Faretheewell, Sweet Prince

A new era dawns at Deadspin

As we are in no way nearly as funny as the commentariat over at Deadspin, we never took the opportunity to join the community. However, we have been a devoted lurker since early 2007, and we are sad to see Mr. Leitch go.

You have done East Central Illinois proud. Good luck at New York, and may you and Deadspin live long and prosper. May His Holy Horsiness St.Barbaro bless you.

Summer Movies: A Quick Ranking List

Next week I'll be writing a bit more about the first half of the summer movie season. For the sake of brevity, however, I will put up my list, from least favorite to most favorite, from May and June. Keep in mind that I have yet to see WALL-E and Wanted. Remember that this list is only my preference, and really doesn't take into account artistic or technical achievement (other than that which improves my enjoyment).

Positively Meh
8. The Happening
7. The Incredible Hulk
6. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Enjoyable Missed Opportunities
5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
4. Get Smart

Frenetic, Insane, and Awesome
3. Speed Racer

Excellent Movies
2. Kung-Fu Panda
1. Iron Man

EXXXTREEME BLOGGING TO DA MAXXX!!!!!1!

There is nothing I can really add to this picture that hasn't already been said better, whether here or here. Except that this apparently sums the feud between bloggers and old media journalists in the sports world.

If old media journalists were 120 years old, and loved the company of pigeons.

And bloggers were a Poochie-like nightmare.

Go ahead, bask in its awesome glory. As the guys at FJM said, this is the Guernica of our times.

(Also, be sure to check out Buzz Bissinger's insane ramblings about canceling free speech, one of the few journalists I know of who appears to believe the Alien and Sedition acts were a good thing.)

The West Wing: Favorite Clips

This isn't actually my favorite clip of Arnie Vinick. However, I can't find his quick piece of straight talk on ethanol in "King Corn", and this is about just as good. This works better as a clip as well, as the King Corn piece is rather short in comparison.

I honestly would have been happy with either Santos or Vinick winning at the end of the series. Alan Alda did an excellent job with this character, and its almost too bad that he wasn't in the show more. True, he was an idealized pro-choice version of John McCain (without the war record and S&L scandal). However, that isn't a reason to dislike the character. I was happy when he agreed to be Santos Secretary of State.

Up next will be a murderer's row of clips, from some of my favorite episodes.

The Who of Fry

Go check out this interview of Billy West by the AV Club. Don't know who Billy West is? Shame on you! To not know the name of the man whose voice has brought us His Excellency John Zoidberg and Philip J. Fry is ignorance of the highest level.

The West Wing: Favorite Clips

In Honor of Senator Barack Obama's new title of presumptive Democratic nominee, here is Matt Santos' Convention Speech that led to his nomination.



The great thing about the Santos/Vinick campaign is how it mirrors the 2008 election. Sure, John McCain is older than Arnold Vinick (and not pro-choice), and Matt Santos is a bigger Boy Scout than even Senator Obama. However, both candidates clearly have similarities with these idealized characters. Heck, Santos was partially based on Senator Obama.

In the interest of political fairness, I'll be including one of my favorite Vinick clips soon.

The West Wing: Favorite Clips

As another irregular feature on this blog, I'll be posting some of my favorite West Wing scenes, with a short blurb following. There is no particular order to this, or any regularity implied. Also, some of my favorite scenes may not be available on Youtube, so don't consider this an exhaustive list. Enjoy!