Quoted!

It's been a while since my words found their way into the advertising trade media. In an article for ClickZ about television ads in retail stores, Pete Blackshaw quoted me as a counterweight to the enthusiasm for Wal*Mart TV expressed by others still "in the game". Not only that, he reported my words accurately and used them in a thoughtful and interesting piece. Journalism lives!

Back in the day, I used to shake the foundation of powerful industries when I spoke. No, really. Like the time all the magazine publishers wanted to...well, I didn't stick around long enough to find out exactly what they wanted to do.

Loving NeoOffice (OpenOffice for Mac)

One of the risks I took in switching to Mac was that my Microsoft Office 2000 discs would be unusable and I'd have to either find an alternative or ante up and buy the Mac version of MS Office. I'm immensely relieved to report that NeoOffice, one of the two OpenOffice options for Mac, is splendid (I generally try to avoid that word but it really sums it up).

First I tried to official OpenOffice Mac version but couldn't get past the X11 business. I thought I installed X11 but the Open Office installer still wouldn't run, so I gave up. (I got a Mac precisely to avoid getting sucked into endless tinkering.) So I went with the native Mac version, NeoOffice, even though it's not an "official" release. So far so good! I had an easy time making the invitation for our Cinco de Mayo party--lots of images, text boxes, playing with margins and borders and fonts, color shading, autoshapes, etc. etc. As I got used to using it, I began to find it easier than Word, which I've been using since 1993 and know pretty well. It's just, I don't know, better organized. Things I need don't seem to be buried 4 layers deep.

So if you haven't taken the OpenOffice plunge, give it a shot.

My other blogs

After a few stops and starts, I think I'm getting the hang of multiple blogs. This is my general one, and the other two are on specific topics.

"To Snip or Not to Snip: Vasectomy Straight Talk" arose out of a book I'm working on. While waiting for some savvy editor with an eye for odd talent to give the thumbs up, this is my way to pass the time.

"What's Up With Greenfield" gives my take on this forgotten little corner of Massachusetts. Covers all salient aspects of life in Greenfield, from nukie pills to bad car repairs.

Saddam to replace Flea as bass player for Red Hot Chili Peppers

Omni-matic has just learned that the famous photos of Saddam Hussein stripped to his briefs, published by The Sun today, were taken a roadie for the Red Hot Chili Peppers as the former dictator prepared to audition for the band. Early reports placed the former strongman at the drums, but a spokesman for the group later revealed that Hussein "played a smokin' bass" and "knocked the socks off" his future bandmates. Current bass player Flea reportedly has agreed to postpone his solo tour and remain with the band until the new guy is able to clear up a few legal matters.

How many people should we kill?

Governor Mitt Romney wants the state to kill people. Massachusetts hasn't killed anyone, at least not intentionally and through due process of the courts, in several decades. But Connecticut beat us to it and who wants to fall behind Connecticut?

Columnist Jeff Jacoby at The Boston Globe doesn't like Romney's proposal because it wouldn't kill enough people. We'd put all these safeguards in place at great expense and what would we get for all our trouble? People would use these safeguards to avoid getting killed (we can't all be lucky enough to have a Michael Ross), and then we'd be right back where we started.

Jacoby's position is abhorrent but at least its logic is clear. And he brings up a legitimate question: what's the point of spending all this money on a "foolproof" system if it means hardly anyone will get executed?

Call me a crazy Christian if you must, but I don't think it's right to kill people. And call me a simpleton if you must, but two wrongs don't make a right. The state has the right to deny liberty and privileges to killers, but taking their lives puts us on the same low moral plane.

"Tree Bites Man" - remember that?

I had forgotten this piece of Celtics lore, but Danny Ainge hasn't--because he still has the scar where Tree Rollins bit him.

Ainge had been in the league for only two years when he tackled Tree Rollins in a Celtics-Hawks playoff game at the old Boston Garden in April 1983. Rollins was a 7-footer, but Ainge -- looking like a cornerback bringing down a giant tight end -- hit Rollins low and took him to the floor. While the two rolled around the parquet, Rollins bit Ainge's finger, a wound that required a tetanus shot and several stitches. The most amazing part of the story is that it has been completely inverted in most retellings and the majority of American sports fans seem to believe it was Ainge who bit Rollins.

(from today's Boston Globe.)