What would Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen do?

The strangest thing about the GOP debate last night? Aside from the ancestor-worship of Ronald Reagan?

Air Force One hanging in the middle of the cavernous chamber in which the debate was held.

All I could think of was Chester's mansion in Cryptonomicon, and how it had an exploded airliner suspended from the ceiling, and how much it freaked out Amy Shaftoe.

Also weird? A random cut to the mother from The Wonder Years sitting in the audience.

Edwards bows out

A tip of the hat to John Edwards, who ended his campaign today where he began it, and pushed the agenda for this nominating contest in an important direction it would not otherwise have gone without his presence.




Edwards' decision makes several things about this election historic, barring the unforeseen:

• For the first time, a major party will nominate a candidate who is not a white male.
  
• For the first time since 1960 (given the likelihood that John McCain will be the Republican nominee after last night's primary in Florida), a sitting US Senator will be the next president.

When political junkies marry

ME: Do you have your copy of The Federalist Papers handy?

SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED: It's in the library. What happened to your copy?

ME: It's on campus. (thinks about it) I think.

SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED: Use mine.

ME: Crap!

SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED: What?

ME: It's not under "F!"

SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED: What?

ME: Found it!

SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED: Where was it?

ME: Under "H" for Hamilton.

SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED: Phew!

ME: Phew!

Flashback snark

For a couple of years right after college, a bunch of my friends became inexplicably attached to the Brickskeller, an overpriced, hard to get to, unpleasant bar in Dupont Circle that invariably did not have whatever beer I tried to order from their admittedly extensive list of beers. So it's with no small amusement that I see it included on this list of soul-sucking Dupont Circle bars to avoid.

Oh, and about that hiatus in posting...

...we were kind of busy!

If not separated at birth, perhaps really close cousins?

Gil Kane's cover of Omega The Unknown #8 (May 1977)...





...and his cover for The New Adventures of Superboy #48 (December 1983)?

Great minds

Me, while watching Wednesday's Project Runway: "Victorya's dress looks like something Mike Grell would have drawn for a girl Legionnaire during the team's half-naked disco period."

Tim Gunn, blogging about Wednesday's Project Runway: "Frankly, the decision to toss Victorya this win eluded me. In my view, the electric blue textile said “superhero” not prom. Furthermore, the jewel emblazoned panel on the front of the halter made the dress look more appropriate for a hostess at a Vegas cocktail lounge than a teenager attending a suburban prom."

Late Christmas links

First, a funny take on a Christmas carol. It helps if your college had an omnipresent a capella group:



Second, Paul Cornell's Doctor Who Christmas story, The Hopes and Fears of All the Years. Cornell's scripts for the Doctor Who TV series are very good at ripping your heart out and stomping on it, and I mean that in the best possible way. This short prose story is not much different.

Separated at birth?

Battlestar Galactica producer Ron Moore...





...and Doctor Lucien Sanchez?

Thanks, C-SPAN!

How else would I know Wilford Brimley is a) supporting John McCain and b) alive?

This is not a caucus post.

This is a Fox News post. I rarely watch Fox, but tuned in a few times last night when CNN and MSNBC were both on commercials. And I couldn't help being struck by how shabby the whole enterprise looked -- badly lit sets for their panels of talking heads, ugly graphics, and, well, everyone looked like they'd had lots of bad plastic surgery, except for Shepard Smith, who is what I imagine you'd get if you beat John Barrowman up very badly and didn't let things heal quite properly.

Politics and pop culture mash-up of the day

Which Buffy villain will the Republicans pick? And will Superman be able to stop him?

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Quick holiday linkage

Just a few links to tide you over through the holiday season:

• Ken Levine talks about A Christmas Story.
  
• Roger Ebert reviews Bad Santa, one of my favorite Christmas movies.
  
• 100 reasons Kirk is better than Picard.
  
• Hugh Jackman sings Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas:
  
  

This will exceed your recommended daily allowance of WTF

Via John Scalzi:

Anchoring

The student who showed up ten minutes late for her make-up exam should thank the students who were forty minutes late for their make-ups yesterday. Compared to them, ten minutes is practically on-time.

Bacon

I just got an e-mail from Kevin Bacon telling me why he's supporting John Edwards. Does this give me a Bacon Score of 1?

Quote of the day

From a write-up of an anime convention:

I was reminded much more of a science fiction con than a comic-con, to be honest. A sense of proud, or even defiant, nerditry prevailed over the proceedings, but rather than being anal retentive it was more, anal explusive, I suppose.

Really, I should go home and go back to bed, because nothing I read or write today is going to top that.

Campaigning can be weird.

Just ask Bill Clinton:

About seven minutes into the former president’s fourth speech of the day, the man stood on a chair on the press riser and shouted that robots wanted Clinton to say he was sorry for statements he made 15 years ago.

"Bill Clinton, I want you to apologize to Sister Souljah. Robots of the world want you to apologize to Sister Souljah. We want you to apologize,” the man said as one observer gasped "Oh my God.”

A volunteer demanded to know who had let him in and the audience heckled the heckler with boos and screams of "Get out of here!” He then threw dozens of orange, green, hot pink and yellow cards into the air. A woman yanked what appeared to be a microphone out of the man’s hands, and he was escorted out of the room without further incident.

The cards read: "Robots are mad at Bill. MR-IFOBCA stands for Mad Robots In Favor Of Bill Clinton Apologizing. Mr. Ifobca says, "Bill Clinton should be ashamed of himself for slandering a Black woman named Sister Souljah," followed by a website address (www.Mr-Ifobca.org ). Posted on the site is a "manifesto" entitled “"Why Did I Bum Rush Bill Clinton?”

I got nothin'.

UPDATE: I take that back. I got video.

Star Trek XI is going to be AWESOME.

The very lovely and very talented Rachel Nichols has joined the cast:

"I'm very restricted on what I'm allowed to say," she says. "But yes, there's a good chance you'll see my shining face in the new Star Trek ... My mom even e-mailed me about it because she saw it (online) and I hadn't told her yet. There's a lot of buzz about it, but honestly, I don't even know the name of my character."

Now if only someone would release her short-lived Fox series The Inside on DVD...