Achenblog: June 19, 2005 - June 25, 2005
Why is Grass Green?
You recall that yesterday a question arose about grass and its color (J.A.: "Why is the grass so green after it rains? ... is it just an optical illusion because the overcast skies at dusk soften the blues...
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Joel Achenbach
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June 24, 2005; 8:50 AM ET |
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Karl, Go Say Something Dumb
Karl Rove reportedly said the other night, "Al Jazeera now broadcasts to the region the words of Senator Durbin, certainly putting America's men and women in uniform in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the...
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Joel Achenbach
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June 24, 2005; 7:48 AM ET |
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Ed Klein: Ambitious Hack?
Ed Klein, former New York Times Magazine editor and Vanity Fair contributor, has written a Hillary book that raises the awful specter of lesbianism in the Hillary ranks. I know, I know: We need a Constitutional amendment banning...
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Joel Achenbach
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June 23, 2005; 8:08 AM ET |
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Earthquakes in the Eastern U.S.
Just saw this story about the New Madrid fault, but have a bone to pick. The thrust of the story seems about right: The eastern United States has its own set of seismic hazards, not least of which...
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Joel Achenbach
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June 23, 2005; 7:42 AM ET |
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Bulletin from Back Porch
[As you know, your blogger's favorite hangout is the back porch. Sometimes strange people wander up, like my friends John and Mike and my daughter Paris. We passed the laptop around and did a group blog. Everything had greened up...
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Joel Achenbach
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June 22, 2005; 8:17 PM ET |
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New money v. Old money in Middleburg
Check out the Walter Nichols story in the Food section about the rich divorcees of the hunt country, stirring up trouble, starting businesses, ruffling feathers (and they have a lot of feathers to ruffle out there in Middleburg...
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Joel Achenbach
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June 22, 2005; 12:09 PM ET |
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Cosmos 1 in Space or Bottom of Sea?
It's unclear what happened to Cosmos 1, the solar sail. The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios say their team is getting faint signals from the spacecraft ("We have reviewed our telemetry recordings and have found what we believe...
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Joel Achenbach
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June 22, 2005; 11:39 AM ET |
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The Missing Cockatiel
The other day our elementary school had the end-of-year picnic, which was every bit as hot and sticky and full of children as I had feared it would be. One of the kids decided to bring her beloved...
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Joel Achenbach
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June 21, 2005; 7:44 PM ET |
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Creepy Tale of a Sperm Donor
In the business we have a thing called a "talk story." That's what my colleague Michael Leahy produced on Father's Day, a tale of a sperm donor who decided to be Daddy For a Week. Different people will...
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Joel Achenbach
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June 21, 2005; 4:32 PM ET |
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Greatest American Idol: The Final Five
Ronald Reagan is a greater American than Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Thomas Jefferson. That is the implication of the final 5 names on this Greatest American show running on Discovery. FDR and Jefferson got voted out Sunday, along...
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Joel Achenbach
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June 21, 2005; 2:09 PM ET |
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Cosmos 1 Solar Sail
If we ever make it to the stars it won't be for any practical reason. It'll be because it's entertaining. All technology in the future will rise or fall on its ability to amuse us. The problem with...
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Joel Achenbach
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June 21, 2005; 7:04 AM ET |
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Carnage at U.S. Open
As you know this blog follows sports closely despite the whining and mewling and sputtering of readers who think we should only write about things that aggravate them, like war and violence and the imminent End of Time....
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Joel Achenbach
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June 20, 2005; 11:59 AM ET |
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Delegate Every Mountain
Commencement Speech to Class of 2005 at [deleted to avoid embarrassing reputable institution]: I am delighted to be back here at my high school alma mater, because I had fantastic times here, and because I can shamelessly recycle this speech...
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Joel Achenbach
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June 20, 2005; 11:42 AM ET |
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Great Copy!
I don't know why all the obits on Miller say he called people "Champion." He always called me "Slugger." "Hey Slugger!" he'd shout in that raspy voice. Anyway I assume you've all read the Von Drehle appreciation that ran...
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Joel Achenbach
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June 20, 2005; 10:39 AM ET |
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