Hi, Allison!

In the interest of equal time...

2008-10-24T07:09:00.001-07:00

Since I posted that Ron Howard endorsement of Obama yesterday, I figure it's only fair to do the same for the other side.So here's one for McCain and Palin from a prominent political figure...

And speaking of the presidential race...

2008-10-19T17:53:00.001-07:00

As you also probably know, Gov. Sarah Palin made a "surprise" appearance (that everyone knew was going to happen) on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE this week. The cold opening funny enough, but it'd be tough not to eke out at least a few chuckles with Tina Fey's dead-on impersonation, Alec Baldwin's liberal anger and Mark Wahlberg showing up to confront Andy Samberg over last week's show.

They didn't give the governor much to do, which was probably wise. Judging by the number of press conferences she's given, live TV is not her forte. For a second or so, I felt bad for her standing next to Alec Baldwin while he railed against her, but then I remembered her comments of "pro-American" parts of the country, her feeling that the "debate" between creationism and evolution should be taught and her silence when death threats were yelled out against her opponent, and in retrospect, I don't think Alec was mean enough.

Here, in case you live on the moon and haven't seen it, is the opening. Like I said, it's not bad, but SNL can't hope to touch the sort of satire THE DAILY SHOW, THE COLBERT REPORT or, for that matter, THE ONION achieve on an almost daily basis.

Looks like we made it!

2006-03-29T19:50:00.000-08:00

Well, since I'm sitting on the 10th floor of the Prudential Hotel in Hong Kong typing this, I guess we made it to Hong Kong. The 15-hour plane ride was just barely tolerable, what with its lack of legroom and overabundance of bad movies ("Elizabethtown"? "Aeon Flux"?) but we arrived at Hong Kong's beautiful airport right on schedule and managed to find our way to the Airport Express and a cab to the hotel with no trouble at all. Everything ran so much smoother than in good ol' O'Hare -- our luggage was even right there, waiting for us.

Here are a couple of shots out the window of our hotel:

The city is pretty amazing -- very congested and tight, full of high-rises as far as the eye can see. At night it's really something -- neon signs everywhere, stretching out over the streets, advertising everything you can imagine. Here's a shot of some of the signs in the daylight, we'll try for a nighttime shot tonight...

Today, we're planning to do a little sightseeing. All we've seen so far (aside from the train and taxi ride in) was the 7-11 down the block, where we bought some water and pop -- and a can of a beverage I've been dying to try since I heard about it years ago, the appetizingly named POCARI SWEAT. Full taste test report to come.

Thanks for all the good wishes and thoughts. Keep those comments and e-mails coming -- we'll show them to Allison years from now when she's a bit more Internet savvy. And speaking of ... only three more days to Allison. We're supposed to meet her at 3:15 p.m. HK time on Sunday. We'll write all about the meeting, of course, with plenty of pictures -- and, if I can master the technology, a sound file.

Keep checking back at the blog -- we'll post as much as we can.

2006-03-03T04:47:00.000-08:00

This is a test post for the brand-new Allison blog. And here's her picture!