… But you’d probably never guess what war he’s not quite live blogging.

The first Indiana Jones Lego sets have finally begun hitting store shelves, and the owner of this Brickshelf gallery is a huge fan, recreating one of my favorite scenes* from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

He’s got some Temple of Doom action, too.

(It’s possible these scenes were built by Lego for promotional purposes, but I don’t read much German, even if my language and that language are descended from the same.)

*Favorite Scene, Favoritest Scene.

Drivers define “busy” in one way: how many deliveries am I taking? I took three at the Indy this afternoon working a four-hour shift. I took those deliveries in the space of one hour, and I spent the remaining three wishing I’d brought a book, and then tearing through the Sunday paper when Rob brought one down (Gary paid for it*).

Having read the paper front to back, I finally started on the Parade section, which is, honestly, like the last section that should be read in a paper. I was a little stunned by their cover article, based around an interview with the recently assassinated Benazair Bhutto. Nowhere in the article was there any evidence that the writers knew that she’d been, y’know, assassinated well over a week ago. I don’t know about offensive, but how about mind boggling? How did no one at Parade get the memo that she’d been murdered?

Working at the Franchise tonight, I was listening to NPR (because, in my car, it’s either 102.7, the Ed Norris show, NPR, or a classical-music or orchestral score CD), and All Things Considered had a story on the Parade gaff (you can listen to it through the link on the NPR site), wherein I learned that the January 6th edition of Parade had already been printed when she was murdered. I’ve gotta admit, I was a little surprised by that — you’d think a magazine that puports to
“provide [its] readers with quality stories”, you might think they’d bother with “accurate”, too.

This is the addendum that Parade posted to their website:

Editor’s note: The assassination of Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto on Dec. 27 occurred after PARADE’s Jan. 6 issue went to press.

Bhutto’s murder adds more danger and confusion to the already chaotic situation in this region. Pakistan is vital to U.S. security interests and the global fight against terrorism. In late November, PARADE sent Contributing Editor and best-selling author Gail Sheehy to Pakistan to interview former Prime Minister Bhutto as she campaigned through the country. Bhutto told Sheehy that she had long been a target of terrorists as well as the Musharraf government. She knew she could be murdered at any time.

PARADE’s Jan. 6 interview with Bhutto is one of the last interviews of her complex life.

After her assassination, PARADE immediately posted the entire interview online, and Sheehy appeared on network and cable TV news shows to discuss her face-to-face conversations with Bhutto.

Maybe you should’ve taken the time to print up a quick little cheap insert to have included with the magazine. Just a thought!

*Which is code for “We took the $1.76 out of the register.”

If you’ve got an HD-DVD player from Toshiba, I’d sell it to your gulible neighbor: now! And stop buying HD-DVD discs, for that matter. The high definition format war is fast approaching its conclusion, with Warner Bros. today announcing that it will stop supporting both formats and will throw its weight exclusively to Blu-Ray (leaving Paramount, Universal & Dreamworks as the lone exclusive HD-DVD supporters*), that format becomes all but the winner.

*And with the market making its decision clear, all likely to announce Blu-Ray adaptation by mid-year to avoid being left out in the cold.

A little over a year ago, Hogwarts broke: I was moving it, the tall tower got caught on some Christmas bulbs I’d hung from the ceiling, and collapsed, taking the Owlery with it. I’ve been meaning to fix it for quite some time, but it was only recently that I got around to actually doing it. I’m glad it is fixed, I hope it is a very long time before I have to do anything more to it.

Building a giant castle out of Lego is something I’m very glad I did, but it’s also something I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do again. Or, at the very least, not if it’s going to be seven feet tall.

Utilizing a Borders Gift Card, given to me as a Christmas gift, I decided to add a series of books to my ever expanding library that I have loved since childhood: Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain, a five-book series (six if you count the stand-alone “The Foundling & Other Tales of Prydain“) focused on the life of Taran, resident at Caer Dalben, assistant pig keeper of the oracle pig Hen-Wen, enemy of the Death Lord Arawn, and friend to his companions: the enchantress Princess Eilonwy, the exagerating Fflewddur Fflam, the creature-thing Gurgi, and the warrior-prince Gwydion.

When I was a kid, my dad used to read me books before I went to bed (and I somehow hope to do the same to my own*). He’d tuck me in and read me a chapter a night. I don’t remember all the books I discovered this way — really, the only ones I do remember are C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia and Alexander’s Prydain books. Of the two, I suppose I would have to rank Prydain over Narnia: with Alexander’s series, one has a consistent set of characters, as opposed to Narnia, where, although the setting remains relatively consistent, the characters do not. Really, once you’ve read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, you’ve read that series’ best (although I would like to give props to the BBC’s live-action series of movies: not a tenth the budget I’d wager of the Walden Media series, but I did so love your version of those two books aforementioned).

Conversely, only one movie has been made based on The Chronicles of Prydain, and that was the awful 1985 animated Disney film The Black Cauldron (which, if I remember correctly, was based more on the first book of the series, The Book of Three).

But this isn’t about Narnia. This is about Prydain, and Alexander’s excellent books, based loosely on Welsh mythology. I remember fragments of them: the Cauldron Born, Gurgi’s “Crunchings & Munchings”, the Fair Folk, the Sons of Don. Dyrnwyn: the sword which can be drawn from its sheath only by a person of noble worth. I’m excited to delve into them and relive part of my childhood, even if for only a few hours (none of these books are near as long as even the shortest Harry Potter).

Perusing Wikipedia, I find that Lloyd Alexander died last May, right around the time I was busting my ass studying for finals. I really wish I’d taken the time to write him a letter. Nothing complicated. “Dear Mr. Alexander, Thank you.” I guess this post’ll have to do.

*Now, if I can only find a wife …

I got home and turned on CNN. I’d heard the results on WHFS 105.7 on the way home from the Iowa caucuses, and watched a speech by Hillary Clinton, in which she tried to cushion her rather stunning defeat. She’s not giving up: it is far too early for that, but I can’t help but hear a residual bitterness in her voice (oh, and there’s Senator Mikulski Madeline Albright on her right), because I think she knows what I’m sure a lot of people are thinking: she’s lost the chance for the Democractic nomination.

When you consider how many people reject her candidacy on the basis that it would mean a minimum of 24 years of a member of the Bush or Clinton families in the Executive, combined with how many people loathe her because of her husband, or how many people, when given the choice between her and Barack Obama support the Illinois senator, would choose the latter, I don’t think it is then very surprising that a loss in Iowa (and she’s really dead in the water if New Hampshire — on Tuesday! — goes this same way) means the essential end to her campaign’s viability.

I feel sorry for Chris Dodd — he’s dropping from the race, according to Wolf Blitzer — but I wonder if he honestly expected to do much better than he has? If anyone was going to be a dark horse, I’d've wagered on Gov. Richardson (or, maybe Biden).

I think I’m really surprised that Huckabee has won the Iowa caucuses. He’s an affable conservative Christian, but he’s short on knowledge of foreign current events, and he represents a hoped for restoration of dignity to the White House: sound familiar? Meanwhile, Chuck Norris is standing behind Huckabee as he’s giving his Iowa Victory Speech, and Chuck Norris’s eyes are persuading me to vote for Mike Huckabee, or Chuck Norris will reach through my television set and bash my skull in with my massive lego collection. (I will score him good points for his “not the ruling class … the serving class” comments). While Huckabee has won this early race, I think John McCain is going to wind up giving him a run for his money in New Hampshire. I don’t think Huckabee can relax yet.

And then we come back to the Democrats: Barack Obama kicked ass in Iowa. Fingers crossed for the man next Tuesday, but if he locks New Hampshire — and there’s no reason to think he won’t — I think he’ll have the Democractic nomination for the taking. I know it’s been said before, but there’s a vibrance to the guy that seems comprable to John Kennedy. I wasn’t alive when JFK was running for office, so I can’t speak from actual experience, but I know I’m excited by Obama: he seems like a different class of politician, and represents a possible real sea-change in this country’s current direction.

Now I find myself wondering who Obama’s VP might be. A bit presumptious, I’m sure. While either John Edwards or Hillary Clinton might seem to be early choices, I don’t think either will be. Edwards had his shot at being VP: he and Kerry blew it. As for Hillary, I think the big reason she won’t be offered the slot is for much of the same reasons I listed above. I think Bill Richardson or Joe Biden will be offered that position, in that order. Conversely, should either Edwards or Clinton pull ahead of Obama in New Hampshire and wind up with the party nomination, Obama will be offered the VP.

So. That’s my take on Iowa.

NEW THOUGHT:

I’m watching Larry King. Huckabee is on. He’s talking about pulling the negative commercial that bashed Mitt Romney, and he’s talking about it as an example of what a great person he is. “What else was I going to do?” he asked. His argument was that if he simply announced that he’d pulled the negative ad — without showing it — it would’ve become a news item, with CNN and other networks airing it as news. Okay, point to Huckabee. But, Huck, you didn’t have to talk about the commercial at all. You didn’t have to have that press conference.

Huck was like the guy who, competing for a spot on a porn film, says about his opponent “I’m not going to talk about how he’s a fat worthless tard who no one wants to see naked and can’t even get your dick up to fuck own wife much less a porn actress…” But, dude, you just did say all that! And, Huck: so did you! How disingenous!

There’s not much in the way of story in “Shoot ‘em Up”: it’s pretty much Clive Owen running around a city with a variety of handguns (and carrots), killing people who apparently need killing while not once missing a beat. He’s like James Bond on speed, except broke. My favorite scene involves Owen — “You’re the angriest man in the world!” — using his stolen BMW to run a rich guy off the road for failing to use his turn signal. (And littering).

A month or so again, I got an e-mail from my old friend Mike, requesting my presence at his and his roomate’s New Year’s Party. We’d lost touch many years prior, and I was thrilled by the communication and happy for the chance to see them again. They, by the way, are the same people who co-created the name ‘Malnurtured Snay.‘

Steve owns a townhouse in Nottingham, which is a place name, as best as I can tell, in the same way that ‘Hunt Valley’ is a place name. One is for people who don’t want to say ‘White Marsh’, the other for people who, more understandably, don’t want to say ‘Cockeysville.’ In any case, wanting to avoid 695, I took backroads down: Dulaney Valley, cut over to Manor, out to Glen Arm, out to some other road, then Harford to Joppa. I got down around 10pm, had a Bud Light right in the door (good to know their taste in beer hasn’t changed), and met some old friends — Mike’s brother and my former coworker, Tim, among them — and made some new ones. Played some pool (I suck at it), got run over multiple times by three dogs all humping each other (all female, as I understood them to be).

Around midnight, some drunk girl pressed a paper cup of champagne into my hand, and then it was the New Year, accompanied by many drunk people cheering and stomping their feet. I stayed for a bit longer, but finally bid a fair adeu and tried to head home reversing the route I’d taken. Whoops. Made a wrong turn, and wound up taking three times as long as it should’ve. Got stuck behind two drunk drivers doing ten miles an hour on Dulaney Valley Road — the idiot in the white Mitsubishi nearly hit me (where Dulaney Valley jerks left to cross the Loch Raven) when he decided the right-hand left-turn lane wasn’t the one he should’ve been in. Where’s a cop where you need ‘em? Well, five or six of them were at the Walgreens on Harford Road.

I don’t really have many resolutions this year (beyond the obvious), but one thing tonight has taught me is that I should make an effort to reconnect with the friends I’ve grown apart from. Steve got married! Holy shit!

In any case: Happy New Year! Auld Lang Syne!