Quote for the Day

"If I followed CNBC's advice I'd have a million dollars right now. Provided I started with a hundred million dollars."

--Jon Stewart, on the stock market

Streaming We Can Believe In

Obama is currently streaming the White House forum on healthcare reform for our viewing pleasure. I'm seeing about twenty people sitting around a table in a smallish office room talking (at least it looks like they're talking -- my computer at work has no speakers). This video is a small thing but Obama said on the campaign he was going to make it available and it's being done. At this point I'm pretty amazed at how many campaign promises he's kept. Could it be possible that he wasn't just talking?

Oh, they're all getting up now. Lunch time? Or have they figured out healthcare already? I'm guessing probably lunch.

Tropicana

I join the rest of the world in thinking the new Tropicana packaging is, let's say, unfortunate. Every time I pour a glass I have the sneaking suspicion that I'm about to drink a bathroom cleanser. To me it just looks anonymously, ambiguously soapy.

Vermont, even in the winter

Snowmobiling is the best. Last time we went, I drove and crashed us. This time, Mike drove the whole way up Rt 108, through the notch and back.

No Line On The Horizon

Hearing new songs from your favorite-favorite band is like meeting a half-sibling you didn't know you had: weird, exciting, and, for better or worse, forever a part of the rest of your life. Such it is with the eleven new songs on No Line On The Horizon, U2's twelfth album and the third released during my time as a fan (fandom achieved December 1998). U2 songs take a while to grow on me and they never really reach their potential until they're played live. (I would not have suspected "Love And Peace Or Else" to be one of the best songs on the previous album until I saw Bono pounding away its finale on Larry's drum, pieces of the sticks sailing into the audience.) Thus I'm not ready to comment on the songs.

But I will wax nostalgic about the hype that used to surround an album release, back in the olden days, pre-Internet. It used to be, the only taste you had of an album was its first single -- the other songs remained a mystery. There was a desperation to hear them as the release date crept closer. This is why Josh and I would stand in the rain outside Newbury Comics in October 2000, waiting for midnight and the release of All That You Can't Leave Behind. I remember hiding under the covers that night, listening on my headphones.

I don't actually even own No Line On The Horizon yet but I've heard all the songs. First like a year ago there were clips some fan had recorded on his cell phone outside U2's studio -- muffled sounds of rehearsals within; it was pretty clear from that what the new album would sound like. Then last month Walmart.com briefly posted 30-second clips of all the songs, way before they were supposed to. And since yesterday U2.com has been streaming the entire album for your listening pleasure. It's a little sad that the magical moment of pressing play for the first time has been diluted by all these teases. But, like I said above, none of these songs really come alive until they're played live. And when they do I'm sure they won't disappoint.

(Photo: Adam Clayton calls me to ask how I like the new album.)

Bunker/Nixon

A few weeks ago I posted a clip from an episode of All In The Family wherein Archie Bunker manages to insult the entire planet in the span of about five seconds. His tirade begins when Gloria and Meathead want to invite to dinner a friend of theirs who Archie suspects is a queer.

Archie meets the queer, an ascot-wearing, swooshy type dude, and all his stereotypes about homos are validated, to Archie's smug satisfaction. After dinner Archie goes to the bar to gossip to his buddies about the fairy. This is when he finds out one of the guys from the bar, a manly, football-playing model of masculinity, is gay. Per the premise of the show, Archie's mind blows up just in time for the closing credits.

Anyway, I stumbled across this recording of Richard Nixon discussing that episode with his staff. It's pretty rich. The level of paranoia is scary and hilarious at the same time. Here's a taste of Nixon talking about how all the clothes designers have gone gay:

One of the reasons that fashions have made women look so terrible is because the goddamned designers hate women. Now that's the truth. You watch.

(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan)