Weather: Still and cold -- cloudy, but the roads are dry.

Wildlife: Squirrels on campus -- bold as brass!

Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site : Feed an Animal in Need

Media Watch: 2001: A Space Odyssey on TCM, letterboxed and complete. It's kinda four movies in one--
1) Primitive humans -- pretty cool, with Desmond Morris as consultant. This idea was improved ten years later in Quest for Fire.
2) A near-future world -- I'm not sure if this is part is satire or not. Everything is trival, including regular travel to the moon, and everybody's lying about something. The set design is striking -- quite a bit like Clockwork Orange two years later.
3) HAL 9000 -- I guess there had to be some derring-do and conflict somewhere. Almost nothing happens, and very little reason is even implied for the sketchy situation that ensues. Something resonated in the mid-sixties public about an all-powerful computer turning against humans, though. Arthur C. Clark implied in his novel 2010 that HAL's fatal malfunction was caused by being programmed to decieve. I doubt that anyone's afraid of their PDA/GPS Picture phone today. (Maybe they should be.)
4) Planet Jupiter and the Monolith -- Pure cinematic beauty, and hints of a deeper vision. Whatever gossamer thread story there is be damned, I think this sequence redeems the whole movie!

An Essay:
Baseball Fever and the U.S. Elections
By Michael Evans (Yeah, that's me!)

Democrats:
Well, there's nine of them, so that must make a team -- correct? Here's a scouting report:
Carol Moseley-Braun -- Pitches softballs good-naturedly. Defensive to a personal degree, but unable to cover home, or aid the infield.
John Kerry -- War hero and senator, made it to first base in a hurry, and just stayed there, at the position with the least movement. He is known to have known Bill Buckner.
John Edwards -- Another John from the Senate. At second base, he plays the center of the field, but favors the right.
Wesley Clark -- Late replacement at shortstop for Bob Graham. Is very surprised to find himself playing on the left side of the field with Dean and Kucinich, and sometimes forgets which uniform he's supposed to wear.
Howard Dean -- Known as "Doctor D," he roams the whole left side of the diamond from third base, and bats both right and left. He's currently the clean-up hitter, but has been known to foul-out in critical situations.
Dennis Kucinich -- Is ethically unable to play anything but far-left field.
Richard Gephardt -- Along with the Johns from the Senate, there's this Dick from the House of Representatives. He dominates center field, guards his territory jealously, and sometimes makes his team mates wonder if he's playing the same game they are playing.
Joe Lieberman -- He OWNS right field, and plays it in a way that makes him look like he's coached by the other team, but denies it. (Don't tell 'Loserman' jokes in earshot.)
Al Sharpton -- "Catching flak and throwing it back!" This free agent, or free radical, doesn't work cheap, but if federal campaign funds are good enough for Carol, John, Wesley, Dennis, Dick, and Joe, then they're good enough for Al.
Republicans:
Unlimited money allows this organization to field the Texas Rangers, named after MLB's second-division tax write-off team. Owned by Clear Channel Communications, Halliburton, Rupert Murdoch, and Bin Laden Construction Company of Saudi Arabia, it is co-managed by Karl Rove, James Baker, and player/manager/CEO Dick Cheney. The Rangers field nationally-known pitchman George W. Bush, plus Colin Powell as Jackie Robinson, Michael Powell as Al Capone, ex-senator 'John' Ashcroft as J. Edgar Hoover, Don Rumsfeld, and his bench, consisting of Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and others from the New American Century syndicate. An international coup features Tony Blair, Prime Minister of England, bringing a cricket bat to the plate for Texas.

The Republican team won their last game on a disputed call from the umpires. For the next time, their strategy will be the purchase, or confiscation, of all equipment, seats, and venues related to the contest. Diebold, a manufacturer of electronic scoreboards, has promised to "deliver" on the Rangers' behalf.

The Democratic team may not even show up. There are several players whose power seems to flow from threats to hand a forfeit to the Republicans ala' Ralph Nader. If they play by current rules, there's even odds they can win, but the rules will certainly change if they cave-in before the fight begins.