Friday, April 14, 2006

Recommended Reading

I agree with this blog post by Glenn Greenwald. I don't know if all these retired generals criticizing the war effort are right or wrong, but I think their views need to be heard and considered. The Bush administration has scared a lot of Americans — and cost themselves a good deal of support — with the concept that they have a plan and they're going to follow it, no matter what evidence might emerge that it ain't working. I think there'd be a lot more confidence in Bush if he seemed to have the capacity to admit mistakes and move to correct them. And his supporters aren't helping him when they rush to attack the sanity, integrity and motives of anyone who criticizes his policies.

• Posted at 11:04 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Jonathan Chait on a new attempt to get rid of the Electoral College.

• Posted at 9:30 PM · LINK

Luxury!

Several folks have written to say that the sketch that was this morning's video link — The Four Yorkshiremen — appeared on At Last, the 1948 Show. In fact, it apparently appears on this DVD which I have here but haven't watched yet.

If that's its point of origin, that helps narrow down the question of its authorship. The writing credits for that program were for its stars: Marty Feldman, John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor. Tom Wolper sent an e-mail saying that Eric Idle performed the sketch on his recent Greedy Bastard Tour and identified it as one written by Feldman for At Last, the 1948 Show. Good to know.

• Posted at 8:45 PM · LINK

-ly Ballou Lives!

Bob Elliott (of Bob and Ray fame) is pretty much retired these days but he recently gave a good interview to my pal Steve Darnall for Nostalgia Digest magazine. If you have some Adobe product installed on your computer, you can read a PDF version of the interview by clicking here.

Or you can do yourself a favor and subscribe to Nostalgia Digest, which routinely features articles this interesting. And while you're at it, loads of great Bob and Ray stuff can be purchased from The Official Bob and Ray Website and it almost doesn't matter which CD you order. I have listened to hundreds and hours of Bob and Ray radio material over the years and have yet to find the weak material. I'm beginning to suspect there isn't any.

• Posted at 11:03 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Starting today and continuing for I-don't-know-how-long, we'll be linking to Monty Python rarities. Today, we focus on a sketch the Python guys did in a number of different places, though not on their TV show, perhaps because it really isn't a Python sketch. The first place I saw it was on the program I mentioned here, Marty Feldman's Comedy Machine. I don't recall who, apart from Feldman, appeared in it and I suspect it did not originate there. Perhaps it's something done earlier for some other series like At Last, the 1948 Show with John Cleese and Graham Chapman...though when I asked someone to ask Mr. Cleese about it, he had no memory of where it had first appeared. In any case, various British comedians have performed it in a number of settings, especially for charity performances, and I'm curious as to whether Feldman wrote it, or if one or more of the Pythons did or just what the story is. It's awfully funny and back when we first saw it on Mr. Feldman's Comedy Machine, several of my friends and I added lines from it to our repertoire of catch-phrases.

A version of the sketch that runs a little over three minutes appeared in the Python Hollywood Bowl concert. Here's a link to it and as you'll see, it features Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman and Terry Jones. A slightly better, longer version of it appears below. It runs four minutes and features Palin, Jones, John Cleese and non-Python Rowan Atkinson. Ignore the foreign subtitles.

• Posted at 12:51 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Michael Kinsley asks where we're going to meddle next. Good question. Of greater interest is the capsule history he provides of our shifting relationships with Iran and Iraq.

• Posted at 12:50 AM · LINK