Pun Salad

• David Friedman explains his political blogging POV to the confused. He's not supporting either major party, and hands out brickbats and huzzahs as the situation demands. I liked this:
  Most people are not very interested in political, economic, historical matters. But most people do enjoy cheering for their team. So political arguments, especially online during an election year, are populated by a lot of people who are arguing not because they are interested in the ideas but because it is a way of fighting for their side. It is natural enough for them to assume that everyone else is doing the same thing.

  That attitude is fine for David, and more power to him. Pun Salad (on the other hand) will admit to liking one team better than the others, and it's not much of an effort to detect which one.

  But even the most devoted fan will boo when their team stinks up the ballpark.

• Saturday Night Live had a skit on Saturday that actually dared to skewer some Democrats over the bailout: Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, George Soros. I watched, it was funny. And kind of a relief from the usual leftish slant of the show. (Dubya showed up, but mainly as a minor irrelevant bumbler, out of the loop.) Comments Jennifer Rubin: "you get the sense that the writers there know more about the subprime mortgage mess than the network news division."

  But after being on Hulu for a bit, the sketch was pulled down. Michelle Malkin finds this suspicious. (What, did Olberman threaten to quit?) She also has a transcript of the skit.

  Channeling Instapundit: "They told me if George W. Bush were re-elected, controversial opinions would be mysteriously suppressed—and they were right!"

  (Ah, now that I look, Glenn actually phrased it differently.)

• Google has allegedly added a new feature to Gmail: "Mail Goggles" which they phrase delicately as a barrier to "sending mail you later regret". But what they really mean is: setting up a sobriety test. You need to solve some math problems before the mail goes out.

  I say "allegedly" because when I check my settings where they claim the feature can be enabled, I don't see it. If it were April 1, I'd say it's a clever joke.

  In any case, unfortunately, I can solve math problems just fine when drunk. I lose the ability to type before I lose the ability to calculate.

• We note that Pun Salad's unofficial and (most importantly) unpaid mascot, Cathy Poulin, will be making an appearance in Dedham, MA on Saturday, October 11, in celebration of the opening of a new Bob's Discount Furniture. If you're in the area, and love Cathy as much as we do, you know what to do. (Bob himself will be on the scene Friday, but… are you kidding? Go Saturday.)

  Cathy was also in the news recently giving a Really Big Check to Lancaster Street Catholic School in Leominster, MA. This story refers to Cathy as Bob's "sidekick", but please: longtime fans know that it's Bob who is Cathy's sidekick.

Well… not my cup of tea. You might like it, though.

Set in 1949 America. Harry (Chris Cooper, who is 58 years old) is married to Pat (Patrica Clarkson, 48) but secretly canoodling with Kay (Rachel McAdams, who is 32 today; happy birthday Rachel). He confesses to his best buddy Richard (Pierce Brosnan, 55), who himself becomes smitten with Kay. Although Harry wants to be free of his wife, he doesn't want to put her through the agony of divorce. So he resolves, humanely, to murder her instead.

There's a lot of good acting talent here. (I think Pierce Brosnan is an underrated actor, given his Remington Steele/James Bond history.) And if you like period sets, costumes, props, atmosphere, it might appeal to you as well. But the movie is sort of a comedy of manners, where what the people say is more important than what they do, and—aieee, kind of a spoiler coming up here, watch out, stop reading—they wind up not doing very much at all.