply believe they have an easier time achieving intimacy with a less experienced mind, and that says more about their social construction and insecurities than about their sexual fetishes. Then again, maybe they only desire youngsters. Maybe that's all that works for them. It's hard to say why Foley was acting the way he did when he blames his messages on alcohol and prior molestation. It suggests he didn't know why he was doing such, and I don't believe that. I think he just doesn't want to admit it.

Should Hastert quit? Probably. Not because he deserves it, but because someone has to be accountable in all this. Foley isn't; he's blaming outside influences. The various statements about how informnation was passed along shows that the House is nothing but the average ofice buillding packed with middle managers. No one wants to accept responsiblity for what was to some degree common knowledge. The situation was handled badly, and Haster is the guy who runs the office. If these Foley incidents stretches back as far as is reported, it's possible Hastert wasn't the only speaker to know about this, and I'd like to hear from previous representatives if they had any inkling of what was going on and what measures they took.

I also don't think the reports were carefully times to dirupt the elections. If that was the point, why do this five weeks before we vote? Why not the week before elections to create the best chaos?

"Lost" and "The Nine" (no spoilers)

Just as the second season of "Lost" opened with a sequence that radically widened the story, Season Three gives us a pre-title scene that's more interesting than the rest of the episode. We're also apparently going to see the Lost world through the eyes of a new supporting character, just as we did last year. Season Two is the Tale of Desmond told in jumbled chronological order. It starts with him, it ends with his flashback and our first contemporary off-island scene. This season starts with the opening eye of Juliet, a new Other, and her connections to Henry Gale are obviously noncordial off the bat. But what's really fascinating is how Henry immediately reacts to the arrival of the Lost ensemble. Once again, I'm left armchair quarterbacking the show, hoping it goes in directions I cook up.

"The Nine" is a, well, I'm not sure what it wants to be. It's definitely going for a chummy ensemble feel with stirrings of intrigue and conflict, but it's not what I expected. Bank robbers hold hostages for 52 hours, and the majority of the episode deals with their release and subsequent lives. I expected it to be more like "24," unfolding close to real time as the siege progresses through the season. But we already know who survives, who became close, who acted in remarkable ways, and what happens with the robbers. I didn't like the look of the show; it relies too much on that wet-street, blue-light design of the top CBS crime dramas. Your Sister liked it. Me, I'm not sold.

TicketMaster just alerted me that Duran Duran are coming to Greenville. I may have to go. I didn't care for them at first, but realized a few years later that 1) girls liked them a lot; 2) I bought an entire cassette to get one song ("The Reflex"); and 3) they dominated radio. Duran Duran was inescapable.

Moving Picture of the Day


The official trailer for 300, the story of the Battle of Thermopylae, is out. This is based on Frank Miller's comic and made much the same way as the adaptation of his Sin City.

Done and done

I ran three miles at the gym last night. I still haven't bought new shoes, but the treadmill offers less struggle than roads and grass. I worked at a quicker pace and steeper incline. I also signed up to give blood at the gym Saturday between homecoming events. I don't expect to see anyone I know, but I want to see what the painting student are up to.

The NFL
Her Teams
New England (3-1), NY Jets (2-2), Oakland (0-3)
Philly (3-1), Detroit (0-4)

My Teams
Miami (1-3), Pittsburgh (1-2)
Philly (3-1), Carolina (2-2)


Sketch of the Day
Ta-dah.



In the News
The GOP is pushing hard against the Mark Foley scandal coverage. Speaker Hastert went on the Sean Hannity, Hugh Hewitt, and Limbaugh radio shows all in the same day. That's a full-court press of spin. He claims he won't step down, despite calls from Washington papers and Democrats. He also is trying to say the media held this story until October to scuttle the GOP's election hopes. First, this is blaming the messenger. Second, after the Dan Rather National Guard memo debacle, I'd bet money ABC (who broke the story) spent months gathering all the information they could to present a tight story. Had they not, the GOP would cry libel and try to rally the loyal voters. They can't do that this time. ABC had tons of evidence to confront Foley -- enough that he quit the next day. Now he's blaming alcoholism and molestation by a priest.

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Buried by the above story are comments by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Not only did he say Afghanistan cannot be won militarily, but he thinks it's a good idea to promote stability there by conceding power to the Taliban. We went to there to get rid of them.