Wry guy

I know Jim Rome isn't for everyone, and it's hard to explain why I like him so much to anyone who hasn't regularly listened to his radio show, but I found this take on golfer John Daly especially funny (Daly's "friends" left him at a Hooters in a drunken stupor):

[[I don’t know what's worse, J.D. “hitting it” that hard, again. Or, his “crew” just abandoning him? What happened to the “boozer’s credo”: ‘no one gets left behind enemy lines. Everyone in, everyone out. Never leave your wingman. Ever! Either that, or this guy is ‘hashing our buzz’; he’s ‘killing us’. Everyone out the back door! Yeah. but what about J.D.? Who cares, he won’t even know we’re gone.”]]

Polling place

And the fivethirtyeight.com coverage continues at a feverish pace!

Politically correct

The 1994 movie "PCU" takes place at fictional Port Chester University, a place where fraternities have been banned and fun is basically outlawed. The main character nominally is a "pre-frosh" named Tom Lawrence, though really Jeremy Piven's Droz (rhymes with "Ross") is the main character. Droz is a seventh-year senior who is assigned the pre-frosh. He lives in a place called "The Pit" where a random cast of characters resides and generally has a good time. Two of Droz' cohorts are Gutter, a dimwitted big guy, and Mullaney, an easygoing sort who happened to be played by Alex Desert, frontman for the third-wave ska band Hepcat. The Pit residents are foiled by David Spade's preppy Rand McPherson and University President Garcia-Thompson, as played by Jessica Walter who went on to play Lucille Bluth in "Arrested Development." The university cracks down on all things fun, and, living up to its name, bans anything that might offend almost anyone. At one point, the school mascot becomes an endangered whooping crane. (In a cinematic ornithological gaffe, the crane that emerges on state in ceremony is actually a gray-crowned crane.)

What else did we learn from "PCU?"

-That George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic might actually show up at your party if you dream enough.

-That the Caine-Hackman Theory is true: there is a 100 percent statistical probability that at any given moment in time, a film starring either Michael Caine or Gene Hackman will be showing on television.

-That you should never go to a concert wearing a T-shirt of the band you are about to see (Droz' quote: "What's this? You're wearing the shirt of the band you're going to see? Don't be that guy."). (I directly violated this rule by wearing a vintage 1994 RATM T-shirt to Lollapalooza.)

This is all by way of saying that the Jon Favreau who writes Sen. Barack Obama's speeches is not the Jon Favreau who played Gutter in "PCU."

Silver lining

The Chicago Tribune featured Nate Silver, creator of fivethirtyeight.com, the election polling site, in the paper yesterday. Silver, who resides in Chicago, formerly was known for his stat-geek work with Baseball Prospectus. He has Sen. Obama winning in a landslide.

Midwest best

Geographical reasons for why Chicago might be the best place in the country to launch a presidential campaign.

Runway finale

I missed the finale of "Project Runway" because of the presidential debate. I thought about watching both, but it was just too much. I am aware of who won this season. (If you don't want to know, stop reading here.)

In reviewing photos of the final collection, it's hard to question Leanne's victory. To me, it wasn't a very compelling season of "Runway." Maybe it's that the show has had two seasons this year already. Despite her pseudo-spacey demeanor, Leanne deserved to win over the weaker-than-usual field.

Sprawl space

One of the silver linings of the foreclosure crisis is that it might slow the inexorable expansion of suburban development.

Senator impaling

I gave up on the "Runway" finale tonight to focus on the debate. Here are some thoughts:

8:03 - The little desk and chairs look like the set of a debate parody rather than the set of an actual debate.

8:09 - Sen. Obama gets the first laugh by saying that Sen. McCain has been "watching ads of Sen. McCain's."

8:11 - Sen. McCain looks unhinged tonight.

8:13 - He wants to spread the wealth by cutting taxes to the rich. Huh?

8:18 - Ethanol: you can't start a new talking point this late in the election.

8:19 - I hope Adler Planetarium does get a new projector.

8:25 - Ooh, "The Say It to His Face" segment.

8:28 - Sen. McCain sometimes seems a decent person, but the smears against Sen. Obama indeed have been awful by him and Gov. Palin.

8:30 - Ooh, Sen. McCain says Sen. Obama attacked his healthcare plan. And then admits to being an Arizona Cardinals fan--shocking!

8:39 - I just think the Ayers meme is a loser for McCain.

8:40 - Yeah, Bob Schieffer. He serves up an Obama softball on "why is your running mate qualified to be president?" Sen. Obama executes a reverse windmill double-pump slam dunk in Sen. McCain's face.

8:42 - I'm shooting holes into everything Sen. McCain says about Gov. Palin. Take this one: "She's a reformer." Oh yeah, a reformer who uses her power to wrongly fire people. Who accepts pork barrel projects only to renounce them. Who was for the Bridge before she was against it. That's a reformer.

8:46 - Schieffer is ruling this debate with an iron fist.

8:49 - If all the Obama-Biden signs I saw in rural West Virginia and Virginia this weekend are an indicator, this will be a landslide in November.

9:00 - Sen. McCain uses the "my friend" device.

9:05 - Sen. McCain just called Sen. Obama "Senator Government" by mistake.

9:12 - Once and for all: 'present' votes are common in Illinois, one of the few states that offer this option.

9:24 - Um, Sarah Palin's child has Down Syndrome, not autism. Get it straight.

Reform school

Gov. Palin tonight seemed to equate "Washington outsider" to a lack of knowledge about anything that's gone on in Washington, ever. She interchangeably used "outsider" status with simply not knowing much about the national news. In actuality, anyone who's picked up a newspaper or turned on a TV during the past couple centuries would know more than she did about what's taken place in Washington. Maybe it's just me, but inattention to national political issues is not the kind of reform I'm looking for.