cryptique

I believe that Lisa Germano's father was my Hoosier girlfriend's orchestra/band teacher (or something like that). I saw Lisa as part of Neil's band in 2003. Rhett Miller was the opener. That was quite a show.

The BCS rankings are interesting right now: 1. Alabama 11-0 2. Texas 10-1 3. Oklahoma 10-1 4. Florida 10-1 5. USC 9-1 6. Utah 12-0 7. Texas Tech 10-1 8. Penn State 11-1 If Texas and Oklahoma both win this weekend, who goes to the Big 12 championship? I'm guessing Texas, because they won head to head? I'm expecting Florida to beat Alabama in the SEC title game. The winner of that game should be in the BCS championship game. The only way I see anyone but Texas or Oklahoma as the other team in the BCS title game is if Oklahoma loses to Oklahoma State and Texas loses the Big 12 championshi

"Occasionally" would be more accurate ... but yeah, I'm always happy to see his name on the "Shouts & Murmurs" column. Steve Martin writes that column about as often as Handey does.

Huh. So they extended the offer "due to consumer demand." In other words, their servers got slammed because they didn't prepare properly for the onslaught.

Happy Birthday!

They didn't provide an explanation, which was all that thousands of nutjobs needed to devise their own. See how that works?

Keep trying. I kept hitting the Refresh button until the page loaded, and even then it took me a couple of attempts to get the coupon processed.

I can get the page to start loading (I see the Dr Pepper logo), but it never gets past the "Loading" stage. edit: Try this direct link to the coupon page (you have to enter a bunch of info): http://www.drpepper.com/freeDrPepper/?icamp=hp_dpfree_coupon It tells you to allow 4-6 weeks for the coupon to arrive, and it will expire 2/28/09.

Exactly. edit: I have this CD, and just put "Revolution 9" up on the web for anyone who's interested: http://www.sendspace.com/file/p9lrft

I like John's throwaways better than Paul's. Much of my problem with "U.S.S.R." is that I've always been disappointed with it as the album opener. A good song, but not the way I want that album to begin. I find it weird that my impression of a song could be affected by its place in the track list, but I think this is one case where it's true.

I saw Havens in '92 or so, and he was terrific. I had a copy of his album Alarm Clock during college that I played quite a bit. Still love that record.

Evanston is about 100x cooler. Plus, you can jump on the el and be in the city pretty quickly.

I think a lot of them are weak (see above). That doesn't mean I don't like them ... I just think they're weak sauce compared to McCartney's other contributions throughout the years. And yes, I'm the one Beatles fan on the planet who thinks "Back in the U.S.S.R." isn't such a great song. I far prefer Lennon's work on the White Album.

30, and I should have scored 31 but I didn't think one question through enough before answering. The other two that I missed were history questions that I never learned about.

If by this you mean that there were only a handful of good Paul tunes on this particular album, I'd agree with you. I think they're some of his weakest contributions to the Beatles canon. If you mean more generally ... well ... um ... *cough*

I think I might like Grant Lee's solo career a touch better, but maybe not. Damn good in both phases, really.

Nader should go back to protecting us from evil corporations and shut the fuck up about politics for a while. I mean, I even like the guy, but fuck, dude.

Well, I fucked up and voted "yes" when I meant "no," so subtract one from the "yes" tally. Totally with Zinn on this one.

YAY!

Oh, I know that. I don't think $25 billion will help, whether it's a loan or a gift. And I seriously question their ability to pay back any such loans, which to me means that providing those loans would be equivalent to throwing money down a pit.

I'm pretty sure I was in that IKEA prior to September 1999 ... not that it matters in the slightest.

Guys by the name of Wagoner, Mulally, and Nardelli.

Actually, what I failed to make clear in my post (it got lost during some editing) was that I favor bankruptcy over bailout. I think it's the best way for the automakers to recover. Yes, bankruptcy brings its own issues, but it makes it easier for the industry to solve some of its most crippling problems. So, yeah, I don't think the patient has to die -- but I think throwing $25 billion at it won't prevent it from doing so, while bankruptcy gives it a chance to come back.

I'm surprised they got through a whole piece on Schaumburg without mentioning Ikea.

Yes, but there's no point in preserving those jobs if they're no longer part of the industry's success. At this point, it's hard to argue that they are (and quite easy, in fact, to argue that they're exactly the opposite). I understand wanting to save as many jobs as possible, but sometimes industries die. The steel industry basically died, and the country survived. The dot-com boom died and thousands of jobs died with it -- we're still here. Tough times happen. It's insanity, though, to prop up an industry that's no longer viable just to keep the unemployment numbers down. It sucks, but i