Author: jbenton

The guy who sits next to me said he suddenly realized, after months, who I looked like. See, his kid watches a lot of Cartoon Network, and he said he finally realized this morning that I look just like Shaggy of Scooby Doo fame.
I’m not buying it for an instant — for one thing, my arms don’t dangle down to my knees, australopithecine-like, and I’m not even a vegetarian — but it’s more flattering than the time a “friend” in college said I looked like Boris Yeltsin.
(And Casey Kasem does provide my voice, but I think that’s just a coincidence. Zoinks!)

The prez is on the TV right now, talking about the Holy Land Foundation. Their assets have been frozen because of their suspected links to Hamas. If any Dallas residents were upset we were generally missing out on all the terrorism fun, the HLF is based in Richardson. Members of the HLF were among those protesting in front of my employer every week for months because of our reporting on their group. (I could see them from the office window when I was interviewing here — made me wonder what I was getting into.)

Great piece by the estimable Ron Rosenbaum on the latest crackpot Hitler theory: he was gay! That rather unconvincing theory (at least unconvincing to me — the incest charges stick a little more in my mind) is being advanced in a new book. (Out just in time for Christmas! My shopping just go much, much easier.)
Aside #1: Have all the good ideas for Hitler book covers been taken? Compare this one from 1998 to this one from 2001.
Aside #2: Rosenbaum’s own book Explaining Hitler — which is a look at how different historians have brought their own biases and perspectives to explaining why Hitler was such a bastard — is quite good.
Aside #3: How does the this new theory correlate with the much more widespread Hitler-had-one-testicle theory? (A guy I know likes to refer to bad or evil things as “one-ball,” in homage to said theory.)
Aside #4: The best headline award goes to whoever decided to put “Queer as Volk?” on top of Slate’s story.

At last, America’s most insignificant war is finally getting the recognition it deserves. The Toledo War pitted Ohio against Michigan for control of the border town that would eventually become Toledo. One mule (or horse, depending on the storyteller) was the lone casualty. The war was finally settled with Ohio being granted Toledo, in exchange for Michigan getting the Upper Peninsula. In retrospect, it’s hard to call that a clear-cut Ohio victory.

In a piece not long ago in Slate, Mickey Kaus mused about about the cinematic possibilities of 9/11. What would be the key storytelling moments that could be turned into a movie (or, for that matter, a novel)? Well, I think we have the clear winner: John Walker, the idealistic 20-year-old from D.C. who decided to go to Afghanistan, join up with the Taliban, and fight against his American countrymen. “Bill Jones, a family friend in San Rafael, California, described Walker as a ‘very sweet, unassuming, very spiritual young man — rather frail, not an All-American football player or anything like that, certainly not a fighter.'” (Attention, Ethan Hawke — your agent is calling.) Be sure to check out the chilling video of Walker on that link.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but there has been real news to report in recent months, no? Which makes one question why, if you watch most local TV news around the country, November sweeps brought you the following hard-hitting reports: “Toxic tampons!” “Baby hoochies: pre-teen girls wearing clothes you’d expect to see on strippers!” “How to wear a thong!” “Expose! Germs in movie theaters!” “High heels may be the height of fashion, but your body may be paying a hefty price!” “Male prostitution!” “Real-life witches!” “The secret side to the circus!” “Is there arsenic in your yard?” “Could your hot tub be making you sick?”

Remember Ben Greenman, the guy from my college newspaper I blogged about who had the girl he had a crush on in high school grow up to make a movie about his crush? Well, his new book is finally out, and I regret to say I missed the epic Ben Greenman Week at McSweeney’s.

Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer on 9/11: “This is all wonderful news. It is time to finish off the US once and for all. I was happy and could not believe what was happening. All the crimes the US has committed in the world. This just shows, what goes around comes around, even to the US. I applaud the act. The US and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians for years. Now it is coming back at the US.”
To think this guy was once considered an American hero nonpareil. Too bad he ended up being such a raging nutcase.

The original TV commercial for The Legend of Zelda on Nintendo. Instant classic. (via boing boing.)

For those of us who wondered about Dean Kamen‘s “It” (a.k.a. Ginger), the mystery machine that created two tons of hype earlier this year: “It”‘s what everyone expected, a scooter. A kick-ass scooter, but a scooter nonetheless. “Kamen said the two-wheeled scooterlike vehicle [now called the Segway HT] is ‘like a pair of magic sneakers’ because the passenger moves by thinking forward or backward — as if walking — without falling. ‘It does what a human does — it has gyros and sensors that act like your inner ear; it has a computer that does what your brain does for you. It’s got motors that do what your muscles do for you. It’s got those tires that do what your feet do for you.'”
Congrats to Time, who had the scoop yesterday. “Developed at a cost of more than $100 million, Kamen’s vehicle is a complex bundle of hardware and software that mimics the human body’s ability to maintain its balance. Not only does it have no brakes, it also has no engine, no throttle, no gearshift and no steering wheel. And it can carry the average rider for a full day, nonstop, on only five cents’ worth of electricity.”
Check out the videos on the site; the maneuverability seems extremely impressive. If I had $3,000 lying around collecting dust, I might scoop one up. But um, I don’t.