Wishbones
It is the day after Thanksgiving. It is an appropriate time to cast aside my customary acerbity and prove that this old curmudgeon can still find reasons to be thankful. These are my wishbone awards in no particular order:
Wishbone #1 For family and friends who gathered together and brightened up the world.
Wishbone #2 For National Public Radio for a fine lineup of news, information, and opinion broadcasts. My favorite shows are The Diane Rehm Show, Talk of the Nation, Open Source, All Things Considered, BBC News, News and Notes, Car Talk, and my favorite variety show, A Prairie Home Companion. I'm proud to a member of my local NPR station.
Wishbone #3 To the New England Patriots. They have a winning record this season after suffering devastating losses of key personnel. Being two games ahead of Buffalo in the weak Eastern Division gives them an excellent chance to make the playoffs. The big obstacle in the AFC playoffs will be the Colts. They have a perfect record at this point. A major share of the credit must go to coach Bill Belichik. He needed only one year to turn the team around after he arrived. His genius lies in his ability to acquire good players that are overlooked by other teams and to turn them into solid team players. His latest acquisition is Heath Evans. After being cut by Miami and acquired by the Patriots, Heath had a career day against his old team. Belichik's best genius move was in the 2000 draft. His sixth round draft choice turned out to be a pretty good quarterback.
Wishbone #4 To everyone who contributed to the relief of the great natural disasters of the past year. And to the Walmart employees and others in Louisiana who gave food and water to needy people after Hurricane Katrina.
Wishbone #5 To Cindy Sheehan who made America listen.
Wishbone #6 To Senator John McCain. I disagree with his economics, but I admire him for his honesty, his candor, his patriotism, his courage, and his common sense. He is one politician who takes seriously the threat of global warming. Nevertheless, I don't understand his forbearance after he was humiliated by his fellow Republicans in the Soth Carolina primary of 2000.
Wishbone #7 To the voters of Dover PA who cast an obstacle in path of those promoting the unscientific theory of 'intelligent design'.
Wishbone #8 To the British civil servants who leaked a top secret memo describing a conversation between President Bush and Prime Minister Blair. President bush said he wanted to bomb the headquarters of Aljazeera in the friendly country of Qatar.
Wishbone #9 To the TV station Aljazeera for bringing an independent voice to the Arab world. Aljazeera will probably do more to bring freedom and accountability to Muslim nations than anything that the United States can do alone. Check it out at http://english.aljazeera.net
Wishbone #10 To Mark Russinovich who exposed the scandal of Sony's CDs that included dangerous 'rootkit' software. Mark and other experts forced Sony to recall over fifty CDs of such artists as Celine Dion, Van Zant, Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and Roseanne Cash. In their zeal to protect their copyrights Sony used software that violated the copyrights of the open software LAME project.
Wishbones to many others, unmentioned here, who struggle in small ways to make our world better. And enough of this gentle, pollyannish, blandness. Tomorrow I shall be back to my usual cantankerous acerbity, hurling brickbats at all pusillanimous purveyors of hypocricy, mendacity, and cant.
Wishbone #1 For family and friends who gathered together and brightened up the world.
Wishbone #2 For National Public Radio for a fine lineup of news, information, and opinion broadcasts. My favorite shows are The Diane Rehm Show, Talk of the Nation, Open Source, All Things Considered, BBC News, News and Notes, Car Talk, and my favorite variety show, A Prairie Home Companion. I'm proud to a member of my local NPR station.
Wishbone #3 To the New England Patriots. They have a winning record this season after suffering devastating losses of key personnel. Being two games ahead of Buffalo in the weak Eastern Division gives them an excellent chance to make the playoffs. The big obstacle in the AFC playoffs will be the Colts. They have a perfect record at this point. A major share of the credit must go to coach Bill Belichik. He needed only one year to turn the team around after he arrived. His genius lies in his ability to acquire good players that are overlooked by other teams and to turn them into solid team players. His latest acquisition is Heath Evans. After being cut by Miami and acquired by the Patriots, Heath had a career day against his old team. Belichik's best genius move was in the 2000 draft. His sixth round draft choice turned out to be a pretty good quarterback.
Wishbone #4 To everyone who contributed to the relief of the great natural disasters of the past year. And to the Walmart employees and others in Louisiana who gave food and water to needy people after Hurricane Katrina.
Wishbone #5 To Cindy Sheehan who made America listen.
Wishbone #6 To Senator John McCain. I disagree with his economics, but I admire him for his honesty, his candor, his patriotism, his courage, and his common sense. He is one politician who takes seriously the threat of global warming. Nevertheless, I don't understand his forbearance after he was humiliated by his fellow Republicans in the Soth Carolina primary of 2000.
Wishbone #7 To the voters of Dover PA who cast an obstacle in path of those promoting the unscientific theory of 'intelligent design'.
Wishbone #8 To the British civil servants who leaked a top secret memo describing a conversation between President Bush and Prime Minister Blair. President bush said he wanted to bomb the headquarters of Aljazeera in the friendly country of Qatar.
Wishbone #9 To the TV station Aljazeera for bringing an independent voice to the Arab world. Aljazeera will probably do more to bring freedom and accountability to Muslim nations than anything that the United States can do alone. Check it out at http://english.aljazeera.net
Wishbone #10 To Mark Russinovich who exposed the scandal of Sony's CDs that included dangerous 'rootkit' software. Mark and other experts forced Sony to recall over fifty CDs of such artists as Celine Dion, Van Zant, Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and Roseanne Cash. In their zeal to protect their copyrights Sony used software that violated the copyrights of the open software LAME project.
Wishbones to many others, unmentioned here, who struggle in small ways to make our world better. And enough of this gentle, pollyannish, blandness. Tomorrow I shall be back to my usual cantankerous acerbity, hurling brickbats at all pusillanimous purveyors of hypocricy, mendacity, and cant.
posted by Tover van Ooteldonk | 9:33 AM
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