Random Notes

Long work day today, so I'm just going to throw out a few notes since I don't have much pop culture stuff right now. I try not to write about work too much because it's not horribly appropriate, but I'll just note that I was at an event tonight that featured Sec. Chertoff of DHS. It was quite interesting and you don't get to stand in a fairly small room with a Cabinet member too often. The only reason I'm really mentioning this is that someone asked him how he thinks the President will be judged in history and his answer was nothing short of great. He hedged the tiniest tiniest bit, but mostly talked about how Bush made tough decisions in tough times and stuck by them and how Lincoln and Churchill were very unpopular when they were in office. It was the kind of answer that was well-spoken and even the slightest bit persuasive when he was giving it, but easy to pick apart as soon as you left the room. But hey, I'm going to pick apart anything positive said about the President. Other random stuff:

• The second Fantastic Four movie just sucks. I guess I just had to see how badly for myself.
• I fully admit that I made a mistake when I called the post a few days ago, "As Goes Tatooine, So Goes The Nation". The correct joke would have been "...So Goes The Galaxy". Sorry.
• I picked Rage's eponymous debut for my list, but their second album, Evil Empire, is almost universally regarded as their best. And it is. I just think that by the time it came out, more similar bands were on the scene, so it wasn't as alternative to me. Maybe it's a weak distinction, but I wrote the post, so deal with it.
• I think I stumbled onto a weird thing with "Survivor". Everybody with whom I've discussed this season so far is a woman and they all, to a person, hated Parvati and liked Amanda. My theory is that it's because Parv was such a flirt and manipulated everyone regardless of gender, while Amanda remained loyal and ended up kicking ass at the challenges. I have no idea if that's true or what it even means, but if you're a woman and you either liked Parvati or know why you hated her, chime in.
• Wouldn't you be more surprised if O.J. Mayo hadn't been getting money?