Redskins 14, Cowboys 13

Redskins 14, Cowboys 13.

also: the child ballads

NL East constantly updating chart

from Hardball Times:

A Baseball Game

A BASEBALL GAME, PART 7
by Richard Brautigan

Baudelare went
to a baseball game
and bought a hot dog
and lit up a pipe
of opium.
the New York Yankees
were playing
the Detroit Tigers.
In the fourth inning
an angel committed
suicide by jumping
off a low cloud.
The angel landed
on second base,
causing the
whole infield
to crack like
a huge mirror.
The game was
called on
account of
fear

Major League Baseball : Video : MLB.TV

I've been studying for exams, and therefore not blogging too much. In two weeks I'll be done. In four, I'll be packing up and heading home to DC for the summer, working at the FCC during the day and going to Nats games at night.

I've been putting in about 12 hours of work a day getting ready for exams. The only break I allow myself each day is 3 hours to watch the baseball game.

Over the winter, right before my Property exam, Linda Cropp's amendment looked like it would derail the Nats for good. Now, a semester later, the Phillies are about to play their first regular season game at RFK.

I never realized how much I missed baseball until this season started. I grew up going to O's games at Memorial Stadium, chanting "Eddie, Eddie," for Eddie Murray, and watching Cal Ripken's whole career. I managed to catch his last game in Anaheim while I was living in LA.

But sometime in the early 90's I lost the game, or the game lost me. The strike had something to do with it, as did Peter Angelos running the O's into the ground and showing a palpable hate for DC while he did it. I found in rock and roll what I lost in baseball.

The Nats are bringing me back home. I no longer have to hang on every Redskins off-season move to feel some connection to DC. Instead, the rhythm of baseball will rule my summer.

Bernard Levy has an article in the newest Atlantic retracing the steps of de Toqueville 200 years after his birth. I'm aboaut half a page from the section entitled "On religion in general, and baseball in particular." What a feeling, after over a decade in the wilderness, to know, again, what he means before reading a word.

Unofficial Election Results

I was one of 2,255 voters in this wack ass election. 8% of the registered voters came out. I think the 3 people I voted for won. Democracy is lame, even when it's on the march.

A wack morning for democracy

It's 5:30 AM in St. Louis. In half an hour, I'm going to the polls to vote in what I am willing to wager will be the wackest election of my life. I usually don't vote in the lame elections, but I woke up this morning at 1AM and haven't gone back to sleep. I slept all evening, because I was up most of the night sunday night finishing up a paper.

Also, as the kind of jerk that crosses the country for democracy, to not walk halfway down the block to vote would be embarassing.

But what is there to vote for? you might ask. I was curious as well. I checked the web page. Holy shi'ite, is this a wack election. Click on the link above to take a look at the ballot I'll be facing in 25 minutes. Freedom and democracy are truly on the march. I can't wait to see the look on the faces of the election workers when I'm there waiting as the polls open.

Same As It Ever Was

"Washington has now lost three straight, six of seven, and has not won since Sept. 28, 1971. We have not won since Joe Grzenda pitched three innings of one-hit relief as the Senators pounded out 10 hits to beat Stan Bahnsen and the Yankees, 4-2."

We'll end the streak soon. Until then, though, it's nice just to have another reason to hate the Vet in Philly.

TV deal partners Orioles, Nationals

The 90%/10% split might just be an april fools day prank, but I don't think so.

The upshot of the O's having all the risk on this is that TV networks like this have failed in the past. And if this deal, as it plays out, truly looks like a stinker, then DC's fans, as the larger market, can sink the network in an instant by refusing to watch. A boycott of the network called by any of the DC sportswriters could sink the zeppelin pretty quickly, and although Angelos might try to sue every resident of the city of DC individually, I doubt that he'd get too far with that. (I'm reminded of an old Mr. Show bit about Coupon: The Movie, where a movie studio successfully sued all of America for not watching their crappy movie.)

Notes on grokster oral arguments

One of the first bits of fallout from Grokster, says Timothy Armstrong, is that you will always be able to rip your CDs legally for use on other devices:

How, some of the Justices asked MGM, could the inventors of the iPod (or the VCR, or the photocopier, or even the printing press) know whether they could go ahead with developing their invention? It surely would not be difficult for them to imagine that somebody might hit upon the idea of marketing their device as a tool for infringement.

MGM’s answer to this was pretty unsatisfying. They said that at the time the iPod was invented, it was clear that there were many perfectly lawful uses for it, such as ripping one’s own CD and storing it in the iPod. This was a very interesting point for them to make, not least because I would wager that there are a substantial number of people on MGM’s side of the case who don’t think that example is one bit legal. But they’ve now conceded the contrary in open court, so if they actually win this case they’ll be barred from challenging “ripping” in the future under the doctrine of judicial estoppel.

SCOTUSblog: MGM v. Grokster: Background and Analysis

Happy Grokster day.

Click the link above to get some background while watching an old episode of ALF on your Betamax VCR.

Who likes maths?

Go see my friend Ed give a math lecture:

In the unlikely event that you find yourself in western Massachusetts this Wednesday, come check out my talk about the concept of duality in projective geometry.

WHERE?: Lederle Graduate Research Tower, Room 1521D, UMass Amherst

WHEN?: Wednesday, March 30, 2005, 7:00 p.m.

WHAT?: Projective geometry is a non-Euclidean geometry where there is no such thing as parallel lines, and no concept of distance or angle measure. Duality is a valid concept of projective geometry where points and lines are mathematically indistinguishable from each other. This is cool because if you prove a theorem, it can be dualized to give you a new theorem that will be true (unless the theorem is self-dual to begin with)! It's like a 2-for-1 sale on mathematical concepts.

Happy Easter

from our friends in FLA protesting the rule of law....

Win or Lose (washingtonpost.com)

"Yet another franchise came along in 1901, now in the American League. This time, Washington did something we had never done before: signed a bona fide star still near the peak of his powers. Ed Delahanty was a strapping, square-jawed slugger, the best hitter of his day. An esteemed authority on baseball history, Bill James, has compared Delahanty to the seemingly incomparable Joe DiMaggio. The man batted .346 over 16 seasons. He once went 9 for 9 in a double-header.

But after just one full season in Washington, Big Ed started drinking even more heavily than usual. Suspended from the team during a trip to Detroit, he boarded a train for home. Blotto, he brandished a straight razor at other passengers. The conductor stopped the train near the Canadian border and dumped Delahanty trackside. Our star went reeling into the night, plunged from the International Bridge into the Niagara River, washed over Niagara Falls, and was pureed by the propeller of a sightseeing boat."

Breakpoints the official blog of the botz

just so you know, the robots are back.

Hunter S. Thompson v. Richard M. Nixon v. DJ Buck Wheaton

So here's the psychedelic disaster. It's in two parts.

Part One
Part Two

Enjoy it. Like I said, listen to it in a dark room, alone.

hot hot heat

yes they're canadian but they're stand up fellows and they know how to trash a hotel room. this is a link to a page with a new mp3 from a new album. it's really poppy and I'm not sure how I feel about it, which along with singer steve bay's growing gheri curls gets me worried, but hopefully there'll be some rockers on the rest of the album.

DURKL

the clothes are aight but the song is absolutely off the chain. buy something.

Comments

The old comments system seems to have died, so this is a test of a new one.

Skype

Do any of you use this thing? If you don't know it's free voice phone calls over the internet. I just called someone who didn't have a mic, and she could hear me while I talked to my computer.

It felt strange and dirty in a futuristic sort of way.

If you're on skype, and I know you, holler at your boy: skypename: derekteslik.

An aside

There is really nothing like a 'dormant commerce clause' case about contoured mudguards in IL to welcome one back to another thrilling week of law school. For real, when I read about this case as an aside in America: The Book I thought is was a joke. I was wrong. Bibb v. Navajo Freight Lines, Inc., 359 U.S. 520 (1959), ain't no joke, people. Look alive, and watch out for heat buildup in the brake well caused by the interlining.....

Blink O Rama

There is now officially a blog for everything.

Coming later this week: a two hour psychedelic disaster named Hunter S. Thompson v. Richard M. Nixon v. DJ Buck Wheaton.

It was recorded live on location in St. Louis, MO, on Saturday, February 26th, 2005. My parents were listening to it from a parked car in a hotel parking lot. An anonymous 52-year-old called it "the most creative radio [he] had heard in years." I don't believe him.

The aforementioned psychedelic disaster will be presented in .mp3 format, and it is suggested that you listen to it alone in the dark.

This always cruel month is almost over.

Debunking Punk - What the Clash meant to rock 'n' roll. By Stephen Metcalf

great rock writing is a pleasure to encounter in a world of garbage reviews and limp glossy magazines.

Metcalf does a nice job tying the birth and death of rock and roll up in a bow shaped like London Calling, and driving a socio-historic highway from elvis to the clash passing directly though the beatles and the stones.

it's not the history of rock in 2500 words, but it's a nice picture, and it's worth your time.

Author Hunter S. Thompson Commits Suicide (washingtonpost.com)

he shot himself in the head.

what a jerk.

i thought he'd have the cajones to take whatever fear he faced like a man, to just deal with things getting weird or hard.

I guess he didn't.

what a jerk.

he talked such a big game......

Nationals Inquirer

lots of nats blogging a gwan. word.

Major League III: A New Beginning

Everything I've been reading about the Nats, by which I mean everything I can find, reminds me of the movie Major League. A franchise that has been disrespected moving to a city that has been disrespected. A team that's actually a team, even though, or because, they've been written off and f'd with and told they don't even deserve to exist. And a city that is the seat of representative government that is unrepresented in that government. Even Larkin moving to the front office smacks of Tom Berenger managing the Indians in the embarrassing Major League II.

And even though Major League II sucked, I've got a feeling that this season, which I'll refer to from here on out as Major League III, will be awesome.

word

if we make it past 2012 then we've got somthing to look forward to.

A good five minutes

I use a band-aid
as a bookmark
for the bukowski poetry
i read on the can.

it seems appropriate.

Radio Free St. Louis Super Bowl Preview

There was yet another great Super Bowl on Sunday. But on Saturday, there was a great Radio Free St. Louis, a super bowl preview. Click the link above for an mp3. guests:

New England Bureau Chief: Mike Abbott
Philidelphia Bureau Chief: Joshua Lipes
Prime Minister of Fairy Tales: Selena Nelson
Senior Arlington, Mass. Correspondent: Matthew Rebholz
Chicago Bureau Chief: Adrian Trela

My highlight is the last 15 minutes, where Trela takes a look back at the 85 bears on this, the 19th anniversary of their super bowl run. He called this year's game for the Pats because they have more Italians on the squad, and named all 22 starters on the 85 bears, drunkenly, from a sidewalk outside some bar on Lincoln. Classic. More shows from last year will be put up in due time. Go Nats.

Monkeys Pay to See Female Monkey Bottoms

word. i guess this is about as conclusive proof of evolution as you can get......

Another definition

comicide [cohm*ih*side] (v.): 1) slaying the vibe; 2) buzzkilling.

really, I'm making up new words like ghostface over here.

Talking Points Memo: GOP Social Security playbook

You may have already seen this, but if you haven't, TPM has posted a copy of the Republican "playbook" for selling their plan to take the "security" out of social security. An excerpt:

Keep the numbers small: Your audience doesn’t know how trillions and billions differ. They know these numbers are large, but not how large nor how many billions make a trillion. Boil numbers down to “your family’s share.” Also avoid percentages; your audience will try to calculate them in their head—no easy task while listening to a speech—and many will do it incorrectly.

(from p.6 -- but I thought the president was already on board with this....)

From page 35-40 almost every single word is capitalized. It's almost unreadable. Whoa. It stay like that till page 45.

There are two canned speeches at the end of the document. If you like, you can put on a nice suit and pretend that you, too, are a mouthpiece of the Bush administration. I'd recomment going out to a nearby public park and convincing the squirrels that we are facing a crisis.

The NFL Stadium Guide - Future NFL Stadiums

Dream of the future of football. Vikings stadium, when built, will be off the hook. It is a little thugly, though (see below).

A Definition, and other hot new slang for oh-cinco

You might have heard about the hot new words for '05 from who let the blogs out, who introduced about a month or two ago the concept of getting "iced."

Here's another one:

thugly (adj.) [thuhg*lee] - 1) characterizing attire or attitude that, in trying too hard to be "down" with the "street," ends up just looking really silly or stupid; 2) of or relating to preposterous gangster rap fashion.

also, "thuggs" are dumb looking furred boots work by rappers.

we make money not art

a quick and dirty link. everything there is "holy smokes" level cool and fascinating....

MSNBC - Jan. 24 called worst day of the year

good morning. it's all downhill from here.

also, I am the guacamole king of university city, mo. pics later.

and misadventures of

Look: Are you paying attention to this? Click above, because in the years ahead it will be either a book or a legend and, well, these sorts of things don't happen in law school.

I am planning something new, which will be both amazing and funny and famous and will more or less run itself. But that is for the future.

Tonight I make sure that all facts which I reference in analysis paragraphs are introduced in precedent case discussion paragraphs.

And that is why, for now, my stories aren't quite as interesting.

This friday, I will compete in an Iron Chef guacamole battle. That's about as good as it gets for a while.

Wait for me then, with a touch of cilantro on your breath, and read well what I linked above.