New Year's Predic -- Holy Shit!

I had started writing some New Year's predictions when I saw the latest Des Moines Register poll, putting Barack Obama ahead of Hillary Clinton by 7 percentage points, 32 to 25. John Edwards has caught up to the New York senator too.

So I had to throw out my prediction that Clinton wins the nomination and chooses Bill Richardson as running mate. Now it's all up in the air.

If Obama wins it, he will have pulled off something akin to the Red Sox come from behind victory over the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS.

The Sox went on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series that year.

Watch, if Obama starts winning in Iowa and New Hampshire, he will build up a lot of momentum.

The poll also showed Mike Huckabee in the lead with 32 percent of the vote. Huckabee will probably win the Iowa caucuses, but who knows what might happen in New Hampshire, where John McCain and Mitt Romney are more viable candidates.

Worst job

More browsing on craigslist, led me here, to one of the countless people on this site who believe writers should be paid with handshakes and smiles. More criticism under the post.

Writing/Journalism Intern who loves dogs

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Reply to: email@MetroWestDog.com
Date: 2007-12-18, 5:15PM EST


Fun dog-related articles for local online resource
MetroWestDog.com is an online pet directory, resource, and recent start-up.
I am looking for a Writing/Journalism Intern (or other) to write articles on dog-related subjects. Refine and use your research and interview skills to write articles to be posted on MetroWestDog.com. Write about the local dog scene in MetroWest, lifestyle, health and wellness articles, legal issues, pet fashion and more. Assist small business owners by ghost writing articles about their field. You will get a byline on some articles.
Also need to write press releases, brochure, direct mail and email newsletter/advertising. Can you blog, too?
I have plenty of ideas for subjects so all you have to do is write!! This can be great for your portfolio!
Dog lover preferred (obviously).
http://www.MetroWestDog.com
email@MetroWestDog.com

So let me get this straight: You won't get paid. You will ghost write articles, so you won't get credited. And you get to write about pet fashion... Where do I sign up? Maybe the person who runs this Web site will allow me to do the laundry and clean out the inside of his or her car, so I can gain valuable knowledge on those subjects.

Lost and found

With Christmas and then the weekend, most of the Web sites I check regularly (Poynter, Slate, Fark) have been pretty sparse. So I've spent a little bit of time trolling through the missed connections section of Craigslist.

While it seems like a bad place to find a roommate or a girlfriend, the personal section can be an entertaining read. The anonymous postings are similar to poetry on bathroom walls, though on Craigslist, the humor seems less intentional.

Here are some of the entertaining posts I found today.

Some are overeager to show off their writing abilities:

trident bookstore - raven hair - m4w - 27

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Reply to: pers-524000709@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-12-31, 12:33AM EST



Though, really, it was your easy charm that made me interested.

I wish I met you someplace where you weren't working... I don't like to "hit" on waitresses because it seems offensive to bear you in your working den.

Still - my God, I wish you came outside and had a cigarette with me and we had walked and talked endlessly...

I hope I see your eyes dance during conversation again...

Others are difficult to decipher:

I have the sense - m4w

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Reply to: pers-521947782@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-12-28, 6:07PM EST


to recognize that I don't know how to let you go.


This loser for you Elizabeth.

HOT COLLEGE GUY IN GAP - w4m - 21

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Reply to: pers-521429627@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-12-28, 9:00AM EST


wow, you were so hot. i saw you this morning in starbucks in harvard square sipping your lactose-free beverage with such style. you looked a little like a combination between bette middler and ryan phillippe. you were dressed from head to toe in gap apparel. you were surrounded by three beautiful women, but i would gladly be your #4. come lay on a futon and tell that's what she said jokes with me?

Some seasonal:

Merry Christmas P - w4m - 32

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Reply to: pers-518842024@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-12-24, 10:35PM EST


I know I am the furthest thing from your mind now, and most of the time the same is true for me. But, I did think of you tonight as I drove to my cousin's and thought of how much you enjoyed coming with me last year. For the first time in months I teared up a little thinking of you. I've always been a softie about Christmas I guess. A lot has changed since we parted ways and I do believe everything happened for the best. I am happier now than I've been in a long time, but I guess it's just the littlest bit sad that we can't even wish each other a Merry Christmas. I would never contact you again so I'm putting this out here to get it out of my head. Merry Christmas to you.
-M

There are borderline creeps:

Jogger at Day Blvd. - m4w - 38

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Reply to: pers-519889829@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-12-26, 3:55PM EST


I saw you jogging on Day Blvd. all the way to Castle Island and up Broadway on the Sunday before Christmas about 3pm. You had pig tails, blue outfit. I was sitting in the police cruiser killing time and drove by you once or twice:)
I thought you where super cute.

While others have clearly crossed that line:

Please Repost "Daddy's Girl looking for Man of Substance" - m4w

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Reply to: pers-521450045@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-12-28, 9:35AM EST


The post title appeared in w4m on the 26th but had been flaged and I could not see the content. I want to know what that post said.
I am looking to find out if something I said was taken in a way that was not intended from someone special to me that considers her self "Daddys Girl". You stoped talking to me twice and I have no intention on pestering you repeatedly but if a change of heart has occured... I would like to know so I can act on it. But I have to know this from you and you alone.

Some seem lacking:

regattabar server - m4w - 40

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Reply to: pers-523394598@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-12-30, 11:50AM EST


to the very cute, hardworking redhead - was that red? it's hard to see in the dark - who served me at the 1st mccoy tyner show friday. my guest paid so you didn't get an adequate tip. you may have thought you were a bother walking back and forth in front of me. you were not.

And rarely, they are kind of beautiful / probably lyrics stolen from an 80s song:

won't you tell me what you're thinking of? - m4w - 20

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Reply to: pers-523112280@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-12-29, 11:57PM EST


Won't you let me walk you home from school?
won't you let me meet you at the pool?
maybe friday i can
get tickets from the dance
and i'll take you

won't you tell me what you're thinking of?
would you be an outlaw for my love?
if it's so well let me know
if it's no well i can go
i won't make you

And there are a lot like this:

the most beautiful woman at ajc last nite - m4w

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Reply to: pers-522562683@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-12-29, 12:44PM EST


You know who you are!

Gypsy Bar Friday Night - m4w - 28

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Reply to: pers-522490007@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-12-29, 11:16AM EST


You were an amazingly attractive. You looked like you may have drank a bit too much but I can't get you out of my mind. Are you out there?

Crash course

Twice this month I have seen tow trucks haul away the cars of Brazilian nationals who were involved in accidents.

Both times it seemed, regardless of which driver made the wrong move, the Brazilians had messed up by driving without valid licenses.

In one case it seemed like the driver had only a passport, in the other he had an international driver's license, which isn't valid here.

Based on these two encounters, it seems everyone would benefit from driver's licenses for all state residents regardless of whether drivers are citizens or not.

I would feel safer knowing more people on the road had passed the driver's test.

The state decides who gets a driver's license, not the federal government. This could be an instance where state's rights benefit civil rights by allowing undocumented immigrants to get licenses regardless.

However, this plan was vetted, and then dropped by New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer, as the New York Times reported, because many found acknowledging illegal immigrants on the roadways more troublesome than just allowing what's going on now to continue.

Oprah for Obama

The New York Times today reported Oprah Winfrey's appearance for Barack Obama, Sunday, drew more than 29,000 people, "one of the largest (crowds) seen before even a general election."

It was Boston Phoenix columnis Steven Stark, however, who first reported - to my knowledge - Oprah's pending endorsement and the significance it might have for Obama's candidacy.

Huckabee's troubling 1990s AIDS policy idea

As he surges in Iowa, the press has dredged up some skeletons in Mike Huckabee's closet.

For instance, the former Arkansas governor supported quarantining people with AIDS back in 1992, as the AP and Politico reported.

During the late 1980s and early 90s the disease was seen as a largely gay man's epidemic, therefore, I have to think Huckabee was advocating for shuttling that population into quarantine camps.

A Senate candidate at the time, Huckabee said homosexuality was "sinful," in a questionnaire to the AP, Politico reported.

Huckabee also falsely - I think - claimed that "It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population."

It seems, Huckabee wanted to cart people off, the way some countries have done in the past to leper colonies,

According to Politico, Huckabee stands by the quarantine idea, but said he would have phrased it differently.

Does that mean Huckabee - even today, with better prevention, education and treatment methods - supports the idea of separating HIV positive people from the general population?

Someone should ask him that question, because, as reported on Politico, his idea to separate positive people would amount to imprisonment.

Wrap music

I just bought two CDs for myself, "The Big Gun Down," by John Zorn and Ennio Morricone, also "Every Day is Saturday," by The Dictators.

Both were new, but neither had the sticky plastic barrier, around it. You know, the thing that people stick to the sides of buildings right after they buy the CD. The thing that makes opening a new CD such a pain. Neither one had it.

I wonder if maybe that's because the CD manufacturers thought if someone really wanted to steal this album, they would do it over the Internet.

Herbert: No Witch Hunts

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, had a great column in today's paper, where he argues against vigilantes turning in suspected illegal or undocumented immigrants.

Herbert is right that it would turn into a free-for-all, where people are targeted because of personal grudges, or because of their perceived ethnicity.

The drumbeat for vigilante justice has already begun on AM radio.

Herbert quoted right wing jock Michael Savage, inciting bigotry on his radio show and throwing more wood on the fire.

Savage is the guy, who claimed in his lawsuit against Council on American-Islamic Relations that he has no animosity toward that particular religion.

What do you call this then?

Savage, as quoted by Herbert:

“When I see a woman walking around with a burqa, I see a Nazi. That’s what I see. How do you like that? A hateful Nazi who would like to cut your throat and kill your children.”

When a woman wears a burqa, said Mr. Savage, “She’s doing it to spit in your face. She’s saying, ‘You white moron, you, I’m going to kill you if I can.’”

And that is coming from a guy, who according to Herbert has the third-most-listened-to talk show in the country.

That's scary.

Taking it easy?

The old sports adage goes: The best defense is a great offense.

For the New England Patriots, I'm afraid that strategy may have weakened the defense. Think about it. In earlier games this season, the defense had been able to relax a bit, because Tom Brady and co. kept the Pats in the lead. This past Monday, the Baltimore Ravens defense held the Patriots, and the Ravens' offense was able to run all over the field. I'm afraid the Pats' defense has grown soft after all the massive leads the offense has handed them.

However, when push came to shove, in the fourth quarter, the D stopped the Ravens' run game. Maybe they were just saving something for the end.

Fire season

I've covered two fires in the past three days. One was on my beat, and the other was near my house. It seems like both were caused by some sort of faulty wiring.

It made me wonder, how easily something like that could happen to me, in my home, or my car.

I blame the snow.

Savage v. CAIR

Right-wing radio host Michael Savage has filed a lawsuit against the lobbying group Council on American Islamic Relations, for copyright infringement, because CAIR used material from the show to convince companies to stop advertising.

Read the lawsuit here, on Savage's site.

Apparently, CAIR made a pretty good case, because according to the group's Web site, AT&T and Wal Mart have recently pulled their ads from "The Savage Nation."

Savage has used his lawsuit as a way to smear the organization, alleging tendentious links between the lobbyists and supposed terrorists.

Allegations in a legal complaint or legal hearing are libel-proof, which means, Savage could maliciously lie about CAIR, without exposing himself to a libel lawsuit.

Savage included roughly 35 paragraphs of allegations against CAIR.

In the lawsuit, Savage makes a big deal about how he supports religious faith in general, so how could a group of Muslims accuse him of persecuting their religion.

Savage also quotes from the bible in the suit:

“Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:7 8)

I heard about this, while flipping through the AM dial on my way home from a meeting on Thursday.

Incidentally, that night's show featured a completely tasteless comedy sketch of machine gun fire and screaming played over what was purported to be Barbra Streisand singing "Silent Night" in Jerusalem.

Maybe the advertisers dropped Savage's show because of bits like that.

Performance (enhancing?)

I just went out through the snow to buy some junk food. At the store, I decided to also pick up a Power Bar to eat tomorrow, because it will be a busy day. The label has the sort of meathead jargon on it that would not look out of place on an advertisement for high-end steroids.

I don't know if roid dealers actually use marketing, but if so, they might want to look at Power Bar for some sales tips. The promises "More sustained energy to muscles," and claims to be a "C2 MAX, higher-octane carb blend" whatever that means. The word "Performance" just under the Power Bar trademark makes me think of all the testing and talk about performance enhancing drugs in professional sports. Not only that, but according to the wrapper, the bar is Step 1 in a three step system, which is vaguely reminiscent of the cycles that creates roller coasters of mood and muscle mass in users' bodies.

It doesn't claim to create muscles the way steroids and human growth hormone do, but in terms of style, Power Bar looks a lot more like Creatine than a candy bar. By the way, the Power Bar had five more grams of sugar (total - 23) than the King Size Snicker bar, I just ate.

Shuffle, the DJ

Some radio stations have started using computer programs to select songs, rather than using an employee to do the same job.

The move obviously saves cost, but doesn't that kind of automation strike right at the heart of what entertainment is all about?

After years of carefully crafted mix tapes and DJs drawing crowds at nightclubs, do these radio stations really expect us to believe the shuffle button can do it just as well?

more on this later

List of things I want to keep track of

Energy drink advertising
Candy advertisements
Drinking fountains
Radio stations that use randomizers instead of DJs
Symbols of patriotism
High end coffee market

first post

Hopefully this blog will talk about ongoing trends. I intend to use it as a scrap book; a place to store ideas, to maybe revisit later.
I had the idea to create it this morning. On Friday, I had a conversation with my editor Kevin, and then later with my friend Morgan about the etymology of the word vigil and how it relates to the word vigilante. It turns out vigil and vigilante both come from a Latin word vigil (phonetically widge-ell), meaning, to watch. Also, the word wake, has the same Latin root.