The BEAST 50 most loathsome people in America, 2007

Silly and all as it is, I enjoyed reading this:

http://www.buffalobeast.com/122/50mostloathsome2007.html

My favourite:

16. Chris Matthews

Charges: Calling his show "Hardball" is like rechristening ping-pong "Thermonuclear Warfare." Displays the slurred, unmodulated speech and unfocused antagonism of an aggrieved middle-management drunk. Can read a scurrilous political attack into any paragraph at twenty paces. Continues honing his pointless questions as his guests attempt to answer, cutting them off with an affected imperial weariness when their responses are insufficiently inane. Apparently ignorant of the implications of satellite technology, Matthews shouts louder at geographically more distant guests. Has repeatedly called Ann Coulter "brilliant." Referred to Gerald Ford's yuletide demise as the former president's "Christmas card to the country." Unable to laugh like a normal human, Matthews compensates by simply shouting "ha!"

Exhibit A: "This country is based on generalizations!"

Sentence: Hillary's White House Press Secretary and personal toilet steward.

Book: Surveillance

I recently finished reading Jonathan Raban's novel "Surveillance." The novel is set in near-future Seattle and follows the lives of a group of characters living in the surveillance-heavy aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Although I liked the premise of the book, when I hit the middle (which is where the book actually ended) I found myself kind of dissatisfied. I kept wondering where the last 50 pages had gone. Then it occurred to me that, although the story was enjoyable at any given point, it would be possible to excise any random range of pages from the book and not really miss any part of the story. In fact, it would be possible to drop one, or maybe even two, whole characters from the book and not actually miss any part of the story. Then I realized that's because there really wasn't much of a story there at all. Sigh.

Ballet

We're having an ice storm in the US at the moment. I say "we" but I really mean "they", of course - here in beautiful Northern California it's a mild 13°C outside right now. Anyway:



This isn't footage of of this time around - that was last year. So was this:



Nothing yet on the tubes from this year's storm.

Get off my lawn!

Apparently there's someone called Justin Timberlake. He's singing a song on Saturday Night Live even as I type. For such a huge band in the background, there's not a huge amount of noise coming out. A band with that many instruments should be sounding like a symphony.

Does he have someone to kick him in the balls before he starts singing or does he sound like that all the time?

Oh yeah, and the 80's would like their hat back, please.