Short Cuts

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Weasel Watch: The Independent (UK) has a nice roundup of how the leaders of the New Europe responded to Jacques Chirac's hysterical threats against them for standing with us on the war. This shifting power balance has produced a rising star in Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the president of Latvia most Americans knew nothing about. She is a very pretty, calm, cool and tough-minded redhead who sounds like a new Margaret Thatcher. It's worth a spin through Google.com to read some of the things she's been saying. Then we can work on how to pronounce her name properly.

It's Just About Her: Over the weekend we were warned that Madonna was bringing out an antiwar video. We should have known she couldn't produce anything that wasn't about herself. Rush and Malloy in the NY Daily News reprint some of the stunning lyrics" I got a lawyer and a manager/ An agent and a chef/ Three nannies, an assistant/ And a driver and a jet," she raps. This set us to thinking how much our lives are alike. How's this sister-girl? "I got a tooth ache and an audit/ a headache and a sprain / three tickets, a bad hair day and something dying in the drain." At least ours rhymes.

Winning Head: The midweek winner for the funniest line goes to James Taranto of the WSJ Online for calling former Senator Carol Moseley Braun's presidential announcement "Moseley-Braun fever" after only one person showed up (and quickly dozed off) for her announcement speech.

The Bob Greene Invitational: You will remember last year when Chicago's self-absorbed columnist Bob Greene got canned for finally being caught doing what he's been doing for decades - putting the moves on every young woman who crossed his squinty field of vision. Chicago magazine takes a look at the whole situation. It is too long to read but the most telling anecdote goes like this: A student at Columbia College (who introduced herself to him in a bookstore) said: “We chatted for a bit. I told him I was a journalism major and then he told me that he was about ready to go to his skyscraper condo and write his column. He asked me if I wanted to come watch him write. I told him no. And he said, ‘Well, you’d learn a lot.’”

LDotter Note: You can't have missed the Amazon.com tower that runs down the left side of the site. We receive (or at least it has been promised) a few pennies on any book you buy from the ad. We have requested books from general categories be shown and do not pick the individual books. This (and your contributions that warm our hearts) helps feed the Bandwidth Beast and keeps Igor in Spam sandwiches while he shovels us out for the second day.

-Your Still Snowed In and Under LComStaff