Tuesday…

So… good to hear that YC’s mom’s doing ok.

So… the secret on “Deep Throat” is out, now that the old Washington Post duo Woodward and Bernstein confirmed that ex-FBI deupty Mark Felt was their source. Disappointing that the mystery’s over, and the thought that Felt decided to finally come “out of the closet” (so to speak) for alleged monetary reasons left a poor taste in my mouth:

Felt had expressed reservations in the past about revealing his identity, and about whether his actions were appropriate for an FBI man, his grandson said.

According to the [Vanity Fair] article, Felt once told his son, Mark Jr., that he did not believe being Deep Throat “was anything to be proud of. … You (should) not leak information to anyone.”

His family members thought otherwise, and persuaded him to talk about his role in the Watergate scandal, saying he deserves to receive accolades before his death. His daughter, Joan, argued that he could “make enough money to pay some bills, like the debt I’ve run up for the children’s education.”

“As he recently told my mother, ‘I guess people used to think Deep Throat was a criminal, but now they think he’s a hero’,” Jones [Felt’s grandson] said.

Maybe Felt’s daughter felt that money might have been a good reason to make the revelation, maybe his family (and maybe even Felt himself) felt he deserved accolades, but I kind of feel that a mystery ought to remain a mystery. Knowing who Deep Throat is changes things, doesn’t it?

So… fascinating profile of David Brancaccio, the guy who takes over for Bill Moyers on “Now”:

Mr. Brancaccio has been associated with the program since the fall of 2003, when it was known as “Now with Bill Moyers.” With Mr. Moyers’s retirement in December, the show’s name was changed to reflect its founder’s departure, and Mr. Brancaccio was promoted from co-anchor to sole anchor.

But those were not the only changes. Because of financing issues, the show was cut from an hour to 30 minutes, and once a month the show features all interviews, which are less expensive to produce than heavily reported pieces from the field.

“I’m agnostic on the change from an hour to half an hour, but one beautiful thing has happened as a result,” Mr. Brancaccio said. “Even now, six months into the change, we are getting cascades of e-mails complaining about the shorter show. But that means that nobody is complaining about me – we’re not getting those letters that say, ‘You’re no Bill Moyers.’ ”

When and if that charge is made, Mr. Brancaccio is fully prepared to concede its truth.

“Bill was a lightning rod because his life experience allowed him to put things together in a way that my life experience, which is shorter and different, doesn’t,” he said. “I was not the deputy director of the Peace Corps. I did not work for Lyndon Johnson. Oh, and here’s something else: I am not a Baptist minister. I’m the product of two parents from Brooklyn, one who was Jewish and grew up in Coney Island, and the other an Italian from Gravesend. And no matter how you add those up, you don’t get Baptist.”

Hehehe. You’re right, Brancaccio – Coney Island Jew plus Gravesend Italian does not equal Texan Baptist. And, I do miss Now’s one hour format. I feel a half-hour format’s a little restraining, locking me in to that one storyline (well, I also miss the Texan Baptist Moyers, but oh well).

So it goes…

Memorial Day Weekend

Take a moment to think about those who sacrificed or served for this country this weekend.

The men and women in uniform have been in town for Fleet Week. Salute them for their service. And, well, I must say, those men in uniform are definitely cute. But, it’s getting to that point where looking at them is making me feel old, because some of them are just kids and well, I’m not. Eh. 😉

“Green Acres”‘s Eddie Albert passed away
. Green Acres was before my time, but Albert’s one of those memorable character actors. He wasn’t a lawyer, but he played one on tv.

Can’t find an article right now, but Frank Gorshin, who played the Riddler on the old Batman TV series, passed away two weeks ago. Great character actor too (having recently played George Burns the comedian on Broadway).

Ken Jennings finally lost in the recent Super Tournament of Champions on “Jeopardy.” But, at least he was a good winner, writing “Go Brad” in his final answer. Brad Rutter won, and apparently he did so with Jennings’ strategy of beating-everyone-to-the-buzzer tactic (and have the right answer).

I’m still behind on “Alias” episodes, but I skipped the ones I missed and jumped right into the final two – wow. Massively scary and crazy season finale – and enough to make me want to choke that J.J. Abrams (the creator/mastermind of Alias) for having again thrown another idiotic cliffhanger. Argh.

And, “House” – ah, this has got to be my favorite tv show this year! The last two episodes were hilarious. And, Hugh Laurie is a great actor, making Dr. House a man we love to hate and love. A man in pain, who just has to be always right, even if we wish he was wrong (and there was the one time he was wrong). Sela Ward plays his ex Stacy the last two episodes – she and he are such great actors, convincingly playing exes who still obviously love each other even if the tragedies of life will never let them be together. I’m so looking forward to next season! And, so good – FOX is showing House reruns this summer! Cool!

I’m on this Ewan MacGregor kick – I watched the “Big Fish” movie on DVD. Billy Crudup plays Will, a guy trying to get through to his dad, Albert Finney playing the elderly Edward Bloom, who is dying of cancer. Edward, you see, tells tall tales of his youth (wherein McGregor plays young Edward in flashbacks) – but Will is no longer a kid to accept the bull – except maybe some of the stories aren’t bull. McGregor plays the role so well, and so does Finney. Thumbs up.

So it goes. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Home Making

I’m writing from the new bedroom — actually the old bedroom nee walkin closet. P’s bed just barely fit in the back end of the room, and I have my computer now installed in a computer desk that is so much better than the old setup. Boxes are still piled wall to ceiling, but at least paths of travel are now making themselves known.

Had lunch with YC yesterday. His mom did ok, and is returning to NJ to continue rehab. Sprouted about a number of new tech, including iSCSI – which let you hook up hard drives virtually to your computer through the network; Asterisk, which is a do it yourself open source phone PBX system, and CentOS, which is a free clone of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux system.

The other thing we tossed around was trying to do a podcast using Skype along the lines of a roundtable talk-show format. Let’s see what happens.

Tomorrow: starting to get the kitchen and living room together….