Galley Friend B.W. in response to this item on “actress” and Clooney girlfriend Krista Allen:

I was particularly entertained by the mis-identification of Krista Allen as a porn star. She didn’t do Emmanuelle movies, per se, she did Emmanuelle in Space. Which is to Emmanuelle as, oh, I dunno, Ocean’s Eleven is to Rififi. Or something.

Yeah, baby!

IDontLikeYouInThatWay.com notes that Jude Law’s nanny-lover has inspired the Fleet Street Headline of the Year:

WE HAD SEX ON HIS POOL TABLE, THE BALLS FLEW EVERYWHERE…

Ever since I saw Carousel, I’ve always wanted to go to a clambake. I finally went to one last weekend and June was busting out all over! Did you say you went to see Carousel? The point being, it was high living. Except for the fact that it wasn’t technically a clambake, but rather, a lobster bake. Even better but demanding more strategy. Namely, I saved it for last, starting with the corn on the cob, then the potato salad, then a couple of steamers, and then the lobster claws followed, at long last, by the robust tail, dipped generously in drawn butter. I didn’t even need a bib. (I just wore won to fit in.)

The setting was along the banks of the Connecticut River and the occasion was my friends Lyn and Ted’s wedding, she being a doctoral candidate in sociology and he the cofounder of Human Head Studios, maker of Rune and, later this year, Prey. The Essex Corinthian Jazz band (average age: 75) banged out dixie tunes for the guests while the happy couple took in a boat ride–the bride actually drove the boat. “This could have taken place a hundred years ago,” marveled one person. “Yes,” I agreed, “except they’d all be wondering who invited the Asian guy.”

Nevertheless, congratulations to both and many years of happiness.

(Ted, just mail me the game when it comes out.)

If you, like every other sensible person, care more about the Kaus-Sullivan fight than you do about the Plame-Novak-Rove-Miller-Cooper-Blah-Blah, then don’t miss the coda to this post from Kaus:

[It’s too late for soft soap with Sullivan now–ed. But I can rip him off, no?] .

David Skinner has a super-duper excellent piece on David Souter’s nomination fight in 1990. You should read it right away. And you should subscribe to The Weekly Standard (not that this site is affiliated with it in any way).

But since Skinner’s piece is available only to Standard subscribers, here’s the general gist:

When President Bush nominated David Souter in 1990, the liberal establishment went to battle stations. Key quotes:

“Almost Neanderthal” is how Molly Yard, then-president of the National Organization for Women, described Souter, whose “constitutional views are based on the ‘original intent’ of the Framers 200 years ago, when blacks were slaves and women were property of their husbands.” . . .

“David Souter would be the fifth vote” for outlawing abortion, said Eleanor Smeal of the Fund for the Feminist Majority. “We find him a devastating threat.” . . .

“What record Souter has compiled on constitutional questions is both sparse and disturbing,” said Arthur Kropp, then-president of People for the American Way, whose current president Ralph Neas, then of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, questioned Souter’s “commitment to constitutional guarantees of individual rights and liberties. . . . ” The NAACP was “troubled” . . .

Souter, or course, has proved to be a reliably liberal voice on the Court. Skinner’s point is that when the president announces his nominee this week and the left begins its doomsaying, you might want to take it with a grain of salt.

Galley Friend P.B. informs me that someone named Mancow (sp?) has just revealed the big spoiler from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I don’t make requests often, but for selfish reasons I ask that no one discuss Harry Potter spoilers on the blog for another week or two.

Thanks.

Tom Joscelyn has an outstanding piece on what happened in the immediate aftermath of Operation Desert Fox in 1998. You’ll recall that President Clinton was forced into conducting air strikes against Saddam Hussein. Following the four days of attacks, Saddam sought out the help of Osama bin Laden. Joscelyn assembles a mass of reportage on the subject from 1998 and 1999.

It’s easy to forget that before George W. Bush invaded Iraq, it was a common assumption that Saddam and bin Laden were linked quite closely. Whenever someone tells you that there is no connection between these two, remember: Actionable intelligence is in the eye of the beholder.

Michael Crowley is fishing for a lawsuit:

Our summer of Tom Cruise’s madness and Katie Holmes’ creepy path toward zombie bridedom has been a useful reminder of how truly strange Scientology is. By now those interested in the Cruise-Holmes saga may be passingly familiar with the church’s creation myth, in which an evil, intergalactic warlord named Xenu kidnaps billions of alien life forms, chains them near Earth’s volcanoes, and blows them up with nuclear weapons. Strange as Scientology’s pseudo-theology may be, though, it’s not as entertaining as the life story of the church’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard. . . .