I wasn't going to blog about this, but my readership is pleading, nay - demanding - that I address certain topic of interest. Namely, the rumor that Maureen McCormick (Marcia Brady) and Eve Plumb (Jan Brady) had a bit of a physical relationship while filming the iconic TV series The Brady Bunch.
It has actually turned into an interesting tale about the Internet, publishing, and the media in general.
At 0236 on September 21, contactmusic.com posted a short piece stating that in McCormick's upcoming tell-all autobiography, she reveals that she had a lesbian fling with Plumb. The article quotes an unnamed source who told the National Inquirer about the details of the book. Unnamed sources, especially third-party ones (the source told the Inquirer. Who told contactmusic.com?) are notoriously unreliable, and have gotten plenty of mainstream media outlets into trouble. Just ask Stephen Glass and Scott Beauchamp of the New Republic or Jayson Blair of the NY Times. For the most comprehensive list I've found of journalistic fraud, check out this list at the American Thinker.
Sorry. Back to the lesbians.
It didn't take long before fark.com had posted the article with the obligatory "cool" tag, and the article started making the rounds. Even at this early stage, there were some readers who smelled a rat. At least one commenter remarked that this is probably the result of someone that the publisher "leaking" information to the press in order to get a mention somewhere. According to ABC News, doubts about the story's authenticity didn't deter at least "one major newspaper" picked up the story on Saturday.
By Sunday, the fun was over, and the publisher was "rushing" to deny the rumor that McCormick and Plumb had a fling.
Of course, all this hoopla served everyone's interest in the end. Contactmusic.com got traffic, and now we all know that McCormick's book, entitled "Here's the Story", published by William Morrow (a division of HarperCollins) hits bookstores next year. Even Barry Williams (Greg) gets a bonus. His book, "Growing up Brady" got a mention in almost every article I've found.
Happy now? I'm going back to Lex's place to see if he's posted more pictures of the luminous Keira Knightly.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
I didn't want to do it
Really I didn't. But something made me. Urged me, you might say. Durnit, the kid needs clothes, right? She can't run around in the buff. No, that wouldn't do. So I got her this:
Get it?
ThinkGeek.com is the bomb.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
Librarything
Ugh. I had to post something to get that gawd-awful picture of me off the top of the page. To think, that picture is going to haunt my official record for another 2 years.
Most of the regulars over at the Flight Deck seem to be avid readers and book collectors. I count myself among that number. In fact, I'm a bit of a book geek. Years ago, when my collection was smaller, I actually had all of my books arranged by Dewey Decimal number. When we were looking for a new home in Annapolis, one of the features we (ok, I) wanted was a room to serve only as my library.
Then my buddy Adeodatus hipped me to a nifty online tool called Librarything, which took the geekiness to a new level. Basically, it's an online database where you can catalog your books. They even have an import tool where you can upload a text file of all your book's ISBNs (the ID number above the UPC barcode) and Librarything fills in the rest. Complete with pictures of the covers.
Granted, if you have a lot of books it may take some time to enter them all, but I thought it was worth it for me in the long run. My favorite feature is the ability to see other user's collections and books that you have in common. No matter how obscure a title, there's probably another Librarything member with the same book.
The site is http://www.librarything.com/. For an example, and you can view my profile and library at http://www.librarything.com/profile/JeopardyinMD.
Ignore the one comment about owning a Debbie Gibson book. We were all young and foolish once.
Most of the regulars over at the Flight Deck seem to be avid readers and book collectors. I count myself among that number. In fact, I'm a bit of a book geek. Years ago, when my collection was smaller, I actually had all of my books arranged by Dewey Decimal number. When we were looking for a new home in Annapolis, one of the features we (ok, I) wanted was a room to serve only as my library.
Then my buddy Adeodatus hipped me to a nifty online tool called Librarything, which took the geekiness to a new level. Basically, it's an online database where you can catalog your books. They even have an import tool where you can upload a text file of all your book's ISBNs (the ID number above the UPC barcode) and Librarything fills in the rest. Complete with pictures of the covers.
Granted, if you have a lot of books it may take some time to enter them all, but I thought it was worth it for me in the long run. My favorite feature is the ability to see other user's collections and books that you have in common. No matter how obscure a title, there's probably another Librarything member with the same book.
The site is http://www.librarything.com/. For an example, and you can view my profile and library at http://www.librarything.com/profile/JeopardyinMD.
Ignore the one comment about owning a Debbie Gibson book. We were all young and foolish once.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Good stuff on the tube
The wife, kid and I had dinner at our neighbor's house the other night. It was nice to get out o the house, even if it was only across the street. The kid was a complete angel, as usual. She sat next to the table and talked to herself while we ate. I also got to try some of the best Scotch I've had in a long time. Lagavulin Single Malt, I believe it was. good stuff.
We got home, put the kid to bed, and turned on the TV. We flipped over to the History Channel and watched a documentary on The Sun, full of completely useless information like: "If the sun were made of wood, it would burn for about 5,000 years."
OK, maybe not completely useless. That may come in handy later.
I quite enjoyed it, not only because it was informative, but it also featured Dr. Holly Gilbert, one of the most attractive physicists I've seen in quite a while. Which brings me to this: Dr. Gilbert is not only a preeminent scientist in her field, but also does a fair bit of work with organizations that encourage girls and young women to get involved in the sciences. My (slightly) older sister and I grew up in a world where we were always told that we could be pretty much anything we wanted to be. For my sister, tho, there was a dearth of real-life examples to look up to. NASA didn't fly a woman into space until Sally Ride in '83, and the Navy didn't get a female fighter pilot until '94.
As the father of a 5 month old baby girl, I actually hope that when the time comes, she won't have the opportunity to be the first woman to do anything. It will already have been done by someone else.
We got home, put the kid to bed, and turned on the TV. We flipped over to the History Channel and watched a documentary on The Sun, full of completely useless information like: "If the sun were made of wood, it would burn for about 5,000 years."
OK, maybe not completely useless. That may come in handy later.
I quite enjoyed it, not only because it was informative, but it also featured Dr. Holly Gilbert, one of the most attractive physicists I've seen in quite a while. Which brings me to this: Dr. Gilbert is not only a preeminent scientist in her field, but also does a fair bit of work with organizations that encourage girls and young women to get involved in the sciences. My (slightly) older sister and I grew up in a world where we were always told that we could be pretty much anything we wanted to be. For my sister, tho, there was a dearth of real-life examples to look up to. NASA didn't fly a woman into space until Sally Ride in '83, and the Navy didn't get a female fighter pilot until '94.
As the father of a 5 month old baby girl, I actually hope that when the time comes, she won't have the opportunity to be the first woman to do anything. It will already have been done by someone else.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Bad News
Actually, it's not all that bad in the grand scheme of things, but the wife, the kid and I are going to have a rough 24 to 48 hours sometime soon.
The kid was diagnosed with Entropian, which is a "very rare" inward cruving of the lower eyelid. It can be mildly irritating to her, but can leat to scratching of the cornea if left un-corrected. The most successful treatment is a 15 to 20 minute out-patient surgery to correct the defect. The results are usually permanent, which means that we won't have to do it again. The doc says its genetic, but I think it may have more to do with her overly chubby cheeks.
From everything we've found out so far, the recovery time is pretty quick (12-24 hours), but that's in "adult time". I can't imagine that a 5 month old is going to be highly tolerant the post-op pain, eye patches, and antibiotic balms and salves. Not to mention there's probably some sort of eating before sugery restriction.
Of course, we know all of this now. There's always that horrible period between the time the doc says "surgery" and you find out that it isn't a really big deal.
The kid was diagnosed with Entropian, which is a "very rare" inward cruving of the lower eyelid. It can be mildly irritating to her, but can leat to scratching of the cornea if left un-corrected. The most successful treatment is a 15 to 20 minute out-patient surgery to correct the defect. The results are usually permanent, which means that we won't have to do it again. The doc says its genetic, but I think it may have more to do with her overly chubby cheeks.
From everything we've found out so far, the recovery time is pretty quick (12-24 hours), but that's in "adult time". I can't imagine that a 5 month old is going to be highly tolerant the post-op pain, eye patches, and antibiotic balms and salves. Not to mention there's probably some sort of eating before sugery restriction.
Of course, we know all of this now. There's always that horrible period between the time the doc says "surgery" and you find out that it isn't a really big deal.
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