Pun Salad

From the New York Times Magazine Interview with Warren Beatty:

A film like Reds, which came out in 1981, is not likely to be made today. It's an exceedingly lengthy liberal film that was born at the height of the conservative revolution. Do you know if President Reagan ever saw it?

Reagan, whom I considered to be a friend, invited me to bring the picture to the White House and to show it. We were friendly from when I came to Hollywood in my 20's. He wanted to see the movie.

What did he say afterward?

He was very complimentary about the fact that I had produced it, written it, acted in it and directed it at the same time. But what he said about the film, after it was over, he said, "I was kind of hoping for a happy ending."

• Russell Roberts on the Sadim Touch. It's like the Midas Touch, only …

• Patrick Porter of Oxblog is irritated by the word "demonise". (American translation: "demonize". You're welcome.)

  A quick case-insensitive egrep shows only one use of 'demoni[sz]e' throughout the entire history of Pun Salad, and it was a quote of someone else. Whew! I'm a euphemizer, not a demonizer!

• Professor Ann Althouse has been a voice of reason at the University of Wisconsin, where they also have an instructor (albeit only a tenureless part-timer) who's a 9/11 conspiracy fantasist. Today she quotes a student newspaper editorial, where they seem to be having sober second thoughts about their initial support for the idea.

  One is left to wonder what standards UW applies when determining which lecturers are to be allowed the use of taxpayer-funded facilities to voice their beliefs. Would the geography department allow a speaker to present his opinion that the world is flat? Would the history department sponsor a speech by someone that denies the Holocaust occurred?

  Yes! These are precisely the sort of questions that should be asked and answered here as well.

  Ultimately, it is UW's duty — as an institution of higher learning funded in part by taxpayers — to promote scholarly research and vigorous academic debate. Mr. Barrett's conspiracy theories thus far have failed to flirt with either principle.

  Prof Althouse has her own questions too.

• In a related matter, there's no word on whether the Heavy Boots theory of gravitation will be taught at UNH anytime soon. (Via Chicago Boyz.)

• "Michael Nesmith" Hayek. Someone looking for information on how spontaneous free-market order brought forth the Monkees, perhaps. Or maybe someone trying to find out if Michael and Salma are an item.

• persuasive paragraph about Jessica Alba. Looks like a plagiarism attempt, doesn't it? "Write a persuasive paragraph about Jessica Alba. Hm, I'll just find someone else who's done it on the Web!"

• Eva Mendes ethnicity. Some folks are really concerned about it.

• plant hammer cockpit pun. There are only 17,200 hits for "plant hammer cockpit pun" on the Google, and Pun Salad is (as I type) number one. Unfortunately the person who was looking for a plant hammer cockpit pun didn't actually find one here. Can anyone think of one?

• burned out on pornography. 626,000 hits on the Google, and Pun Salad appears on the first page of results. I don't even want to think about what that means.

• tendentious fish oils. Those are the worst kind, actually increasing risk of heart disease and stroke.

• alec baldwin solemn vow to move to canada. We're all pretty disappointed.

• "more goo to go". Greetings to my fellow Bob Newhart fans.

• Average wage of playwright today. You should follow your muse without regard to petty pecuniary issues, dude.

• gay male fans of senator john sununu. I'm sure they're out there somewhere. They're just not here.

And as always, scads of people looking for Cathy Poulin, the woman appearing in TV ads for Bob's Discount Furniture. If this blog were in the market for an annoying female sidekick, Ms. Poulin would definitely be in the running.

In case you weren't aware, Cathy will be greeting customers this coming Saturday, October 7, between 11am and 2pm at the grand opening of the BDF store in Woodbridge, New Jersey. I probably won't be able to attend.