Monday, November 19, 2007

Potpourri Monday

Some things we found interesting lately:

Thomas Friedman: "We simply cannot go on being as dumb as we wanna be."

Insurgent presidential candidate Ron Paul, on the fallout from his campaign having raised $4 million online in a single day: "It's kind of sad, but the money is what has given us credibility, not the authenticity of the ideas."

I'm apparently not the only Boomer who fondly recalls the classic TV private-I show Mannix.

From the L.A. Lakers' blog: "Does anyone else harbor the dream of letting Kobe walk and bringing in Lebron?"

Montana-based novelist and essayist supreme Walter Kirn thinks travel writer "Paul Theroux is the thinking man's James Michener."

Here's Harvey Pekar's next book project, an unlikely comic book exploration of the Sixties radical group Students for a Democratic Society. Perhaps he'll finally stop whining about how hard it is to make a living? Don't hold your breath.

5 Comments:

At 3:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Friedman should replace the "we" in his quote with an "I".

If I had been Mannix, I would have worn a football helmet. He got whacked on the head with a gun or a blackjack guaranteed at least once per episode.

You may not recall the premise of "Mannix" in the first season. He worked for a computer-oriented P.I. firm, but was an intuitive maverick, often in conflict with his boss (Joseph Campanella.) After that year, he was on his own.

 
At 3:15 PM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

Hey, welcome back to the comment section, we've missed you, Mr. B. Well said about Friedman, and the comment about Mannix made me laugh. Let's just say that back then, the TV violence wasn't real "reality-based," as the Bushies (or what's left of them) would call it. And when it comes to my memory of the origins of that series, I'm afraid you rather leave me in the dust. But I still found it interesting.

 
At 2:17 PM, Blogger Cleveland Carole Cohen 3C said...

I would imagine every Mgr. of every team in the basketball league has that same fatasy! I have to admit when I read the blog post however the comment section freaked me out LOL. It looks a bit like a bookie blog? Not that I know what that looks like :-)

 
At 2:33 PM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

That's an interesting observation. I hadn't even noticed the comment section till you pointed it out. Yes, unfortunately, for a certain large segment of pro sports watchers, their interest is more about betting than simple enjoyment of the sport.

 
At 7:57 AM, Blogger Annie said...

John, I enjoyed your presentation at the writer's conference yesterday. It was very worthwhile.

Just commenting on Joe Mannix. The man NEVER looked in the back seat of his car. And 9 out of 10 times there was a guy with a gun back there. He was the poster boy for failure to learn from experience.
But I loved him, too.

 

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