If you follow Sport as closely as we don’t, you’ll appreciate the significance of the following:

In another gesture to welcome Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre, Green Bay city officials sported flip-flop sandals at work Friday.

The new fashion statements are aimed at poking fun at Brett’s decision-making about his retirement retirements career.

“I think it’s a fun idea. I think that Brett would probably actually be proud that we chose to have this kind of fun without going in to a negative, of a way,” Andre Jacque in the mayor’s office said.

That’s all well and good, but how many computers in the Green Bay mayor’s office have visited Burn Brett Favre?

Title: “Consider the Lobster and Other Essays”

Author: David Foster Wallace

Rank: 8,414

Blurb: “His topics are various — this new collection treats porn, sports autobiographies and the vagaries of English usage, among others — his perspective always slightly askew and his observations on point.”

Review: “My nephew who is 15 really liked this book. My niece who is 17 suggested it to him.”

Customers Also Bought: “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus,” by Ludwig Wittgenstein

Footnote: “Key Phrases: political talk radio, adult industry, porn starlets, Rolling Stone, Dick Filth, South Carolina (more…).” We can think of no better way to start off today’s monthly Stinque Book Chat.

Consider the Lobster [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon kickback link]

Today’s big college matchup appears to be the fourth-ranked USC Spoiled Children playing in Eugene against the tenth-ranked Oregon Disney-Authorized Mascots, so let’s get a preview:

On the opposite side of the ball, I see USC attempting to push around Oregon’s undersized defensive line. The Duck linemen have done an excellent job this year, but have not faced an O-line of USC’s caliber. I expect USC to attempt to pound the ball, grind out some clock, and take a few shots downfield on Oregon’s young secondary. Oregon’s speed is great on the line and at the linebackers, so I don’t think USC will be very successful on the edges. But, if USC can run the ball and force Oregon to bring safety help to stop the run, Oregon could be in for a long day, as the young corners will be all alone.

We’re sure that means something, but talk like that makes as little sense to us now as it did when we were in the Oregon marching band. Which is why we always hid a convenient flask inside our comfy uniform.

Q&A with Addicted to Quack [Conquest Chronicles]

This morning’s guest columnist is Kimberly Daniels, founder of Kimberly Daniels Ministries International, in Jacksonville, Florida. Normally we would abridge her fine work, but we don’t want our immortal soul TP’d by the Creator.

Halloween — October 31 — is considered a holiday in the United States. In fact, it rivals Christmas with regard to how widely celebrated it is. Stores that sell only Halloween-related paraphernalia open up a few months before the day and close shortly after it ends. But is Halloween a holiday that Christians should be observing?

The word “holiday” means “holy day.” But there is nothing holy about Halloween. The root word of Halloween is “hallow,” which means “holy, consecrated and set apart for service.” If this holiday is hallowed, whose service is it set apart for? The answer to that question is very easy — Lucifer’s!

Read more »

We’re just looking for an excuse to run the Sarah Palin Halloween mask again, but what the heck — the author of yet another book on the increasingly crowded Talibunny shelf says feminists are jealous that she temped her way to glory:

It was telling that Fey should be the actress who impersonated Palin. The two women may look like each other, but they could not be more dissimilar. Each exemplifies a different category of feminism. Palin comes from the I-can-do-it-all school. She is professionally successful, has been married for more than 20 years, and has a large and (from all outward appearances) happy family. And while Fey is also pretty, married, and has a daughter, the characters she portrays in films like Mean Girls and Baby Mama, and in television shows like 30 Rock, are hard-pressed eggheads who give up personal fulfillment — e.g., marriage and motherhood — in the pursuit of professional success.

Note the comparison: Not to Tina Fey herself, but to the fictional characters she plays. Last time that happened, Murphy Brown built an entire episode around it.

Palin Book: Feminists Jealous of Sarah’s Rise [US News]

Back in September, we asked an impertinent question:

The immediate, practical question is this: How much will the healthcare “reform” fuck us over?

And now, the Congressional Budget Office hands us a ruler:

Yesterday, in an analysis of House health care legislation, the CBO concluded that the six million people expected to enroll in the public option by 2019 will be paying, on average, higher rates than will people buying private plans.

It’s still early in the game, since healthcare legislation has umpteen hoops to jump through. But unlike Team Sarah, the gun we see in the bill is pointed at our head.

Wait A Minute—The Public Option’s Premiums Would Be Higher On Average? [TPM]

We usually raid WorldNetDaily for the lighter side of rabid wingnuttery, but every so often — well…

A pro-life organization is blasting a Switzerland-based cosmetics manufacturer whose website openly admits some of its products were developed from the tissues of an aborted baby.

Too good to be true? Let’s find out!

Read more »