Archive for 2008

HEH: “If they were trying to keep their affair a secret, you’d think they’d find someplace where political reporters wouldn’t be walking by.” Yes, if they were, you’d think they would.

SO I VISITED MY BROTHER THIS WEEKEND — it was his birthday — and you can see his blues duo 46 Long playing at a party below. (Shot with my tiny Sony — not bad video and sound for a camera the size of a deck of cards with a microphone the size of a matchhead.)

bradsmall.jpgThen we went to Southgate House, where the Cincinnati Blues Society was having a big to-do. 46 Long played again, and I met a bunch of my brother’s bluesman and blueswoman friends, only some of whom wore porkpie hats. One of them was Jon Justice, pictured below, who’s a really excellent guitarist, reminiscent of Roy Buchanan or a young Stevie Ray Vaughan, and with a fine singing voice as well. There were lots of other very talented and nice folks, though, and the Southgate House — birthplace of the man who invented the Tommy Gun (no, really) — was an extra-cool location.

It was a swell time, and my other brother, Brad — his band is here — came along too, and so did my dad, meaning that the greater Cincinnati area was briefly overrun with Reynolds men. They seem to have survived, and we certainly had a good time. We don’t all get together in one place all that often, given all of our various travels and responsibilities, but it’s always fun when we do. And it wasn’t even my birthday! I hope there are many more celebrations like this.

Jon Justice Band

UPDATE: Here’s another 46 Long video. And here’s a Jon Justice video.

ANOTHER UPDATE: People want pictures of the InstaDad. Here’s one.

WHAT THE HECK IS TORCHWOOD?

HUCKABEE ISN’T MAKING MANY FRIENDS. But maybe he only needs to make one.

COMING SOON: Ill Bill?

HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE WILD for 72 hours.

VIDEO: More on SpaceShip Two.

That’s Michael Belfiore, author of Rocketeers, which I reviewed here. And Rand Simberg’s review is here.

MITT ROMNEY SCORES AN ENDORSEMENT from Ed Morrissey.

A BIG COMMERCIAL SPACE ROUNDUP from Dale Amon. There’s a lot more going on than most people have noticed.

“STOMPING THE FLOOR,” with Hillary.

Meanwhile, Mickey Kaus observes:

On TV they’ve been confidently talking about Hillary’s call for seating the Michigan and Florida delegations as if that will be her trump card at a contested convention. She’ll almost certainly win the Florida vote next week, and she’s already won in Michigan. But I don’t see how the convention can fairly award Hillary the delegates from those states after the DNC got her competitors to pledge not to campaign in those states’ primaries. Doesn’t that discredit those primaries? Or should Obama and Edwards be punished because they obeyed their party?

I guess it’s another example of the Flounder Principle at work! Of course, as I suggested before, if Hillary wins via trickery it’s likely to backfire in November.

KATIE COURIC’S big mistake.

HEH.

ANALYZING THE CANDIDATES’ TYPOGRAPHY: (“The Hillary type palette is far from fresh and colorful; it is begging for legitimacy instead of demanding respect. . . . Huckabee has the most inexplicable selection of typography and graphics, from the six floating stars to the white stripe seemingly stolen from the Coca-Cola logo.”) I did this back in 2004. Kerry won.

Meanwhile, since we’re talking graphics, the Globe piece is confusingly laid out and doesn’t even include all the images it describes. What’s with that?

UPDATE: Alas, this election is unlikely to allow me to blog about ketchup as I did last time around. That’s too bad. I like ketchup.

MORE SCRUTINY FOR HIGHER EDUCATION: “Expanding their scrutiny of spending and other financial practices in higher education, leaders of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Thursday asked the 136 colleges with the largest endowments for a wealth of data and analysis about how they set tuition prices, mete out financial aid, and manage their endowments.” A proper response to such a request is “none of your damn business,” but as I’ve noted before, universities have put themselves in a poor position for that.

Here’s the letter (PDF) from Sens. Max Baucus and Charles Grassley.

IN THE MAIL: John Ringo’s Manxome Foe.

TIM BLAIR: “All is going very well.”

AN UNFORTUNATE TURN OF PHRASE AT TIME MAGAZINE. Alert the P.C. Police! (Via Grand Old Partisan).

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UPDATE: Reader Peter Ingemi emails: “Obama’s win may have rejiggered the race but your post has rejiggered the headline to ‘Obama’s win reshapes race’. The world is just too strange.” Heh. Indeed.

It’s still alive at Yahoo! for the moment. And Tom Maguire joins the fun. “This portends a long day at The Onion and at Scrappleface as they strain to keep pace with the new competition.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Magazine veteran Gerard van der Leun explains what went wrong at Time.