Monthly Archive: November 2008

How concrete feels after you jet-pack across a 1053-foot-deep gorge.

Minnesota Public Radio has an enlightening display of challenged ballots from the Al Franken-Norm Coleman Senate recount.Included is a Coleman voter who also wrote in “Bachmen” (or “Bad men”?) and a Franken voter who wrote in “Lizard People.”(Lizardy hat tip: Swampland.)

Headline of the day.

Delware Governor Ruth Ann Minner has named Ted Kaufman to fill the Senate seat of Joe Biden.Kaufman is a longtime aide to Biden. He’ll serve until 2010, when a special election will determine who will hold the seat for the remaining four years of Biden’s term.

Ridley [Scott] is now officially attached to direct this collaboration between Universal and the games manufacturer Hasbro – Hasbro! Jesus wept! – and according to the Hollywood Reporter is planning to give it “a futuristic sheen along the lines of his iconic Blade Runner”. Really? Really?

Sasha and Malia Obama will attend Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C., the Obama family has announced.

Ms. Kurkova has not spoken publicly about how she came to have a smooth navel, and all her agent will say is “she’s not an alien.”The BBC has the scoop.

You know it’s a big story when the Daily News and the Daily Mail are both on the case.”It disappears in photos, so we keep a collection of belly button shots in different positions, and Photoshop them on to her whenever she’s doing a bikini picture.”

As the first African-American First Family, will they be criticized if they choose a black church, or if they don’t? If they choose a white pastor, or if they don’t?Tough choice.[ Update: And if they choose nothing at all? That gets reported, too. ]

Nifty interview with Sol Sender, the guy who designed the campaign logo for Barack Obama. Dude is a little dry, but it’s good to learn how these things happen.

“Ted was the big guy with the good hands, the man you wanted on your side. And Bobby was an absolute terrier, flinging himself around the lawn — and into the rose bushes — with abandon. ‘The games were tough if Bobby was playing… For Bobby, it was the Super Bowl. His tenacity — he played very hard.'”And Jack played quarterback for both sides.

The latest for your baby name parade.. (Born at the ER to the Stars!)

U.S Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed Thursday night while giving a speech in Washington, D.C.The Los Angeles Times reports that Mukasey “was about 15 minutes into his speech before a packed crowed at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the conservative Federalist Society when he appeared to hesitate, and then dropped to the floor.” This was about 10:20 pm Eastern time.

Fun new game lets you battle pigs with lipstick (on ice!) and navigate a “series of tubes.” It ain’t easy.Hey, how many video games did Dwight Eisenhower inspire?

Paris Hilton and Prince William? Fox News is on the case. But they’re joking, right?

85-year-old Senator Ted Stevens is out, according to the Anchorage Daily News. Challenger Mark Begich has a lead of 3,724 votes with about 2,500 left to count.Stevens still came within a whisker of being the first U.S. senator ever elected after being convicted of a felony. He’s been a senator since 1968.

Talk show host Larry King was born 75 years ago today.He was the first baby to be born with suspenders instead of an umbilical cord. His first words were, “How did it feel for you to give birth to me just now?”Others born that same year: Johnny Unitas, Yoko Ono and King Kong.

LIFE magazine and Google have teamed up to offer “millions of photographs from the LIFE archive” via Google search.

Mickey Mouse turns 80 today. 18 November 1928 is Mickey’s official birthday, according to the Walt Disney Company. That’s the date of the cheerful rodent’s first public appearance in the cartoon short Steamboat Willie (below).

“The fest wrapped up with the awarding of trophies. The man in the iron lung — who came as the incapacitated father of the brat who steals the Dude’s car — picked up his costume prize with a White Russian balanced on his apparatus, while the furthest-travelled award went to a Jesus from Croatia.”The Guardian on the just-completed Lebowski Fest 2008.

Reading that the best barbecue in Texas was at Snow’s, in Lexington, I felt like a People subscriber who had picked up the “Sexiest Man Alive” issue and discovered that the sexiest man alive was Sheldon Ludnick, an insurance adjuster from Terre Haute, Indiana, with George Clooney as the runner-up.I had warned the Texas Monthly crowd that if they were looking for confirmation of their ranking by an objective outlander, someone from Kansas City was not likely to provide it.

“I think we were just back into the routine. Our hopes are to just to keep the girls moving. It’s like okay, Daddy’s president-elect, okay, we can get to school by 10.”Jovial interview by 60 Minutes with Barack and Michelle Obama. They sure come off as a fun, connected couple.

Cruel, funny, probably true. February 17th is the Day of Confusion.

William Ayers appeared on the chat show Good Morning America today, talking about the fairly hysterical accusations that Barack Obama “launched his political career” in the Ayers living room.Campaign Boogeyman William Ayers Talks to GMA is how ABC News headlines its story, and it’s hard to tell whether that’s being ironical, aggressive, or just telling it like it is. Perhaps it’s always hard to figure that these days.

Barack or Vlad? (Or Nic?)

Best First Dog video so far: (Nice shout-out to Scrappy-Doo at the end, too.)

The Times of London is way, way on the James Bond bandwagon.Dig their giant 007 supersite. The map of Bond haunts is especially terrific. Ditto the reader’s guide to Bond and Ian Fleming.

He’s back!

Headline of the day on the First Dog watch.Here’s the photo.Some of them have mohawks.

I’m still steaming over the nutty code names the Secret Service has given to Barack and Michelle Obama. Renegade and Renaissance? Are you kidding me?Since the Obamas are occupied elsewhere these days, I am taking up the issue on their behalf.

Here’s a salute to the soldiers, sailors, generals, flyboys and even parachutists who got us to where we are today. Thanks, old friends.

Renegade. Renaissance. Radiance. Rosebud.Those, says the Chicago Tribune, are the Secret Service code names for Barack Obama and (respectively) Michelle, Malia and Sasha Obama.

Michelle Obama’s big brother has a new job too.

Actress Doris Day and activist Dorothy Day have little in common besides similar names — and the challenges they pose to anyone trying to document the details of their early lives.The trouble spots are Doris’s name and age, and Dorothy’s daughter’s birthdate.

By popular demand, we’ve profiled the as-yet-unknown First Dog of the Barack Obama administration.Obama told his daughters Malia and Sasha in his election-night speech that they had “earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House.”This set off a public First Dog Frenzy, with a question about the dog even popping up at Obama’s first press conference on Friday.

Evangelist Billy Graham turns 90 today.”A blond, trumpet-lunged North Carolinian” Time called him in its 1949 article about his breakthrough “Christ for Greater Los Angeles” tent revival.

“Obama spent part of Thursday in Chicago making calls to world leaders.

So says a new biography of politeness pro Emily Post.

We missed it yesterday amongst the election hoopla: Kevin Jonas, of the teen band the Jonas Brothers, has turned 21.He’s now the only Jonas brother who can legally go out for a Flaming Dr. Pepper after a show. Not that he would, of course.

Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States. Here’s a by-the-numbers look ahead at this historic event.{ 1 }   Obama will be the first president born in Hawaii. (Small surprise: Hawaii didn’t become a state until 1959. Obama was born in 1961.) { 77 }   Days until Obama’s inauguration on 20 January 2009.

All national networks are now reporting that Barack Obama has defeated John McCain and will be the next president of the United States.[Update: Here’s the transcript of his speech.]

Election Day also happens to be the birthday of Laura Bush. She’s 62 on this, her final birthday as First Lady.Mrs. Bush shares a birth year with Patty Duke, Dolly Parton and Gilda Radner.

Google Maps has a swell tool to help you find your polling place today.They’ll also tell you if state law permits you time off to vote. (Wyoming residents get one paid hour; Kentuckians get four!)

Barack Obama’s grandmother has died of cancer in Hawaii. Madelyn Dunham was 86. Details from The Honolulu Advertiser and The Chicago Tribune.

Polls continue to show a sizable lead for Barack Obama over John McCain. Now pundits are wondering about a replay of the “Dewey defeats Truman” scenario from 1948. For those unfamiliar, here’s a quick recap of that swell old story.