BillSaysThis

I sent the following question to a few of my friends, just to see if the online romance is as strong as I’m seeing: Not counting me and my wife, can you tell me how many couples you personally know who met through an online or other type of automated dating system? If the number includes yourself, please say ‘me’. 14 of them responded (thanks!) and only two people answered with a zero.

Including me and Vivian, four couples out of the 13 possible (two respondents are single) met this way. That includes me, my sister and one of my best friends. From the 15 responses, we knew of 29 distinct couples. And the couples with which I am personally acquainted, all but one who’ve gotten together in the last few years met online. So much for tradition.

Dr. Mark Rego in a Letter to the NY Times nails one of the keys issues of our times.

Oooh, it’s so white!

“The women, he said, simply knocked on the door of his hotel room, entered and had sex with him. He said he did not know if they were prostitutes because they never asked for money and he did not pay them.” So says Neil Bush, in his divorce deposition. Not to mention a Chinese semiconductor company that wants to pay him $2,000,000 for his ‘business expertise’.

Amusing: Starbuck and Starbuck at Starbucks

This would be a great title for Al Franken to use on his sequel to Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, but her recent Townhall.com column goes over the line into anti-Semitism.

I saw a red Camaro twisted,

Sitting up on the driver’s side

Smashed up against a guard rail

Right where her head ought to be.

Police lights were flashing,

Fire trucks racing up the highway

We were hoping they would win,

Reaching her before she was gone.

Thousands of glass shards were

Strewn like a thin glittering stream

Across the highway lanes, thin blood

Ribbons intermingled with the windshield.

As we came even with the ambulance and

Police cars, the EMTs were strapping her body

Unmoving, small and still, hair standing out,

Onto a small gurney for her final ride.

Tonight’s Simpson’s episode, the trip to England, was hilarious, an instant classic. If you missed it, I expect it will be on one of the six thousand channels that show The Simpsons within a few weeks.

Being on the job hunt these days is all about networking. sometimes, though, people take the idea of network just a bit too far. For instance, I just got an email on one of my subscribed mailing lists from someone who “met someone from Company X at a coffee shop yesterday.” This person offered to forward any qualified resumes from other group members to his new contact.

“None of this BCS. . . Sugar Bowl — none of this matters,” said USC wide receiver Mike Williams. “It’s about today and how we handled them. God, I hate them.”

So said star Trojan wide receiver Mike Williams after yesterday’s 47-22 dismantling of their crosstown rivals. Williams had 12 receptions, 181 yards and two touchdown catches; he rested after the halftime whistle. QB Matt Leinart, fellow sophomore and rival for next year’s Heisman, had nearly 300 yards passing and tossed those two TD catches to Williams. Combined with Michigan’s stomping of Ohio State for the Big 10 championships, USC is assured of a shot against Oklahoma in the national title game as long as they take care of business two weeks from now against Oregon St.

Landon Donovan scored two goals–the first multi-goal game by any player in MLS Cup history–and led the San Jose Earthquakes to their second MLS Cup victory in three seasons over the Chicago Fire 4-2 this afternoon; Donovan was also named the Finals MVP. Quakes Captain Jeff Agoos made some excellent defensive stands and got one (ring) for his thumb, his fifth MLS title as he won three early in the League’s history with DC United. Several Cup Finals marks fell today: six goals made this the highest scoring game in history, Donovan’s brace, fastest first goal and quickest three goal sequence; game stats.

Pat Onstad, named last night as MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, took care of business, especially when he had to shut down Fire scoring leader Ante Razov on a penalty kick in the 54th minute. The Quakes had taken a 2-0 halftime lead on goals by Ronnie Ekelund (5′) and Donovan (38′) but the Fire took one back quickly after the restart (speed demon DaMarcus Beasley, 49′). DaBeas, a real crowd pleaser and someone who gives the US National Team real width, put in the first of three quick scores–Richard Mulrooney answered for the Quakes less than a minute later, then the Fire got an own goal from San Jose defender Cliff Ronier–and Razov could have had the equalizer if not for our terrific keeper.

Razov apparently had the flu all week but the announcers didn’t bother to mention it until the 84th minute, after criticizing him for not making anything of his opportunities during the game (eight shots on goal, including the PK, but no goals), which was just indicative of the generally poor work from ABC in televising the match. Then again, I’ve never been a fan of JP Dellacamera, the main soccer play by play man for ABC Sports (that is, including ESPN broadcasts as well). However, I am appreciative and thankful to the network for giving this game some valuable national exposure.

The Home Depot Center, regular season home of the LA Galaxy, was an excellent field for this match. Built specifically for soccer, the field is very large at 120 yards long by 75 wide and well-suited to the aggressive playing styles of both teams. The result was visible on the ground as there was little play in the midfield but rather a lot of up and down runs.

Bottom line: W00t to Donovan, Agoos, Onstad, Mulrooney, Ekelund, Brian Mullan, Jamil Walker, Dewayne Derosario, Eddie Robinson, Troy Dayak, Craig Waibel, Chris Roner, Manny Lagos and Ian Russell, coach Frank Yallop and the rest of the Earthquakes organization for a great season and a wonderful result!

Why is Michelle Branch the (lipsynching) music act at halftime of the MLS Cup? If the need any music, surely should have been an act that appeals to younger guys and not young girls.

I saw a three minute clip of the infamous Paris Hilton sex video this morning and I am no longer interested, even for prurient reasons, in seeing the whole 26 minute escapade. I do wonder what the hell the rich little hottie was thinking when she agreed to make the tape–sure she’s young and presumably naive but a person who has so much to protect ought to be aware enough at the age of 18 or 19 to just know better. I suppose, though, that when you have over $300 million most of your non-fatal mistakes are easy enough to get past. If the embarassment gets too intense, she could just buy herself a small island and go hang out until the storm passes.

N.B.: Frank Rich has some thoughts on the same subject in his latest column.

The PBS Great Performances showing of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical Oklahoma! was aired tonight, though poorly served by being broken up with several KQED pledge breaks. Taped about four years ago, this production starred Hugh Jackman (yes, Wolverine) as Curly, Josefina Gabrielle as Laurey and Shuler Hensley completing the love triangle as Jud–Shuler won a Tony for the role in the 2002 Broadway version revival.

Although I know Jackman has racked up very, very positive reviews for his current Broadway run in the Peter Allen bio musical, I simply didn’t realize that he was such a strong song and dance man. The show opens with him blasting Oh What a Beautiful Morning and The Surrey with the Fringe on Top and you know right away he will be a treat in this demanding role. Kind of surprising how many prominent actors these days are Australian, eh?

I really enjoyed Jimmy Johnston’s Will Parker, he had just the right combination of naivete and earnest enthusiasm to pull off great songs like Kansas City and his duet with Ado Annie (Vicki Simon), All or Nothing. And a part of musicals I usually don’t much care for, the dancing, is taken to another level in the lengthy mid-show ballet. Apparently, most productions of Oklahoma substitute real ballet dancers for Curly and Laurey but here Jackman and Gabrielle do their own work, and do it very well. And the big finishing number, the title tune, well who can forget that having ever heard it? Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the Plains..

Director Trevor Nunn’s staging was generally interesting; I liked the way he handled the supper box social and wedding scenes. One thing I was glad of, for sure, is that Nunn didn’t really attempt to modernize the show, or infuse an updated sensibility into it. Though I do wonder about the brief freezes when the wedding photos were ‘taken’. Perhaps I haven’t seen the ’55 film version recently enough to make a good comparison.

Recommended if there’s a repeat where you can find it

The WhumpMan puts Mandy Moore fans in their place. Word!

This site’s Firebird issue has been posted to the Mozillazine forums, hopefully I’ll get a useful answer that will fix the problem. In case you’re one of the three or four people reading it with that browser and saying WTF.

The Mercury News ran an article today, written locally and not just a wire service reprint, that I just had to respond to. Here’s my Letter to the Editor, we’ll see if it gets printed:

I’m really surprised at the portrayal of Charles Booher in your article “Spam sends local man into rage.” This front page article quotes his alleged victim, Doug Mackay, as if Mackay was an innocent rather than a lying perpetrator (as this article works hard to avoid saying) of work that enrages so many Americans. In fact it enrages us to the extent that, as reported and editorialized elsewhere in today’s edition, that laws are being passed against these messages.

While Booher did clearly lose his temper and needed a good talking to, the idea that he should be facing five years in prison and a huge fine for a few blowing off the steam emails is beyond absurd; only if there was evidence that Booher was planning to travel the three thousand miles or so to confront Mackay in person could justify an arrest. Some comment from the US Attorney’s office explaining their reasoning would really have been useful but the article lacks even a reported no comment.

This act by our government is, in the final analysis, a truly sad use of prosecutorial powers. I only hope that wiser heads prevail in the near future and these pointless charges are dismissed.

What a load of crap: Man gets “spam rage” over penis ad. Prosecutors are charging a guy driven over the edge by illegal invasions of his computer while, I’m sure, doing nothing about the assholes who pushed him. But I’m thinking the official court papers or proceedings, should it come to that, will have to include identifying and contact information for the schmoes on the other end–they had to be the ones who contacted the US Attorneys, right?–at which point I think they’ll find out from an outraged Net community that this was a poor decision on their part. But then I don’t expect much in the way of brains from people who try to make money off messenger spam. And for sure if it wasn’t after closing time Friday I would be putting in a call to San Francisco to give those lovely gentlemen in the Federal Office Building a not terribly polite word or two. [via MetaFilter]

Sun mulls plan to offer open source app server: isn’t this already out and called the reference implementation?

“Berke always told me his goal was to figure out how to take an issue and make it funny. The more serious an issue, the bigger the challenge. And since he just finished a children’s book about animal shelters (“Flawed Dogs”), I think he feels ready for any challenge.” From the Opus interview by fellow MeFite Wendell Wittler.