worldwide pablo

Now fairier and balancier

Not that there was much doubt before, but it's probably safe now to dispel the notion that Fox News is anything short of a subsidiary of the Grand Ol' (Tea Party).

I dreamed a dream in time gone by

Okay, so this has been all over Facebook and the interwebs today, but WWP cannot resist sharing it again. Watch it all the way through. If you're not the slightest bit choked up by the end, you might want to check to see if you still have a pulse.

Some people get 16 minutes

They don't make war correspondents like they used to, do they?

The phenomenon that will not die

We're speaking of "Dallas," of course. Today comes word that the stars of that 80s show will get together once again, this time to celebrate the program's 30th anniversary. It won't be a reunion show, but instead a barbecue at the drama's location, Southfork Ranch outside of Dallas. Tickets start at $100 [which is roughly what this happenin' gal charged for front-row seats, ahem] and go up to $1,000. The event will include fireworks, a country music concert, a question-and-answer session with the cast and tours of the mansion. Details here.

WWP was never a big fan of the show. During the 1980s, WWP didn't get the chance to watch much television, being self-employed for the first half of the decade and holding down two or three jobs at a time during the second half. The whole "who shot J.R." mania completely passed him by.  In its entire run, WWP only watched one episode. Twice.

It was somewhere around 1990 or 1991, as "Dallas" was winding down. Pablo been forced to sit through an episode with friends. About six months later, a similar situation arose, and it being the last season he consented to watch another episode. Only problem was, it was a rerun -- of the one and only episode WWP had seen before!

That's his main memory of "Dallas." Here's a happier one.

Simpsonize yourself

If you've ever dreamed of becoming a character on "The Simpsons," here's your chance. That's WWP above, by the way, the newest resident of Springfield [Oregon, thankyouverymuch], courtesy of SimpsonizeMe.com.

[The image above is based on this photo, gleaned from WWP's church directory, of all things.]

E-mail of the day

Quick! Identify this guy:

A) German ambassador to the United States?
B) Former rock and roll star?
C) Spokane, Wash., serial killer?
D) Announced presidential candidate in '08?
E) CEO of Halliburton?

Hey, hey, it's this guy.

How old does that make you feel?

Another O

Being involved in the media ourselves, we fully understand the need for publications and media outlets to occasionally update their look from time to time. Just in the past few days, we've noticed that our very own Oregon Public Broadcasting has begun to sport a new logo, which is now appearing on the OPB website and in the tiny lower-righthand corner of its broadcasts.

In our opinion, what once was stylish and elegant has given way to a something that at best can only be described as bland and ordinary. [The version rendered as a white-over on-air "button," mentioned above, is especially dull and painful to look at.] We're guessing -- and hoping -- that OPB did not blow more than, say, $35 on this ill-considered redesign.

Come to think of it, WWP knows more than a few starving graphic artists out there who would have done as much or more in exchange simply for the Placido Domingo CD and special-offer OPB T-shirt and mug.

Mel, give us a call!

Video of the day

Where's a manly weathercaster when you really need him?

Mountain madness

Pretty much as meteorologists and geologists anticipated, there was an eruption today at Mount St. Helens [or Lawala-Clough or Loowit, for those of us who prefer the original Klickitat names]. And pretty much as expected, the local media had its own eruption — of frenzy. Judging from the anxious tones of the local TV news at noontime, Armageddon cannot be far behind. [Film at 11?]

To WWP’s eye, today’s rumble doesn’t qualify as much more than geological hiccup, or best, a really big burp. Only a few hours after the mountain let out its little belch, and as this post was being written, things looked pretty darn calm up at the mountain. [K's Quill even refers to it as an "anticlimax."] Basically, there's no comparison to the events of May 18, 1980, despite the local media’s efforts to portray it otherwise.

One unsettling similarity between today and 1980, however, is the tourism factor. In 1980, just three of the deaths in 1980 were inside the so-called Red Zone [a safety barrier that in hindsight turned out to be woefully undersized]. Most of those killed outside the zone were campers and visitors — tourists, basically — all caught off guard by the unforeseen cataclysm to come.

Today, KGW reports that the mountain is once again drawing tourists:

Camcorder in hand, Sheri Ray stood on Johnston Ridge — named for a man killed when Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980 — and waited impatiently for the volcano to blow again.

Forest Service interpreter Anna White stands in front Mount St. Helens while giving at Johnston Ridge, at Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Wash.
“I thought I was going to feel earthquakes,” she said, frowning. “I'm mad.”

Intensifying rumblings from the nation's most cantankerous mountain had geologists saying Thursday it could erupt any minute. But hundreds of curious, excited and apprehensive visitors to the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument couldn’t feel a thing.

Ray, a 28-year-old bartender from Vancouver, Wash., and her husband, Dustin, called in sick to work to spend the day hoping for an eruption — just not a big one.

As Chuck Currie points out, WWP has heard that story before.

[WWP's original posted can be found here.]