Ouch:

I love to bash USC, and find reasons to do so even when they are the middle of a pretty good run on the gridiron.

And ouch again:

the Trojans still have the easiest schedule in the Top 20. I am surprized they didn’t find room to take on Oberlin.

When you’re throwing out the Obies, that’s rough.

Really, where does he find this stuff? This week Mike Russell interviews an artist who works entirely in View-Master reels.

Chris Wershoven has been my best friend since we were in the second grade together at Haddonfield Friends School and now he’s started a very interesting blog, WershovenistPig.

The idea behind WershovenistPig is that Chris is about to try his hand at the stock market and the blog will be a laboratory and notebook where he explains his research, plots out his moves, and looks for readers to poke holes in his plans before he executes them.

Chris is a naturally genius guy–really, what product of Quaker education isn’t?–and his blog is an excellent read, particularly if you’re interested in the market and/or business.

Perhaps one of the more shocking discoveries I made on my return visit to Vienna (I lived there as a student between 1993-1994) was the seemingly ubiquitous Starbucks Coffee bars. I counted at least four in the city and they were always crowded. But why? Vienna, after all, is the cafe capital (at least after taking the beans from the invading Turks in 1683) of Central Europe. In fact, I had a luscious Wachauer Torte at Cafe Central, where Trotsky had spent many hours plotting. How could a mocha latte ever compete with a Wiener Melange?

Some observations: The Austrians (and other Europeans) love the comfortable couches found at any Starbucks. They’re big and PoMo and it probably reminds them of Friends. Coffee-to-go is still a relatively novel idea. Normally one sits at a cafe and a waiter brings you a metal tray with a melange on a saucer, some sugar cubes, and a glass of water with a teaspoon balanced on top of it. Then you read the newspaper, one page at a time, using one of those wood-framed newspaper holders. But as Europeans begin copying American habits like coffee on the run, Starbucks has filled in that niche (as did McDonald’s for many years). And according to Bernadette, a student waitress working at the Starbucks on Kärntner Strasse, everyone loves the Frappuccino.

The first of several vignettes from my recent trip to Vienna:

Vienna is such a lovely city, especially in late summer when for a brief spell the sun comes out for than a few hours each day. And during my visit there a couple of weeks ago, it actually got a little warm. So to cool down I recommended to the Mrs. that we hang out in the Kaisergruft. Little did she know I was taking her to the Habsburg crypt where some 146 members of the royal family are entombed–not exactly the most popular tourist attraction. Beneath a Capuchin church (no surprise), a staircase leads you to a dark and dank cellar. And then it begins. (You almost want to roam around with a torchlight.)

Besides Maria Theresia and Franz Josef, you can find the final resting places of the beloved Empress Elisabeth (“Sissi”), who was stabbed by an anarchist in 1898, and Maximilian, the ill-fated “emperor” of Mexico who was executed by revolutionaries. If ever you find yourself in the city with time to … kill, I highly recommend the Kaisergruft. If … you … dare!

Galley Friend J.V. sends along this link to Peter Suderman’s hysterical Guide to Determine If You Are in a Jerry Bruckheimer Movie:

1. Your girlfriend is a waitress, but could be a model.

2. A bus explodes. . . .

6. Despite a total lack of training, you are able to shoot and fight with the accuracy and ability of a special-forces soldier.

7. You are a cop or scientist, but could be a model.

8. A building explodes. . . .

10. The light always hits your face in just the right way.

11. You are in a shootout on the streets of a major city …

12. … and it involves helicopters and rocket launchers.

13. Everyone around you is a model.

There’s more.

Eric Pfeiffer has more color than you’re likely to see in mainstream accounts of Cindy Sheehan’s return to Texas:

Sheehan’s handlers said she was refusing to give any media interviews last night and I respected their request. After having a bite to eat, Sheehan joked with her supporters, mocking the Bush supporters standing outside “Camp Casey II.” A few of the protesters walked outside the campsite to engage in hostile “dialogue” with the Bush supporters. In an unintentional moment of irony, one of the protesters screamed in a bit of self-righteous rage, “What are they doing here? They can’t protest!”

Despite the press handlers’ claims that Sheehan was physically exhausted, she appeared in good spirits. Most of the photos I have seen in the media today reflect the moment where Sheehan was crying. I do think this is somewhat misleading. While she is certainly entitled to her grief, most of the scene was quite jovial, which is not reflected in the mainstream media’s coverage. I’m not denying Ms. Sheehan her right to a cathartic moment, merely bringing you the full story and facts from the ground.

Meanwhile, Patterico notes that Sheehan recently referred to the terrorist in Iraq as “freedom fighters.”

In response to my quibble about perhaps placing too much confidence in the ability of regional trial lawyers, Beldar answers with what, to me, is a argument ender:

I must confess to a certain amount of regional bias, but it’s not so much in favor of Texas trial lawyers as against lawyers from New York.

Hard to argue with that. Full Point: Beldar.