The Allen Almanac

John Hodgman has a new interview up at The Onion AV Club.  A lot of stuff is covered but here is the money quote regarding this election:

I have nothing against Sarah Palin. If anything, I think it’s sort of tragic. She was clearly a Republican up-and-comer who, if they lose the election, her career has been dealt a very severe blow. We might think that’s a good thing, but I’m just saying she was called up too early. She simply had no experience. Never mind whatever her thinking might have been on national issues, but she had never taken a position on a national stage before and she had no experience with the national media and that’s what ultimately did her in. She didn’t have the training. She’s a quick study, obviously, but she’s doesn’t have the experience to talk to national reporters over and over and over again in a way that could make her seem confident and I think it really undid her. And just because John McCain wants her to be great in his campaign that doesn’t make it so, anymore than just because John McCain wants to believe that if he suspends his campaign and makes serious faces in Washington that the economic crisis will be averted. That’s magical thinking. It doesn’t make it so just because you want something. Just because John McCain wants to be President does not mean that it must happen. That’s the same magical thinking that really undid Hillary Clinton. It was like, “I don’t need to put forward a compelling argument for my candidacy. My candidacy is a compelling argument for my candidacy. I want to be President. Obviously, you all know it’s time. Let’s get this over with.” That wasn’t good enough to go against somebody who I think really has looked at the reality of election, saw all the opportunities where he could make gains, saw that she was totally neglecting the caucus states, saw that that was a place where he could take an advantage, planned for it, took the advantage, and won. That’s science. Do you know what I mean? That’s reality triumphing over magical thinking.

Do I like Obama, personally? I do. Do I think he’s got good policies? Look, I’m like everyone else, I hope so. They sound good. They sound like something I believe in, so I think based on his performance and the way that he has run his campaign, I feel that it is reasonable to feel confident that he is going to take the same discipline and smarts and lack of drama and apply them to the very serious issues today and I think that makes him a good choice for President. Do I think that his candidacy is historic? Sure, that’s exciting too, but what I think it’s really amazing that he exists in the same world that I also inhabit and no other political candidate lives in that world right now. They live in a made-up world that is not reality. I think that that’s why you see Obama surging right now. It’s that the people like the fact that Obama lives in the world that they live in.

What if Shakespeare had written Pulp Fiction?

ACT I SCENE 2. A road, morning. Enter a carriage, with JULES and VINCENT, murderers.

J: And know’st thou what the French name cottage pie?
V: Say they not cottage pie, in their own tongue?
J: But nay, their tongues, for speech and taste alike
Are strange to ours, with their own history:
Gaul knoweth not a cottage from a house.
V: What say they then, pray?
J: Hachis Parmentier.
V: Hachis Parmentier! What name they cream?
J: Cream is but cream, only they say le crème.
V: What do they name black pudding?
J: I know not;
I visited no inn it could be bought.

link (via BoingBoing)

Obviously due to this brilliance (first mentioned here):

From the Financial Times:

For three years after the invasion of Iraq, it was difficult to drive more than a few miles through middle America without seeing a car displaying a magnetic yellow ribbon.

The magnets, bearing the slogan “Support Our Troops”, became a symbol of patriotism for millions of US motorists.

But as support for the war fades, demand for yellow ribbons has collapsed.

Magnet America, the largest manufacturer of the product, has seen sales fall from a peak of 1.2m in August 2004 to about 4,000 a month and now has an unsold stockpile of about 1m magnets.
[..]
Some critics have condemned the magnets as a cheap and superficial way to honour the armed forces and highlighted the irony of placing them on gas-guzzling vehicles that deepen the US’s dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

I’m sure by some critics they meant the Spankers. As an aside, the wife and I had a chance to go see the Asylum Street Spankers in St. Louis a few weeks ago and they were greatness live.

Any other year Children of Men would be my pick for best film of the year. It’s easily one of the top two films I’ve seen this decade. Luckily for me the other one, The Fountain, came out just two months ago. Which one is better is a total coin flip for me. They are both engrossing, challenging films. The Fountain maybe makes you reconsider how you look at life a little more; while Children of Men might be a bit more technically impressive. But neither film is lacking in either category. If you love SciFi but are tired of the same old mind fluff Hollywood churns out and calls science fiction you have to see these films. I won’t bother reviewing them because there are plenty of better ones out there, but they both come with my highest recommendation.

The annual gluttony-fest known as swag is over for the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes thanks in part to the words of actor Edward Norton (Fight Club, American History X). He responded to the news that the gift bags would no longer be handed out:

“Picking through $35,000 gift baskets is disgusting and shameful. My suggestion was to have the Academy commit to [charitable] contributions in the name of the winners.”