/staff/articles/joel+achenbach/2009-11-24T18:17:03Z2009-11-24T18:17:03Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-24:/click.phdo?i=2222117f24ab450a6dec864652083d2b

This morning I overhead someone talk about "the best thing since sliced bread." But I missed hearing about the thing that was the object of her superlative. I felt my innards congeal with curiosity, and when it didn't pass, I realized I needed to think this through. When did they invent sliced bread? Before or after canned beer? And why is sliced bread so amazing? Sure, sliced bread is extremely convenient when you've got exactly 30 seconds to make the PB&J; for the critter who has to run out the door to catch the bus in the morning, but should it really be the standard by which measure innovation? I'm just wondering if the saying really should be something more along the lines of "The best thing since, and perhaps even encompassing the invention of, sliced bread." Imprecision in speech is a form of evil. In any case, several

2009-11-23T13:05:59Ztag:ads.pheedo.com,2009-11-23:/click.phdo?s=90e998dc822dd937024599276207aeb3&p=4

2009-11-23T13:05:59Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-23:/click.phdo?i=90e998dc822dd937024599276207aeb3

I've got to go with Kevin Huffman in this pundit contest, even while noting, with clenched jaw, face twisted in a death's-head grimace, that both of the contestants have exposed their weaknesses. (You can cast your vote until 8 p.m.) Huffman's column has Mobius-strip reasoning that makes the reader work too hard. Once again he has polyurethaned his prose with satire and snark. It's too clever by half, or maybe three-quarters -- or perhaps I just haven't woken up yet. In general, you don't want the main reaction of your readers to be, "What is he saying????" But thematically the column works, as it jabs the conservatives for their perverse rejection ("death panels!") of evidence-based, results-oriented medical treatment. Of course, I'm pretty sure that the liberal Democrats and administration officials were equally reluctant last week to embrace the scientific recommendations for fewer cancer screenings. The simple fact is that

2009-11-21T15:10:43Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-21:/click.phdo?i=324f988f4def63cbeb6f31fc5b28abc3

You may have read about the computer hackers who stole years of emails that show climate scientists being nasty and cranky (for example, "Next time I see Pat Michaels at a scientific meeting, I'll be tempted to beat the crap out of him") and, if you believe the global-warming-deniers, manipulating the climate data. This is going viral on the web, At RealClimate, some of those scientists respond: More interesting is what is not contained in the emails. There is no evidence of any worldwide conspiracy, no mention of George Soros nefariously funding climate research, no grand plan to 'get rid of the MWP', no admission that global warming is a hoax, no evidence of the falsifying of data, and no 'marching orders' from our socialist/communist/vegetarian overlords. The truly paranoid will put this down to the hackers also being in on the plot though. My initial glance at the news

2009-11-19T15:28:30Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-19:/click.phdo?i=ec37bb71179898c44d04770f131be4c5

In my dawn-patrol ritual on the back porch, the meditative moment, the contemplative pre-electronic communing with the planet in its optimistic turn toward our star, I often find myself flooded with yearning, with need, with want, with -- dare I say the word -- desire. So it was this morning as I surveyed my estate. I really, really, really wanted to cut back the crape myrtle. [Regulars here, on seeing the word "yearning," instantly thought: he's going to make a joke about wanting a new lawn mower. But I'm not so predictable!!] Being a man, particularly one past that conquer-the-world phase, is extraordinarily easy. We prune back our ambitions until they are mere goals, and then trim them some more until we have just a severe little topiary shrub shaped strikingly like the Lombardi Trophy. We learn to putter, and dither. We eyeball our stocks and gradually shift the money

2009-11-18T12:31:48Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-18:/click.phdo?i=3b225d35567f15bbabb56fce80be3c49

First Newsweek had that ridiculous cover "In Search of Aliens" a few months back, a wild exaggeration of a story about the Kepler mission to find Earthlike worlds. Then Newsweek had a cover asking if your baby is racist. Now we have the Sarah Palin cover, using a sexy photo taken for Runner's World. Jon Meacham defends the decision: "We chose the most interesting image available to us to illustrate the theme of the cover, which is what we always try to do," Meacham said. "We apply the same test to photographs of any public figure, male or female: does the image convey what we are saying? That is a gender-neutral standard." Ain't nothin' gender-neutral about Sarah Palin. Her sex appeal is part of the package. But that's all the more reason to be sensitive to the perils of over-leveraging that aspect of her celebrity. Newsweek over-leveraged. In a single

2009-11-17T16:15:03Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-17:/click.phdo?i=6208032e0e1de30853de6dcef9ebc78f

The recent Nor'easter pounded the tar out of the Delmarva peninsula. See these pictures of Chincoteague. I'm worried about my campground at the north end of Assateague and wondering how the ponies rode out the storm. Storms regularly breach the berm (I guess you'd call it a dune except it's industrially created) that runs down the island, and the campground gets flooded, but this was no ordinary storm, lasting as it did for four days. Clearly -- obviously -- irrefutably -- I need to head to the beach today to check out the damage and blog about it, which really should only take five or six days of reporting. Also I should see how the Outer Banks handled it. And Bermuda. And the Amalfi Coast. -- Weingarten was just as mean as I was in that pundit contest that dot.com is running. Gene hates the tendency to be inoffensive and

2009-11-16T14:12:05Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-16:/click.phdo?i=8e380fce06d01af73a5ff0ae03ba5a15

Increasingly I want to take a sledgehammer to my laptop. It's following me, nagging me, pestering me, forcing me to pay attention to it when I really ought to be doing something healthier, like texting. I know my laptop better than I know my own children. Yesterday I was down by the river in the morning, the four-day storm had broken, the air was sparkling, and I found myself alone in what could plausibly pass for wilderness but for the rusty camp grill and the old fire ring and the two picnic tables -- and the laptop. The aircard works out there. Communed with nature, fired off some emails. Who among us has not sniffed around a woodsy park in search of an outlet? You know you have it bad when you check for a socket in the port-a-john. The other problem with the laptop is that it is a

2009-11-14T13:02:15Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-14:/click.phdo?i=a172ce38ac6a5a7867af02114202d2fa

I still feel bad that I said mean things about those pundit contestants simply because some of their stuff was so dreadful. The truth, of course, is that I'm jealous, because they're young and have a future and can become America's Next Great Pundit, and I'm destined to cover night cops in Gaithersburg. Resentment is becoming my foundational emotion. As I get older I become more and more aware of having grown up on a dirt road, a loose end in a broken family. Maybe it's because my own kids buy name-brand everything and seem to think they are to the manor born. (Or is it manner. Surely it's manor. At least it used to be manor back in my day.) My grouchiness extends to water discoveries in the solar system. I want the liquid. I don't care so much about ice and vapor. When scientists say the moon

2009-11-14T10:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-14:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/13/AR2009111301986.html?nav=emailpage

Crashed satellite detects water at moon's pole

2009-11-12T13:28:51Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-12:/click.phdo?i=d3ebc1bce3e5b5e09b59bce681c542af

Here's the essay I typed up yesterday on Obama as commander in chief. It's just a quick take on the man and the moment, with an assist from some military historians: War and tragedy are putting President Obama through the most wrenching period of his young administration. Visibly thinner, admittedly skipping meals, he is learning every day the challenges of a wartime presidency. Health-care reform, climate-change legislation, the broken economy -- all are cerebral exercises compared with the grim responsibility of being the commander in chief. Two weeks ago, Obama flew to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for a surprise middle-of-the-night salute to the fallen as their bodies were unloaded from a military transport plane. He met with grieving families. Then, last week, a gunman went on a rampage at Fort Hood, and Obama made his first trip as president to visit wounded troops at Walter Reed Army

2009-11-12T10:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-12:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/11/AR2009111127507.html?nav=emailpage

Afghan war, Fort Hood shooting weighing on President Obama

2009-11-11T21:51:15Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-11:/click.phdo?i=bbb3762615d1ecc632513baefe877edf

Got immersed in a day story and haven't had a chance to see the bloggy-punditry today in the Next Great Pundit contest. But I did read all the stuff yesterday and wrote up a critique, after which I felt horrible, just reeking of meanness, or, if that's not a word, meanitude. Here it is (click to see the version with all the links): Kevin Huffman is funny, quirky and has mastered the vernacular style that is crucial to blogging. I liked his earlier columns, too. He needs to be careful not to pound the snark key too much, but it works in the Agassi item, with the nice "Let's cane him!" pivot. Bonus points for the graphic. Huffman has lots of potential as a blogger because readers will find it easy to wade into his stream of consciousness. Question is, will readers want to stay there? Here's a basic

2009-11-10T17:03:54Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-10:/click.phdo?i=62a73851bf0ce85f49e7b135b307a5ef

To judge from Dana Priest's amazing story this morning, Fort Hood suspect Nidal Hasan telegraphed his actions. He took a medical seminar and turned it into a political rant. He did everything but put on scary background music -- shrieking violins, etc. It's as though he was daring his colleagues to drop a dime on him. [For younger readers: There used to be these things called "pay phones." You put a coin in a slot and were allowed to make a call. Long ago, a call cost a dime. This was when woolly mammoths roamed the Earth.] We all have moments when we have to decide whether to intervene in what seems to be a weird or dicey or peculiar situation. The street-corner argument between two strangers that's getting louder and louder -- is that about to get out of control? The friend who's depressed -- will he snap out

2009-11-09T14:27:45Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-09:/click.phdo?i=56444a0e5589d22cb12d0f6da674dd69

I'm struck by one line in the official Michael Steele, RNC reaction to the passage of health-care bill in the House: "Today with help from their liberal House allies, President Obama and Nancy Pelosi finally got what they have been creating behind closed doors these past months -- a government-run health care experiment that will increase families' health care costs, increase the deficit, increase taxes on small businesses and the middle class, and cut Medicare." Never mind the throwaway "liberal" slur or the silly "behind closed doors" confabulation: The last two words of the sentence would seem to contradict at least partially what has preceded them. Because Medicare is "government-run health care," and if it is cut, that would necessarily diminish the fiscal problems allegedly caused by the "experiment." Regardless of whether someone supports or opposes the bill, it is the height of obfuscation to slam government health care while

2009-11-07T14:19:35Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-07:/click.phdo?i=4b4e9064b9e7515f26c9786f9e80e5ce

The Hasan story is still very murky: I'm struck by how little we know so far about what he may have been thinking and why he would have done what he is accused of. The demands of instant analysis are not always met by the supply of facts. The published facts are sketchy and contradictory (he seemed like a nice guy; no, wait, he seemed angry and weird). The discussion of possible motives has touched on two basic theories, what you might call psychological vs. ideological. Or maybe crazy vs. fanatical. See The Post story today,or Tom Gjelten's NPR report last night. Maybe this will all clear up. In the meantime, a couple of thoughts, in the category of just thinking out loud on a Saturday morning:

2009-11-05T23:54:17Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-05:/click.phdo?i=a52dbeece8d0861a634ae3218d16e10e

2009-11-05T12:55:32Ztag:feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-05:/click.phdo?i=3e7b2e6a2fb6945f7feed23b071bde73

You may have heard the report about the bear that killed two militants hiding in a cave in Kashmir. Yep: Big ol' bear came home and found a gang of people on its home turf. Mastications ensued. From the BBC story: "The militants had assault rifles but were taken by surprise -- police found the remains of pudding they had made to eat when the bear attacked." Gosh, I hate to say this, but -- that wasn't pudding. That was a militant. Obviously this raises the question of whether the U.S. should adopt the bear strategy in all of these difficult regions, perhaps using some of the grizzlies enumerated by that USGS study McCain was so grumpy about. They got, let's see, 700 or so in the Glacier ecosystem alone. Our ally Canada could easily pitch in a bunch of bears. Sure, it's cruel, and insane, but compared to

2009-10-27T19:59:59Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-10-27:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102701055.html?nav=emailpage

As NASA tests new rocket, long-range mission remains unclear

2009-10-27T08:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-10-27:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102602436.html?nav=emailpage

As NASA tests new rocket, long-range mission remains unclear