Paging Jimmy Jones

Am I the only one that thinks that if CFOs are going to start offing themselves, they need to do it in one mass, cathartic event? Someone should get to work on organizing this.

Is this the year they try?

The Florida Marlins, who have the distinction of being the only Major League Baseball team to have won the World Series in every year they’ve actually tried to win the World Series, are 11-4 and four games up on the Phillies and Braves. Philosophical question: if the Marlins run away with the NL East, will anybody in Miami care?

Bands that never lived up their names (random list, subject to change)

5. The Outlaws

4. Fear

3. Gallows

2. The Dictatortots

1. John Cougar Concentration Camp

There is nothing new under the Sun

I hate when I get deep into a conversation and realize that the conclusion my conversation partner and I just arrived at had already been covered by Bad Religion 15 years ago.

Micromedia and social devolution

What we’re facing now in the newspaper industry is an inability to deal with options. The inherent nature of the product means that we need to appeal to as many people as possible, and many newspapers around the country, in a desperate attempt to do this, appeal to no one. Thirty years ago, newspapers could put a sweeping national story on the front page and sell. There aren’t any sweeping national stories anymore. There aren’t even very many sweeping local stories anymore. Producers of entertainment and news media are now, to a certain extent, and will become more so in the future, very small voices disseminating to very small groups of consumers. I’m not sure this is a bad thing.

I’m not really a reader…

If you’re not reading Paul Oliver’s book review in the paper and on this site, you’re missing out. Good books, interesting thoughts on them. What’s not to like? Get on it, rube!

Look at me! (I’m a winner!)

No one entered the unofficial Phoenix Files contest from last week, but I’ll leave it open for another week. Hey look! Free lunch!

Favorite words of the week

5. Ancients

4. Mummery

3. Immolation

2. Arbiter

1. Flotsam

Quizzo

What is the paper used for U.S. currency made from?

Blog of the week: strangemaps.wordpress.com

Come on, who doesn’t love a collection of Ukrainian electoral maps, U.S. states labeled with their mottos instead of their names, maps of Europe that don’t include Germany (according to the info on the blog, the idea of spinning the country off into its neighbors was floated by a few crazies toward the end of World War II) and a by-county breakdown of who in America watches the most Jeopardy! This site is a wealth of useless information (which happens to be the best kind).

Out of thoughts. Shutting down now.

Posted by
Nick "Never Look Back" Danna