Happy 500th, Henry VIII!

"Divorced, beheaded, died.
Divorced, beheaded, survived."

What more historic heroic couplet
for the founder of the C of E?

Ben commends the montages on 'Reno 911'

It's comically dysfunctional, ersatz yet all original. Grounded. In. America. Re-no, 9-1-1, son.

http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/reno_911/index.jhtml

2008 is not 1968

On the subject of the superdelegates determining the election, Richmond Mayor Douglas Wilder, the Obama guest on Face the Nation today, just said, "If you think 1968 was bad, this will be worse," or something pretty close to that. And Frank Rich made basically the same point in his column last weekend. What's with these people? A brokered convention between Obama and Clinton would be nothing like a brokered convention that selects a guy who never contested the primaries and was pro-war even though the campaign started with their own party's sitting president getting a standing eight count from an anti-war candidate in New Hampshire and later saw another anti-war candidate win the California primary only to be shot and killed the same day. Seriously, if there are protesters on the streets during the Democrats' convention this year, which I doubt, it would be like a fart in the wind of the 1968 tornado.

I think the competitive disparity between the two parties is so lopsided right now that the Democrats could absorb the chilling effect of the superdelegates being pivotal and STILL win in November. It would probably hurt the down-ticket prospects, but still, people seem pretty sick and tired of the Republicans.

Put a sock in the polls?

The day of the NH primaries I was telling somebody that it was going to wrap up the Democratic nomination for Obama, who could not be stopped in South Carolina after winning both Iowa and NH, which would lock up Florida and make even a tie on Feb. 5 end it (and leave us more time to appreciate the unfolding bar fight in the Republican coalition) - and I was obviously shocked by the huge swing back to Clinton. Could that really be an opinion shift in response to Clinton's televised effusiveness? Or was it the subconscious pull of race, as I just heard a commentator suggest on NPR?

I think it would be awesome if the dysfunction of the polls just before NH has chilled the punditry out of their penchant for reading into polls with confidence and saying outlandish things that are all-too-soon forgotten, thus nudging the discourse of the campaign a wee bit toward the substance. (Does more claptrap mean a net gain for Edwards? Obama and Clinton are articulate, but that Edwards, what a talker!)

From the outset of the campaign, I have found Richardson an interesting candidate, and it would be nice if this brief reassessment phase after the NH primary allows more people to make note of his resume, which includes an unparalleled range of experience. I also think that Clinton should be open to being the VP part of the equation, given that her experience in elected office is not that great either and that she is not at all old enough that we might fear she'd be too old to take the job in eight years (she does look great for her age, folks). I mean let's face it, people, waiting eight years wouldn't exactly deny her the opportunity to deal with dire threats to the health of the nation and globe during her own tenure as president. Plus, we are in the age of the consequential VP, are we not?

Boo hoo, NY sports fans

It's business as usual on a Tuesday night in Madison Square Garden, the most famous sports arena in the world. The crowd wants to hurl abuse, but who needs it? Well who ya got?? The Knicks are losing to the Mavs, and of course the players get it. Isaiah is still somehow coaching on the sideline, and he gets some. The faces of two Mets pitchers are shown on the jumbotrons, and the crowd boos them too, instantly scolding them for their part in the Mets’ collapse at the end of the last season.

After the game, a torch-wielding mob leaves the Garden, moving in the general direction of city hall.

Republicans playing better on TV

The Republican follow-up to the Democrats' "YouTube debate" finally arrives! They did this with the Democrats in, what, August? (Wasn't the follow-up originally slated for September?) Both campaigns were WAY more boring back then, but now the Republicans are at each other's throats. McCain issues this HUGE smackdown on Ron Paul, 'That kind of isolationism let Hitler rise to power, and how dare you besmirch the name of our military, they want to win in Iraq, I love those guys,' Paul comes back with 'I'm getting more donations from active duty soldiers than all of y'all!' and wow, Rudy Giuliani just stabbed Romney with his pen while Anderson Cooper was pointedly miscommunicating with Fred Thompson!

On a separate but related matter, are audiences in the Republican debates more likely than Democratic crowds to break into perfunctory yet enthusiastic applause when someone pushes their ideological buttons? And to boo?? My own hunch is obviously biased. Still, get good coding schemes together and you could punch out a handful of nice easy studies along those lines.

Anatomy of a Twinkie

Check out this funny review of a new book about the chemical composition of the beloved Twinkie. The lead: "Five ingredients come from rocks."

...get a rundown of what goes into making that pillar of the junk food pantheon - and also catch the hilarious response to the study by a PR executive for Hostess. That's no idle press-release prattling--strategic communication has never been more mystical and spirited. That VP of Snack Marketing achieves a resounding aftereffect reminiscent of the profoundest Haikus: "Deconstruct Twinkie? / Deconstruct the Universe! / Twinkies just taste great."