In honor of the eleventy-first birthday of the Shire's most controvsersial resident - and a fine job by New Line on the film - take a moment and determine your Hobbit Name. All the best, Camellia Sandybanks of Frogmorton.

Simile of the week: "Complaining that the Internet fails as a mass medium for broadcast advertising is like being disappointed that a BMW makes a lousy tractor. 'That's right, Farmer Bill, the damn thing keeps getting stuck between the furrows. Hell, Ol' Bessie never useta get stuck!'" (From Gonzo Marketing)

Poll of the day: Does the "Bridge: Cinema de Lux" mean that (1) someone should have thought of this long ago, or (2) the world really did end on Jan. 1, 2001? "Tawk amungst yehselves."

Come on out from under the Burqua, and let me slip this $20 in your g-string... loved this article's pot-shots at So-Cal - so-called - tv news, and the quote from a local adult (?) entertainment proprietor about basic human rights and freedoms: Steve Lopez column, 11/26.

Too tired to blog with any real enthusiasm, given the lastest in a series of post-midnight evenings at the office. By 1:30, the mantra "no patience for reason, no time for truth" slowly was capturing what was left of my gray matter, and I was seized with an uncontrollable longing to hum along with the Some Girls album... Sleep deprived some scant, few hours later I awoke to hear that the Olympic Torch relay commenced today with the help of Mohammad Ali: "Birds fly, fish swim, waves pound the sand. I beat people up." (Note: Bonnie Blair seems to be the sinister force behind this latest terrorist alert, as in the foregoing photo she clearly is toting some form of weapons-grade plutonium.)

So if you're down on your luck and you can't harmonize,
Find a girl with faraway eyes
And if you're downright disgusted and life ain't worth a dime,
Get a girl with faraway eyes.

(Will bleary do?)