The “Weird Al” for lovers of language

There is so much to like here: the lyric, the visual imagination, the beat…the fact that you don’t actually see “Weird Al” Yankovic during the performance (not if you blink).  Make all your illiterate friends watch and wisen up!

Heralding the Classic with a clash of the brass

Are you like me, are you looking forward to what ought to be a pretty good World Series between Boston and St. Louis starting tonight?  Of course you are.  And this may just be me not paying attention, but I’m pleased not to have had to hear about the usual stupid bets between mayors and governors when a series like this comes around; on the other hand, I was very pleased to learn, from NPR, about this unusual throwdown between the orchestras of the two towns!

I’ll take the Cardinals in 6…

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long, long time

This just popped up in my FeedDemon this morning, and it brought tears.

Just like this kid, I’m a big Billy Joel fan and dreamed of playing with him; unlike this kid, I never had the balls to ask. Michael Pollack got to live a dream, and I’m jealous as hell—-jealous that he got to play with an idol, and that he can play the piano so well. Also, good on Billy for saying yes…

Things you do when your team has a bye week

First thing this morning I’m heartened to see the Leonard Pitts Jr. column from yesterday’s Miami Herald, and so what if he’s piling on Christine O’Donnell for not understanding the Constitution—the point can’t be made too often that our country is in trouble if we voters don’t really think about what we’re doing when we get to the voting booth.

That this woman is a major party candidate for national office, that she is among the brightest stars of a constellation of like-minded cranks — some of them already in office — tells you all you need to know about this moment in our political life…Somehow we have forgotten the lesson we spent most of the last decade learning at ruinous cost, that faith-based governance, foreign policy by gut instinct, choosing leaders on the basis of which one we’d most like to watch television with, simply does not work.

It’s not  a question of conservative versus liberal:

…this is no conservatism Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater would have recognized. At least their ideology adhered to an interior logic. This ideology adheres to a perverse illogic which posits that the less you know, the more authentic you are. So what triumphs here is not conservatism but rather, mediocrity. The Know Nothings and Flat Earthers are ascendant.

And then while I was looking for a cartoon I saw to fill out this post, I ran into something even better—humor at the expense of our leader, in the form of a show tune!

Enjoy the lazy Sunday…the World Series, Halloween, and STS-133 are coming up the rear view mirror.

Happy birthday, John Lennon

I’m glad to live in a world that can create John Lennon, and that we can still enjoy his music.  His talent for expressing himself was superb and it set him apart; and yet, it’s reassuring to learn that in some important ways, he was very much like the rest of us.

We all shine on…