2/27/01 - Wellington, New Zealand considers advertising itself as Middle Earth.

Chris Lehmann scrutinizes the Clinton mythologizing of The West Wing.

Don't call it a comeback. William Greider examines the post-election fortunes of Ralph Nader and discovers that, despite talk of a Democratic freeze-out, he's still holding all the right cards for 2002. Kudos to Dick Gephardt for engaging Nader after the election rather than sulkily condemning him like the Gore crowd. "Nader and Gephardt talked about the missed opportunities last year. It would be helpful, the two agreed, to consult more closely in the future."

A follow-up to the Boston Ballet's "Russian Massacre" story that was posted last week. As it turns out, the axe rebounded - the company has decided to fire their new artistic director due to a "mismatch of expectations."

Forgot to mention this earlier, but Sunday was Berkeley's first (seventh?) birthday. He got some bones. As a coming of age, I'm contemplating letting him have the run of the house while I'm at work (instead of just the kitchen), but he still appears to have a hankering for my CD's (particularly, and inexplicably, the works of John Coltrane - he's chewed up three albums in Trane's oeuvre.)

Also haven't noted here that I picked up a Playstation 2 last week, along with NBA and NHL Live 2001. (My Playstation 1 died about six months ago, and I figured, might as well upgrade.) Still haven't found the killer app yet, although SSX, FIFA 2001, and Starfighter were all great fun to play (Thank you, Blockbuster Video.)

While I'll never forgive Joe Conason for his days as a anti-Bradley/Nader Gore apologist, he does have an interesting piece today on Bush Sr.'s questionable pardons, including a Cuban terrorist and a Pakistani heroin smuggler. Which just goes to show once again that it's well past time to get over the alleged moral depravity of the Clintons and start looking at ways to cleanse the system of money's taint.

Am I a Hot Sci-Fi Author or Not? (via Genehack.)

The official Planet of the Apes site goes live, and a trailer follows tomorrow at 3pmEST. Update: AICN got some of it early, thanks to Access Hollywood and TiVo.

Also appearing today is The Caveman's Valentine trailer, featuring Samuel L. Jackson as a schizophrenic pianist cum homeless man who witnesses a murder. The movie also has Anthony Michael Hall in his post-Gates film comeback.

The Times implores Dubya to pull a Nixon-in-China and use his prodigal son conservative clout to rethink Drug War strategy.

Emotional night for Knicks fans. The Big Fella returns to the Garden tonight, and everybody has something to say about it.

James Fallows and Brent Staples discuss the search for an AIDS vaccine.

"Conclusive Evidence" of Alien Life? Scientists publish a follow-up report on the bacteria-infested Martian meteorite.

2/26/01 - Weblogs in Newsweek. (Courtesy of What's On It For Me?)

Chris of Not Enough of Me premieres Glitterdammerung!, his new comics weblog. Check it out.

R.E.M. premieres the look of their new album, Reveal, and announces the first single will be "Imitation of Life." In semi-related news, Depeche Mode played their new single, "Dream On", on KROQ last week, and naturally it's now all over Napster (look for the 3:40 version, it's the best quality.)

As it turns out, the Alternative Minimum Tax, or AMT, may throw a monkey wrench into the Bush tax cut plan.

Jonathan Zimmerman lambasts the so-called "honest discussion" at the heart of the new DARE makeover. The drug war also take a hit at The New Republic this week, where Andrew Sullivan questions the dubious distinction between highly illegal and highly marketable drugs.

Apparently, Robert Reich, Janet Reno, and George Stephanopoulos all make the Clinton shitlist, at least according to Bob Kerrey and The New Yorker.

Congrats and best wishes to Steve and Lyn, who announced at the blogger gathering this past Friday that they are getting married. Who knew PJ was such a matchmaker?

Jon Caramanica, an old college friend, reviews the two new Snoop albums for the Voice.

Bill Clinton is not the first Black President, notes this writer, so let's please stop calling him that.

After an extensive recount (of undervotes) by USA TODAY, it appears Gore lost Miami-Dade County. But wouldn't it have been nice to know that three months ago? At any rate, hopefully this news will help quell the idea of a 2004 comeback.

The freewheelin' Bob Dylan opened his Japan/Australia tour last night with a fine collection of hits and classics. Japan and Aussie blogs, take note.

2/23/01 - DC Blogger gathering tonight, 6:30 at the Dupont Circle Front Page. See ya there.

Jude Law and Haley Jo Osment converse in this recently released still from Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick's Sprockets...um, I mean AI.

Derrick Jackson calls out DLC Dems for taking African-Americans for granted.

Newly released Harry Potter stills have been posted over at the Cauldron.

Noo Yawk sportswriters welcome back a native son in Mark Jackson.

2/22/01 - "I saw 'Traffic' with my 16-year-old daughter," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told me, "and it had a very powerful effect. It's caused me to rethink our policies and priorities." Arianna Huffington examines the political impact of this Oscar contender on the current drug war morass.

Jacob Weisberg's Geography of Shame - where to go for your Second Act after a royal public screwup.

The new Episode 2 Select is online, featuring Temuera Morrison as [Spoiler] bounty hunter Jango Fett, sharing a special moment with his son [clone?] Boba.

And so ended the Age of Trilobites. Scientists uncover evidence of a previously unknown pre-Dinosaur mass extinction.

Now it gets interesting. Dikembe Mutombo is traded to the Sixers for Theo Ratliff and Toni Kukoc. I wonder if this will propel the Knicks toward acquiring the Glove...Update: Nope, but they did pick up Mark Jackson and Muggsey Bogues for Chris Childs and a draft pick. Interesting choice...Jackson is slow as molasses, but he commands double teams and can dish the ball, preferably to Spree, Houston, or Rice around the perimeter. Good trade.

As expected, Lucasfilm has disavowed the two Episode II speculative titles listed here yesterday.

James Fallows and Christopher Hitchens discuss Kissinger (among other things) in The Atlantic. (Via Dratfink.)

Score. Finally got a New York (P) quarter, the first of the 2001 series, with my lunch change. Next stop, North Carolina.

Just when it looked like the Rich tide was beginning to ebb, along comes Rodhamgate. No bones about it, this is just shady.

Jake Tapper tries to unravel the "mystery of the docile Democrats."

2/21/01 - Dave Sim and Alan Moore correspond in the back pages of Cerebus #217-220. (Courtesy of Tomb of Horrors.)

Dikembe Mutombo for Marcus Camby and Glen Rice? Gary Payton for Allan Houston and Chris Childs? 24 hours before the deadline, trade winds blow fast and furious for the Knicks. While I don't much like Rice, I'd say the first deal is garbage. The second...I think I'd have to pull the trigger on that one.

More Spiderman casting today, including Robbie Robertson and Betty Brandt.

IGN uncovers a Pesci-esque potty-mouth CGI Spock for your amusement. Reminds me of that lame Bill Gates "obscene clone fall" joke.

The Russian Massacre: it seems bearish times aren't restricted to the online world. The Boston Ballet lays off almost a third of its dancers, including possibly one of their more famous ballerinas, Jennifer Gelfand.

The Case Against Oscar No. 3 for Tom Hanks. Not very nice, I suppose, but there's some truth here.

Dahlia Lithwick reports on the Supreme Court's analysis of thermal imaging and hydroponics.

Howard Kurtz examines the sorry financial state of Internet journalism.

Former President Carter calls the Rich pardon "disgraceful." Wow. This ex-Presidential pile-up is almost getting ritualistic...nobody's missing a chance to whale on Clinton right now. Tick off a lot of people over the course of eight years, I guess. It seems like everybody's starting to lose the forest for the trees here. Rich's pardon was disgraceful, but it was also clearly politics as usual. How do you think Big Radio and the NAB managed to kill the low-power FM program? How do you think civilians ended up piloting the nuclear sub that inadvertently destroyed the Japanese fishing boat? Money buys access, access buys influence. Now's about the time the politicians of both parties and the press should let President Clinton slink into Chappaqua chagrined and focus on revamping our campaign finance system. Is that going to happen? Um...no.

Meanwhile, our new President is a uniter, not a divider...unless you're talking about John McCain, who's being frozen out of the discussion on a Patient's Bill of Rights.

The Globe issues a retraction to a story blogged here, the tale of the presumed marital infidelity behind the murder of two Dartmouth professors.

Episode 2: The Shadow Falls? According to Harry, that's the most recent title rumor, but since other folks have bought up the URLs, I suspect that's not correct. Other reports today have it called Rise Forth the Rebellion, but to me that sounds as lame as...well...The Phantom Menace.

2/20/01 - Boris Yeltsin, Gary Burghoff, James "Scotty" Doohan...ALL YOUR FINGERS ARE BELONG TO US. (Via Ghost Rocket and Web Today.) Sorry...thought I should make at least some mention of one of the fastest-spreading memes I can rememeber.

Astronomers discover the prerequisite ingredients of a primordial soup surrounding several distant stars.

Miami Heat PG Timmy Hardaway offers his assessment of Knicks fans: "If you're in Zimbabwe and you see a Knick fan, he's gonna tell you about it - 'I'm a Knick fan, I'm proud to be a Knick fan and y'all not gonna ever beat the Knicks.' The Knicks could be 0-32, and they could say that they're gonna win a championship. And that's a Knick fan for real. So I like the Knicks fans because they're loyal." Did I mention the Knicks are going to beat the Heat tonight?

The cads at Time play off one of their own memorable covers of the early Clinton years. Typical. They excoriate the former President for "not going away" while desperately following him around looking for a cover story and sundry other juicy printable tidbits. You can blame him for a shady pardon (explained in his own words here, via Medley), but you can't blame him (yet) for being a post-Presidential media hound.

Post-traumatic stress disorder - Linda Greenhouse examines the Supreme Court after Bush v. Gore.

Tom Oliphant of the Globe evaluates favorably the Democrats' position in the coming tax cut showdown.

I Killed Dale Earnhardt: NASCAR fan Seth Stevenson ponders Sunday's fatal crash.

Well, it was a long, tiring weekend for yours truly. GitM has never been a very personal blog as they go, but I suppose I'd be remiss in not mentioning a recent depressing development in my life. To get to the point, Elaine and I have decided to separate. Well, more to the point, she has decided to separate, since this wasn't really my choice and was presented to me as a fait accompli. I don't want to get into the details here, suffice to say that the decision involves, among other things, her being accepted to a graduate school in a city we as a couple had already taken off the table. I suppose she evaluated her present satisfaction against her possible future and chose to stake her fortunes on the latter. At any rate, this all began about a month ago, but since yesterday was the day she removed her stuff from the apartment, it seems we have now finally achieved some semblance of closure.

So, anyways, the parting was as amicable as it could be, I guess, and after having a month to come to grips with this particular reality I suppose I'm doing ok. Don't really feel like commenting on the situation any further here, other than to wish Eleni the very best of luck, so I'll let Messrs. Dylan, Stipe, and Costello take you to commercial. (It's for situations like this that God kindly gave us Blood on the Tracks.)