The enchanting Lena Headey. (Her IMDB entry.)

Cuba may back-pedal on anti-Reagan rhetoric, but I never will!

The Simpsons: Advertising

"Simpsons" Japanese commercials. Unfortunately, they're in Quicktime format, and I loathe and despise QT.

Pharmaceuticals: US v England

Saw an ad in an English newspaper for Zirtec and Clarityn. In the U.S., they're Zyrtec and Claritin. Why is that?

Sad news - Robert Quine has passed away. I first heard of him when he played on Lou Reed's "The Blue Mask" album.

Is there a better print advertising campaign than Cointreau's Be CointreauVersial ?

Lyrics Quiz: One Word

More one-word lyrics, courtesy of Shell:

• Pompatus
  
• Havering
  
• Semolina
  

And some from me:

• Lumbago
  
• Strategically
  
• Isolation
  

Sports: Basketball

I don't like basketball but I switched over and saw what I thought was a cyborg playing. Richard Hamilton of the Detroit Pistons - he wears a face mask, apparently, since he broke his nose. Wuss. Anyway, while searching for a photo online, I came across this news story:

The Indiana Pacers equipment manager was arrested Tuesday at a Birmingham hotel and charged with indecent exposure. 'Apparently he was proud of his equipment,' Birmingham Police Chief Richard Patterson said. 'He wanted to show it off.'

Lyrics Quiz: One Word

Fun parlour game for the whole family. Try to get the other players to guess a song by just giving them one word from the lyrics (and it can't be in the title). Some examples:

• silhouetto
  
• Abdomen (pronounced Ab-dome-en)
  
• Guadalajara
  

How come all these articles about Ronald Reagan's wit don't mention that most of his quips were the work of speechwriters?

Neil and Tim Finn are back together again.

Timely report on the Irish ban on smoking in the workplace (timely because Patanoia is heading back to Ireland for a holiday).

It's funny that Rarb loves MSN so much, considering how beastly they were to the Opera had the last laugh. (Thanks to Robb for this item.)



Congrats to Eric - the first (and only?) person to solve the cryptograms.

TV: Lara Logan

Saw Lara Logan on Craig Kilborn's show. She's the CBS News correspondent in Afghanistan. And she's quite toothsome.

Music: My Morning Jacket

Noticed that Best Buy has "It Still Moves" by My Morning Jacket on sale for $7.99. Worth a flyer. (One of their tunes is being used in a beer ad, for Aspen Edge.)

Cryptogram

Another cryptogram:

RBTH XFTN DEFINEZ DCTONE:
DUH FZT'I IUNEN BTH
ZHTCTHR XCE IUN
DCEO "ZHTCTHR" ?

There's something odd about the Nick Berg case - what exactly was he doing in Iraq? And then there's his "chance encounter" with Zacarias Moussaoui. This was bound to attract the attention of the conspiracy nuts, and sure enough: 15 Anomalies Surrounding Death Of Nick Berg. This site ups the ante: Nick Berg's Killing: 50 Fishy Circumstances, Contradictory Claims, and Videotape Anomalies.

Here's a nice painting.

Book recommendation: "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America". The Chicago World's Fair of 1893, a serial killer, Buffalo Bill, landscape architecture, Shredded Wheat, Walt Disney's father, the Titanic, and a stag party featuring a naked woman in a whipped-cream pie.

Just when I got over my Tetris addiction - Collapse.