Open and shut case, Johnson.

From the madcap caper, Amos and Andrew, to Chappelle's crack-sprinkling detectives, the absurdity of black men being arrested in their own homes never ceases to amuse. Obama addressed the recent arrest of Professor Gates with sharp words mixed in with his usual charm.

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MITM

My brother-in-law begs to differ on MJ's best performance, and brings up this, his performance at the 88 Grammy Awards' "Man in the Mirror." It's lip-synching until 4:00, but then when he actually starts singing, its so full of passion and urgency that you wonder why the heck he ever lip synchs at all.

michael jackson

michael jackson was pretty much the only american music i listened to until i was 12 or so. i had a tape of his hits that my uncle made me, and i listened to it so much that the tape started to warp, so it almost seemed like he was going out of tune sometimes - the warping of the cassette film would make the playback a little slower or faster for a few seconds. as much as i loved his music on that tape that was slowly deteriorating, i remember what a mindblowing experience it was to listen to him when i bought some of his CDs in high school and was like "oh my god, he's actually better than on my tape!"

so, with due respect to his motown 25 performance, here's the coolest MJ performance I ever saw. keep in mind this was in 1995. so many things to love about this performance - his obsession with 20s/30s gangster attire (how hipster would 95 MJ be right now), the fact that this is probably one of the weakest tracks ('Dangerous') off maybe his 4th best album (Dangerous) and its still better than anything Justin Timberlake has ever done. Finally, the choreography is vintage Michael Jackson - the moves aren't so complicated, they're just executed with such perfect timing that they give you the impression that what he's doing...is magic.

Bertrand Russell...

almost made me spit out my Sprite Zero.

"If you take any true sentence in which the name 'George Washington" occurs, it will, as a rule, remain true if you substitute the phrase 'the first President of the United States.' There are exceptions to this rule. Before Washington's election, a man might say 'I hope George Washington will be the first President of the United States,' but he would not say 'I hope the first President of the United States will be the first President of the United States' unless he had an unusual passion for the law of identity."

This government is so getting overthrown.

Not that this is at all surprising, but Ali Karimi and Mehdi Mahdavikia are legitimate Iranian national heroes. In fact, it was Mahdavikia who scored what ultimately turned out to be the winning goal against the USA at World Cup '98.

Don't look now...

but there is a distinct possibility that, in next summer's World Cup hosted in South Africa, the United States will be paired with North Korea along with two other teams (most likely one from Europe and another from either Africa or South America). In one of the biggest stories in world football, the North Korean national team managed to beat out Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UEA for a place in the World Cup finals for the first time since 1966. President Obama has already expressed an interest in the tournament (suggesting that the US play host in 2018). Who could imagine a cozier atmosphere for the President and Dear Leader to get together for a chat?

An even more outrageous scenario would be if North and South Korea (who qualified with ease) were to advance from their respective groups and meet in the knockout stages. Tensions were high last year when a qualifier between the two nations had to be moved from Pyongyang to Shanghai after Kim's government refused to allow the South Korean team to sing their national anthem and display the country's flag prior to kickoff.

This wouldn't be the first time that the US has faced a political rival in the tournament: in France 1998, the Americans had their dejeuner handed to them in Lyon by a highly-motivated Iranian team in a 2-1 loss. Even more timely is the rumor that the US team may travel to Tehran to play a friendly match some point in the next six months as a tune-up for the World Cup. Recent political events, however, may have diminished the likelihood of such an exhibition. Still an exciting prospect, nonetheless.

Edit: According to Sepp Blatter, the head of FIFA, Obama has accepted an invitation to the opening of the World Cup finals next summer.

It was 105 years ago today...

Although Ulysses was written over a span of seven years (1914-1921), the entirety of James Joyce's novel is set in Dublin on a single day, June 16, 1904, when Joyce and Nora Barnacle went on their first date together. A short 27 years later they were married. To commemorate that famous day, here are the opening lines of chapter 4 in which we are introduced to the character of Leopold Bloom:

"Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine."

Delicious.

Additionally, these tit-bits from the Times, the Guardian and the Examiner.