Ongoing Commentary

Notes from all over, personal to national (because otherwise I will just get too far behind):

Sacnoth, better known as Tolkien scholar John Rateliff, has his magnum opus on The Hobbit reviewed by theLA Times.

Monkey King, also known as Wolf Baur, has been getting a lot of good press for Kobold Quarterly, now in its third issue. Notes from Wired, Cinerati and Velvet Dice Bag.

Guild Wars won a Reader's Choice award from MMORPG.com. Go us! (Why yes, Sacnoth Valley WAS named after the gentleman in entry one).

Writer's Strike: New weirdness, United Artists got a exemption from the Writer's Guild, similar to Letterman's World Wide Pants (that is, they agree to the Guild's terms NOW). Sort of points out that WGA's demands are not all that unreasonable. The thing is, UA is owned in part by Sony, one of the Bigs. So is Sony sending out a signal that its ready to deal? Or are its people not sufficiently influential that UA can chart its own course?

Floods in Chehalis: United Way - out of money. FEMA - grinding slow.

Basketball. The Storm is staying, and will soon be outdrawing the sooner-to-be-Sooners Sonics.

Scaife: Interviews with both parties in Vanity Fair. Kid-gloves soft treatment, pointing out the raw hypocrisy but not letting the comments stick. Humanizes the participants, but reminds you that they are not humans you'd want to hang around.

Economy: What the freaking heck is happening with the stock market? The DOW is like 1000 points off its recent high. Is anyone paying attention?

Local Politics: Two months after the election, it turns out there WAS fraud and abuse at the Port of Seattle. Good thing we got rid of one of the reformers on the board.

National Politics: To quote scriptwriter William Goldman: "Nobody Knows Anything". Glad I don't feel obligated to play pundit on a regular basis. It is, however, making for an interesting ride.

More later,