smokerblog

Jennings' Final Final Jeopardy

Via uber-blogger kottke, Ken Jennings' final Jeopardy appearance will be aired tonight. If you just can't wait for the show, here's a transcript of the Final Jeopardy question that does him in.

UPDATE: Oy. It looks like Sony is trying in vain to protect their little secret. Jason's had to take the transcript down, even though the Washington Post is running the exact same story. And, look, Anil Dash has it posted now too.

Rochester Blog Shout-Out

Hey, we're famous! Eh, well, not really, but the smokerblog did get a mention in the Sunday D&C along with several other local blogs. Thanks to Steve Orr for the article.

Unfortunately, as Anita pointed out, the online D&C article doesn't provide hotlinks. So for your linking pleasure, here they are, listed in the order in which they appeared in the D&C:

• silandara
• troll in the gorge
• cup o' books
• fighting inertia
• other side of my head
• commarato.com
• mamamusings

Thanksgiving 2005

Stats for the 2005 Gooch/Metzger Thanksgiving Dinner and Turkey Bowl:

• total head count: 39
• turkeys cooked: 3*
• lbs. of potatoes mashed: at least 20
• # of talent show skits: at least 4**
• final score of the Turkey Bowl: 5 - 5
• # of Turkey Bowl injuries: 0 (!)
• # of pies: only 5 (?!)

Other activities for the weekend included ridiculous amounts of pinochle, ping-pong, cross-stitch/crochet, playing with cute babies, scolding of noisy dogs, leftover turkey consumption, and general mayhem. Bonus activities for this year included a geocaching expedition at the Saulter Preserve, deer-spotting on Thanksgiving night, and rainbow-spotting on the ride home. It was, in short, a typical fun-filled holiday with family.

The General Vicinity of His Right Hand

So there's not going to be any weakly vague condemnation of hip-hop culture or whining over the decline of civilty from me. Let the stupidity of all participants in last Friday's Pacers-Pistons brawl speak for itself.

In the fan's corner is John Green, currently accused of being the man who threw his beer (probably not his first of the night) at Pacer Ron Artest. I'm not even going to say that he "touched off" or "incited" Artest's reaction, because that (the reaction) was inexcusable at almost any rational level. So but cue the stupidity: Green, in an interview on Good Morning America, explained, "The cup got hurled from the general vicinity of where I was sitting." Turns out, ESPN has some video that, um, disputes Green's claim.

And then there is stupidity, part deux: NBA Player Association's plan to appeal the NBA's season-ending suspension of Artest. Okay, so it's the union's job to advocate for the players, but they've got a public relations angle to worry about as well. There is simply no excuse, short of self-defense from imminent bodily harm that any player under any circumstances should lash out against a fan. The NBA got the suspensions exactly right.

And yes. Stupidity, part trois: sports analysts coming to the players' defense. ESPN seems almost too eager to point out John Green's culpability in lobbing a plastic glass of beer in Artest's general vicinity, and nothing excuses the reactions of ESPN's basketball roundtable, among the first to justify Artest's reaction. Analyst Tim Legler shrugged it off: "There's not a player in the league (who) would've acted differently than Ron Artest, especially under the circumstances." Kind of makes you wonder what other circumstances he's thinking of.

Rather than outright justify Artest's actions, some bloggers are trying to at least rationalize them, for which I have some sympathy. After all, there is plenty of blame to go around. The bottom line though is this: the NBA exists because of the fans. Ron Artest makes his millions of dollars from the hard-earned money of the fans willing (some would say foolish) enough to pay to watch him play.

Oh wait, did I forget to mention the stupidity that Artest and Co. displayed on Friday? Do I really need to?

Layers of Goodness

To commemorate the 225th anniversary of the First Continental Congress, Kari thought it would be fun to have a colonial-style dinner as kind of a warm-up for Thanksgiving. We invited history-buff Seth and buff-ette Chistine over to help fulfill Kari's dream. Acting as Ernesto to Seth's Fluvio, I prepared a squash soup along with a crypto-colonial spinach salad tossed with olive oil (not very colonial, I know), balsamic vinegar (I couldn't find the cider vinegar), feta cheese (no excuse), sourdough croutons, dried berries, and nuts. Of course, Seth went all out, putting together the more authentic sweet potato pone and a cod fish pie.

That's right, fish and pie. Two of my favorite foods combined in one dish. The recipe can be found online, or the enterprising chef may achieve similar success by basically winging it from the description below.

"Master Chef" Seth poses with
his master creation

Grease down a lasagne-style pan or casserole dish with butter and line with a biscuit-like crust. Place a layer of cod (or other white fish) fillets in the bottom and season with salt and pepper. Then add a layer of bread crumbs, two eggs,* a couple of dabs of butter, and some white sauce. Repeat with two additional layers of fish, crumbs, sauce, etc. and seal the whole thing with a top layer of biscuit crust. Bake in the oven until light brown (we used 375 degrees for a half-hour with good results). Allow to cool, then consume with gusto.

After making our way through the first three courses, we took a small break before consummating our gustatory pleasure with some cranberry-nut bars Kari made. This could very well have resembled a colonial-era dessert, if it weren't for the Giardelli double-chocolate chocolate chips that were added.

It was all very delicious, even when reheated on day 2.

Meet Your Chef

Whenever I get all mid-life-crisis-like, Kari tries to cheer me up by thinking up dream jobs for me. One of her favorite ideas is to send me to a chef school like the CIA, for instance (no, not that CIA), because, you know, I like to cook.

It seems like a nice idea, but as I tell her, I'm not sure I want to spend all day every day slaving over a hot stove cooking for other people. At least, not unless I can get my own show on the Food Network or something.

Well, it turns out those tv guys aren't so crazy about cooking either. According to the Waiter Rant blog, it's Ernesto the El Salvadoran sous chef who ends up getting stuck with the job.

Hmm...overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated? Maybe I'll go into teaching instead...

Reaching Out and Working Together

Yesterday, I was prepared to launch into a conniption over recent reports of creationist, red-state textbook meddlers and the over-educated, blue-state liberals who hate them, but I'll just let the National Geographic have the last word on that one.

Instead, today's conniption is brought to you by the rank hypocrisy currently stinking up Capitol Hill. This morning, NPR's Morning Edition had a report on the party ethics rule changes passed last night by Republicans that will allow Senate Majority Leader Tom DeLay to keep his post in the event he is indicted in Texas state corruption charges. The original rule was adopted ten years ago in reaction to the scandal involving then House Ways and Means Committee Chair, Democrat Dan Rostenkowski. Oh but, now that the Republicans are in charge, those rules apparently shouldn't apply.

Wait, there's more. The Republican-controlled Senate just voted along party lines to raise the national debt ceiling (now, there's fiscal responsibilty) and now hopes to bar or limit filibusters during debate over judicial confirmations. Senator John McCain at least has voiced his unease with these proposals:

I worry about doing away with the rights of the minority in the Senate. If I believed the Republicans would be in the majority forever, I'd be far more favorably disposed.

It sure seems that the Republican leadership is prepared to think that way. The party's rightward shift can be seen in hard-line attempts to squeeze moderate Republican voices such as McCain and Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter. Even some conservative columnists predict that these efforts could come back to haunt the Republicans.

Who was the guy who said that thing? Oh yeah, Santayana.

File War and Peace under Taupe

There are many ways to organize your library. You can be boring and sort by topic or by author's last name. Personally, I have sorted my books by the order in which they were purchased. We have a friend who spent an entire weekend organizing her extensive library by ISBN number. For Mac users, there is some nifty software that will allow you to create virtual bookshelves at the click of a button.

But now, San Francisco artist Chris Cobb has literally elevated the cataloging of books to an art form. For one week, the books of the Adobe Bookshop in San Francisco will be sorted by color. The result is truly stunning,...but good luck finding anything.

Stonyfield Yogurt

Still puckering your way through Dannon or Yoplait? Try Stonyfield yogurt, instead.

Because Stonyfield Farm produces an organic line of yogurts, Wegmans' stocks it in the foo-foo section right next to the tofu. But don't let that hippy stigma deter you. It's really good. Silky smooth and as delicious as pudding, we've been known to use the Banilla flavor as a filling for cream puffs.

Baseball Star Avoids Fans, Film at Eleven

I love the town I live in, and will generally defend it against its reputation as a remote, upstate city where it snows non-stop. But man, nothing screams provincial, backwoods bumpkinism quite like today's flap over the mysterious missing Derek Jeter. It's embarrasing.

First, I could hardly believe the piece in yesterday's D&C basically advertising Jeter's appearance at a downtown piano bar. Then, I was shocked that a similar story ran on last night's 6 o'clock news. And now, yes, that's right: "Angry Rochester fans of Derek Jeter want to know where he was Thursday night." Um, maybe hiding from you?

On the bright side, at least it got people downtown to the beleagured High Falls district. Maybe we could schedule a regular celebrity "appearance." Just imagine:

Next week, P. Diddy will drive down State St. in his Hummer limo! Be there to gaze at your reflection in his tinted, bulletproof windows as the motorcade rolls by!

No Hockey League

So the NHL was supposed to have started their new season over a month ago. Has anyone noticed? Outside of Canada, I mean.

The players' union has refused to meet the owners' demand for salary concessions, so the owners have locked the players out, perhaps for the entire season.

Now I'm a hockey fan, but I don't have a whole lotta patience for either side in this dispute. On one side, millionaire players fighting to prevent a salary cap. On the other, a mismanaged league run by millionaire owners.

The apathy of US "fans" is not a good sign for the health of the NHL. In fact, do a google search for "hockey lockout" and the number one hit is a story about a Nashville parking company losing money. Now there's something to worry about.

Thorlos Socks Rock

I'm thinking of starting a new category of posts devoted to recommendations and unsolicited endorsements of things I think are nifty. So here's the first one: Thorlos socks.

Next time you're in a sporting goods store, put down that $100 pair of sneakers or that $50 sweater or those golf clubs you don't really need. Instead, wander over to the socks rack and pick up a few of pairs of Thorlos. Try the thin ones or the fluffy ones, they are both awesome. Or, if you're feeling frisky, go for something eXtreme.

And don't sweat the price tag. So they cost two or three or four times more than the six pack of tube socks you get at KMart. They will also last two or three or four times longer and feel good on your feet in the meantime.

Side recommendation: check out the Smartwool socks too. A bit more indulgent, but your feet will thank you.

The 40 Year Book

Still mired in the midst of Volume II of Rising Up and Rising Down, I've found (via Seth) an incentive to quickly wrap it up and embark on what will no doubt become a lifelong journey of reading bliss: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

That, or it will just look really impressive on the bookshelf...

Lesee, Kari usually reads about 4 pages a night before she falls asleep in bed. At that rate, she'd get through this in just over 40 years. Better get crackin'!

UPDATE: Check out the "fun facts" kindly provided by Matt B. in the comments (3.36 tons of adhesive, that's a lot of horses!).

Ted's New Home

Ted's been having some more fun w web design. Check out his new home page.

(And don't forget to pay Abby a visit.)

Driving into the Northern Lights

Driving back home from a weekend at my parents' we noticed some strange cloud formations in the moonlight. Except. There was no moon: it wasn't supposed to rise until 1 AM.

We realized our mistake when we rounded a turn and began heading due north and found ourselves driving head-on into a brilliant, green, shimmering aurora borealis. Unfortunately, we only got to witness the display for a few minutes before clouds began rolling in, obscuring the view.

Auroras are formed when radiation ejected from solar disturbances interacts with the earth's magnetosphere. Thanks to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, we can view the current space weather conditions at any time.

Below is the map from tonight at 9:32 PM EST, about half an hour after we witnessed the light show. Activity level 10 indicates a very active atmosphere at the time of our viewing.

DFW Reviews a Borges Biography

In this Sunday's New York Times, one of my favorite authors reviews a biography of another of my favorite authors. David Foster Wallace's quirky style seems a bit restrained here, perhaps at the behest of stuffy editors--although there are footnotes, and I don't ever recall reading the word "bluck" in the NYT before, and I'm hoping to see "pontine" show up in a word-of-the-day newsletter sometime soon.

Wallace clearly understands Jorge Luis Borges and rightly credits him as one of the more important links between modern and post-modern literature. Alas, according to DFW, Edwin Williamson's Borges: A Life is not nearly so insightful, his interpretations of Borges' writing are so far off as to be almost comical. Using an Oprah-like inquiry into Borges' chilhood and lovelife as the key to understanding Borges' writing, Williamson totally misses the point of Borges carefully crafted, depersonalized, and timeless stories.

Instead, the best parts of the book look at Borges' life in the tumultuous cultural political backdrop of mid-20th century Argentina. In fact, the historical context sonds so intriguing, that the book sounds as if it might be worth looking into.

Red States, Blue States, Purple States

So just how divided is this country? Jon Stewart seemed to get it last night in his interview with Charles Schumer, asking the NY Senator if this election doesn't represent a cultural backlash: bans on gay marriage as revenge for being subjected to Will & Grace, for example. Schumer obviously didn't get it as he bumbled through a lame joke about Bonanza reruns. If I can find the transcript maybe I'll post it.

So let's look at some maps! Via Planned Obsolescence, here are some maps that illustrate the red state-blue state divide:

1. stars vs. stripes
2. Canada 2.0
3. color-coded by margin of victory
4. color-coded by county
5. a combination of 3 & 4
6. RE-UPDATE:more red/blue/purple but charted to represent population differences

Map #4 is interesting to me in how clearly you can pick out Democratic constituencies across the country. Urban areas are a no-brainer, but check out the Jackson Hole-Yellowstone corner of Wyoming, the Native American reservations in Arizona and the Dakotas, the industrial/coal towns of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania, and the college towns in Kansas, Indiana, Virginia, Georgia, etc.

Map #5 is a bit more hopeful; it looks like all the red and blue people can coexist after all.

UPDATE: Jason Kottke gets it too: Half the country is not stupid. We're all stupid.

The Youth Vote Voted

I'm posting this to correct my earlier statements; otherwise, I really should stop blathering about politics for a while. It's bad for my my blood pressure.

Turns out the youth vote turned out after all. My previous statistics (coming from NBC midway through their election coverage) turned out to be misleading.

According to professor William Galston at the University of Maryland, at least 20.9 million Americans under 30 voted on Tuesday. That is an increase of 4.6 million voters from 2000. Four years ago, just 42.3 percent of young people voted. This year more than 51.6 percent did.

...

According to exit polls, Senator John Kerry won the under-30 set with 54 percent of the vote to President Bush's 44 percent. The Democrats lost every other age group. Without young Democrat voters, President Bush would have rolled to victory in Wisconsin and New Hampshire; Iowa and Nevada, too, would have been much bigger wins for the president.

So. It's starting to sink in now. Time to get used to the idea.

Not an Angry Rant

Four years ago I stayed up until around 2 AM watching the tv networks go through the flaming tailspin of the Gore/Bush Florida debacle. When I awoke the next day and heard the news that the election has still not been decided, I was disappointed, but shrugged it off with something along the lines of: "Bush can't be that bad. He and Gore are just fuzzy reflections of each other." The phrase "compassionate conservatism" was reassuringly buzzing around my brain as I went on with my life.

Today, I am not so easily consoled. I had originally written a different blog entry for today. It was an angry rant about how President Bush today said that he wanted to earn the trust of Kerry's supporters. To which I said, not likely and who is he to talk about unity and blah, blah, blah.

Instead of subjecting you to that kind of hissy-fit, let me just say that I also refuse to jump on the bandwagon of Kerry-bashers and second-guessers. I like John Kerry. For anyone willing to listen to a dependent clause here and there, his arguments (especially prior to the election-year mudslinging) are eloquent and persuasive.

He would have made a good President.

So there. Nyah.

Didn't Vote and Died

It's now 1:45 AM and it's not looking good for the Kerry campaign. ABC, CBS, and PBS are refusing to project Bush as the winner in OH. But those networks seem more cautious about making this call than the Kerry campaign at this point. Even the pro-Kerry bloggers are essentially admitting defeat.

The real surprise was the low turnout among younger voters. P. Diddy's Vote or Die campaign did not have the impact that Democrats hoped for. Some stats I saw somewhere showed the 18-29 age bracket made up only 17% of the total of those who voted, same as in 2000.

Despite the delusions of a few, we can't blame this election on Nader.

The Genius Behind electoral-vote.com

Andrew Tanenbaum came out of the closet this morning. (in case of slashdot, use a mirror: here, here, or here)

Known in geek circles as the author of Minix, Tanenbaum's been spending the past few months tracking and sharing US presidential polling results with the rest of the world via his website. After the election, he will be retiring from blogging and plans to focus again on his day job
teaching Computer Science at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.