NASCAR Basics: The Tracks: Loudon

Image via Wikipedia

Bob and Gary Bahre purchased Bryar Motorsports Park, reconfigured the road course track and added a 1.058 mile oval, and opened New Hampshire International Speedway in 1990. It's located near Loudon, New Hampshire, about an hour's drive from Boston.

NASCAR made its debut at the track, a Busch Series race won by Tommy Ellis, in July 1990. For the next three years, NHIS hosted two Busch Series races per year. They were successful and the track was added to the Cup schedule in 1993. The inaugural Slick 50 300 was won by Rusty Wallace.

In 1997, NHIS added a second Cup race. Bob Bahre and Bruton Smith bought North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina and moved its two Cup races out of the aging facility -- one to New Hampshire and the other to Texas Motor Speedway. In 2007, the Bahres sold NHIS to Smith's Speedway Motorsports, Inc. and the name was changed to New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

In 2000, a pair of accidents claimed the lives of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin Jr., two promising young drivers. Both involved stuck accelerator pedals and head-on crashes into the wall. Petty's accident occurred during practice for a Busch Series race, Irwin's during the first Cup race at the track that year. The track owners decided to use restrictor plates when the Cup Series returned in September. The race, which had no lead changes and was won by Jeff Burton, was so boring that the experiment was quickly dropped.

In 2002, to create more competitive racing at the track, progressive banking (four degrees in the bottom lanes to seven degrees at the top) was added to the turns. The following year, SAFER barriers were installed around the track.

One incident at the track changed NASCAR rules. In the September 2003 Sylvania 300 Dale Jarrett wrecked and was stuck in the middle of the track. He was in danger of being hit as cars raced back to the caution flag. NASCAR quickly changed the rules, banning racing back to the line and instituting the "Lucky Dog."

The track at Loudon has been described as "Martinsville on steroids." NHMS is a little over a mile compared to the half-mile at Martinsville, but the idea is the same -- drag race down the straightaway, fight through the almost flat turns, then drag race down the other straightaway. Most of the action usually takes place in the corners, especially as cars exit side-by-side and head down the 1500 feet straightaways.

Juan Montoya holds the qualifying record at Loudon -- 133.431 mph set in September 2009. Jeff Gordon is the top money winner at the track with over $3 million in earnings. He has fifteen Top 10s, twelve Top 5s and three wins in 26 starts. Denny Hamlin has the best average finish -- 6.5 in four starts -- while Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin have average finishes just over 10.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway hosts several regional racing series, including the NASCAR Camping World Series East and the NASCAR Whelan Modified Tour, amateur series events sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America, Loudon RoadRace Series, Vintage Racer Group, U.S. Classic Racing Association and the World Karting Association. NHMS also hosts the only Craftsman Truck Series, Nationwide Series, and Sprint Cup Series races held in the New England area. The Lenox Industrial Tools 300 is held at the end of June or the beginning of July and the Sylvania 300, the first race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, is held in September. Sprint Cup races are 300 laps or 317.4 miles.



(diagram from NASCAR.com)

NASCAR Basics: The Tracks Master List

Grammar Test

I get a daily writing tip from, uh, DailyWritingTips.com. A couple of days ago, they had a grammar test. I couldn't remember my intransitive from my conjunction and scored a 65%. Ouch! Try your hand here.

Monday Music: "The Ghost of Tom Joad"

I'm in a somber mood after hearing of the death of George Carlin, even after viewing many of his comedy routines. It's a good time for this masterpiece from The Boss...




Lyrics | The Ghost Of Tom Joad lyrics

George Carlin: 1937-2008

One of my heroes and the best comedian of all-time, George Carlin, died Sunday of heart failure. He was 71.

Carlin's comedic career spanned five decades. He started out as a straight-laced comedian, not too different from the other guys, then reinvented himself in 1970...

“I was entertaining the fathers and the mothers of the people I sympathized with, and in some cases associated with, and whose point of view I shared,” he recalled later, as quoted in the book “Going Too Far” by Tony Hendra, which was published in 1987. “I was a traitor, in so many words. I was living a lie.”

He gradually evolved from a counterculture hero into a scathing social critic. It was comedy that made you think as much as it made you laugh. His most famous routine, the one that made the most waves was "Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV," but I always liked his routines about more conventional language. My favorite routines were "A Place for My Stuff" and this gem about baseball and football...



Carlin saved his most scathing criticism for religion...



...including the 10 Commandments...



...and occasionally politics.



Goodbye, George. You'll be missed.

Weekend Assignment: What Are You Drinking?

Karen, at Outpost Mavarin, provides the weekend assignments. This week she wants to know "What are you drinking?" People ask me that a lot. I don't know why.

Weekend Assignment #221: What do you like to drink? Do you prefer Coke, or Pepsi, or neither? Do you start your days at Starbucks, or end your days with a nice cup of herbal tea? Are you a connoisseur of beer, or do you like to keep a pitcher of lemonade on hand? Do you carry a bottle of water around, and refill it as you go? Tell us about your favorites!

My drink of choice is usually that old Southern specialty, ice-cold sweet tea. I drink it all the time -- day or night, winter or summer. I much prefer the homemade variety, but will occasionally drink a bottle of Lipton or Nestea, a poor substitute.

I probably average one or two soft drinks per day -- usually a Coca-Cola or a Dr. Pepper. I don't care for Pepsi too much; it's too sweet. I'd rather drink one of those generic colas. Occasionally, I'll get a wild hair and drink something really outrageous like a Mountain Dew or a Fanta Orange.

I drink a lot of coffee when the weather is cooler, but only have a rare cup to stay awake or to wake up during the hot months. Starbucks is a very rare indulgence. It's sort of obscene to pay four or five dollars for a cup of coffee.

Bottled water is one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated on the American consumer. They're getting people to pay good money for something that they can get out of the tap for just pennies. Occasionally, I'll drink a bottle of water, then refill it out of the nearest water fountain.

Alcohol is not really my drug of choice. I don't care too much for the taste, the effect on my mental processes, and the way it makes me feel the next morning. I might have a mixed drink on a very rare occasion. If I do drink, I like Scotch on the rocks. I don't drink beer very much, but when I do, I'm a snob about it. I think most Americans drink beer that is too weak and too cold. Give me something dark, preferably an ale or a stout and serve it too me close to room temperature.

Extra Credit: Have you ever invented your own drink sensation?

The closest I've come to inventing a drink is flavoring my homemade sweet tea. You can get those packets of flavored tea at your local supermarket. When brewing tea, I'll sometimes substitute one or two of those flavored tea bags, usually mint or cinnamon, for the regular tea bags. Mmmm! Good!

I read recently that Dr. Pepper used to have an ad campaign back in the 1940s or 1950s to convince people to drink it hot. Not room temperature hot, hot coffee hot. Heated up on the stove. I think I might try that when the weather starts turning cooler again.

Mixxed News

• Hate Groups' Newest Target - washingtonpost.com view details

  • (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-...)

  Sen. Barack Obama's historic victory in the Democratic primaries, celebrated in America and across much of the world as a symbol of racial progress and cultural unity, has also sparked an increase in racist and white supremacist activity, mainly on the Internet...

• ESPN - Two-time Top Fuel champ Kalitta killed during SuperNationals qualifying - Racing view details

  • (http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/rac...)

  Scott Kalitta died Saturday when his Funny Car crashed and burst into flames during qualifying for the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

• Are Creditors Eyeing Your Purchases? - AOL Money & Finance view details

  • (http://money.aol.com/news/article...)

  A federal lawsuit against Atlanta-based CompuCredit accuses the card issuer of cutting credit lines when customers used their cards at bars, massage parlors, even to pay for marriage counseling. The company's lawyer calls the practice "commonplace"...

• McCain Sets a New Record: 10 Flip-Flops in Two Weeks | Crooks and Liars view details

  • (http://www.crooksandliars.com/200...)

  Over the past two weeks, McCain’s rapid fire, acrobatic flip-flops have produced whiplash, at least for voters. 10 times since the beginning of June, McCain has retreated from, upended or just forgotten positions he once claimed as his own.
  

• ESPN - Abbott and Costello have nothing on ambidextrous pitcher, switch-hitter - MLB view details

  • (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/new...)

  An ambidextrous pitcher and a switch hitter made for a fine comedy routine at the Class-A Staten Island Yankees game against the Brooklyn Cyclones.

NASCAR Basics: The Tracks: Sonoma

Infineon Raceway, known as Sears Point until 2002 when Infineon Technologies AG bought the naming rights to the track, is one of only two road courses on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule. The other is Watkins Glen International in New York.

Sears Point Raceway opened in 1968 in the rolling hills of the Sonoma wine country of Northern California. It was originally a very bare-bones operation; porta-potties were just about the extent of the creature comforts. Currently the facility, including a drag strip, hosts on-track activity about 340 days a year, everything from Superbikes to NHRA drag races to SCCA races and rallies to driving schools.

NASCAR has held regional events at Infineon from the beginning, but the Sprint Cup didn't make an appearance there until 1989 when the track at Riverside closed and NASCAR needed another west coast road course event. Ricky Rudd won that inaugural race on the standard 12 turn, 2.52-mile road course. In 1998, the track was reconfigured for NASCAR events. The Chute, a high-speed straightaway, was added, bypassing Turns Five and Six and shortening the course to 1.949 miles. In 2001, in the midst of a massive $60 million modernization of the track's facilities, the NASCAR-only track was reconfigured again with the addition of "Turn 4a" at the entrance of The Chute which increased the course to 1.99 miles.

(diagram from Trackpedia.com)

Despite the name, Sears Point Raceway has nothing to do with Sears & Roebuck. It was named after a geographical feature of the area which was named after Franklin Sears, an early settler.

Of course, Juan Montoya has the best average finish at Infineon. He won the only Sprint Cup race he has run there, but Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer and Tony Stewart all have average finishes of 10.0 or better. Gordon is the all-time money winner at the track with eleven Top 10s, nine Top 5s, and five wins in 15 races. Mark Martin holds the record for most Top 10 finishes, 13.

Infineon Raceway hosts one Sprint Cup race per season, the Toyota/Save Mart 350 in June. The 350 refers to kilometers (352.21 to be exact). The race is 110 laps or 218.9 miles.

See "A Short History of Infineon Raceway: 40 Years on the Red Line" (YouTube)

(diagram from NASCAR.com)

NASCAR Basics: The Tracks: Master List

Mixxed News

This is an experiment to see how well I can use stuff from Mixx in my blog. You might remember (or probably don't care) that I once belonged to Digg. Somewhere along the line, I got tired of it and started casting about for another similar site. I ended up on Mixx. One of the problems with Digg was finding a way to use it with the blog that I liked.

I read a lot of news articles and blog posts and I like to save stuff that strikes me as particularly newsworthy. Mixx is a good place to do the saving. I never know when I might decide to highlight a story like "Lesbians vs. lesbians" or go back and find something from a few days or weeks ago that relates to something going on now...or post an occasional page of headlines. Whenever I see something I like, I submit it to Mixx. There's a social networking component, but I don't care too much about that. The main thing I'm after is the ability to make an archive of stories I find interesting.

So this is an experiment to see how easily I can cut and paste a page of Mixx submissions with some extraneous comments thrown in. Let me know what you think about it...

• Lawmakers Near Deal On Surveillance Bill - washingtonpost.com view details

  • (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-...)

  I'm sure this will be just peachy. I can hardly wait...A bipartisan group of congressional negotiators neared a deal yesterday on controversial wiretapping legislation that could be unveiled as early as next week, according to Capitol Hill sources and civil liberties advocates monitoring the talks.

• The Bubble - washingtonpost.com view details

  • (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-...)

  The Washington Post did a three-part series on the housing loan crisis and how that mutated into our latest economic meltdown. This is Part One. From here you can access the entire series.
  

• Charging by the Byte to Curb Internet Traffic view details

  • (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15...)

  Internet service providers are threatening to place limits on the online activity of their most active subscribers.

• Lawmaker threatens EPA chief, top Bush official with contempt - USATODAY.com view details

  • (http://www.usatoday.com/news/wash...)

  Sigh...A House committee chairman on Friday threatened to hold the head of the EPA and a White House budget official in contempt of Congress for not handing over documents about new smog requirements and a decision blocking California greenhouse gas limits.

• May U.S. and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan pass Iraq - USATODAY.com view details

  • (http://www.usatoday.com/news/worl...)

  I'm not sure if things have improved in Iraq or if our effort in Afghanistan has finally jumped the rails completely, but American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan passed the monthly toll in Iraq for the first time in May.

• Oil and Food Push Consumer Prices Higher in May view details

  • (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14...)

  Economic news that makes you say, "Duh."
  

• Wait, What Did He Just Call the Pope? - The Lede - New York Times Blog view details

  • (http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/...)

  Not being Catholic, I'm not sure how much of a breach of protocol it was that Bush called the Pope "your eminence" instead of "your holiness," but it's kind of interesting.
  

• McCain, Obama Debate Debate Deals - The Caucus - New York Times Blog view details

  • (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.co...)

  Squabbling between the campaigns about how many debates and town hall meetings we're going to be subjected to. McCain's people think he'll do well with the town hall format and want ten of them. Obama doesn't think McCain needs that much free exposure.
  

• ‘Meet the Press’ Host Collapses at Work view details

  • (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14...)

  This was one of the earliest stories about the death of Tim Russert and has most of the stuff you need to know about it.

• ESPN - Two Congressmen press Selig, Fehr on 2005 testimony - MLB view details

  • (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/new...)

  Politics AND baseball! What fun! Congress wants to hear Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig and players' union head Donald Fehr go over their 2005 testimony on steroids in the sport again.

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Monday Music: "The Flat Earth"

If all you know of Thomas Dolby is "She Blinded Me with Science," you should check this one out. It's the title track to his second album, The Flat Earth. This live version is a little different than the studio version I'm used to which has a shorter intro, more instruments and background singers and doesn't have Martin Luther King Jr.




Lyrics | The Flat Earth lyrics

"I'm Voting Republican"

Lesbians vs. lesbians

I was a little late to this one, but did you hear the story about the Lesbians and the lesbians? Residents of the Greek island of Lesbos went to court last week to stop gay women from calling themselves lesbians.

"We are very upset that, worldwide, women who like women have appropriated the name of our island," said Dimitris Lambrou, a magazine publisher who is one of those bringing the complaint with other islanders. "Until 1924, according to the Oxford English dictionary, a Lesbian was a native of our isle," he said. "Now, because of its new connotations, our womenfolk are unable to call themselves such and that is wrong."

Treatment of gay people is a hot topic in the socially conservative country, but Lambrou and the other petitioners say they have "nothing against lesbians," who contribute much tourism revenue to the island's economy.

Video from BBC News

NASCAR Basics: The Tracks: Michigan

Charles Moneypenny put pen to paper and set his sights on designing a racetrack for the Irish Hills of southeastern Michigan. The designer of the Daytona International Speedway came up with a two-mile D-shaped oval. Racing legend Stirling Moss added interior and exterior roads that could be combined to form road courses, but they haven't been used in a race since 1984.

Ground was broken for Michigan International Speedway near Brooklyn in September of 1967 and 2.5 million yards of it was pushed around to form the track. The first race, a 250-mile Indy-style race, took place in October of 1968. NASCAR came to town the next year, holding their first race at MIS on June 15, 1969. Cale Yarborough and LeeRoy Yarbrough battled door-to-door over much of the final 150 laps, but LeeRoy spun out some 300 yards from the finish line, handing the victory to Cale.

A Detroit-area land developer, Lawrence H. LoPatin, was the visionary behind Michigan International Speedway. He spent an estimated $4-6 million to build the track. The location was chosen for its proximity to Detroit and several other cities in the upper Midwest. LoPatin went on to start American Raceways, Inc. and to buy or build other tracks around the country. While MIS has always been profitable, the other ARI tracks drained the company's budget, eventually forcing the company to file for bankruptcy protection in 1971. ARI went into receivership in 1972.

In 1973, in an auction on the Lenawee County courthouse steps, Roger Penske purchased the track for $2 million. He spent millions of dollars on one improvement after another, including increasing the grandstands from 25,000 to 125,000 seats, adding several modern buildings to the property, and adding two racing-related businesses, CompTire and Motorsports International to the speedway grounds. In 1997, Penske took his speedway and racing businesses public, forming Penske Motorsports, Inc. In July of 1999, Penske Motorsports, Inc. was purchased by Bill France's International Speedway Corp.

Michigan International Speedway is similar to a couple of other tracks. It is a "sister track" of Texas World Speedway and Fontana, California's Auto Club Speedway was based on the MIS design. Michigan has a little more banking all the way around -- 18° in the turns, 12° in the frontstretch and 5° in the backstretch compared to 14°, 11° and 3° at Fontana. Michigan also has a longer frontstretch, but Fontana has a longer backstretch.

High speeds are the norm at MIS. Ryan Newman holds the track qualifying record -- 194.232 mph set in June of 2005. Jeff Gordon is the all-time money winner with 19 Top 10's, 15 Top 5's and two wins in thirty starts. Bill Elliott is the active driver with the most wins at MIS with seven. The drivers that usually do well at Auto Club Speedway are also the top finishers at Michigan: Carl Edwards has an average finish of 7.29 and Matt Kenseth, 9.71.

Michigan International Speedway hosts two Sprint Cup races per year, the LifeLock 400 in June and the 3M Performance 400 in August.

(diagram from NASCAR.com)

NASCAR Basics: The Tracks: Master List

Senate Intelligence Report - Phase Two: European Gigolo

Last week, the Senate finally released Phase Two of the Senate Intelligence Report which declared that the president and other top officials of the Bush Administration misled us into war with Iraq. Jon Stewart examines the report and the media coverage on the Daily Show...

Monday Music: "Doing the Unstuck"

Here's the Cure with a good song for a Monday...or just about anytime...




Lyrics | Doing The Unstuck lyrics

Bob Barr on The Colbert Report

The Libertarian Party's candidate for the presidency, Babar...uh, Bob Barr, appeared on the Colbert Report last week...

No Kidding

A photo from David McNew/Getty Images illustrating this NY Times story about the California drought which has Governor Ahnold warning of severe rationing.

NASCAR Basics: The Tracks: Pocono

Though it's mostly oval racing, NASCAR has some pretty unique tracks: Darlington, Bristol, Daytona, and Talladega to name a few. Pocono, as you can probably tell from the diagram, belongs on the list too.

(diagram from NASCAR.com)

Pocono Raceway is an almost flat 2 1/2-mile tri-oval, but the turns are very tight, making the track more like a triangle and less like other tri-ovals like Daytona. Each turn is unique, making it hard to setup a car for the race. Teams must make compromises to get their cars to handle through all three turns and always struggle through at least one turn. The turns are more appropriate for a road course and are said to be modeled after turns at three different racetracks. Turn One, the most acute of the three (14 degree banking), is modeled on Trenton Speedway. The Tunnel Turn, Two, the most obtuse of the three (8 degree banking) is like turns at Indianapolis. Turn Three (6 degree banking) is like the Milwaukee Mile. Combine the sharp turns with the longest and widest straightaways in NASCAR and you've got the makings of a race.

Or not. Drivers and a lot of fans think the races are too boring and long and need to be shortened to 400 miles. The field gets strung out. The teams get frustrated trying to deal with the turns. Drivers are also grumbling about how outdated everything is at the track, including safety updates. Some would like Pocono to lose one of the two Sprint Cup races held annually at the track. Another complaint is that the two races are run too close together, in early June and early August.

Pocono Raceway is one of only three tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule that are not owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc. or International Speedway Corp. The others are Indianapolis and Dover. Last month, Bruton Smith, CEO of SMI, announced the purchase of Kentucky Speedway and advanced the idea of buying another track and switching some dates around to get a Sprint Cup date at Kentucky as soon as 2009. NASCAR said, in effect, "That's too soon." Dr. Rose Mattioli, co-owner of Pocono Raceway with her husband Dr. Joseph, was quick to announce that their track "never was available; it never will be available."

The Mattiolis are close to the France family, and in the '70s, when the track was struggling financially and the Mattiolis were close to selling, Bill France Sr. urged them not to. A few years later, Bill France Sr. and Jr. awarded them a second annual Sprint Cup race, but the track is one of only two tracks (Indianapolis is the other) that does not host a Nationwide or Craftsman Truck Series race.

Pocono Raceway is located near Long Pond, a small community just off of I-80 in the scenic Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, about ninety miles from both Philadelphia and New York City. It opened in 1968 with races on the 3/4 mile track. The first IndyCar race on the 2 1/2-mile superspeedway, the Schaefer 500, came in 1971. Hurricane Agnes soon followed. NASCAR first raced there in 1974, with Richard Petty winning the inaugural Pocono 500. But, as the Mattioli's tell it, times were tough...

Due to many construction mistakes, the CART-USAC fight and a lot of inexperience, we suffered severe financial problems. We were almost bankrupt two or three times but were too dumb to realize it.

But, after the meeting with France Sr. and the addition of the second race, the situation greatly improved. In 1990, the Mattiolis began spending about $3 million per year for ten years to completely remake the track from the ground up with new crash walls, new paving, a new press box, a new garage area, and a new mobile home park for race participants. They tore out the old 3/4-mile track, but now have three separate infield tracks that each utilize a section of the tri-oval. Sports car and motorcycle clubs and driving schools keep the track busy most of the year now.

NASCAR Basics: The Tracks: Master List

There's a Feeling in the Air

Feels kind of historic

Scottie on the Daily Show

Scott McClellan was on the Daily Show Monday night. Apparently he has a new book or something to plug.

Part 1



Part 2

Bo Diddley: 1928 - 2008

Bo Diddley died Monday of heart failure. He was 79. The New York Times sums it up -- "a singer and guitarist who invented his own name, his own guitars, his own beat and, with a handful of other musical pioneers, rock ’n’ roll itself."



Around 1990, he teamed up with another Bo for a memorable commercial...



Thanks for the memories, Bo, and thanks for that whole rock 'n' roll thing.

Weekend Assignment: Fun, Fun, Fun

I was going to do Karen's Weekend Assignment over the weekend (duh!), but somehow got sidetracked and completely forgot about it. Here it is now, a day (or two) late and a dollar short.


Weekend Assignment #218: What do you do to have fun? Since you're reading this blog, let's assume that one of your leisure activities is blogging and reading blogs; we don't need to rehash that one, nor the subject of books, which we covered just recently. What else do you do for fun? Are you a runner, a hiker, a birdwatcher, a surfer? Or do you prefer to lie on a beach? Is cooking a joy rather than a chore? What do you enjoy doing, when you're not doing the usual stuff?

It's easy to get in a rut with the usual stuff and forget about having fun, but the usual stuff usually includes blogging, reading blogs, surfing the Innernets, &c. that is fun, but I see we're not talking about that.

This is probably my favorite time of the year. The weather is warm, maybe a little hot during the day and very pleasant at night. If your going to be out at night for a long period of time, you might want to wear a long-sleeve shirt, but you can definitely pack up the sweaters, jackets and coats. A fun thing for me to do is get out in it however possible -- a long walk around the neighborhood, a day trip to a park or a nearby historic site, a hike through the woods, fishing, camping, bird watching, sky gazing, anything that gets me outdoors communing with nature.

It's fun to read about something historical that happened locally (in and around Chattanooga), then going out and actually walking the ground and learning even more.

Photography is fun, but I've never really had the kind of equipment I'd like to have. Right now, I have no equipment -- my antique digital camera has finally bitten the dust. I should be able to get something basic and affordable later this month when my stimulus check arrives.

I like spending weekends watching NASCAR, and catching a baseball game whenever I can. And college and pro football, though I'm not a year-long fanatic about it like some -- all things in their season.

Getting in a car and driving wherever the road takes me is fun, but that's a joy that's waning with rising fuel prices.

Crossword puzzles, Sudoku, video games (driving games are my favorite), listening to music, and watching movies and selected TV shows (especially Battlestar Galactica and Lost) are also on my list of fun things to do.

Extra Credit: What fun thing (no restrictions) do you plan to do next?

Well, I'm listening to music now...

----------------
Now playing: Dream Academy - Power to Believe
via FoxyTunes

...and I'll probably work a little more of the Sunday crossword puzzle before I go to bed, but I'd really like to get out to Cloudland Canyon very, very soon.

A Monday Music Twofer

Usually the Monday music thingy involves what I like to call "the soundtrack of my life." If for some strange reason my life story was ever made into a movie (maybe a plotless art house film), these are songs that might be on the soundtrack -- favorite songs by favorite bands, stuff that I've been exposed to and enjoyed at different periods of my life.

This week's edition is a twofer of new songs that I like. The songs are good, but the videos were what really attracted my attention. You've probably seen them circulating around the internet lately.

First up is the Get Out Clause, an unsigned band from Manchester, England. With no money to make a video, they "performed" in front of some of the millions of closed circuit television cameras that blanket England. Then, using the English version of our Freedom of Information Act, they requested the footage and spliced it into a neat video.



More of their story can be found here.

The second video comes to us from Weezer. "Pork and Beans" has been all over the Internet lately with millions of viewings in just a few days. The video is a fun romp with a bunch of people who have achieved their fifteen minutes of fame on YouTube lately. There's Miss South Carolina, the guy wearing all the shirts, the "leave Britney alone" nut and many others, with a Diet Coke and Mentos shower thrown in for good measure...




Lyrics | Pork And Beans lyrics

Ghost in a Bottle

A man in Decatur, Georgia, wants you to have your very own ghost in a bottle for the low, low price of just $20. Any suckers...uh, takers?

Malkin Was Right!

I take back every mean thing I said about Michelle Malkin. She was right. There is something to this Dunkin Donuts/Rachael Ray conspiracy...

The Beat Goes On

The ever increasingly murky road to the Democratic Party's nomination for president took a detour over a big speed bump Saturday. The Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee spent the day trying to work out a reasonable compromise over the problems created by Michigan and Florida.

When those states moved up their primaries, they violated party rules and were stripped of their delegates to the national convention. Those primaries meant nothing. All the candidates were listed in Florida, but none campaigned there. All the candidates had their names taken off the ballot in Michigan except Hillary Clinton. Clinton won 54% of the vote in Michigan. 40% went to uncommitted delegates. In Florida, Clinton won with 50% to Obama's 33%. As Clinton's campaign has run out of options for her to win the nomination, she's become more determined to make the results of those two states mean something. Seating full delegations from the two states based on the results of their primaries would really cut into Obama's delegate lead. And the Democratic Party really can't afford to piss off voters in Michigan and Florida, two important swing states in the upcoming general election. A compromise is needed that is fair to both candidates.

Steven Colbert examines the problem in a segment called "Democralypse Now"...



On Saturday, the Rules and Bylaws Committee held a contentious meeting with much of the action going on behind closed doors. The public portion of the program was bad enough with a lot of carping and complaining after the committee came up with a "cut the baby in half" decision -- a decision to seat the delegations from both states at half strength. The committee voted unanimously to apportion Florida's delegates according to the results of the January 29 primary, then voted 19-8 to give Clinton 34.5 Michigan delegates to Obama's 29.5 based on that 54% Clinton, 40% uncommitted result in that state's primary. That decision was, by far, the more controversial one.

The decisions cut into Obama's delegate lead, but not nearly as much as the Clinton camp had hoped. The added delegates increase the number needed for the nomination to 2118. Obama is now 66 shy of that mark; Clinton still needs 240. Most of the carping over the decisions was done by the Clinton camp. Chants of "Denver, Denver, Denver" signal that this battle over Michigan and Florida will probably go all the way to the convention and a fight before the credentials committee. In fact, Harold Ickes, a top Clinton supporter on the committee was complaining about "hijacked" delegates and added, "Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the credentials committee."

It's past the time for Clinton to bow out gracefully. This needs to come to a close soon, preferable immediately after the final primaries next week. She needs to stop trying to undermine Obama, stop trying to persuade superdelegates to overturn the will of the voters, stop this fight over the Michigan and Florida delegations, and start working to unify the party. Not only is this infighting seriously beginning to hurt Obama's prospects in the general election, it's also sucking up all the campaign dollars, hampering the prospects of Democrats running for lesser offices. If she won't end this gracefully, the remaining uncommitted superdelegates need to get off the fence and do it for her before the Democrats lose yet another sure victory.