St. Louis Storms

More than 350,000 are without power in Missouri, and I'm one of them. Thankfully, just a mile away, Wally is fully with power, so I've packed up my freezer and headed here for the evening.

We were at Ronnies Cinema in South County when, after the third or fourth disruption of power during a screening of Superman Returns, we were informed the theater was closing for the night because of the thunderstorms and power outages, and that we should all go home.

There are lots of trees and branches down in my neighborhood on the South Side. A Category 1 hurricane has winds between 74 and 95 mph, so this storm was the equivalent.

The sidestreet I'd usually take to get to Wally's house wasn't an option because of the downed trees. It's a mess out there right now.

Let's hope the power gets back on soon, particularly for those elderly people who need air conditioning. The high temperature tomorrow is supposed to be 101 degrees.

Everybody OK?

Magic Fingers

Watch below as George Bush gives the German Chancellor a backrub. I wish that I was making this up.

Keep in mind that German leader Angela Merkel has a doctorate in physics and is an expert in quantum chemistry. Among her writings, she is the scholar behind articles such as this: "Evaluation of the rate constant for the SN2 reaction fluoromethane + hydride: methane + fluoride in the gas phase" in the Journal of American Chemical Society.

She also is the first leader for the unified country from the former East Germany.

I wonder if living on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall for all those years was ever as uncomfortable as this moment?

The New Mainstream Media

The Wall Street Journal will begin selling ads on its front page in September. LINK.

Personally, I find this a little hard to swallow, which is why I would spend my advertising dollar on a "media outlet" that should have more readers than the Wall Street Journal.
LINK.

Here's hoping your day is sunny side up.

People Who Overuse "The Slippery Slope" Argument Can Be Kind of Oily

Here's something to do with your morning cup of coffee today: Go to the google news site, http://news.google.com/, and type in the phrase "slippery slope." Sort it by date to get the most recent stories. There were close to 1,500 media stories with this phrase just this morning.

Politicians and business leaders and religious zealots use the "slippery slope" argument to worry and scare people about all sorts of things. The reasoning goes something along these lines: We can't possibly do [A] because if we do, it will lead to many, many, many more disastrous things, including [B], [C] and [D].

It's basically the politics of fear. And it's used by liberals and conservatives all the time, depending on the issue. A conservative will say we can't have gay marriage because the next logical step is humans marrying animals. Liberals use it for equally specious claims.

So, this morning, let's take a trip on the slipperly slope. Enjoy the ride!

For Pete's Sake

LINK.

Amazing Race 10

The teams were announced this weekend.

Although Lance Bass is not competing, he's on his own amazing race this summer. And it's not to the moon.

How to Drink Coffee

From today's CBS Sunday Morning. Get edu-macated HERE.

Strangers With Florrie

Check out the real-life inspiration for Amy Sedaris' Strangers With Candy character (right) by watching some real videos of Florrie Fisher HERE or by clicking below. Don't miss the last-minute of the second video when she goes on a rant about how marijuana sticks will cause you to commit murders; of course, she speaks with a lit cigarette in her hand. She also touches on the dangers of smoking oreganno.

I've embedded the first video below:



And here's the second video:

Hot Dogs for Homophobes

From Thursday night's Late Night With Conan O'Brien:

Pee-wee Making a Comeback

Paul Reubens (Pee-wee Herman) made appearances on both The Late Show with David Letterman and on Late Night With Conan O'Brien this week. He told both Dave and Conan that he has just finished a script for new Pee Wee movie. And the Cartoon Network is going to start showing his old Saturday morning show, Pee-wee's Playhouse.

Reubens, by the way, will turn 54 next month. If you saw either show this week, you'd probably agree that he doesn't look it.

Here's an old clip of Pee-wee on Dave's NBC show back in 1984.

Burger King: The Movie

Advertising Age is reporting that the creative team behind Burger King advertising is penning a movie version featuring the BK mascot.

It's not clear, yet, whether they're going for a tragedy (like King Lear), a drama (Lion in Winter), an epic fantasy (Return of the King) or something more along the lines of Brokeback Mountain, in which the King could play ... a Queen.

Please, no tent jokes about the King slapping meat between the buns. Please.

Thanking you, in advance.

Johnny Cash: American Recordings V

I don't think my friend Bobby M will like the new Johnny Cash album, American Recordings V: A Hundred Highways, and he's a big Cash fan. I've listened to it three or four times since it arrived via Amazon earlier in the week.

I say this because Bobby wasn't a huge fan of American Recordings 4: The Man Comes Around, calling this album (recorded before the death of his wife, June) a mixed bagged because Cash really strains at times on some of the vocals.

Now, I've listened to AR4 dozens of times, and I completely disagree.

Consider three songs from the earlier record:

* His cover of "Hurt" from the Nine Inch Nails was an instant classic.
* His original song "Give My Love to Rose" won a grammy.
* Listen to his cover of First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, and you'll think this is the first time you've ever really heard this song, though everybody from Celine Dion to 98 Degrees have done versions.

This last song (like songs on his new album) is a love poem to his wife. Listen to it carefully, and then think about a guy singing this way about his wife after 35 years of marriage. It's beautiful, and it's touching, and it's made all the more perfect by the imperfections in Cash's voice. The orchestration, which turns the song into a hymn, celebrates a marriage that is clearly sacred to Johnny. Perfection.

Back to his new album. Producer Rick Rubin writes this in his liner notes:

I could always tell how Johnny was feeling each day from the sound of his voice and his breathing. Some days his voice was weak and he sounded like he was panting, trying to get enough air. Other days his voice boomed with power and gravity. You can hear the difference on some of these songs. Sometimes he booms and other times he sounds weaker and more vulnerable, but in the end his ability to convey words in a way the listener can truly feel and believe them is amazingly consistent. He was the master storyteller of our time.

His cover of the Hank Williams song "On the Evening Train," track 6 on the album, is one of the songs where his voice booms. It's a song about a man whose wife has just died, and the child she leaves behind. This is a highlight of American Recordings 5.

I almost did a spit-take when I heard that track 4 was a cover of Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind," perhaps most recently in memory because of the dance version in the late 90s from Stars on 54. Vocally, it's the worst song on the album; but it's also one of my three or four favorites. Johnny Cash isn't and has never been about vocal perfection; he's about story-telling and communicating honest emotions. I like this song; but many people (like Bobby M) may just think it's terrible.

I just hope that producer Rick Rubin doesn't jump the shark on his next Cash album and, yes, there will be another new album coming possibly next year. Seinfeld left the air when it was still at the top of its game, but M*A*S*H (and the dreadful After M*A*S*H) hung around more than a little too long. Will American Recordings 6 be a final great album, or a pitiful attempt to squeeze even more money out of the American Recordings franchise?

Oh, and if you are looking for the single artist performing today who combines folk, country, rock and great songwriting and story-telling in the same way as Cash, check out Tom Russell's new album, Love and Fear. It's probably his best-ever work. Though you are warned: Tom never really found his June Carter, and you don't need to be Stephen Hawking to figure this out after listening to Love and Fear.

Fox News and The Daily Show

Is the Fox News Channel thinking about doing a "conservative" counterpart to Comedy Central's The Daily Show. Read more here.

Here's why I don't think it'll work:

* The Daily Show makes fun of both parties. (Even today, you can still expect Bill and Hillary Clinton jokes and, more recently, Al Gore jokes.) It just happens that the people in power now (and hence the people doing the most absurd things) are Republicans, so they're the target of a good amount of the jokes. This is to be expected.

* The Daily Show (and The Colbert Report) are funny because they're a satire of the media: the self-important news correspondents, the screaming-head pundits, the gross over-simplification of complex issues, ect ect. Will this be funny if Fox did it? Or will they even do it? Why would Fox make fun of the media when they are the media?

Question of the day: Watch below, and can't you just see Samantha Bee TOTALLY fitting in as a Dateline NBC correspondent?

The Only Sport I Could Medal In

ratherbiased.com

As I write this, M. Sheffield, co-founder of ratherbiased.com -- a hate-based site against Dan Rather -- is on Tucker Carlson's MSNBC show continuing to beat the dead horse that "Dan Rather is a biased liberal."

But if you go to ratherbiased.com, you'll notice that (as of right now) the domain name has expired. The error message you get is: "This domain name expired on 06/21/2006 and is pending renewal or deletion."

I tried to be a wise guy and re-register it myself, but with no luck. I was going to give the rights to this URL back to Dan Rather as a "retirement from CBS" gift, and as a thank you for all those entertaining and folksy Texas phrases from all those election nights. ("That race is tighter than the rusted lug nuts on a '55 Ford.")

This is what MSNBC is spending airtime on? Bashing Dan Rather some more? Could they cover some real news? Please?

Hey Tucker: There is a war going on, dontyouknow.

Es Verdad

Hey, you. Yeah, you: Guy with the W '04 sticker driving the Red Mustang down Hanley. The election is over. Your guy won. Yeah, and the "a-word" is still legal, and even more people hate America now than they did two years ago. Oh, and if you missed the memo, Mexican immigants working low-wage jobs for wealthy firms are now, officially, "the new gays"; they should be able to help you muster up a bunch of votes come November. In fact, they threaten your job as much as the Gays threaten your own profoundly unhappy marriage to your wife.

Just wanted to give you an update.

Add Joy to Your Life By Watching This

My favorite part is about 1 minute and 21 seconds in. Please note that this video is the first-ever FDA-approved treatment for people who suffer from chronic wistfulness.