Lazy Linkage

Not much to talk about, but here are some items of interest. Or not. (Yes, it's a slow day, and I had a lousy day at The Store. You know how to tell bad karma when you're working at a grocery store? When you get paged to come quick because one of the front doors fell off its hinges. And that was at the end of my day. Yeesh.)

:: Alistair Cooke has died. I never heard his "Letter From America" radio feature, but I remember my mother's faithful watching of Masterpiece Theater when I was a kid.

:: Matthew Yglesias links this poll of the 10 sexiest women. Regular readers will know that I nearly covered my monitor in Pepsi from my oral cavity when I saw who was Number One. But then, my idea of "sexy" involves brains and talent, and does not involve a stainless steel pole and guys waving dollar bills, so there you are. (Like Matthew, I don't even know who a couple of these women are.)

:: All the writing books say not to try crap like this, but when you see news items that endorse it -- with supporting quotes from the publisher, no less! -- one is tempted to despair for the idea that maybe just writing the best book one can is the way to go. The publisher in question, though, seems to be a bookstore-chain associated label, rather like "Barnes&Noble Books", so I'm not sure this really counts as "using a gimmick to get published" in the classic sense.

:: The Ten Best Rock Bands Ever. Start quibbling, I guess. I can't really say -- while I can't deny the Beatles their place in history, I can certainly admit that I don't much care for them as a listening experience. I almost always prefer hearing Beatles songs performed by, well, people other than the Beatles. And I will go to my grave thinking that "Hey Jude" is one of the most horrible, Godawful, please-drive-an-icepick-through-my-eardrums songs in all of history. But then, I'm a guy who thinks that Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits is the best rock album of the 1980s, so again, what do I know.

:: As a follow-up to my post a few days ago about why The Apprentice is better than Survivor, I see an MSNBC article that argues convincingly that The Apprentice is better than Survivor. Hell, if I'm ahead of the pro writers, how come I'm not one?

:: LiteBrite, on the Web. Believe me, it's more fun doing LiteBrite on the living room floor with a four year old while The Simpsons is on, but hey, what do....[head explodes]