A nice article at The New Yorker discusses Time Burton’s quest to cast Billy Redden, the banjo playing boy in Deliverance in his new film Big Fish .

Redden, who is now forty-seven, works ten-hour days as a cook and dishwasher at the nearby Cookie Jar Café, and he was hesitant at first about taking time off to appear in another film. For one thing, he had always regretted being the poster boy for “Deliverance”’s Gothic view of rural America. For another, he hadn’t enjoyed working with the film’s star, Burt Reynolds.

North Korea walked out on a game against Iran in the Asian Cup because a firecracker thrown from the crowd injured one of the North Korean players. I know that smoke from a firecracker can be decieving, but check out the effluent from this baby.

Judge Roy Moore was completely removed from office for disobeying federal order to remove the Ten Commandments statue he erected (in the dead of night, mind you) in the middle of the courthouse. Here’s my favorite part of the article:

The nine members of Alabama’s Court of the Judiciary unanimously voted to remove Roy Moore, who was elected to a six-year term as the state’s top judge in 2000.

Get that: unanimously.

Justice is served.

A standout quote in the WSJ today …

“We’re pretty frugal people,” says the 46-year-old lieutenant in the San Diego sheriff’s department. But “TV is something you use day in and out,” he notes, and the picture on the family’s new $6,500 living-room centerpiece “is better than life.”

Take the Nerd Purity Test and post your scores here. I’m not sure whether you want the highest or lowest score…

I suppose I should report that HBO is almost done making this into a film.

Check out this cool little gadget from Bombardier. As soon as fuel cell technology is available to the general public (in what, 2099?) I’ll be all over this.