TEN RANDOM THOUGHTS #7

1. While I think the whole thing regarding the Texas Air National Guard memos (link goes to Bryan’s roundup of blog reactions) is a totally shameful episode which destroys what little credibility CBS News had left, I also think that the blogosphere’s demand for Rather to step down is unseemly. I’ll commence to feeling differently the minute I see a blogger hanging up his or her keyboard because they got a story wrong. The recruiters for the Grave Dancers’ Union could clean up in bloggerdom. And don’t even try to tell me that bloggers spin the news less than Big Media.
2. I called it and said that my Hawkeyes would by no means be leaving Tempe with a win last Saturday. I didn’t expect the 44-7 beatdown that they took. I can’t come up with a reason for the derailing that doesn’t somehow take away from ASU’s nearly-perfect game. So I won’t. But I refuse to believe, based on this game, that the Hawks aren’t as good as everybody thought–I said a long time ago that they weren’t going to be anything special this year. Thus, the calls of “overrated” don’t bug me–I honestly feel that they were severely overrated to begin with, but I have to say, this team is better than I thought it was going to be.
3. Yes, this is one of the funniest books I’ve read in a while. It does for bad cars of the 70s and 80s what James Lileks has done for bad food of the 50s and 60s.
4. By the way, while I never finished the bad 80s car list, since I got tired of reading flame mail from Nissan Pulsar apologists, let me just say that #1 on the list was the Pontiac Fiero. And I don’t care what anybody says, or how proud you are of your Fiero, that thing was ill-designed and dangerous, mostly due to an extreme number of cost-cutting compromises forced by GM management, which never wanted to build the car in the first place. For example, they made the engine fit in the car by redesigning the oil pan so the engine always ran a quart low. I’ve said it before and I’m saying it now: it’s more than a minor miracle that GM managed to survive the 1980s intact. And I don’t understand why everybody slams Chrysler for quality control when the problems with rust, steering, brakes, and electronics which plagued every GM car from the era, almost without exception, probably cost American consumers a few billion dollars.
5. And while I’m venting some spleen, isn’t it time we all started shunning anybody over the age of 15 who admits to being a Britney Spears fan? Oh, wait, I’m “just jelus of her sucess.” Yes, I am bitterly disappointed that I never got my chance to be the butt of Jay Leno’s monologue jokes for six years running. I cry myself to sleep every night, cursing the cruelty of fate.
6. Coffeenerdness: I don’t drink lattes, but the Starbucks Fairtrade coffee is one of the tastiest cups I’ve had in a long time. The Fame Clock for the Verona Roast, however, is at 15:04 and rising. And I’d put the Starbucks cinnamon roll near Cinnabon level, personally. My wife wouldn’t, however, which makes for interesting late-night discussions around the Hasty household, most of which end with the sentence, “I can’t, honey; the mall closes in ten minutes, and it’s forty minutes away.”
7. By the way, she’s doing fine, thanks for asking, and yes, we have finally settled on a name. You don’t get to know it until the kid’s born, which is less than a month from now.
8. A restaurant near us–OK, the restaurant nearest to us–was kind enough to drop a bunch of coupons in the mail, each one offering one free meal, no strings attached. Who are we not to take advantage of such outrageous generosity? Apparently, half this town felt the same way, too, or else nobody really felt like cooking tonight.
9. Apropos of my first post today, I’m predicting that avocado green and harvest gold will re-emerge as popular colors sometime within the next five years. In fact, my favorite dress shirt is harvest gold, and I’ve got one that could almost pass for avocado green. I’d really like to see this color come back, though.
10. Apropos of nothing, I’m about this close to deciding that irreverence just isn’t funny any more.