cringe

From Studio Briefing:

CBS brought out the Broadway cast of Chicago to serenade advertisers who got a look at the network's planned programming for the first time at the network's Carnegie Hall presentation Wednesday. At one point they concluded a number, to the tune of "All That Jazz," this way: "Come on babe / It's time to pay upfront / We want your clients' cash / If we may be so blunt / You've gotta buy today / Or else you'll really pay / For all. Those. Ads."

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David Brooks in The Atlantic Monthly on the male chauvinist revival. The article is largely about progressives' difficulty reacting to it all, but I'll just quote the description of Maxim:

Women in the magazine's pages are reduced almost exclusively to cleavage. Men exist solely at the crossroads where babes in lingerie meet power tools and serial-killer computer games. The articles--which tend to fall into the "How to Score at Funerals" genre--are short lessons in ways to become even more shallow than you already are.

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Slate's Fred Kaplan on Keith Payne, deputy assistant secretary of defense for forces policy:

He first made his mark with an article in the summer 1980 issue of Foreign Policy (written with fellow hawk Colin Gray) called "Victory Is Possible." Among its pronouncements: "an intelligent United States offensive [nuclear] strategy, wedded to homeland defenses, should reduce U.S. casualties to approximately 20 million … a level compatible with national survival and recovery." (As Gen. Buck Turgidson, the George C. Scott character in Dr. Strangelove, put it, "I'm not saying we won't get our hair mussed up, but 10-20 million tops, depending on the breaks.")

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On a different subject, glenn mcdonald on how he lost weight, in the form of advice.

open mike report

South Bay Folks Open Mike, 2003-05-15

1. A compliment from someone you admire feels really good.

2. I got an invitation to record somewhere, which I will probably take as soon as I pick some songs.

3. The best part was when we all filed out to the parking lot to look at the lunar eclipse.