Erasmus has an excellent and thoughtful essay on The Ice Harvest and the essential ingredients of the film noir. Reminds me of Stanley Kaufman in his prime; a great bit of writing.

A smart commenter used that line when describing the tech glitches of the Xbox 360. Now there’s this story. Ignore the main premise of the piece about the class action lawsuit against Microsoft and note this nugget:

Microsoft has stated that approximately 3 percent of Xbox 360s will encounter some form of technical problem, but adds that the number is lower than normal for retail electronics.

I have no idea what the numbers are on this, but while 3 percent might be a normal trouble rate for “retail electronics,” doesn’t that seem pretty high for gaming systems? I’ve been futzing around with game systems since the original NES and neither I, nor anyone I’ve every known over the years, has ever had a hardware problem with any system they’ve had.

Maybe my friends and I all just got very lucky, but I’d be interested to know if this is the first time such a problem rate manifested itself in the gaming market.

Last night at the half, I wondered if there would be any way to hold Seattle under 50. By the end of the game, I was wondering what the over/under is for the total number of points the Eagles will score in the final 4 games of their season. I’ll set the line now at 16.

You may have thought that the loss to the Redskins was The End, but you would have been wrong. The Nightmare Season From Hell continues.

(By the way, if Westbrook’s ankle injury is serious, Andy Reid should have his Ring Dings taken away for a month. There is no reason in the world that the team’s brilliant-but-fragile back should have been on the field in last night’s meaningless, and quickly out of hand, game.)

The Inquirer and Negadelphia (here and here have reactions. I’m still sorting things out, but my initial suspcion is that they don’t go far enough. It may be time to demo the team, trade everyone with any value not named McNabb for future picks, and try building a team that can compete for a title between the 2008 and 2012 seasons, during what will probably be Donovan’s last few championship-caliber seasons. And by everyone, I mean everyone. Westbrook. L.J. Smith. Kearse. Dawkins. Trotter. Pinkston.

It isn’t that these players are bad–I’d be sad to see every one of them go. (Except maybe Pinkston, but that’s just business, it’s not personal.) But the question is, which of these guys is going to be helping the team contend four to seven years from now? It’s time to start building for the future and not delluding ourselves into thinking that there’s one last chance with the current squad. That’s fool’s gold. The window for this core group is closed.

The Eagles will get a good pick this year, maybe 9th or 10th. Next season is already a lost cause. If they make the trades now, maybe they can get a high pick (3rd or 4th) in next year’s draft. Then they can truly start rebuilding and make another legitimate run before the sun sets on McNabb.

Well, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. It is finally legal today throughout all of Great Britain. At long last, interracial marriage is now permitted.

…make it Bushmills Irish Cream time.

I never thought I’d be hawking alcoholic beverages for free but here’s a product endorsement worth hawking. It was Sunday night and we needed a holiday house warming gift–the kind that would bring in some yuletide cheer. In other words, a bottle of wine just wouldn’t do. But perhaps a cordial? I asked my local liquor salesman for a bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream. He laughed. Then he says, “May I suggest something a little different like Bushmills Irish Cream?” I didn’t know Bushmills even made Irish cream. “We’ve been selling it for the last six months,” he points out. “And it’s not as sweet as Bailey’s.”

And for $18.99, why not?

Not that I expected our always gracious dinner hosts to open the bottle in our presence. But thank God they did. (There’s nothing better than enjoying your own gifts to others!) We all had it on the rocks with two dashes of nutmeg. It was like a chocolate shake plus 17 percent alcohol–a match made in heaven. Bushmills recommends consuming the opened bottle within six months. We did even better, polishing it off in an hour.

I know, you have questions:

You say you don’t endorse products for free. Didn’t you promote The Famouse Grouse and Courvoisier?

True, but I did get a t-shirt from one and a dress shirt from the other (the latter of which I’ll wear once I become a blackjack dealer at the Borgada).

So you like Irish cream? Hope you didn’t stain your skirt!

Every man is entitled to drink his choice of cordial in the privacy of his home, as long as the blinds are closed and the door is locked.

You really aren’t expecting anything in return for this shameless plug?

Expecting? No. Hoping? Praying!

give in to the hate.

Christian Lowe rides the Rhino:

After clearing thru the inbound terminal at the Baghdad airport and getting our bags and passports registered (all run by contractors) we took a bus to a place called the Camp Striker Stables. It’s pretty neat there. They have a big tent with wood floors and tables and chairs all set up to lounge around waiting for the Rhino. They assign you a tent that has cots in it and they’ll loan you blankets so you can catch some shut eye before or after your flight. It’s really really helpful and the employees are super accomodating and nice. You can take a shower, go to the chow hall or PX or nosh on an MRE if you want. Nice, relaxing place before hitting the Rhino x-hours later.

More about the Rhino ride…

You have to wear full flak jacket and helmet during the trip. The road is single lane, dark and bumpy. Like I said earlier, it’s only 16 miles from the airport to the IZ, so it’s hard to believe this was once the most dangerous road in Iraq. Lots of checkpoints and darkened Humvees on the side of the road securing the route. Rob was sitting in the front passanger’s seat and said he saw two AH-64 Apache attack helicopters flying alongside to blast anyone trying to pop at us. That much effort for 16 miles…huh…

Fine. Stop your mocking, she-elf. Here’s some good stuff from the Blog Crush^TM archive. Why? Because you’ve been dying to know where he went to school and I’ve got the answer:

I guess I never realized that Pink was a spokesmodel for Bally’s Total Fitness until these pictures showed up a few days ago. Mostly because Pink is a tubby poser mess with legs like Ricky Williams, and it never even dawned on me that such a thing was possible. I guess on one hand, it’s a brilliant idea, because fat girls see Pink as an achievable goal. You too can look like a model, and its not even gonna be that hard. Like when Shaq used to do commercials to encourage reading. And he sat there reading a picture book about dragons. I’m assuming he was supposed to be reading to kids, since he was reading aloud in the same voice he used in Kazam, but since no kids were ever actually shown, its also possible they were inadvertently airing a live feed from his house.

Oh, hey look, my degree from LSU is crying!

But on a more serious note, I love it when Brendon deals with current affairs. He doesn’t do it all that often, but this Very Special Episode is tough and hard-hitting. If I was Tim Russert, I wouldn’t be taking too many sick days, if you know what I mean:

Jamie Foxx, Snoop-Dogg, Danny Glover, Jason Alexander, Russell Crowe, Ted Danson, Ed Asner, Richard Dreyfuss, Ed O’Neil, Carl Reiner, Tim Robbins and Noah Wyllie are just a few of the big Hollywood stars trying to stay the execution of Crips co-founder Stanley “Tookie” Williams. These actors and many more have held rallies honoring Tookie as a great man of peace and signed a letter to Governor Schwarzenegger asking for mercy.

The Film Actors Guild faces a tough battle with their latest cause, mostly because its illegal to shoot an elderly woman in the face with a shotgun. As Tookie did to 63 year old Tsai-Shen Yang after robbing the motel she managed. Tookie also murdered her husband Yen-Yi Yang, 67, and daughter Ye-Chen Lin, 43. In Tookies defense, they had money and Tookie wanted it. Nonetheless, Tookie was charged with a crime, and sentenced to death.

There’s no mention in Hollywood’s letter of the people Tookie executed, but it does mention that he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Someone who was not nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize was 19 year old Albert Owens. Possibly because Tookie shot him twice in the back of the head with a shotgun while he lay face down on the ground after Tookie successfully robbed the 7-11 Owens worked for.

The letter goes on to say that Tookie should be given clemency because he’s a changed man, and his brave tale of redemption can help others at risk. It also implies that Tookie was innocent and the victim of a racist judicial system. You would have thought that the very same letter wouldn’t say that Tookie found redemption after NOT committing a crime, but, hey, look, there it is.