Peter O’Toole, star of Lawrence of Arabia, dies aged 81 [Guardian UK]

Title: “Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas”

Author: Sarah Palin

Rank: 387

Blurb: “In Good Tidings and Great Joy she calls for bringing back the freedom to express the Christian values of the season. She asserts the importance of preserving Jesus Christ in Christmas — in public displays, school concerts, pageants, and our expressions to one another other — and laments the over-commercialization and homogenization of Christmas in today’s society.”

Review: “Not many days pass any more where I don’t ask myself what has happen to our nation.”

Customers Also Bought: “Mannheim Steamroller Christmas”

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It’s a question I’m sure we’ve all asked ourselves at some point but I think it bears repeating: why is he such an asshole?

Was his brain starved of oxygen at some critical juncture? Is it all an elaborate joke and he’s really Abby Hoffman? I once spent six weeks in Salt Lake City so I’m something of an expert on all things Utahan and I see no rational explanation for him. If he’d been born in, say, Oregon then you might be able to point to some geographical factor like the misalignment of electromagnetic poles at work. Or a childhood spent too close to high-voltage power lines. But in my time at SLC I didn’t actually witness anyone out on the streets howling at the moon. Mind you, they did remove all the mail boxes from city streets after the Trade Center attack and in 2003 they still hadn’t been replaced. So there was that.

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This video of a rat on the escalator at the Civic Center BART/Muni station is strangely hypnotic, and there’s some sort of Sisyphean metaphor in there. 

The busker playing saxophone in the back just adds to the vibe.

The first thing you need to understand is that it doesn’t snow in Eugene.

Okay, sure, it snows, but not that much. Not dependably. Snow is an event in Eugene, something special. And when Eugene gets even a few inches — enough to close down the University of Oregon — it’s an occasion for joy.

It certainly was joyous back in January 1969 — especially to a ten-year-old boy — when it snowed three feet one weekend. Not so joyous to the boy’s father, who was responsible for making sure the local rag was delivered to snowbound local homes.

Dad had chains on his pickup, so he was also enlisted to escort reporters around the white streets. It was in that capacity that he found himself driving down Thirteenth, through the heart of campus — and through the middle of a snowball fight. It wasn’t until he survived the gauntlet that he rolled down his window in relief.

And then SPLAT. Right in the kisser.

We weren’t there. We only remember it now because the reporter was sufficiently amused to write it up the next day.

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We were struck by this passage in the new Rolling Stone profile of Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden:

Snowden has been an undeniable boon for WikiLeaks, which has been struggling financially since 2011… After Snowden went public, donations to the group began to pour in at around $1,300 per day. WikiLeaks now sells T-shirts, mugs and tote bags with Snowden’s face on them (Bradley Manning’s visage, which once adorned similar paraphernalia, has all but disappeared).

Part of what fascinates us is that WikiLeaks was very late to the Snowden story — they did not, and do not, possess any of the thousands of Snowden’s NSA documents, most of which have yet to be revealed.

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Title: “Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics”

Author: Charles Krauthammer

Rank: 2

Blurb: “Provides children ages 7-10 many hours of fun and laughter.”

Review: “My 8yo son carried this book around with him. Even slept with it! He had his nose stuck in it, occasionally looking up to tell me a joke but mostly just enjoying giggling at the humor that is perfect for the older elementary set.”

Customers Also Bought: “What Do You Hear When Cows Sing?”

Footnote: The Management apologizes for confusing Mr. Krauthammer’s book with #6 Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids. Those responsible have been sacked.

Things That Matter [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon Kickback Link]