On a reading jag. Since the last Everyman 10 days ago I read Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody, a vintage (but dated) 1999 book on marketing on the Web titled HyperWars, and am currently reading Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History by Ted Sorensen, aid to John F. Kennedy and RFK. I watched Sorensen on Charlie Rose recently and thought he was the most impressive man I encountered in a very long time. I mentioned him to my wife and pointed out his book when we were at Borders last week so my sweet wife surprised me with it as a Father's Day present.
New York Times nails Yang. Joe Nocera of the New York Times nails Yahoo's Jerry Yang for ignoring his shareholders and going out of his way to kill the Microsoft deal. I turned $600 bucks of Yahoo stock into over $20,000 during the bubble, but I'm glad I cashed in all of my YHOO chips because Joe Nocera got it right.
Life with Roku Rocks. I'm really enjoying our Roku Netflix box. Since I disconnected our Comcast box we've been using the Roku as our On-Demand system. In my mind the Roku far exceeds the offerings we had with Comcast On-Demand. I've been enjoying the process of going to Netflix and adding to our Instant View queue, as if we're building our own On-Demand TV and Movie library. Other mentions, it takes about 30 seconds for a show to download sufficiently to start playing, which is what Netflix advertises. We don't have an HD television, but the picture quality of the Roku is as good as cable on our old 35" Sony Trinitron.
I dedicate this Everyman Links post to Tim Russert. I was unprepared for how much Tim Russert's death would affect me. I was watching those tiny 3-by-4 inch video clips on my laptop in our sunroom the afternoon Tim died with tears streaming down my face. I didn't try to compose myself when my wife walked in. Tim was such an Everyman, yet he was so brilliant at what he did. He was definitely my favorite political analyst. There are over 17 thousand tributes to Tim Russert on the MSNBC Message Board. Wow! When I consider the social impact of my own death I think of the funeral reception in The Big Chill, when JoBeth Williams says, "I'll never get this many people at my funeral," to which Jeff Goldblum responds, "Sure you will! I'll come...and I'll bring a date."
Where's my Up the Creek DVD? Can someone tell me why, for the love of great movies, is Up the Creek not available on DVD??? Fortunately we still have a VCR player in the house and I was able to watch this 1984 classic again yesterday. The scene with Chuck (the dog) giving clues out of the duffle bag on where Irwin was being held is priceless. Feathers are flying out of a down vest, then a piece of liver smacks Gonzer in the face. "Down. Liver. Down. Liver..." "Don't you get it, guys?" shouts Max. "'Down Liver' is Japanese for 'Down River!'"