Al Franken may Win Ben Stein's Money...for his campaign

Former Air America Radio host and Saturday Night Live mainstay Al Franken is, as you may know, running for Senate in his home state of Minnesota. Thanks to jrittenhouse, I just found out that Al's newest supporter in the fight to unseat Republican incumbent Norm Coleman is one of the most die-hard GOP guys around: "Tricky Dick" Nixon's former speechwriter, book author, Comedy Central game-show host and movie star ("Bueller? Bueller??") Ben Stein. (Full disclosure: I was a huge fan of Ben's show, Win Ben Stein's Money, when it was in production, and am still peeved that CC canned it. It didn't hurt that Ben had snarky Jimmy Kimmel as his announcer and sidekick, but Ben himself is surprisingly good at deadpan delivery of humor.)

Yahoo! News reports the endorsement here. Money quote: "I'm struck by what an incredibly capable, hard-working guy he is," Stein told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday. "He's a very smart liberal, he's a thoroughgoing patriot, and I would feel better with him in the Senate."

Even I, a longtime Franken fan and liberal Democrat, had trouble believing up to now that the guy had any serious chance at winning the nomination; aside from the fact that he's a comedian, there are several other career-pol Dems in the race. But if ol' BJS is impressed enough to put aside party loyalty and publicly cross the aisle to endorse Al, maybe he really does have a shot. After all, this is the state that elected Jesse "The Body" Ventura governor...

Celebrity birthday wishes

Happy 62nd to one of my favorite entertainers, John Lithgow! Actor, children's-book author, singer and no doubt the kind of fun grandpa most kids would kill to have. From The World According to Garp and Kinsey to 3rd Rock from the Sun, from multiple Broadway plays and musicals to Campbell's Select Soup TV commercials, a more versatile and gifted person—in entertainment or any field—would be hard to find: Emmy and Tony winner, twice nominated for Oscars, and even an ordained minister. We should all have so accomplished and busy a life.

Post your favorite Lithgow work here. Movie? TV show episode? Concert? Let's hear it. Mine is probably still his transsexual football player in Garp, although his gleefully-scenery-chewing turn as Dr. Emilio Lizardo/Lord John Whorfin in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is a close second (thanks for reminding me, Shelley).

Copyright infringement or ingenious entrepreneurship? You be the judge

Read this story from Techdirt.com, all you legal eagles on my f-list, and tell me what you think. If a truck-stop chain airs TV shows in its establishments and runs commercials it sells to advertisers seeking to target truckers over the ones sold by networks and cable channels to their advertisers, is this actually copyright infringement? And if so, would this extend to viewers at home skipping ads using their VCR or TiVo? Or Websurfers using adblockers in their browsers? The possibilities for litigation positively boggle the mind.

A spectacular return on your investment to fight muscular dystrophy

Courtesy of BBC Online:
Gene Therapy Trial for Duchenne Dystrophy to Begin in England
Duchenne is the most deadly known form of the 40-odd diseases lumped under the catch-all term "muscular dystrophy." Most of its victims die in boyhood, and not the least bit pleasantly.

This treatment is based on work funded by the Muscular Dystrophy Association here and elsewhere. Please remember this next time you get the urge to diss MDA or its national chairman in my presence.

Leopard Release Watch: People must really, REALLY hate Windows Vista

...because twice as many customers are ordering Mac OS X Leopard (10.5), due out a week from today, as ordered its predecessor Tiger (10.4), and the Mac Observer website cites one of the two factors given by providers as disgust with Vista (the other being Leopard's plethora of whizzy new features, of which Apple has just posted a video walkthrough on its own website).

Never thought I'd be glad about a WinBlows release possessing Nth-degree levels of suckitude, but hey...Macs gained market share this quarter (up to 6.6% worldwide and 8.1% here in the US of A). And have you noticed, between Jaguar, Panther, Tiger and Leopard, this is probably the most drastic upgrading any OS has gone through without a major version-number change? (As in "no Mac OS XI as yet.")

It's Posters' Day! What do YOU think I should be writing about?

As promised, the weekly feature of STTL Fridays is hereby officially inaugurated. You all know the topics I like to beat to death —err, discuss frequently here. And I have some idea of what you all are interested in that you've posted here. What's missing from this picture? Is there anything about me you've just been dying to know? Any part of the passing political/cultural parade I've missed seeing? Any good jokes (or bad puns) you know I haven't heard? C'mon, folks, this is your day to take the reins.

Birthday wishes goin' out to Singapore

Before I forget and run out of October 19, happy birthday to probably the furthest-flung member of my f-list, khaosworks! Many happy returns, Your Honor, and come back to see us again in the States soon as you can. (We still don't have enough Cthulhu filk.)