9/1/5: Departures and Returns

I just have a few quick mentions tonight.

In happier work news, today we celebrated Valsmal's imminent departure from the company. She's on to bigger and better, and so we went out and threw a few back in her honor. She brought her excellent husband who hopefully kept an eye on her as the night rolled on. Joe Monkeyweb stopped by and said hello. It was really a nice evening.

Also, a co-worker pointed out to me today that The Onion has opened up its archives to the world again. I know it's kind of gone downhill in the last year or two (or maybe we've just gotten bored of its consistent brilliance), but I'll always have a soft spot for The Onion. As a UW-Madison student from 1987-1990, I was there when this journalistic giant was born. I remember picking one up for the first time in University Square in Madison ca. 1989. I sat and read it while I ate my ham and cheese sub at Cousins. I was hooked from that moment. When it went online and became the standard for internet humor in the late 90's, I cheered as if my underdog team had won the championship. Then, when it started getting lame, I felt obligated to be honest about its sudden lameness:

Now that most of us agree that The Onion has lost its oomph, the boys over there have decided to start charging for some of their content. It always seems to go this way, doesn't it? You start to suck, and then you get desperate for money. Like Metallica's Napster lawsuit. Or Bell Biv DeVoe's comeback album. You have my word that www.verbungle.com will remain as free as the air you breathe. When they start charging for air, though, all bets are off. 'Cause I'm gonna need some air money.

-Hans Bungle, 5/20/04

What I should have predicted was the next step: a reverse of field when the pay strategy fails. Whatever the reason, I am oh so happy that The Onion has become completely free again. I may start reading it every week.  In the meantime, I will go back and look at some old favorites to see if they remain funny.

I've really liked the fire that A-Rod and The Big Unit have been displaying lately. A-Rod in particular has impressed me with his attitude on the field. Go Yanks.

Whodat (16 points)?

Finally, I want to give Pete B. respect for being the only person I spoke to who recognized the scope of Katrina and understood what was going to happen to New Orleans. The rest of us are so used to hurricanes petering out after tremendous hype that we assumed this one would shake down pretty much the same way. Pete told us thousands would perish, and unfortunately it looks like he was right.

The scenes down there are just horrible. I see no reason not to help. I know that there are tragedies of even greater magnitude happening around the world every day, and I know for a lot of people, myself included, it takes an event close to home to wake us from our lazy, comfortable stupor.  So if you want to help somewhere else in the world instead, that's fine, too. I'm gonna start with the hurricane victims.