Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:11 PM

So, I've been playing around a bit more with ZoomClouds to create a tag cloud of words used in this blog.

Here's what it looks like; click on a word or phrase to see which of my posts contain it.

And for the record, here's a static image of how it currently looks (since the tag cloud will change dynamically as I make future entries).

Pretty neat. I wish I could take it back through my archives, but that would require a bit more manual work than I'm currently capable of.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:06 AM

and not in the good way:

Novelist accidentally burns down office

An acclaimed novelist lost his office in Carson City on Thursday when he threw a lit piece of paper into gasoline.

Fantasy writer David Eddings, 75, said he was using water to flush out the gas tank of his broken-down Excalibur sports car, when some fluid leaked. In a lapse of judgment he readily admitted, Eddings lit a piece of paper and threw into the puddle to test if it was still flammable. The answer came in an orange torrent.

<snip>

"One word comes to mind," the renowned wordsmith said as he stood in a pajama shirt and slippers. "Dumb."

The author of 27 novels, Eddings said the original manuscripts of most of his work were in the basement of the office building. But his biggest worry was about his fax machine, which is the connection between his home and his wife, Leigh's, doctor. Leigh, co-author of most of his writings, is unable to speak as a result of a series of strokes.

The loss of the sports car, which he bought in the 1970s, was a little painful as well, he said.

"It made for a real fancy vehicle, right up until it burned."

I expect to see some fundraisers to help him out, once the word spreads.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:50 AM

It's snowing.

Annual company party is tonight.

Why does it always seem to fall over the coldest time of the year?

I mean, I'm already freezing to death wearing heavy pants and long underwear, and I'm expected to bare my legs in a skirt?

On the other hand, considering that my biggest work-related gripes right now are that and the new coffeemakers*, I must be doing pretty well...

* Our company is replacing the current coffee machines in our kitchenette with an automated Always Coffee dispenser. May be great for folks who like coffee/espresso/cappuccino, but I'm a tea-drinker. And because this machine can add "creamer" automatically, it means the kitchenette will no longer supply the freestanding creamers. I prefer to steep the tea in hot water and then add cream -- not have them both dispensed at once.

Oh, and you want to hear something scary? Here's how the company's website (AlwaysCoffee.com > Equipment > Creamer) describes its creamer:

'Got Milk' is a catchy phrase. Our creamer is not your typical milk whitener. This product imported from the Netherlands and refined in Austria has a heavier and creamier texture to it and tastes like milk.

Yeah, but what is it?

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:05 AM

Hey guys, this story seems right up your alley:

L.A. Times is reporting:

Aboard Brian Spencer's turbocharged pogo stick, humans can now bounce over cars, hop onto walls and perform other acrobatics normally reserved for a guy in tights and a cape.

"This stick is absolutely crazy," said Daniel Brown of xpogo.com, a website devoted to stunt pogo-stick jumping.

The jackhammer-sized contraption sprang to life about five years ago. While attending a family gathering in Orange County, Spencer overheard his cousin fantasizing about a gravity-defying pogo stick.

Intrigued, Spencer recruited his dad, a retired aerospace engineer, to start tinkering.

The result was a Frankenstein hodgepodge of BMX bike foot pedals, PVC piping and other spare parts - powered by compressed air instead of a metal spring.

One of these devices has already "world record for highest pogo stick hop -- 6 feet," and they're hard at work on "next generation of pogo device, a stick equipped with a "gearshift" that lets riders adjust the air pressure as they hop."

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:35 PM

Various finds too brief to deserve dedicated posts:

Bad Design for (fun and) Profit

Charlie on the MBTA is a blog devoted to discussing the MBTA.

And since Charlie Cards and Charlie Tickets began replacing tokens, he's written a lot about problems with the new system.

Earlier this week, an MBTA employee contacted him, sharing this interesting tidbit:

You mentioned that the ticket machines don't tell passengers how much a ride is and wonder why there are no signs on the machines. Again this was not something that was overlooked by the T but done by design. They do not want people buying single ride tickets and designed it so it appears the cheapest ticket available is $5. I had a suit from downtown upset that we had put up hand written signs informing passengers of the fare amount. They have at least responded to another concern we had and now have stickers on the machine telling customers how to insert a credit card.

For those unfamiliar with the issues involved, here's an earlier post going into more detail about the poor UI of the fare vending machines.

Computers and consequences

ReasonableAgreement.org

A professor is suspect for passing an ethics exam too quickly.

But that's better than Julie Amero, a substitute teacher convicted and facing jailtime because a malware-infected computer (not hers) displayed pornographic pop-ups. Majikthise is a great resource on this one.

More miscellany

 • Some 1941 letters by Anne Frank's father have been found and are going up for auction. — Via

 • State of the Union in tag clouds

 • And I recently discovered ZoomClouds, which will let anyone create a tag cloud out of an RSS feed. [Won't go thru your archives, but you can start now and move forward.]

 • Over on YouTube, a 10 minute video from a student project filming a scene from Watchmen. Cool beans. — Via

And, I think that's all I've got for now.

I'm sure I'll think of something else the moment after I post this entry, but that's the way the blogger bounces...

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:58 PM

Quoting AmericaBLOG:

Markos reports the following, then read on because I have more and it's good:

In an interview, Pelosi also said she was puzzled by what she considered the president's minimalist explanation for his confidence in the new surge of 21,500 U.S. troops that he has presented as the crux of a new "way forward" for U.S. forces in Iraq.

"He's tried this two times ? it's failed twice," the California Democrat said. "I asked him at the White House, 'Mr. President, why do you think this time it's going to work?' And he said, 'Because I told them it had to.' "

Asked if the president had elaborated, she added that he simply said, " 'I told them that they had to.' That was the end of it. That's the way it is."

Oh, it's better than that. When I was on the Hill on Tuesday, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) told us (on the record) the rest of the story. Apparently, Pelosi's final come-back to the president was the following:

PELOSI: He's tried this two times ? it's failed twice. I asked him at the White House, 'Mr. President, why do you think this time it's going to work?'

BUSH: Because I told them it had to.

PELOSI: Why didn't you tell them that the other two times?

Why does this tempt me to repeat the Blackadder scene I linked to a few weeks ago?

CAPTAIN BLACKADDER: It's the same plan that we used last time, and the seventeen times before that.

GENERAL MELCHETT: Exactly! And that is what is so brilliant about it! It will catch the watchful Hun totally off guard. Doing precisely what we've done eighteen times before is exactly the last thing they'll expect us to do this time!

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:36 PM

While looking up some of the system utilities recommended in last night's post, I think I found my April Fool's Day prank:

BlueScreen Screen Saver

Bluescreen is a screen saver that not only authentically mimics a BSOD, but will simulate startup screens seen during a system boot.
...
Bluescreen cycles between different Blue Screens and simulated boots every 15 seconds or so. Virtually all the information shown on Bluescreen's BSOD and system start screen is obtained from your system configuration - its accuracy will fool even advanced NT developers.

Actually, that may actually be too evil for me to inflict on coworkers...

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:50 AM

As long as I'm grousing about computer woes, notice anything funny about this?

Last weekend, I went to the mall in Salem (NH), because they had an honest-to-goodness Dell Direct store. I hoped they might have AC adapters in stock, rather than having to wait for mail order.

They didn't, but ordered it for me online, reassuring me I'd have it by Wednesday.

First of all, when I got home and looked up the package tracking information, the website gave yesterday's date, not Wednesday's.

And then Thursday came and went without seeing hide nor hair of the package. [For that matter, this is the first update I've seen on the tracking page since it transited through the sort facility Tuesday morning.]

So anyone want to place bets on whether or not I see it today? If not, does DHL deliver on weekends?

I'm feeling rather ticked at the Dell guys for misleading me in this way.

By the way, thanks for the suggestions so far regarding my system slowdowns. This morning I've disabled the Microsoft Content Indexing Service, and we'll see what effect that has...

I'll probably tinker with it further over the weekend.

Update over lunch: Ian called to say the package arrived.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:09 PM

Anyone know what's going down with Firedoglake.com and Crooksandliars.com?

[When one is down, so's the other, so I assume they're on the same server.]

Is FDL overloaded by eager Libby trial-watchers?

Are they under some kind of denial-of-service attack?

Or is something else going on?

I want to read their trial coverage (for now, I've been subsisting on their daily summaries on the Huffington Post, but I do wonder what the story is.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:55 PM

Oh, and a possibly unrelated issue.

Opera is my default browser.

This means that when viewing HTML files in Windows Explorer, they should display with the Opera icon, like so:

But instead, they're all displaying with the generic icon for unknown filetypes, shown here:

Opera icon

Generic icon

Control Panel > Folder Options > File Types shows the correct association for .HTM files, .HTML files and the rest.

Yet even when I update the icons from there, they still show incorrectly within Explorer folders. [The screenshot was taken after I reassigned the icons and did a system restart.]

It's subtle, so I don't know precisely when that changed, in relation to my other problems.

At any rate, I'd like to know how to set it back.

A) has anybody else seen this (or something like it) before? It would help to be less alone. And, of course,
B) any tips for resolving it?

As always, thanks in advance.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:36 PM

I'm concerned that my laptop may have picked up some kind of malware.

However, I've since run Ad-Aware, avast! antivirus and Spybot Search & Destroy, and none have found any problem more serious than some tracking cookies under IE and the OS recent history lists.

Periodically, my computer just seems to freeze up. My mousepointer still moves, and the Taskbar clock (I use TClock to give me the seconds) continues to increment -- so it's not a total lockup. But for a few seconds every few minutes, it stops responding to my keyboard or mouseclicks. It must store those in a buffer, because after a moment the system will unfreeze and execute everything I just typed or clicked.

[Does that make sense? If I'm typing when it freezes up, then all those keystrokes will be completed when it unfreezes. If I click on another window, it will become active when it unfreezes.]

Also, in the last week or two, the amount of time it takes Opera to load has ballooned. I now launch Opera, and go do something else while waiting for it to load.

I've removed all my Opera widgets, mail archives (and current RSS subscriptions), and even cleaned out my icon images, but that hasn't speeded anything up.

Opera is also taking longer to unload from memory. After I quit Opera, it will continue to show on the Task Manager for another minute or so.

Even more worrisome, if I exit Opera and then try to shut down my computer before it's finished unloading, I get this message:

What the heck is               wж????
I can't even type those characters on my keyboard!

I've searched my hard drive for any files containing ж in the filename and found nothing.

If I shut down without Opera in memory, I don't get this message -- implying it's something Opera is loading.
[If I shut down while Opera is actively running, I get an End Program message for Opera itself.]

But Opera alone isn't the problem -- those freezes affect all applications, including explorer.

[For the record, after I managed to cancel out of the "End Program" message above, I took a screencap of all modules still running in task manager, if that will help resolve anything.]

I'm stumped.

I don't necessarily expect anyone to have the solution, but any troubleshooting tips would be most useful.

Also, if you can recommend some better tools (preferably freeware) to display and log everything that my system might be doing, that would be a real boon. I'd like to see what is and isn't unloading in memory, whether anything is making calls to the internet, and so forth. Preferably, something that can show information both in realtime, to compare with what I'm actually doing, and as a written log for later perusal.

Thanks in advance.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:49 PM

John Scalzi asks the question:

All Right, People...

Where the hell did you hide my wallet?

Well?

He not only gets answers, he gets results!

BTW, I'm still quite tickled by Scalzi's commentary on the State of the Union:

Last night, I watched as a man who had foolishly deceived a great number of people with a flawed and cynical plan for success tried vainly to extricate himself from his folly when his plans went horribly wrong and he found himself called into account. Which is to say I watched the wonderful Nathan Lane as Max Bialystock in the movie version of The Producers, which I watched in the stead of the State of the Union, because, as you all know, I can't watch Bush try to speak without the urge to pull my eyeballs right out of their sockets. I read the transcript instead.

Heh.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:10 PM

Apparently, football coach Bill Parcells announced his retirement from the game.

This morning, during Morning Edition, WBUR aired a segment by their sports reporter, Bill Littlefield, saying that all may not be over.

Without a transcript, I cannot do this story justice, so please listen.

Sports coverage in verse, referencing Shakespeare and Dylan Thomas?

Now, that's what I like to hear!

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:35 PM

My husband wrote this earlier today, and I think it's worth sharing verbatim:

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:08 PM

Here's a small story with major consequences:

Two election workers were convicted Wednesday of rigging a recount of the 2004 presidential election to avoid a more thorough review in Ohio's most populous county.

Jacqueline Maiden, elections coordinator of the Cuyahoga County Elections Board, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer each were convicted of a felony count of negligent misconduct of an elections employee. They also were convicted of one misdemeanor count each of failure of elections employees to perform their duty.

Prosecutors accused Maiden and Dreamer of secretly reviewing preselected ballots before a public recount on Dec. 16, 2004. They worked behind closed doors for three days to pick ballots they knew would not cause discrepancies when checked by hand, prosecutors said.

As you may recall, it was Ohio's electoral votes which clinched Bush's victory over Kerry.

Update: The excerpt above comes directly from Associated Press coverage. The Stalin quote (misquote?) came from Wikiquote.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:14 PM

My previous comments about Firedoglake's trial coverage reminded me of something Ian wrote about our theatrical reviews, and "our biggest advantage" compared to the mainstream press:

online, there are no column length limits. I don't have to keep myself to 5000 words, or 10 column inches, or whatever. I can keep blathering on as long as I like. This is why this is also a disadvantage, obviously -- but I still feel that it's more of an advantage than a disadvantage.

The fact that Lis and I aren't answerable to anybody but ourselves goes along with this. We can write whatever we want, at whatever length we want, and, as long as we're doing a good enough job that the theater companies consider us to be useful members of the press, we get press tickets.

And the same holds true in the blogosphere. Our comments don't have to fit in a 22-minute timeslot, leaaving room for all the other stories of the day, plus human interest. Whatever the subject, an interested blogger can write as in-depth about it as he or she chooses. That's one of the things I love about the blogosphere.

Mind you, people can and do write far beyond what's supported by the available information and their own knowledge. So anyone reading blogs for news needs to develop a good sense for how authoritative any particular author actually is on a topic.

But that's a useful skill in general (and one I wish were taught more in the schools).

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:08 PM

So, opening statements began yesterday in the Scooter Libby perjury case -- the first indictment to come to trial regarding the leak of CIA Valerie Plame's covert identity in the summer of 2003.

A coworker forwarded me the big bombshell yesterday afternoon:

Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 1:59 PM
Subject: Breaking News Tue., January 23, 2007

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

IN OPENING DAY OF CIA LEAK TRIAL, LAWYERS FOR 'SCOOTER' LIBBY ASSERT THEIR CLIENT WAS A SCAPEGOAT FOR KARL ROVE

My response was a low whistle of amazement.

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if that's what actually happened in the Oval Office, but to make that one's opening statement? Spells a much more interesting trial than I expected.

Naturally, last night I went to the blogs for further detail and analysis.

Josh Marshall:

A Republican pal makes a good point sizing up what happened today in the Scooter Libby trial. Contrary to what some have said, I don't think there were any new facts alleged today. The key is that Libby has decided to base his defense in large part on an attack on the White House -- specifically on Karl Rove, almost certainly on other top advisors and conceiveably even on the president himself. The logical inference from that decision is that Libby and his lawyers have decided that President Bush will not pardon their client.

Jeralyn Merritt:

The big news in today's proceeding happened during Fitzgerald's opening argument. Think Progress caught it right away from MSNBC's David Schuster.

"Scooter Libby destroyed a note from Vice President Cheney about their conversations and about how Vice President Cheney wanted the Wilson matter handled."

The timing is important: According to Fitzgerald, Libby destroyed the document the day before his first interview by FBI investigators.

If this is true, Libby's memory defense is DOA. You can't claim "oops, I forgot" after you destroy evidence. Just ask Martha Stewart.

Kevin Drum:

Hoisted from comments, this is from a reader who says he's practiced law in the areas of criminal defense and governmental misconduct/civil rights for twenty years. Here's what he wrote about prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's opening statement:

I know, and have friends who know, people that both work in Fitzgerald's office in Illinois and that have tried cases against Fitzgerald. The book on him (and this is not new, I just want to reaffirm it) is that he is meticulous, reserved and that he NEVER makes claims in opening statements that he cannot absolutely prove up to a jury.

....Given the statements and allegations Fitzgerald has made in his opening statement, and given his reputation for always backing up his statements, if I were Cheney's attorney, I would absolutely find some way, somehow, whatever it took, to keep him off the stand. It is crystal clear that Fitzgerald is convinced, and I mean strongly convinced, that this whole imbroglio is Cheney's personal doing....

Furthermore, as I noticed the day Fitzgerald announced his indictments:

Digby, over on Hullabaloo:

There is no reason to think that anyone else is out of the woods, though. In the Governor Ryan case remember, Ryan was the 66th person indicted --- partially on the basis of testimony of his closest aide...

When I showed Ian this quote (out of a much longer post), Ian pointed out: "Fitzgerald is starting with Scooter Libby; there's not that much higher they can go."

Of course, best coverage, bar none, comes from FIREDOGLAKE (firedoglakeblog on LJ), a group of lawbloggers who actually managed to earn press passes to the courtroom.

For years now, FireDogLake offered superb explanations of the meaning and nuance behind every motion and filing involved in the case. Now they're giving gavel-to-gavel liveblogging coverage of the trial itself. If you're interested in all the minutia you can glean about jury selection and the rest of it, hop on over.

If you're only interested in entries about this story, and not the rest of their political bloggery, look for entries tagged with CIA Leak Case.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:45 PM

Recently read David Macaulay's City: a story of Roman planning and construction in anticipation of this summer's trip to Italy.

Fascinating.

Many of the architectural details seem not only logical, but imitable. Sure, we've now got better plumbing, electric lighting, heat and A/C... but as construction focuses more on green buildings, there are definitely lessons worth learning. [For example, I like the idea of impluviums -- even today, we don't need fresh filtered water for every task in the house, so why not collect rainwater for such purposes?]

But I was most struck by this passage in the introduction:

The Romans knew that well planned cities did more to maintain peace and security than twice the number of military camps. They also knew that a city was more than just a business, government, or religious center. It was all three, but most important, it had to be a place where people wanted to live.

Because cities were built either where no city previously existed or where a small village stood, the maximum population and size were determined before construction began. The planners then allotted adequate space for houses, shops, squares, and temples. They decided how much water would be needed and the number and size of streets, sidewalks, and sewers. By planning this way they tried to satisfy the needs of every individual -- rich and poor alike.
     <snip>
This kind of planning is the basis of any truly successful city. The need for it today is greater than ever.

And then I was reminded of the way this administration approached the reconstruction (hah!) of New Orleans after Katrina, and wonder at how far backwards we've slid.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:40 PM

Well, that's one way to make sure I don't work through lunch.

The fire alarm in my office went off at about 12:20. I grabbed my jacket and purse, filed out of the building with everybody else, and then (after the headcount)*, went to the new Chinese restaurant for one of their luncheon specials.

Managed to get a rare set of Siamese-twin fortune cookies:

Isn't that sweet?

^*Nothing brings to mind the difference among corporate cultures more than fire alarms.

My last few years at Lotus, fire alarms happened quite regularly. [Every few months, usually accompanied by the smell of burnt popcorn.] When the alarms went off, everybody dutifully headed for the stairs, out the building...

...and into the adjacent mall. Huge lines would form at the Starbucks, and I'd see coworkers milling around in various stores. I no longer remember how such folks would get the all-clear signal, or if they'd just hang out for as long as they could get away with it.

This place has an official HR "Evacuation Procedure."

Each department is to evacuate to a specified meeting place. Once there, check in with the coordinator (equipped with a clipboard, list of employees, and safety-orange vest), who is responsible for making sure everybody is accounted for.

It's all logical, sensible and orderly, but a far cry from the anarchy I'm accustomed to.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:10 PM

Okay, I'm... disturbed

Curious about public awareness and attitudes, I created an alert to ping me with new mentions of fanfic in the mainstream media and academic journals.

So, imagine my surprise to get a link to this December article in The Nation about 9/11 conspiracy theories.

So how does that relate to fandom?

The Internet empowers people with esoteric interests to spend all kinds of time pursuing their hobbies, and if the Truth Movement was the political equivalent of Lord of the Rings fan fiction or furries, there wouldn't be much reason to pay attention.

Um...

I've joked in the past about the geek hierarchy, but always considered it an in-joke among enthusiasts -- something operating below the general public consciousness.

Either Christopher Hayes harbors hidden passions, or fandom is much more mainstream than I thought it was...

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:35 PM

My nose keeps informing that the cat has pissed on something in the bedroom, but I can't determine what the offending article might be.

Added later: Oh dear. It appears part of the reason the aroma was so strong was that at least some of it was emanate from the pillow (or pillow case). It wasn't damp, so it may just have been near whatever she targeted, but still... Ew.

I do love our cat.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:50 PM

So, Ian's off at the first of a five-session class by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust towards an Intermediate Certificate in Wines and Spirits.

Meanwhile, I'll catch up a bit on our weekend:

Saturday night, Ian and I finally caught Stranger than Fiction, a film starring the odd pairing of Emma Thompson and Will Ferrell.

To quote the official synopsis:

One morning, a seemingly average and generally solitary IRS agent named Harold Crick begins to hear a female voice narrating his every action, thought and feeling in alarmingly precise detail. [...W]hen the voice declares that Harold Crick is facing imminent death, he realizes he must find out who is writing his story and persuade her to change the ending.

The film only had a limited release, and we caught it second run, but if you have a chance to see it, I highly recommend it.

I'm particularly interested in how the writers in my acquaintance would react to the film and to the dilemma Emma Thompson's author experiences when confronting the reality of her characters.

I'll confess, I'm not much of a Will Ferrell fan, but he did an impressive job as a man who could be content with a regimented and routine life. He didn't ham it up at all, but I think the role benefitted from an actor with comedic timing. And I loved the graphics design which further deliniate the painstaking precision of his perspective.

Regarding the supporting cast, it seems cosmically unfair how utterly gorgeous the Gyllenhaal siblings are. At least they had the good sense and generousity to share all that attractiveness with the world by taking Hollywood careers.

And like the last Maggie Gyllenhaal movie we saw together (Secretary), Ian and I left the theater disagreeing over the ending.

To discuss it further would cross the line into spoilers, which I'm loathe to do.

However, Todd McCarthy's Variety review puts it well, IMO:

Stories constructed in this fashion inevitably box themselves into a corner, and it takes great creative dexterity to satisfactorily resolve them. Strong questions hover over the way [writer Zach] Helm sorts things out here; some will feel cheated, others will accept it, but either way the upshot does provide something to chew on afterward.

Yeah, that sums it up.

Roger Ebert, in one of his rare post-surgery reviews (3½ stars), opines:

How rare, to find a pensive film about the responsibilities we have to art.

He elaborates further, but I wouldn't recommend reading his remarks until after seeing the movie.

And I do recommend seeing the movie.

PS: for folks who are interested in the varying beauty demands Hollywood places on men and women, several articles state that Emma Thompson wore no makeup for her role as the reclusive and eccentric writer.

On our way out of the theater, I picked up artscope, a freebie magazine about the local arts scene, and I'm glad that I did. Because it included mention of a forthcoming production of Midsummer Night's Dream by a company I hadn't heard of.

I quickly posted the announcement to Bard in Boston and considered whether I wanted to attend.

I'll confess, I've seen at least six productions of MND in my adult life (list) -- five within the last four years -- and by the last one, was feeling a bit Dreamed out.
I do love the play, but maybe I've overdone it, and need a break until it feels fresh again. Besides, the article and ad seemed a bit too avant-garde for my taste.

Then I took another look at the cast listing. Timothy John Smith -- who directed and played Jacques in last summer's As You Like It which I adored -- doubles as Theseus and... Titania? Paula Plum doubles as Hippolyta and Oberon. And it appears that three of the four lost lovers (all but Demetrius) will be played by women.

Intriguing...

So we'll see. Since the Pats blew the second half of yesterday's game, maybe I'll go to the Superbowl Sunday matinee...

And, tying this back to the first half of the entry, I'm now wondering how Will Ferrell would approach the role of Bottom...