The Pine
Friday, January 30, 2004
Welcome back, blogger
RTP is back with a brand new invention – something to grab hold of you tightly, and flow like a harpoon daily and nightly.
If you got that reference to Vanilla Ice, please promptly hang yourself. I can’t, because I have the blog to maintain.
As alert readers will see (translated: the three readers who have previously visited this site; hi, guys), RTP has a new look. Gone is the orange border which, while striking, was increasingly being adopted by Iraqi dissidents for their blogging ventures. I wouldn’t want to get us confused, despite my well known love for dissidents. Cases of mistaken identity are only funny when they don’t end in unquestioned decapitation by Donald Rumsfeld.
So why the long layoff, the three of you ask? First there was the holiday season; then there was the task of writing passionately against the BCS without spontaneously combusting, which eventually proved impossible; finally, there was my overwhelming, legendary anomie. It’s a lot to deal with.
There was also my ambition to update the page everyday, which in its difficulty ended up discouraging me and left the whole thing in the dust. My revised, more realistic goal is to post twice a week – probably Tuesday and Thursday. Smaller posts – like AP headlines, links to photos of weird facial hair, and such – might come at any time.
It’s a new year, and I’m energized by its promise. I hope to play more low-stakes poker in 2004, and make the usual August sojourn in Saratoga, so there should be plenty of stories about the innovative, luckless ways I’ve discovered to lose wagers. Also, the baseball season looms, and with it several questions: Where will Greg Maddux land? What kind of chemistry did the Yankees buy themselves into? And will Randall Simon sign with someone, or leave the game behind to prepare for his global jihad against kielbasa?
Oh, there’s also a Super Bowl to be played. And I guess the NBA and NHL will eventually finish the voids that are their regular seasons and start scheduling games of interest. Plus, some pop culture to get to – like the Oscars, and my insanely high expectations for the new album from The Streets (due in May).
So, until Tuesday, welcome back. Spread the word.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Taiwanese Headline of the Day
OK, so it's not AP. But this one's too good to pass up, courtesy of friend to Riding the Pine MM:
"Sperm whale explodes in Tainan City"
The whole story's worth a look, too, as you might imagine:
http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/2004/01/27/1075168255.htm
