Pun Salad

This is a rerun of a fondly-remembered mystery-thriller flick from a quarter-century ago. You can see Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, and Pamela Reed near the beginning of their movie careers. The script is full of rare quirkiness, but never feels forced. Sure, Sigourney Weaver is a TV newscaster on whom William Hurt is crushing, and also just happens to be engaged to … oops, sorry, no spoilers here.

Steven Hill and Morgan Freeman play world-weary but diligent detectives. James Woods is great as Aldo; Hill's character observes "When he was a kid, Aldo must have wanted to be a suspect when he grew up." One of the all-time great movie lines.

• Janice Brown has started the Cow Hampshire blog. All things Granite, done in an attractive and professional manner. (Including a link to Pun Salad, so I'm reciprocally grateful.)

  Her humorous look at the "welcome sign slogan" controversy is especially good. (Discussed previously here.)

• Seeing a "test page" in your web wanderings isn't exactly uncommon. (I used to have an example here.) Here's a similar one you get with the CentOS Linux distribution.

  Simple, no big deal, right? But there's probably nothing on the web people cannot misunderstand and overreact to. Here's a hilarious e-mail exchange between CentOS support and the City Manager of Tuttle, Oklahoma. (Via LWN.)

• Patterico examines the proposed FEC regulations on political speech on the internet. He's been consistent and principled on the issue at stake: a system under which government regulators dole out "exemptions" and "exceptions" permitting us to engage in political speech is odious, contemptible, and has no place in a free society.

  I unconscionably failed to take Patterico's pledge last year, but will do it now:

  If the FEC makes rules that limit my First Amendment right to express my opinion on core political issues, I will not obey those rules.

  Of course, that's a pretty cheap pledge to make, given the minuscule likelihood of an FEC crackdown on Pun Salad. Nevertheless, there it is.

• And back in January, I fearlessly predicted that the Google would return around 500 hits for the phrase "Oprahfication of America" around now. Instead it gives "about" 257 hits (as I type), up a whole 13 hits from two months ago. I think we're looking at (at best) a Stagnant Meme here. Remember this, should you ever be tempted to rely on Pun Salad for social prognostication.

Everyone see Lazy Muncie? (A URL du Yesterday, and also linked to by a pile of other folks.) OK, we're up to speed.

Mickey Kaus doesn't make a big deal about it, but points to an article in Muncie's Star Press newspaper that discusses the background behind the video. It effectively debunks the thesis developed by Rob Long (and quoted by Mickey):

So what does it say if you're Lorne Michaels -- the guy who runs Saturday Night Live -- or, for that matter, the head of comedy development for pretty much any network -- and it turns out there are two funny guys in Muncie who don't really need you to give them permission to make a funny little movie because You Tube is their network …

It's still fun, and part of the charm of the video is that the guys really do look like they could be two funny guys from Muncie. But it's not quite an Army of Davids case study.

Someday, though.