It’s now been two weeks since my series (parts I, II and III) on the Minnesota Monitor’s  shoddy journalistic practices, including slipshod attribution at the very least, and in the worst case plagiarism. 

As noted in last week’s followup, the Monitor’s “Code of Ethics” not only frowns on both, but bids the “Citizen Journalist” to…:

Admit mistakes and correct them promptly.

In the past two weeks, we’ve noticed a few things; Jeff Fecke (the subject of the series) has become a fanatic attributor. 

But we’ve noticed no admission from the Monitor.  No correction.  No retroactive statement about the attribution of any of the quotes.

No answer to my fairly direct question:  “Were the quotes plagiarized?”

Or “if not, where did they come from?”

Where is the admission?

Does the Minnesota Monitor hold intellectual honesty (to say nothing of the Associated Press’ intellectual property – which is, indeed, what their content is) so cheaply?  Or is that below the prerogatives of the paid-for leftyblogosphere?

When will they start to follow their “Code of Ethics?”

Yet another title the Cubs will never hold:

In a record they’d rather not hold, the Philadelphia Phillies are the first U.S. pro sports franchise with 10,000 defeats.

The World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals delivered the milestone defeat 10-2 in a game they led 10-0 before the Phillies rallied with two in the bottom of the ninth. At the end, many fans at Citizens Bank Park were on their feet in a salute to their team.

Go Sox!

Hour two, talking transit with Erik Hare. 

Let me repeat:  talking about mass transit.  On a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  Expecting to be, along with producer Matt Reynolds and the Volume III guys in the next room, to the the only people listening.

Full banks of callers. 

I like it.  But it confuses me. 

I need a drink…HEY!  It’s almost time for the MOB party!

Huge day in the world of the Northern Alliance and the Minnesota Organization of Bloggers today.

 I’ll be talking with Joel Rosenberg and Andrew Rothman about the latest on last month’s shooting in Coon Rapids last month.  Is it an official coverup?  It’s looking interesting.

 I’ll also be talking with The Transit Geek, Erik Hare, about the Met Council’s plot to tear the guts out of Saint Paul,

Don’t forget the Volume I guys, John, Brian and Chad from 11-1, and Volume III, King and Michael, from 3-5!

And then tonight, the highlight of the social season, the THIRD ANNUAL MOB SUMMER BASH at Keegans, Saturday night! The Minnesota Organization of Bloggers is a non-partisan group of bloggers who exist, mainly, to further blogging in Minnesota. As such, we invite all bloggers, and for that matter all non-bloggers, to come on down!

…about Minnesota’s senior senator, he seems – so far – to find a way to come through.

Via Ed, I see Norm beat Turban Durbin like a baby seal in a debate on the “Fairness” Doctrine.

By way of blocking a Coleman amendment that would have barred the government from regulating content of political broadcasting, Durbin replied:

Mr. Durbin: …But the senator is arguing that the marketplace can provide. What is the senator’s response if the marketplace fails to provide? What is the marketplace does not provide opportunities to hear both points of view? Since the people who are seeking the licenses are using America’s airwaves, does the government, speaking for the people of this country, have any interest at that point to step in and make sure there is a despair balanced approach to the –a fair and balanced approach to the information given to the American people?

The correct answers are:

1. No
2. Do you, Senator Durbin, think the American people don’t have access to every possible point of view, right now?  In fact, do you believe that Americans have access to fewer points of view than we had 20 years ago?  Clearly, that is not the case.
3. Again, no.

 Coleman responds:

Mr. Coleman: …The government does not — does not — have the responsibility to regulate content of speech. That’s what the first amendment is about. It’s exactly what the first amendment is about. Government’s not supposed to be regulating content. And in a time in 1949 when you had three network TV stations, basically, when had you limited channels of communication, I presume there was a legitimate concern on the part of some that, in fact, government needs to step in and ensure balance. But now we’re in 2007. We’re at a time where we’ve got 20,000, you know, opportunities for stations and satellite, where you have cable, you have blogs, you have a whole range of information…John Kennedy stated, “we are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” Mr. President, I’m not afraid of of — of the people. I’m not afraid of the people having access to the in information, ideas that they want to have access to. But I am afraid of the government stepping in and regulating content…They should be able to tune into whatever they want to tune into and they shouldn’t be thinking that back home someone at the FCC is listening and monitoring and deciding what is fair and what is balanced. Let the people decide. Let the market decide. Let the first amendment flourish.

Kudos to Senator Coleman.  He made a great argument for freedom.

Of course, the Democrats’ push to re-instate the “Fairness” doctrine isn’t about freedom.  It’s not even about making sure people get “fair and balanced” information (since the market has clearly done that in spades). 

It’s about shutting down dissent from the dominant liberal media establishment.

Swiftee rhetorically guts a dimbulb commenter. 

The world wins.

One of the things for which I’m most thankful for blogging is the huge number of really great people it’s helped me meet.  Before this blog started, I was a fairly-newly-divorced guy, pretty much head-down with kid stuff and maintaining a career in a then-deteriorating software market.  The blog, and the show after it, introduced me to an awful lot of people.  Some have become fast friends, others co-conspirators, still others acquaintances whose company I relish. 

Gary Miller paid me a really nice compliment on Thursday:

While linking for accuracy is the currency of the ’sphere, few outside of the likes of Hugh Hewitt, Glenn Reynolds and a handful of others can be said to be truely effusive with their praise of small(er) fry.

Few, that is, with the notable exception of Mitch Berg…For the past several years, Mitch has generously found ways to to shine a light on the best blogging in town. 

It’s hard not to; there’s so much of it!

Seriously, thanks, Gary.  This region is crawling with great blogs – almost too many, in the sense that there are so many that are so good, and only so many hours in the day to read ’em.  There are dozens of absolutely essential bloggers in the upper midwest who may clock between 30 and 200 visitors a day, each of whom deserve an order of magnitude more. 

And it’s hard to start a blog these days.  Chad and Brian and I had this conversation after the show years ago (and it gives me pause to note that the NARN’s been on the air long enough to be able to say anything was “years ago”) – we are all keenly aware that we got into blogging back when there was still a lot of sod to be turned; when a lot of blog readers’ habits were just starting to form.  It gave us a lot of positive inertia.

But even then, Shot In The Dark got on the map due to the very kind, mostly-undeserved attention paid it by the likes of James Lileks, Hewitt, and especially Glen Reynolds (and, one glorious evening in 2004, all three of them simultaneously, online and on the Hewitt Show) as well as the Powerline guys, Gerald Van Der Leun, Kim Du Toit, and many more. 

So while I don’t believe in Karma, I do  think what goes around comes around.  And I do believe in making sure the world – or the part of it that reads Shot In The Dark – should see some of the great bloggers lurking in the Twin Cities. 

And so I hatched a plan. 

But more about that on Monday.

UPDATE:  Of course, it’s more than just the Twin Cities. 

 I’ve been talking with a lot of regional conservatives – as opposed to Republicans, lately, although most conservatives do vote Republican, with one degree of nose-holding or another. 

A lot of them.

And one of the common themes of our discussions is the sense that too many candidates and influential staffers in the GOP – nationally as well as Minnesota – are trying to sneak away from conservatism, back toward the mushy-middle hell that the party endured when many of us center-right bloggers were just becoming aware of politics in the first place.

Of course, with all politics there’s the eternal battle between pragmatism and idealism.  Being on the extremes is easy: the Libertarians, Socialist Workers, Constitution Party and (in most places except Minneapolis) Greens defend their ideals fiercely, unpolluted by the need to actually govern, with its attendant compromises; pragmatists like Jesse Ventura and Arne Carlson, more concerned with getting elected or tinkering with the knobs and buttons of power (respectively), use ideals like election brochures, to be stored away in boxes until the next campaign while they get down to wheeling and dealing.

Most of us pick a place on the continuum between “ideals” and “reality” for a variety of reasons.  Some hover closer to the edges; Paul Wellstone’s idealism was intense enough to marginalize him as an on-the-ground legislator; Ronald Reagan’s was also intense, but communicated better; Phil Krinkie’s made him “Doctor No” on Saint Paul’s Capitol Hill.  Others play the room; Dick Day and Chuck Hegel blow with the most profitable wind.  Tim Pawlenty jumps between both with fluency that, after five years, still astounds me.

And any pol’s position on that continuum is going to influence voters, who themselves have their own point staked out, leading to amazing conclusions; I still roll my eyes at the guy I interviewed at the Patriot Picnic last year who was giving up on Mark Kennedy over ethanol subsidies, as if putting Amy Klobuchar in office would change anything…

And then there’s Norm Coleman. 

Norm’s never pretended to be an orthodox conservative.  It would have been political suicide; he’d have never been elected mayor of Saint Paul had he not first been a DFLer, and then governed as a relatively conservative, pragmatic East Side, Randy Kelly-style Democrat before changing parties.  Since going to DC, he’s been fairly solidly conservative on most issues.  Up until this past year, the big blemish was the ANWR Drilling issue, and while he didn’t vote the way I’d have preferred, it wasn’t the sort of thing I’d drop support over.  He’s been on the side of the angels on taxes, immigration, and especially the UN, where he’s led the charge to uncover the rot in the world’s unofficial, self-appointed government.

And yet…there’s the war.

Hugh is rolling up the towel, perhaps for a vicious snap before throwing it in:  according to Hugh, Coleman is only barely on the “worth fighting for” list.   

Gary Miller disagrees.  Sort of.

We’re not there.  Yet.  The Senator is a champion on taxes, judges and the U.N.  He is a disaster on Climatism and the GWOT.  The former are “nice to haves”.  Getting it wrong on the latter have the very real prospect of plunging the world into a new Dark Ages.

It’s hard out there for a pragmatist. 

And we, the center-right, need to make it harder.  Write the Senator.  Tell him where you’re at on this issue. 

Just a note – everyone who’s anyone is coming to the..

 THIRD ANNUAL MOB SUMMER BASH

at Keegans, tomorrow night!

Boilerplate:  The Minnesota Organization of Bloggers is a non-partisan group of bloggers who exist, mainly, to further blogging in Minnesota.  As such, we invite all bloggers, and for that matter all non-bloggers, to come on down!

Now, yesterday Jeff Kouba from TvM wrote in my comment section:

It being the MOB at all, there should be a rule that we can only play “Don’t Stop Believin’” on the jukebox…

Of course, Journey’s 1981 classic – which had a couple of years’ association with the TV show Scrubs – will now forever more be linked to The Sopranos, because of its prominence in the final epi.  So naturally, a good MOB party should play it prominently.

But there are other good Mob – if not MOB – related songs to choose from:

1. The Night Chicago Died, Paper Lace (naturally, the referenced “East Side of Chicago” exists on the same plane as, well, the Jukebox at Keegans). 
2. Meeting Across The River, Springsteen – maybe the best song ever about small-time hoods.
3. Dance With Me, the Iron City Houserockers – great song about a small-time hood and his girl out for a night on the town.
4. Princess of Little Italy, Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul – and I’d suggest it even if “Little Steven” Van Zandt didn’t also wind up playing Silvio Dante for the show’s whole run…
5. Big Man In Town, the Four Seasons – it just sounds right.

OK, what the heck, your turn…

I’m not one of those conservatives who are giddily ostentatious about driving a leather-plated Hummer with high-drag wheels while smoking cigars made from the pelts of endangered species. 

Neither, naturally, am I one of those groaningly over-earnest Greens who’ve elevated “environmentalism” into an aescetic religion.  Far from it. 

I doubt I’d even call myself a “crunchycon”, because human beings should never be referred to as “crunchy”, unless you’re an M-1 Abrams driver and a carful of Al Quaeda have rounded the corner in front of you.  No, I merely happen to like a cool house, and I bike to work, not out of any contrived whinging about global warming and its probably-fictional human causes, but because I, myself, happen to enjoy biking.  A lot. 

But after seeing Nih[i]list’s recreation of Algore’s footprint – 140 metric tons of carbon a year, compared to the average American’s roughly 9.5 tons – I decided to go check out Yahoo’s “Carbon Footprint Calculator“. 

My – actually, the Berg Family’s – results? 

You create 5.7 metric tons of CO₂ per year.

Your impact is BELOW AVERAGE

Hm.  Who’da thunk it? 

(Although the only way, it seems, to really be acceptable is to stay childless and  live in a tent in Hawaii, without a car, and reaching the mainland only via outrigger canoe.  But only an outrigger made from a tree that died of natural causes, since chopping down a tree will increase your carbon footprint).

…but I gotta say two things:

1. The Pearson Salted Nut Roll is the best candy ever made (and made here in Saint Paul, no less!  Indeed, one of St. Paul’s great treats is biking down West Seventh and smelling that luscious nougatty aroma wafting up from the Pearson plant…)
2. Brad Carlson is the luckiest man alive!

Thanks to everyone that’s contributed so far!  It’s been a good,and gratifying, bleg!

Anyway, iif you’re so inclined, I’ll be everlastingly grateful for whatever spare electronic change you might toss in the pail…

Or, if you prefer the anonymous route, click here to go to an Amazon Honor System page.

Saturday at Keegan’s, naturally!  It’s the..

 THIRD ANNUAL MOB SUMMER BASH

at Keegans, Saturday night!

The Minnesota Organization of Bloggers is a non-partisan group of bloggers who exist, mainly, to further blogging in Minnesota.  As such, we invite all bloggers, and for that matter all non-bloggers, to come on down!

I’ll be coming down.  Hope you can too!

Brodkorb on the story that should be leading the news every friggin’ evening; four out of every five of Al Franken’s contribs are from out of state!

Would you expect anything less from a man who said his “life” was in New York and who responded to the question “[i]f Paul Wellstone had not died would you have moved back to Minnesota?” with the answer “I am not sure”.

It reminds me of the statistic from the ’02 Senate race, when records showed that the average donation to the Wellstone! campaign was in the very patrician three digits, while Coleman’s campaign’s average contribution was somewhere under $50 – and yet Coleman’s fundraising kept pace with Wellstone.

I wondered: given how often, and on how broad a range of topics, the Minneapolis Star/Tribune quotes Professor Larry Jacobs of the U of M’s Humphrey Institute (read: on virtually every story about Minnesota politics, national politics, politics in the media, politics and culture, and any other story where “poltiics” is mentioned even obliquely), I had to ask – is he, indeed, the most cited man in the history of the Strib?

Bear in mind, at the Strib “history” means the 30 or so days that they leave articles online.  But a search of the articles available online at the Strib site (and leaving out other “experts” like, say, Algore (684 hits), who is quoted as an expert but is also a newsmaker in his own right) showed the following results:

Larry Jacobs: 58 hits.

Compare that to a selection of other notables:

Albert Einstein: 27 hits.

Steven Hawking: Seven, mostly from Strib blogs. 

Karl Von Clausewitz:  Prussian military philosopher and, literally, writer of the book on the relationship between politics and war:  Two hits, both of them comments from the Big Question blog. 

Benjamin Franklin:  Innovator in technology, politics and statesmanship:  41 hits, although perhaps half refer either to other people of that name or the cast of a play at the Guthrie.

Thomas Edison:  One of history’s greatest polymaths:  Three hits.

Archimedes: Perhaps history’s greatest innovator:  Two hits.

Leonardo Da Vinci: One of history’s great minds:  Six hits. 

Macchiavelli:  Noted expert on politics – perhaps even greater than Larry Jacobs himself:  No hits. 

So there you have it:  Larry Jacobs – the greatest authority in history!

According to the Strib.

Signs it’s a slow news day:  the Strib covers a inter-city feud trumped up by comedian Mo Rocca for an upcoming “Tonight Show” bit:

According to “Meet Minneapolis,” the plan is for Rybak to take Rocca on a bike ride and Coleman to play bagpipes in his office.

Rybak, who often rides his bike to work, was delighted. But Coleman hasn’t played the bagpipes in a while and wasn’t sure he could pull it off, noting that both the instrument and the player need tuning.

Sign it’s an even slower news day:  the Twin Cities’ media’s Expert on Everything, Larry Jacobs, is quoted again:

That the first major national TV news feature on the convention comes from the “Tonight Show” is no surprise to Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute.

Jon Stewart and “The Daily Show” started the trend, Jacobs said. “In the old days, journalists chose the news. Today it’s the comedians setting the agenda.” He said eventually the mainstream news media will catch up, and the Twin Cities will be inundated with thousands of journalists.

Parents; for keen insight like that, send your kids to the Humphrey Institute.  Prepare them for a career as DFL lobbyists. 

Back in college, during late-night sessions in the computer lab (during my brief, misapplied stint as a computer science major), a friend of mine, Rich (who actually did finish the degree and go on to a career in the field) joked:

“the speed at which we process data is increasing so fast that by 2005, there’ll be huge industry to generate data to process”.

I laughed.

I laughed too soon.  He was right. Only the shortage isn’t “data”, per se, but “content” – the stuff people read. 

Case in point – this piece from Men’s Health about what guys’ celeb crushes say about them.

Throughout their lives, men have all kinds of crushes. When they’re growing up, they may have crushes on their teachers. When they’re all grown up, crushes can come in the form of co-workers, neighbors, coffee pourers, spinning instructors, you name it.

“Spinning instructors?”

I digress:

One kind of crush that sticks with a guy: the celebrity crush…Though the characters may change from time to time, guys often choose their celebrity crushes based on some deeper longing for what they want in women.

That’s profound.  Why, the next thing you know, they’ll be saying that’s why we choose girlfriends and spouses as well. 

And you know what that leads to.  Don’t you?

Either does the author:

Early on, the overriding factor may have been the prevalence of skin (Bo, Farrah, Pamela, and SI swimsuit models being excellent examples). But as men grow up, it’s more than just physical attraction to the kind of woman he features in his cerebral movie theater – it’s the total package that includes not only her looks, but what her looks, lifestyle, and personality may also represent.

 So in other words, they provide a idealized, fantasy-world version of their feminine ideal?

Hmmm. I’ll need to absorb this for a moment. 

If he fantasizes about…Angelina Jolie
It may mean… He’s attracted to a do-gooder woman who also isn’t afraid to show a bit of a wild streak. It’s the reason why Jolie tops so many men’s wish lists: They want the woman who is good, but not too good. And the woman who is sultry, but not too sultry.

If he fantasizes about…Jennifer Aniston
It may mean… Attracted to Aniston’s innocent persona, he likes the girl next door and yearns to be the household protector. Though traditional gender roles have certainly changed and evolved over the last several decades, many men still enjoy playing the role of the prince who rescues the damsel in distress.
 
If he fantasizes about…The young, troubled beauties (Paris, Lindsay, Britney)
It may mean… He’s attracted to risk-takers-and women who don’t care what other women may think about them. That, and perhaps the boy has got more loose screws than a hardware store.  

If he fantasizes about…Halle Berry, Scarlett Johansson
It may mean… That he has darn good taste. Physically, they represent classic feminine beauty-their curves, their skin, their heart-stopping faces. That may mean he has very high standards-and seeks relationship perfection.

If he fantasizes about…Julianne Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer
It may mean…He appreciates that experience, knowledge, and just the right amount of sass and humor goes a long way to making for strong relationships. Mrs. Robinson jokes aside, he appreciates maturity-and all the good things that come with it.
 
If he fantasizes about…Pam Anderson
It may mean… Do I really have to say it?
 
If he fantasizes about…Beyonce, J. Lo, Fergie, Janet
It may mean… That he’s not only into curves and lovely lady humps, but that he’s also into women who have some relationship rhythm. He wants a woman who’s able to let loose, show her moves, and someone who’s confident being on center stage-sexually and socially.

If he fantasizes about…Any character from Grey’s Anatomy
It may mean… That he’s a sensitive dude. Not because he’s got a thing for Meredith, Izzie, or the rest of the crew, but because-instead of being at a bar or a ball game-he’s obviously sitting next to you on Thursday nights.

Bottom line on all this: Fantasy crushes are kind of like practice for the big game, allowing someone to keep one’s emotions and instincts in check while imagining the big event with a partner.

Never mind.  It’s too shallow to absorb. 

OK.  So it’s just a toss-off intro by a toss-off writer.  Let’s get down to brass tacks.  What would a series of celebrity crushes including, say, purely hypothetically, Ingrid Bergman, Teresa Wright, Audrey Tatou, Audrey Hepburn, Lauren Bacall, Ally Sheedy, Marisa Tomei, Rosie Perez, Gina Gershon, Mikki Steele, Chrissie Hynde, Madeline Stowe, Sara Silverman, Sonia Braga, Selma Hayak, Mariska Hargitay, Diane Neal, Dana Delaney, Reese Witherspoon, Neve Campbell, Silvia Bernier, Julia Ormond, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nancy Travis, Annabella Sciorra, Ida Lupino and Angie Harmon – just to pick a few names more or less at random – mean?

Hypothetically, of course.

Ed’s out of town, so NARN II is going to be a “solo” show this weekend. 

And when I say “solo”, I mean “me, plus a few really great guests”. 

I’ll be talking with Joel Rosenberg and Andrew Rothman about the latest on the shooting in Coon Rapids last month, which I’ve covered in some depth but which keeps getting curiouser and curiouser, and now looks to be verging, to some observers, on an official coverup.

I’ll also be talking with The Transit Geek, Erik Hare, about the Met Council’s plot to gut Saint Paul, although he may have a different term for it. 

Plus the Volume I guys, John, Brian and Chad from 11-1, and Volume III, King and Michael, from 3-5!

And then, the highlight of the social season, the

THIRD ANNUAL MOB SUMMER BASH

at Keegans, Saturday night!

The Minnesota Organization of Bloggers is a non-partisan group of bloggers who exist, mainly, to further blogging in Minnesota.  As such, we invite all bloggers, and for that matter all non-bloggers, to come on down!

UPDATE:  Rosenberg.  Joel Rosenberg.  There is not Rossenberg slated to appear.  Oops.

…”What do you do to make yourself depressed at the state of humankind?”

Well, that’s fairly simple.  I ponder the fact that Joe Biden has a political career, or that the Doors are regarded as rock legends, or that…

…no, I’m sorry.  That’s untrue.  Nobody asks me what I do to make myself depressed.

They do ask me if I’m going to fisk the latest column explosively-oozing bit of deranged twaddle from Susan Lenfestey. 

It’s a distinction without a difference, of course. 

But I’m all about duty, when it calls.  If indeed Lenfestey needs fisking, I’ll do it.

Still, Jeff Kouba and Learned Foot gave me the best midsummer present of all; they did the job in great style, giving me a column’s respite from slogging through and sharing the woman’s continuing descent into surly, shrieking madness.

I thank you, gentlemen.  And I shall step up for the next one, refreshed and ready to do battle. 

Where “doing battle” equals “whacking at an advancing manure slick with a hockey stick”.

Mixing iced tea and “work”:

And for the record, they had the best tasting iced tea I have ever had, and not just because it hit 100 here in DC today.

Beyond that?  No similarity.  He’s actually doing something useful – in this case, Sunday’s interview with Said Jawad, Ambassador from Afghanistan:

In one sense, it breaks new ground because the Ambassador rarely gets an opportunity to speak in depth about the status of Afghanistan. Normally, all he gets are quick sound bites taken out of context, or a five-minute segment on a talking-head show in which he never gets the opportunity to speak about his country’s experience in any depth at all. In this format, we can allow Ambassador Jawad to speak at length — and if you listen to the show, you can see that the Ambassador has quite a story to tell.

The most groundbreaking aspect of the interview, I believe, is how the questions came to the Ambassador in the first place. Readers of this blog asked the questions in the comments section, and I selected the most germane and posed them to the Ambassador. His staff reviewed that thread and spoke about how impressed they were with the variety and depth of the questions. Afterwards, Ambassador Jawad said the one question I failed to ask that he wanted to answer was one about dirt-biking in Afghanistan’s mountains, which he thought would be a marvelous idea, so I know they paid close attention to your input.

You oughtta listen to his rather remarkable interview with the Ambassador. 

John Edwards is right.  There are two Americas. 

One America goes to Great Clips.  And the other America pays more for a haircut than I paid for a car until I was 34 years old. 

 At first, [Edwards’] haircuts were free. But because [high-end stylist Joseph] Torrenueva often had to fly somewhere on the campaign trail to meet his client, he began charging $300 to $500 for each cut, plus the cost of airfare and hotels when he had to travel outside California.

Torrenueva said one haircut during the 2004 presidential race cost $1,250 because he traveled to Atlanta and lost two days of work.

Via Echo Zoe.

Here’s one prediction:  There’s be more genuine suspense on the “Making of 24, Day 7“ DVD extra than there was in all of the actual Day 6.

Execs at the Fox hit have scrapped virtually their entire story line for the season, delaying the start of production by roughly three weeks…Although a Twentieth Century Fox spokesperson declined to comment, 24‘s expert scowler, Mary Lynn Rajskub, confirms that the clock for Day 7 has been reset. “I don’t know what’s going on over there, but they’re going crazy,” says the scene-stealer, who learned only last week that Chloe would be returning. “We usually start [back up] at the end of July, and I don’t think we’re starting until a couple of weeks into August now. It’s kind of exciting, because I think [the postponement] means that they’re really having to dig in there and come up with new stuff.”

Chloe was in Day 6?  (Ruffles through notes)  Wow.  Sure ’nuff.

The show’s creative team was no doubt already feeling the pressure: Day 6 was considered to be about as explosive as a wet firecracker, so for Season 7 they really needed a plot that was incendiary. In fact, news of the setback comes on the same day the semiannual Television Week critics’ poll (in which yours truly participated) named 24 the second-worst show on TV, behind ABC’s best-not-traveled October Road.

To be fair to Joel Surnow, the poll apparently didn’t cover last night’s debut of Greek, which my daughter made me watch.  Honest.  Dropping a “G” from the title would have at least been more accurate.  I think 24 Day Six might have been third from the bottom.  But I digress. 

And then there was this:

For more on 24‘s big rewrite — including what impact it’ll have on plans to introduce the show’s first female president …

She’ll still be more masculine than Wayne Palmer.

Just looking to make this blog’s ends meet; if you have a buck or two to spare, I’d be much obliged…

So if you’re so inclined, I’ll be everlastingly grateful for whatever spare electronic change you might toss in the pail…

 

Thanks in advance!

It was a scorching hot day; the kind of humid, stinking miasma that I’ve always hated. 

It was Friday, July 10, 1987.  I’d been out of work for four months.

And by “out of work”, I mean “working, here and there.  My fixed bills – rent, phone, car insurance, groceries – came to right around $300 a month.  I’d usually tack on $50 or so more in job-hunting expenses, most of it in long-distance phone calls and postage for sending out audition tapes to radio stations.  I’d worked through the list of every talk station in the country in markets larger than about 100,000 people, called almost all of them, and by this point sent out probably 100 audition tapes. 

I supported myself – in no “style” whatsoever – by writing free-lance articles for various Saint Paul neighborhood newspapers which, while they didn’t have the stature of the Pioneer Press or the Strib, had a couple of crucial benefits:

• They paid as well as or better for freelance piece work than the daillies or either of the marquee weeklies, the City Pages and the Twin Cities Reader
• They were non-union.  I remember my first and last meeting with an editor at the Pioneer Press; “This is very good stuff.  But the Guild would put my n*ts in a vise if I bought non-union work”. 

And along the way, I pitched myself to the various “talent agents” around the cities, looking for voiceover work.  As the saying went, I’m not a model, but I played one on the radio.

Today, I got a call.  A woman at an agency in Golden Valley had an odd need.

“I see on your resume you do Commonwealth accent work.  Can you do Canadian?”

Now, growing up in North Dakota you heard the odd Canadian voice.  Indeed, I’d grown up around a lot of ’em – since we didn’t get Public Radio in Jamestown until I was into college, my mom kept the family radio pretty much welded to CBW in Winnipeg, the region’s CBC affiliate, and a station that sounded, then as now, like NPR with funny vowels. 

For a split second I thought – “In the whole Twin Cities voiceover market, you can’t find an actual Canadian?” 

But I silenced that thought.  “Sure”, I said, switching slyly into my most exaggerated Mountie brogue, “I’ll see aboot fitting the job into my shshedule”.

“OK, we need you at the studio now.  Now now now”.

So I raced out to the jeep, drove across town to a studio in Edina, and spent the next four hours doing an industrial training video for a Canadian branch of a Minnesota company.  The four hours’ work, at the non-union $75 an hour scale, paid just about a month’s worth of bills, even after my agent took her 10%.   

I think I might have worn a red flannel lumberjack shirt to get into character, but I can’t confirm that.

An Orem, Utah grandmother hauled to jail like a recalcitrant dog…

…for failing to water her lawn:

A widow and grandma spent the morning in jail, arrested for refusing to give a policeman her name when he tried writing her a ticket for failing to water her yard. The woman hasn’t watered her lawn in more than a year, and the condition of her yard violates an Orem zoning ordinance.

Tonight, the woman says she is traumatized and shocked that she was hauled to jail, just because she says she can’t afford to water her lawn.

She’s lucky.  In Eden Prairie, I think that’d put her under the property forfeiture law.