In response to the news that the Bert is Evil website has been removed by its creator (see the “life imitates art” link below for the reason why), Metafilter poster Rogers Cadenhead writes:

Can we please stop recasting every decision in our lives as a matter of whether the terrorists win or not? (“I’m going to super-size my Big Mac Extra Value Meal today, because if I don’t, we’re letting them win.”) Al Qaeda has a reputation for thorough planning, but I don’t think they killed 5,600 people to drive humorists off the Net.

An excellent point. One can almost forgive him for publishing the Drudge Report.

Tonight, Whose Line Is it Anyway? was preempted for the President’s press conference on the war in Afghanistan. I think that’s just plain rude. So I’m watching The Color of Money and wandering around online instead, which I guess is just as well.

Anyway, keeping in what is fast becoming something of a tradition, some more photographs of nothing in particular and of questionable quality.

“This must be Thursday,” said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer, “I never could get the hang of Thursdays.” – Douglas Adams

When roleplaying becomes identity theft (found via The Obscure Store):

David Dunn of Cleveland has become such a powerful warrior in the Internet fantasy game DragonRealms that others would pay thousands of dollars to assume his character, Bloodwrath. But shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a real-world impostor tried to kill him off and steal his online identity.

When life imitates art (found originally via memepool):

With his oval head, bulbous nose, shaggy eyebrows and tiny tuft of rod-straight black hair, the banana-yellow puppet is a favorite of children around the world. But this week, he shared space with terror lord Osama Bin Laden on posters wielded by anti-American extremists during violent protests in Bangladesh.

When getting from here to there becomes an unecessary ordeal (read at Abada Abada):

I have concluded that the only way Greyhound could possibly be safer now — as you have claimed in statements to the press — than before the regrettable bus crash is if you had been handing out knives to passengers in the months beforehand.

When boredom and no discernible talent collide. Diversions! diversions! my kingdom for diversions!

God, suggests Shannon Wheeler is an atheist. An amusing idea. I am reminded of a favorite Arthur C. Clarke short story, “The Nine Billion Names of God”. Go on, read it. I’ll wait. There is always a last time for everything.

Earlier this evening, I finished watching Trevor Nunn’s excellent and haunting adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. The play has always been problematic. Laurence Olivier once called it “horrid, cruel, and one of the most popular plays in the whole collected volume of Shakespeare.” In college, as part of my Shakespeare course, my group had to argue that Shylock is in fact the tragic hero of the piece. I had my doubts before watching tonight, but it would be a wretchedly uncomfortable play, I think, were he not

“I want a life with a man who will ignore me and take me for granted and only pretend to be interested in me to get in my pants.” I now find myself watching Bedazzled for some reason. Brendan Fraser is goofy, and Elizabeth Hurley is…well, Elizabeth Hurley. I mean, c’mon, she’s dressed like a Catholic schoolgirl and she’s got that accent. I’m only human.

Well anyway, some more photographs, for what they’re worth.