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Men With Banjos (Who know how to use them)

Tonight I happened to be up watching David Letterman, and they featured a band called Men with Banjos, featuring Steve Martin and Earl Scruggs. It was five guys picking their asses off with Paul trying to keep up, and it was cool.

Letterman tried to flirt with Steve Martin, but he was so authentic that he was like, “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m really just here to play banjo, and the real star here is Pete Wernick,” without saying or doing anything.

I was moved.

Oh, by the way… you know how Willie Nelson’s old guitar has a hole in it that he’s actually worn through the body over the soundhole with his pick??? Well, Steve Martin’s banjo has big black streaks above and below the stings that tell me that he has loved his instrument often and well. The man plays that thing.

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My Own Private Idaho

I try to respect our leader. I really do, but once again, courtesy of The Lady Janet, a well-written, if slightly biased, article about Mr. Bush’s shortcomings: My Private Idaho – New York Times.

Update: This turned out to be a pretty rich vein, what with the reference to an old Keanu Reeves movie that I corrected in the title of this post to match the B-52s song it was named after (I think Maureen Dowd was concerned about copyright issues, but she got the point across). There’s a lot more stuff about the movie on IMDB, and be sure to check the quotes page too.

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Bubble? What Bubble? – New York Times

This is from The Onion.com. I have no right to have this here whatsoever.The Lady Janet and I have been looking at houses for a few weeks now, and this morning, she sent me a copy of this article: Bubble? What Bubble? (login required, but you need to be able to read the New York Times’ stuff anyway)

Please read it, it’s a hoot, and I don’t use that term lightly. In fact, I’m considering erasing “hoot” right now, so just trust me. Here’s a sample:

More important, the housing market is incredibly durable. Unlike sneakers with lights in them or monogrammed poker chips or – I believe – computers, houses are not some fad that people will any day now look at and say: “This is stupid. I don’t want mine anymore.” Housing is a basic need, not unlike shelter.

By the way, this guy is a writer on the new CBS show with Alyson Hannigan and Doogie Howser, How I Met Your Mother.

I don’t give it a second season, even if it were NBC and had someone from Friends, but it’s probably worth a look, especially since I now suspect there’s someone clever behind it, besides just having Willow.

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This is good

Here’s an idea I saw over at Idea a Day, where ideas are free:

Allow voters in a political election to cast a vote against a candidate. Voters would still only get one vote, but each “against” vote would nullify a “for” vote.

I think this might help.

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Why Bush shouldn’t meet with Cindy Sheehan

Well, I feel bad, but I just voted “No” in Excite’s online poll asking whether Mr. Bush should meet with Cindy Sheehan. Yes, she has a legitimate gripe. Yes, we don’t belong in Iraq and probably never did and need to get out. Yes, our President has not yet impressed me with an intellectual tour de force or his rapier-sharp delivery, but that doesn’t change the fact, for me, that he should not be meeting with this woman and encouraging every family member of someone we’ve lost to picket the ranch or The Whitehouse. And yes, we have no bananas.

It’s beneath the dignity of a world leader, and he has better things he should be tending to. This goes also for taking a 5-week vacation and reading Salt (see below).

So, yeah, he can invite her into the Crawford estate and talk her down for 5 weeks while he’s “off duty” and think long and hard about the boys overseas, but when the vacation’s up, I want to see plans for the budget, social security, education, homeland security, our impression on the world, our impact on the environment,and much, much more that actually make sense, morally, ethically, spiritually, financially, democratically, and every other way. Let’s have a war on poverty and homelessness, not stem cells, abortion, or gay marriage. Cripes.

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Popsicle Stick Ship

Click for picture of stick construction.Constructed of 15,000,000 popsicle sticks, The Sea Hart Viking was expected to set sail today in hopes of a Guinness world-record-making Atlantic crossing.

We here at Asparagus Pee say “bon voyage” and wish them well.

(If you click the picture, there’s a representative shot of a laminated plank being glued up out of popsicle sticks, and there’s a pretty full gallery behind the Sea Hart link above.)