Here’s a book that must have been as fun (if not more) to write as it was to read. Yes, the heroes and villains are transparent knock-offs of their DC and Marvel counterparts, but that doesn’t take away from the fun, and there’s a novel delight in the world-weary, cynical, and professional attitude the characters have towards their powers. It’s a surprisingly affecting view of the downsides and trials of superheroism (shades of Watchmen) and a sympathetic portrait of an evil genius (sorry -- a sufferer of Malign Hypercognition Disorder).

My former employer, The MathWorks, distributes a copy of this book to every new employee; on my last day I had nothing to do and started to read it and decided that it was, for a “business book,” surprisingly readable. The authors’ analysis of what separates a “visionary” and lasting company from the rest seems intuitive and correct to me, and I think their insights probably apply just as well to non-commercial enterprises. The irony, I find, is that nearly all of the exceptional and visionary companies the authors profile (IBM, HP, GE, Ford, Merck, Disney) have had dramatic falls from grace in the time since the book was published; I’d be very interested to read a version with a new afterward entitled "Wha' Happened?"

I spent more time thinking about what was wrong with The Last Kiss than any 1 star movie deserves. Everything that I like about Zach Braff on Scrubs made him borderline unwatchable for the first 25 minutes of this movie and we almost shut it off before the middle section was buoyed by good dialogue. However, the movie was not to be redeemed as the ending sucked as bad as the beginning.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was bad. This movie has none of the charm of the first Pirates movie and should not be watched under any circumstances. That is, of course, unless you enjoy sitting around watching a boring, unoriginal movie.

Dinosaur Comics is usually pretty funny, but I thought this was especially good:



I think, just to spite T-Rex, I shall now go make scrambled eggs for breakfast.

So, I baked a pie. Never baked a pie before, but Nichole said it was easy, and I figured I was up for it.

It... didn't go that well.

The crust was the first problem. I made a pretty standard butter crust and rolled out the bottom crust without too much difficulty. The top crust, however, was more of a problem. It stuck the counter. Kind of a lot. And tore. And... I might have thrown what could charitably be called a hissy fit, not to mention the dough across the kitchen.

The next morning, considerably calmer, I made another batch and let it sit in the fridge all day. This one rolled out much better, which led to the next problem: filling. I'd decided on a berry pie as being nicely summery, so the previous evening I'd tossed the contents of a bag of frozen mixed berries in a bowl with some sugar and lime zest. The twenty-four hours of maceration produced quite a bit of juice and shrunk the fruit, so when I filled the bottom crust, there was plenty of room to spare. Casting desperately around the kitchen for something else to put in the pie, I settled on a handful of fresh blueberries and half a bag of frozen mango chunks. Yeah.



It still wasn't enough filling, so the top crust fell down a bit. It ended up rather lumpy. Still, tasted OK. The bottom crust more or less dissolved with all the juicy filling, but the top crust was buttery, flaky, and pretty tasty. The filling was an unusual combination of fruits, but I've tasted worse. I might make another pie some day.

I almost always agree with King Kaufman's take on baseball, so I thought I'd quote this bit from his column after Barry Bonds's record-breaking home run:

I've been thinking and writing for a while now that Bonds is getting a little bit of a raw deal, that he's become the scapegoat for a whole era of drug abuse and cheating, that to dismiss his achievements as steroid- and human growth hormone-fueled is overly simplistic because we don't know what effect drugs have on baseball performance and we don't know which players and which pitchers were on the juice when.

But that doesn't mean I -- a home fan, after all -- can enjoy this moment any more than most anybody else. I believe Bonds' record is legitimate, that he really did hit all those home runs, that a lot of our reaction as a society to the steroid mess is in-the-moment hysteria -- why aren't we equally upset about amphetamines?

And Bonds' record still feels somehow unreal to me. I've got an asterisk going.

Bonds probably deserves all of the doubt and controversy around the home run chase; it certainly looks like he took steroids. But I can't help but think that a big part of the anti-Bonds sentiment comes from the fact that he's a (black) athlete with a bad attitude who hates to talk to the media. 756 home runs is an accomplishment, in some sense, no matter how he got there, and it's a real shame for baseball that here we have a magical number that doesn't quite seem as magic as the ones that came before it. (And this number isn't unique in that. Quick, without looking it up, what's the current single-season home run record?)

Of course, in seven years, this whole thing will be moot when A-Rod hits his 780th.

And no, I'm not talking about his alleged steroid use. I'm talking about his elbow armor:

For years, sportswriters remarked that his massive "protective" gear – unequaled in all of baseball -- permits Bonds to lean over the plate without fear of being hit by a pitch. Thus situated, Bonds can handle the outside pitch (where most pitchers live) unusually well. This is unfair advantage enough, but no longer controversial. However, it is only one of at least seven (largely unexplored) advantages conferred by the apparatus.

Interesting, no? I'd never really thought about competitive advantages conveyed by players' protective equipment.

(Thanks to Gaijin Biker in comments at Unfogged.)

You know what you're getting when you see a movie like The Bourne Ultimatum and I wasn't disappointed. Car chases in tight spaces, jumping through windows, swimming, this movie had it all! Most importantly, the door to a sequel was left wide open at the end of the movie, so come and get my $10.25, Bourne Engagement, Bourne Armageddon, Bourne Arboretum, Bourne Memorandum, Bourne Discrepancy.

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