Barack's Baracket

President Obama made his picks for the NCAA tourney on ESPN.com. Looks like the Prez is a front-runner -- he picked three #1 seeds, and a #2 (Memphis, who many people claim got screwed out of a #1). Way to be a front-runner, Mr. President. For a liberal preaching change, those are some pretty staid, conservative picks. I hope your plan to fix the economy is more imaginative than your bracket.

2000 Words

I haven't had much time to write lately. I've been busy looking for a job, finding a job, working, quitting, and looking for a job again -- more on that (and the crazy lady I briefly had the misfortune of working with) later, time-permitting. But I heard a picture's worth 1,000 words, so I thought I'd make up for the recent dearth of prose with 2,000 words worth of comedy in the form of my favorite two photos found online this week.

The first goes out to all those worried about the current lackluster state of our beloved country:



The second is a rare look behind the curtain at genius, as we examine the craft of one of our finest thespians:

Yes, Pecan!

That's right, Ben and Jerry have done it again, perfectly capturing our country's zeitgeist in a pithy ice cream title. Yes, they have joined the crowd in saluting this new and historic era we've entered by naming an ice cream flavor after President Obama. On his show, Keith Olbermann quoted from an e-mail suggesting some names for a George Bush-inspired flavor. here are my favorites:

"Abu Grape"
"Credit Crunch"
"Heckuvajob Brownie"
"W-M-Delicious"
"George Bush Doesn't Care About Dark Chocolate"

In all seriousness, it's crazy how many people are going out of their way to salute Obama in some way, naming food and drinks and babies and whatever they can think of after him, appearing on the covers of magazines like 'Entertainment Weekly', which never features politics, etc. When I was in Boulder, my buddy was drinking a batch of coffee he bought called "Obama Blend" which supposedly had beans in it which came from his father's home country.

I can't remember this much interest in any president. I don't know if that matters much -- or if the country's morale can have a real effect on tangible things like the economy -- but it sure is different. The only historical comparison I can think of is John F. Kennedy, but that's a total guess since not only had I not been born during his presidency, but my father hadn't even met my mother when he was elected (though my father was an economic adviser to JFK while he taught at MIT).

Yes We Can!

CONGRATULATIONS TO PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA!

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

But it wasn't all sunshine and lollipops for the liberal elite Tuesday night.