1 Damn, that's good girl. Downside is that I'd have to bet Rosie in a cage match. That fat pig will gator-roll him, and it'll all be over.

2 Heh - gator-roll. And it is masterful, indeed

3 The Donald might be an obnoxious person himself but that smack down of Rosie O'Donuts was epic. I downloaded it and played it about five times. Each one was as funny as the last.

4 Now there's a W in O'Donnell. What'll those celebrities think of next?

1 Annika, I will try and find the citation for that quote, but i assure you it is not the product of Ivy League Dawn. I heard it when I was in my 20's. It is, I'm pretty sure, a character in fiction that said it. I'll let you know.

2 Everyone knows the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42.

1 Couldn't read the .gif, letters too small and grainy. Might be my 1280x1024 monitor, though.

2 Ah yes, we've established your profession. Now we're merely negotiating the price.

3 Begone fucktard.

4 I had no trouble making it readable. Payments shall be received after I lose the semi-twixter status upon my graduation.

5 time to upgrade from windows 95, will

6 Yeah, but can you be rented? (*Chuckle*... *snort*...) ---- Reminds me of a documentary I was watching on cold fusion. Some brain dead mouth decided to level the charge that cold fusion research was being suppressed because physicists were being bought by big oil. One physicist critical of cold fusion responded something like 'No...no one's paid me off yet... if they want to, I can be reached at the University of...' Anyhoo, payola for positive reviews isn't really that big of a shock. Hell... they do it all the time for movies. Why else do we see that Ron Noonestein from Podunktown Idaho thought the new Rob Schneider film was a "Tour de Force", a "Film for the ages", and a "Must see event!"?

7 excellent

8 Casca, Just wondering by your two postings above, does Schizophrenia run in the family, or am I just jumping to conclusions? (Maybe just channeling GBS?)

9 Obviously you're new, so you have no frame of reference here, Brad. You're like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie and wants to know...

10 Bwah ha ha hah! Brad, this should help illustrate the situation. Put simply, Casca views Will as an un-housebroken interloper that soils Annie's wonderful blog which ties his world together.

11 youre out of your element donnie!

12 Hey Annika, do you have a myspace profile?

13 yes

14 OVER THE LINE!!!

15 Heh, what happened to your wishlist? I want to send you a Christmas present.

16 I suspect that right about now, Annie would like an advance copy of the next Bar Exam. Right aobut Christmas break is when they start getting seriously worried about that sucker. Last one jumped from @49% to 51.8% passing, so they are talking another look at the degree of difficulty.

17 Man, you keep being a prick to everybody, and nobody is going to show up at your funeral. At least, that's what momma used to say.

18 Not true, Cas. Someone would gonna wanna piss and dance on said prick's grave. Well, maybe not in that order... ewww, dancing in piss... anyway...

19 I (heart) pissing and dancing on said prick's grave! ;-)

20 As long as hard liquor is involved.

1 Ya know, I *still* haven't rec'd a password from them. I, for one, am not taking back everything I said about the bee, and I'm adding a few more choice comments. I hope it's a nice article and that it drives visitors to watch The Flirts.

2 congratulations! have you seen this yet? it's sully's new book -- www.thepathswechoose.com

3 Well, Mr. IT Professional, maybe you fucking didn't do something right? That would be my bet. Take it all back do you? My but your price is low.

4 Aw fuck, and they want a login. It will have to remain a mystery. The Sacto Bee is harder to access on the web than the NYT.

5 Congrats, Annie! ...and I cracked their high-security environment with: Userid: Password Password: Password

6 You've only been in the hood for a year + and you are already making headlines.....impressive, girl!

7 or is it 2+ years. whatever....not that long regardless....

8 Congrats on the Bee, and on five straight years of winning the Axe!

9 Casca, seriously: What is your fucking problem?

10 Answering this would be akin to beating an idiot child. But, I was asked. It would be bad manners to ignore the twit. Those who show up after the fact with weakass excuses offend the sensibilities of those who have made the effort. Had you but carried your weight, our girl would have won outright. Add to this my loathing of mince pies, and all who bake them, and you've entered a very select group in my estimation. I threw in an explanation of your girlfriend's Aunt's strange looks towards you for free. Finally, your posts uniformly suck. Any more questions?

11 My congratulations)

12 Casca: I TOLD you; pick on someone your own size. These mental midgets are unworthy. You know better than to take bait that looks too easy. I'm thinking you might be losing a step.

13 Hey Casca, you can't get on the NYT or the Bee sites unless you have a super secret liberal decoder ring. You can get yours from Daily Kos. BTW you also mispelled but (butt) just like me! Congrats Annie for this dubious distinction. Still, as the infamous corksucker Oscar Wilde said, its better to be talked about than not talked about.

14 Shelly, I've lost several steps, but not nearly as many as you, and like you, I compensate by being a devious old bastard. Youth is exciting, but maturity is interesting. Kyle, I did that on purpose to put you at ease, and make you feel welcome. "Corksucker", love it.

15 Congrats on the Bee mention; that's how I just managed to become aware of you just an hour ago. But I do think that when Tower and other music retailers blame Amazon and file-sharing for their woes, they are overlooking their own role in their demise. Until these recent going-outta-business sales, I hadn't bought new music at Tower in years. Classic albums by Jesus & Mary Chain...30% off a $26.95 list price? Even factoring in gas and bridge tolls, I'd be saving money to buy that at Amoeba Records in Berkeley. Even during these drastic price reductions, the Tower store four blocks from my house in Davis couldn't compete for my dollar next to a mom 'n' pop store 60 miles away. Why is it a surprise that they're folding? Why is it even lamentable? I'm reading music-related blogs by avant-gardists and obsessed obscuro geeks from all over the planet, and it seems to me that only Americans ever ballyhoo the plight of fading record stores. And DIY labels in America complain loudly about losing their sales to downloaders, but DIYCEO's abroad don't seem as prone to that. I've begun to seriously believe it when my friend Scott--who runs his own DIY record label--says that this problem is uniquely American because of the way we devalue culture here. Europeans, he says, are more enthusiastic about supporting art and music and that they'd never disrespect it enough to steal it. Indeed, culture is such a low priority for so many Americans that even when we do wanna pay for it, we buy it from the ultra-limited and tame vanilla selections at Wal-Mart and Target. I read somewhere recently that 55% of all music sold here in the USA are sold at Wal-Mart and Target. Several stores are finding a successful niche selling serious music to serious music fans, the minority of Americans who do not roll over and settle for less. And even a store like The Beat has said that they had a record year in 2005. Amoeba and Aquarius in the Bay Area are as successful as ever. Portland, Oregon, has more record stores now (32 and counting!) than they did last year or ten years ago. These success stories are adapting and finding a new sustainable business model. Tower put up a feeble attempt to adapt; their can't-beat-'em-join-'em approach of offering downloads for purchase on their website shows just how ready they were to capitulate. I spend probably $500-$1000 per month on new music, but I am not even 1% sad about Tower's bust.

16 Your comment gives me some reason to be optimistic, Rick. Thanks. Tower's prices had been going up, its true. And like I said, I had found other sources myself. Amoeba was a favorite haunt, in my college days. But now, without Tower, there's a vacuum, and technology will find a way to fill it. Pandora.com and satellite radio may be part of the answer. We shall see.

17 Congrats to you Annika!