So the Onion went and asked a bunch of celebs who they could take in a fight. I gotta say, if you respond to that question with “I believe in non-violent solutions” or words to that effect, you’re kind of wimping out. This is the Onion. Have a sense of humor. Maintain your principled stance on non-violence by saying “Nobody, because I have a principled stance on non-violence and I’d just curl up into a little ball even if it was Nancy Reagan coming after me.” ...

In honor of Jon Carroll’s 2/11 column, and inspired by my friend R. Francis Smith, I present the Candidate X Store (original). Candidate X: he doesn’t like killing people. It is, in my mind, a perfectly chosen phrase. Everything there is priced at cost; I don’t make any money off ‘em. The slogan is thanks to R. Francis.

Couple more Oscar tidbits: Donald Kaufman was nominated (along with his brother, Charlie) for Best Adapted Screenplay (original). That’s gotta be a first. Also, the meticulous kodi notes that none of the Best Picture nominees take place in the modern era. This shows that Miramax likes historicals. Joke! Except not really. Edit: fixed my gross misquote of kodi. I plead running out the door.

Surprisingly unobjectionable Oscar nominations this year. Yes, Two Towers more or less got stiffed. However, I’m rather glad to see Christopher Walken get a well-deserved nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and I’m glad to see John C. Reilly get the same on sentimental grounds even though I haven’t seen Chicago yet. (Note: Bill Condon wrote Chicago. Good talent involved in that there movie, and hey, Condon got nominated for Best Screenplay Adaptation!) I’m also very pleased about the Best Actor nods to Michael Caine and Nicholas Cage. And they noticed Julianne Moore in Far From Heaven. ...

EMI/Capital has purchased a clue and is reissuing Warren Zevon’s back catalog (original). Plus bonus material, including an entire unreleased album from his early days. I think it’s wonderful news, if a little belated. (By way of Jim Henley.)

Eugene Volokh provides me with an excellent launching point for some stuff I’ve been mulling over lately. He’s discussing recent polls which may show that the British public is not behind the US war on Iraq. In his wrapup, he says “I hope British public opinion is not being accurately reported here. But if it is, then just reflects the errors of the British public, not the errors of a hawkish policy.” ...

News of the surprising: Sci-Fi Channel is gonna be airing a Riverworld pilot (original) on March 22nd. Alex Proyas, director of Dark City, is producing. The only notable name I see is Emily Lloyd. No Richard Burton in the story, either.

I dunno, it’s like I feel some weird obligation or something. Saith Professor Reynolds: “essentially a pro-democracy, anti-dictator — and hence pro-war — student organization…” It’s kind of hard to tell, since that’s a pretty terse argument, but I think that’s a fallacy of composition — he’s pro-war, as a consequence of his anti-dictator and pro-democracy stance, so everyone who’s anti-dictator and pro-democracy must therefore be pro-war. But since he doesn’t lay out the steps, preferring to just leap to the conclusion, one can’t be sure.

A long time ago, in the heyday of Webrings, I thought about setting up a link exchange along Nomic lines, but I was too lazy and never got around to it. BlogNomic is sort of like that, except it centers on weblogs. If I was a diehard Nomic player I’d get involved in this but I should keep reminding myself that it’s all I can do to get through a game of PbEM Diplomacy without losing interest.

Felix Salmon has the only blog I know of coming to us live from the Antarctic, unless you count Big Dead Place (original), which is a pretty interesting site. But not every interesting site is a blog, even if it posts cool stories. Word to the wise, yo. Actually, I don’t think it’s Felix Salmon posting the Antarctic stories, now that I look at it again. It’s someone named Rhian. One imagines there’s a story there, but it’s opaque to me… until I spend five seconds with the site and learn that Rhian is Felix’s sister. The Internet: tomorrow’s personal transparency today!