Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:18 PM

Have you seen Jonathan Papelbon's commercial for Dunkin Donuts?

Via Universal Hub, I learned they used a stunt double for Papelbon's backside.

As Red quipped:

Honestly, the fact that there's someone out there who got a call from an agent who said, "We need you to be Jonathan Papelbon's ass," is one of the greatest things I've heard in my life.

Somehow, I managed to turn this into a tongue twister:

Go ahead. Try saying it five times fast.

Or, sing along (to the tune of "Bibbity-Bobbity Boo"):

Dunkies and BoSox,
Coffee and hot jocks:
Papelbon's slappable ass...

Yes, this is the way my brain works...

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:15 PM

I just discovered that the local McDonalds have started serving sweet tea.

Not only that, but it actually tastes better than Arizona's attempt at sweet tea and (for now, at least) it's only $1 for a 32 oz cup.

This may not seem remarkable to anybody south of Washington DC, but for Boston, it's noteworthy.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:28 PM

Just seen on Boing Boing, Nerve and IFC claim to have compiled the "50 greatest comedy sketches of all time."

While they deserve a certain amount of cred for remembering Ernie Kovacs, it's still too biased towards the new and popular (a large portion of the list is SNL and Monty Python).

Only one clip from the Carol Burnett? And nothing by the Marx Brothers?

Nice try, but no cigar.

PS: I have vague memories of an entry from my LJ friends list a few years back about seeing Conway and Korman's recent reunion tour. If anybody remembers this, can you send me the link? Thanks.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:48 PM

Saturday morning, I'm flying down to Miami for the IA Summit.

After it ends, Monday night, Ian's joining me. We've made arrangements for a rental car (paying a tad extra for a Prius -- heaven help Hertz if they try to foist off anything else on us) and on Tuesday, we're going to drive to Fort Myers to see Thomas Edison's winter estate.

After that, we're heading up the West Coast to the Tampa Bay area to see my family, where we'll stay through both seders.

So this week has been even more frantic than usual as I've been trying to tie up various loose ends before I go.

Just so you know the state of the Lis...

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:08 AM

Blogging this just because I got curious and wanted to record it somewhere.

Shakespeare's bastards:

Any others?

Edmund, Don John, and Caliban are clearly villains.

Philip is... pretty awesome, actually.

And I don't know the other two plays enough to characterize the other three.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:55 AM

I haven't been blogging much about politics this season.

I'm following the race, but haven't had much to say.

Until now.

I'll start with something Kevin Drum noted two weeks ago:

I don't think people really appreciate the uniqueness of what's going on here: there are two Democratic candidates who are almost precisely tied. They've won nearly equal numbers of delegates; they've won nearly equal portions of the popular vote; and for two nearly two months straight they've polled within three or four points of each other. Two months! All this new information, all the spitballs, all the ads, all the spin, and both candidates have held on to almost precisely the same level of support they had right after Super Tuesday. That's remarkable.

There's no need to make this more complicated than it is. The Democratic Party has two candidates with almost eerily similar levels of support, and that support is deep and strong for both of them. That's a recipe for a long campaign season no matter what the primary schedule looks like.

It's even more striking if you look at the popular vote total to date:

So I've been getting really annoyed by the increasing demands that Clinton somehow owes it to the party to drop out of the race. [Cartoon via All Spin Zone]

Steven Stark reviewed the history:

The fact is that, until now, candidates have rarely, if ever, faced such a concerted movement (featuring prominent names, such as Bill Richardson, and a column in Slate titled "The Hillary Deathwatch"), urging them to drop out before their rival has clinched the nomination.
[... U]ntil this year, it's been an axiom of American politics that candidates are allowed to pursue their runs until they decide to drop out [...] Yet in one of the tightest races in modern history -- before the opponent has come close to clearly clinching the nomination, before a number of voters have been given the chance to have their voices heard, and when Clinton still has a chance, albeit a slim one, to win the prize, she is continually vilified for failing to see the light and bow out. [...]
Clinton is being held to a different standard than virtually any other candidate in history.

Armando provides a more strategic perspective:

[Attacking]Clinton at every turn ... does not exude inevitability. It exudes fear. It alienates the Clinton supporters who would have to accept and support Obama as the nominee. It is harmful and divisive. And more pragmatically, it STRENGTHENS Clinton. [...]
Obama needs to beat Clinton, not have it handed to him.

To be continued (when I have time to write the next part)

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:25 AM

I don't even know what this shows is about, but cool promo from the BBC:

Hat tip: Avedon Carol

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:35 PM

So, I'd heard of 24-hour comics, but the MIT Shakespeare Ensemble's announcement last week was the first I'd heard of a 24-hour show.

So, what is it?

It's a play that will be written, designed, directed, rehearsed, and open all in the span of 24 HOURS!

And with a title like William Shakespeare: Vampire Hunter, how could we resist?

I'm so glad we didn't (resist, I mean).

I mean, yes, it was quite obviously put together in 24 hours. But it was funny. And even with Mary Queen of Scots in a post-Armada England, it showed a greater awareness of historical accuracy than Elizabeth, the Golden Age

Midway through, I realized that the appearance of "Kit Marlowe, Vampire Queen" means granting it a form of immortality on my Marlowe in Modern Fiction List.

I noticed somebody was filming videotaping recording the performance; I'd love a copy.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:02 AM

Much Ado About Nothing:

LEONATO:

Then half Signior Benedick's tongue in Count John's
mouth, and half Count John's melancholy in Signior
Benedick's face--

I think I've seen that fic...