so it's about damn time: DC has a baseball team. Unfortunately, we don't have Vlad Guerrero or Javier Vazquez, who left as free agents when MLB wouldn't let the team increase its payroll, but we have a team nonetheless. The Post has some great articles and a lousy one by Sally Jenkins who complains that stadiums have no economic benefit. I wrote her a letter telling her to look at Denver, where the area around the new stadium is booming thanks to investment and planning by the city, just as DC is planning on doing. Anyway, I'm going to go buy an Expos hat and wear it until we get a new name. I am liking Wilbon's argument for Grays, which is the old Negro League team in DC. The Greys were really good and had Josh Gibson, one of the greatest players ever (said to have hit 84 home runs in a season), and "Cool" Papa Bell, another great player with a great name. Senators would be ok too, Washington's major league team's name twice, or Nationals, another old name.

so this video is pretty hilarious, both because the dog looks ridiculous, and the fact that they try to draw some deeper meaning. I especially like the title, "Dog Walks on Only Two Legs, Teaches Others About Survival." Good stuff

http://www.localnews8.com/home/941067.html?video=YHI


I also found this funny site, http://www.googlewar.com/. Basically, you put in two things and it sees which gets the most results. For instance, I beat my roommate but your mom beats me.

so I think the hurricane names this year are messed up. For one thing, who spells it "Charley"? To me, the only Charley like that is a charleyhorse, the leg injury. And now there's Hurricane Jeanne, which all the news people are pronouncing it as "Jean." Look, if it's really pronounced "Jean," then spell it "Jean" and not something with silent letters. It was Hurricane Andrew, not Hurrican Androohe. And I know that back in Tennessee if your name is Jeanne then it's pronounced "Jeanie." I know they come up with these names beforehand and alternate sexes (Amy, Bill, Christine, Doug, etc) and every year has different names, but honestly, if you're going to name a hurricane, don't name it something that is wrong or confusing. How about Julie or Joyce or Jane, something that nobody can mix up. But then again, at least it's not Iniki.

so I really like the new Kanye West song, "Jesus Walks." It's good stuff. However, the line "Jesus walks with them" sounds like "Jesus what's for dinner?" which I thought was a pretty weird thing to say. Eventually I figured it out. See for yourself, here's the video

http://launch.yahoo.com/artist/videos.asp?artistID=1099534

so stuff in the news is making me mad recently. Cat Stevens was deported today because he showed up on a government watch list, which is ridiculous. He converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam, but he wrote songs about peace and issued statements after 9-11 saying terror was not part of Islam. We re-released the obviously very inflammatory song "Peace Train" to protest the war in Iraq, but last time I checked, that was legal. An anonymous goverment person said they suspect he may have donated money to the guy who did the first World Trade Center bombing and also to Hamas, but I bet you if he weren't Muslim and his name was still Cat Stevens, he'd be in D.C. today.

A thorough Yahoo article
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040922/ap_en_mu/plane_diverted_22

A not-as-thorough Post article
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39772-2004Sep21.html

And furthermore, the Swift Boat Veterans have put out a new ad saying Kerry met secretly with North Vietnamese officials. It was secret, if your definition of secret means he told Congress during a public hearing. And he was visiting peace negotiations in order to research the war. It's probably not the best idea for him to have done, but still they are obviously trying to imply that he gave secrets to the Communists, which I think is ridiculous. Unfortunately, it seems like people don't like to hear the explanations Kerry gives about things he does.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39744-2004Sep21.html

so it's time for a political screed. This whole CBS Bush Guard documents thing has gotten out of control, I think. I agree that some of the documents do appear to be fake, since they're in a font not used back then, have superscripts which most typewriters don't have, etc. However, now everybody is focusing on this John Burkett guy, who was in the National Guard when Bush was (not the baseball player who just retired), and who the Washington Post describes as having "History of Problems and of Attacking Bush." He does seem like he's a little overzealous, but what really has pissed me off is the fact that other people mentioned in the documents have said that even if these documents are fake, everything in them is true. The media (that I've seen, at least) seem to be giving this fact little play and are debating more about CBS's apology and how they got the fake documents. In fact, the recent articles I have seen aren't mentioning the people saying the contents are true at all. This makes me think it might be some kind of brilliant Republican scam.

Maybe it sounds a little crazy, but what better way to avoid talking about the President's Guard service problems than putting out fake documents saying he didn't serve, and then proving they are fake? The Bush people can say "look, those documents are fake!" and carp about that while avoiding the bigger issue, which is what's happening now. It also gets your average Joe to think that maybe Bush did serve honorably and that CBS has a liberal bias, since they ran the story. The documents were pretty obviously fake, with the font and the superscript, and they were written a little strangely - they sounded angry, and who titles a memo to yourself "CYA" (for "cover your ass")?

I mean, the way I see it, it's either a somewhat-crazy Burkett who makes his own badly forged documents to try to help the Democrats by proving something we already know to be true, or it's a brilliant trick by some Republicans. The way the story is playing out almost seems too good to be true for the Republicans.

According to the Post, Burkett won't say who he got the documents from to protect that person, and that he got them a Texas livestock show from an unkown person. Maybe he is protecting a Republican who gave him the documents knowing they were fake. However, Burkett thinks the Republican might get in trouble for betraying his party, so he's not saying who it is. If it does come out who provided them, and it's a Republican, they can just fire the guy.

Anyway, here's a few Post articles about it:

"Rather Admits 'Mistake in Judgment'"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35531-2004Sep20.html

"Questions Surround Man Who Provided Documents"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36908-2004Sep20.html

"The Bloggers' Moment"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35025-2004Sep20.html

"CBS and Memo" online chat transcript
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36291-2004Sep20.html

so I saw the Thrills again the other day, along with a band called the Zutons. It was an alright show, the Thrills were not as good as last time. The Thrills' lead singer, Conor Deasy, seems to have gotten cockier and more frontman-ish, making more grand movements and hand gestures, and the band wasn't as tight musically as the last show. They also played a lot of new stuff which didn't seem as catchy or fun as the first CD, which I love. It seemed like the fun was more forced, I guess. And a lot of their merchandise mentioned their apparently new single, "Whatever Happened to Corey Haim," which is really not that funny of an idea, I think. So that is kind of lame, it's as if they are trying to capitalize on that idea rather than the music. The Zutons were pretty enjoyable, although they sounded exactly like the Coral to me, both in the lead singer's voice and psychedelic/circusy instrumentation. It's interesting that both the Zutons (aged 20-23) and the Coral are made up of really young guys, maybe that leads them to be influenced by the same things. They put on a pretty good show though, and if you are interested check out their site, http://www.thezutons.co.uk/zuteconstruct/

So there’s this lady at my office who talks extremely loudly, she is unable to converse at a normal level. It’s pretty damn annoying, and she isn’t very old so I assume she isn’t going deaf. It’s especially irritating when she has to go to a cubicle next to me. For example, I have Daft Punk at full volume in my headphones right now and I can still hear every word about whatever it is she’s talking about. And usually it’s her whining about something and then being wrong about it. And it’s the worst when she’s on a speakerphone - it’s like she has a boombox, but instead of Run-DMC it's a guy talking about the tax code. I think I may do that myself, carry a boombox down the street blasting some debate about withholding. Holla! Form D-40EZ, what what!

so the phrase "I feel badly" bothers me. I hear people say it sometimes and now it's on TV a lot in a commercial for some new show called "Desparate Housewives" (which is not porn, even though it sounds like it). This guy says "you tried to kill me," and a woman, who I assume is a desparate housewife, says "And I feel badly about that." However, she is really saying "And I am not capable of feeling about that" or "And my sense of touch doesn't work about that." I assume people say "I feel badly" instead of "I feel bad" because they think it's proper grammar or makes them sound smart, but it ain't not right. (ha)

Badly is an adverb, meaning it modifies the verb, such as "I run quickly." How do you run? Quickly. So when you say "I feel badly," you are modifying the verb "feel." You are describing the manner in which you feel something, not describing your emotion. Does that make sense? You don't say "I feel angrily," right? If you say "I run badly" it means you aren't a good runner. So when you say "I feel badly," it means you aren't a good feeler.

Here's a page that gives an in-depth grammar reason for "I feel badly" being wrong
http://www.grammartips.homestead.com/badly.html

so one of the people in the cubicle next to mine is undercutting the vending machine. I think that's pretty funny, she has a big thing of candy and cookies and it's all cheaper. It's a good idea, smallish Snickers bars are 75 cents in the vending machine. It's supposedly for some charity, but I don't really care as I am cheap, and it's a gold mine anyway. I should go to Price Club and buy a ton of candy to sell and say it's for the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers or something. Then I will watch the VH1 rich celebrity shows and do what they do.

(in the fake-Robin Leach voice from those VH1 shows)
"When you want to stay at the best Hamptons beach hideaways like P. Diddy and J. Lo, first you must have money like P. Diddy and J. Lo! Andrew Wiseman got it by selling candy to his coworkers!"