Of the many leisure activities I don’t have as much time for, watching desperately odd tv is one of them. Ahhhh…the Saturday mornings watching a former Spanish Playboy© model singing and dancing with Spanish pre-schoolers who were herded by Spanish teenage hotties in tight toy soldiers outfits, that always climaxed in Xuxa (the model/singer/dancer/children’s role model) applying thick red lipstick leaving big wet crimson kissis on the dazed cheeks of the little cherubs. Man, that was TV.

I’ve been going through this list of semi-mainstream but not-quite-right shows wishing I could have them in a big stack of tapes with a couple weeks just to kick back and go through them.

This guy could be a pre-cursor to a crazy billionaire’s particular scheme:

39. THE CHUCK MCCANN SHOW (WPIX, 1965-66). Manic kid show, in which McCann read the Sunday funnies while dressed as appropriate comic-strip characters. When he read Little Orphan Annie, for example, he wore a red dress, a curly fright wig, and white cardboard circles clenched into his eye-sockets like monocles, and spoke in a shrill falsetto. If these guys weren’t doing crank, nobody was.

They are building a new highway next to the office. It’s no Big Dig but it is fairly extensive and controversial since it’s deciding the traffic design for a major portion of the NAFTA flow and the number one computer company worldwide. I’m no expert in structures or concrete (since I dropped out of engineering school when I realized the doddering old jack-ass teaching statics would be teaching many of my advanced engineering classes — “I don’t want to see any of you boys drinking soda pop in my classroom because this isn’t the cafeteria, and don’t come in here wearing t-shirts and blue jeans because while I can’t grade you on if you dress appropriately it will certainly affect my ability to grade your work if you look unprofessional.” – 100% accurate paraphrase) but this pattern of decay/wear/loss appears in several places around the site.

Anyone know what it could be? Should I make a point of driving out of my way to avoid the over and under passes?

The Washington Post highlights a new “bipartisan” initiative that we can all applaud:

“Groups of conservative Republicans see an opportunity to step up a campaign to promote alternative-fuel vehicles and wean the nation from dependence on foreign oil. While skeptical about links between autos and global warming, the conservatives have concluded that cutting gasoline consumption is a matter of national security.

A who’s who of right-leaning military hawks — including former CIA director R. James Woolsey and Iraq war advocate Frank J. Gaffney Jr. — has joined with environmental advocates such as the Natural Resources Defense Council to lobby Congress to spend $12 billion to cut oil use in half by 2025. The alliance highlights how popular sentiment is turning against the no-worries gas-guzzling culture of the past decade and how alternative technologies such as gas-electric hybrids are finding increasingly widespread support.”

CNet’s got a bit on Sony’s efforts to digitally distribute movies. What has my interest piqued here (mostly as an emerging Apple fanboy) is Sony’s prominient place in January’s Macworld keynote, and the bit from the article on “I’m trying to create the new ‘anti-Napster,’” which looked at being a shot at iTunes’ chief competition.

The other interesting tidbit was Sony’s plans—and similar moves by other studios—are likely to avoid empowering any one technology company—such as Apple in the music equation—and allow studios to pocket more of the profits. Hmmm; Sony not a technology company? Interesting. (Aside: Cory Doctorow just did a bit comparing Sony’s approach with Betamax to current legal battles…)

Lastly, if anyone wants to send me a PSP, I’d love it.