Pun Salad

• Mark Liberman at Language Log remains on the Weisberg Watch, and analyzes whether the recent dearth of Bushisms at Slate indicate a change in editorial behavior. His conclusion: probably not.

• Pun Salad previously noted the travesty in the Superman Returns trailer:

  Perry White asks: "Does he still stand for truth, justice, all that stuff?" All that stuff? Could director/writer Bryan Singer possibly be such an asshat?

  Apparently the answer is yes. Although screenwriters Mike Dougherty and Dan Harris apparently deserve a major heaping of scorn as well.

  One reason cited for the "… and the American way" deletion is to appeal to the international market. Ah. Well, good luck with that, guys.

• Doug at GraniteGrok (best NH blog name ever, by the way) is all over the story of the Nashua, NH man arrested for videotaping policemen on his own front porch. The story is teetering between outrageous and ludicrous. The Nashua top cop is quoted:

  "We don't get it right all the time. Although I am not condemning the officers . . . I don't have all the facts. If it turns out when I do have them all that we erred, then I will be the first to admit it."

  Truth, Justice, and the Nashuaian way!

Q: Are you a fan of Garrison Keillor's radio show?

A: I used to like it OK, but it got a little politically tedious.

Q: Where did you see the movie?

A: The Portsmouth (NH) Music Hall, about the only place in the area you can go see smaller-release movies.

Q: Do they validate for the parking garage?

A: No.

Q: What strikes you most about Garrison Keillor's acting style?

A: It was made for radio. He seems to be constantly thinking about something else. If I had to guess, it's: how the hell did I wind up in a Robert Altman movie?

Q: Meryl Streep is in it, right? What did you think about her?

A: Her midwestern accent seems to vanish about halfway through the movie. Other than that, she's great. Does her own singing, and it's not embarrassing.

Q: Any other big stars?

A: Kevin Kline, Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Tommy Lee Jones, Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, Maya Rudolph. They're all pretty good.

Q: So it's not just a filmed version of the radio show?

A: No, although a few other radio show regulars appear, and they're doing the radio show, sort of, in sort of a parallel universe to our own. Tom Keith, the sound guy, gets his scene.

Q: So, was it politically tedious?

A: No, they left that out. Also left out was any reference to Lake Wobegon, no skits, no commercials. Put in: Guy Noir as an actual character, a mysterious woman floating around the theater, and a lot of fictional behind-the-scenes stuff.