Will Pod Cast A Shadow On Novak Djokovic’s Success?

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Campaign Outsider

Boffo at the men’s tennis box office: Attack of the Pod Person, starring Novak Djokovic.

From Monday’s Wall Street Journal:

Novak Djokovic’s Secret: Sitting in a Pressurized Egg

Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic hasn’t earned his No. 1 ranking by taking the conventional road. There’s his odd ritual of excessive ball bouncing before serves, which can break an opponent’s concentration. There’s his new gluten-free diet, which he’s said has helped him feel stronger on the court.

But now there’s something truly weird: the CVAC Pod.

Ever since last year’s U.S. Open, Djokovic has been trying to improve his fitness by climbing into a rare $75,000 egg-shaped, bobsled-sized pressure chamber.

The contraption is a hyperbaric chamber on steroids, “[using] a computer-controlled valve and a vacuum pump to simulate high altitude and compress the muscles at rhythmic intervals.”

It’s not illegal, and it’s not widely available (there are only 20 of them). And many tennis observers say it’s no big deal. But, the Journal reports, its maker “claims that the technology may be twice as effective at helping the body absorb oxygen as blood doping—a banned form of performance enhancement.”

Conclusion #1: Djokovic was a djope to admit he uses this podformance-enhancing device.

Conclusion #2: It could become his own personal asterisk attached to future victories.

Conclusion #3: You really should read the Journal every day.

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(Paper) Clip ‘n’ Save This WSJ Piece

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Campaign Outsider

Excellent Wall Street Journal A-Hed in Monday’s edition:

Mousetraps, Maybe, but Can You Build a Better Paper Clip?

U.S. Manufacturers Churn Out Billions Each Year; Hoping a New Model Clicks

LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill.—The basic paper clip, a simple twist of steel wire typically retailing for about a penny, has dominated its market for more than a century.

Now ACCO Brands Corp., based in this Chicago suburb and dubbing itself a “global powerhouse of leading office-products brands,” hopes Americans will embrace a snazzier clip costing more than 16 times as much.

Dummkopfs, right? Not so fast, says a brandinista at ACCO:

“This is our reinvention of the paper clip,” says Carol Lucarelli, a brand manager at ACCO, as she hands a visitor a sheaf of paper held together by stainless steel clamps called Klix in shiny hues of red, purple, green, blue and “classic silver.” Klix, resembling small hair barrettes, make a snapping sound when closed. “It’s very fun,” says Ms. Lucarelli. “It’s this clickiness.”

Yeah, we got your clickiness right here.

Meanwhile, fun facts to know & tell about paper clips:

• Most of the 11 billion paper clips sold each year in the U.S. are made domestically

• Since 1994, import tariffs up to 127% have protected U.S. clip makers

• 11 billion paper clips equals 35 per American each year

• Supplemental uses: cleaning fingernails, hanging Christmas ornaments, cleaning pipes, unclogging tubes of glue

Campaign Outsider clip ‘n’ save prediction: Klix are for kids.

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Let The $4 Billion Rumpus Begin! (Fun Facts Edition)

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Campaign Outsider

Fun facts to know & tell from a Sunday’s New York Times piece about the blurring of the line between presidential candidates and Super PACs that can compile unlimited amounts of cash to promote them:

Early fund-raising suggests that the new groups are relying on a handful of wealthy donors capable of writing five-, six- and even seven-figure checks. According to a study published last week by the Center for Responsive Politics, more than 80 percent of money raised by Republican-leaning Super PACs this year came from just 35 donors.

Democratic-leaning Super PACs relied on an even smaller group, with more than 80 percent of contributions coming from just 23 donors.

Translation: Roughly five-dozen people are driving the political discourse in America right now.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t include any of us.

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Bill Keller’s NYT Column Isn’t Just Annoying, It’s Inaccurate

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Campaign Outsider

The hardworking staff has chronicled in detail (as recently as yesterday) its reservations about New York Times exiting editor Bill Keller’s column for the paper.

Now comes this correction regarding his latest:

Because of an editing error, an essay on Page 11 this weekend, about the religious beliefs of Republican presidential candidates, misstates the proportion of Americans who believe that extraterrestrials live among us. It is about a third, not a majority. The essay also erroneously includes Rick Santorum among politicians affiliated with evangelical Christianity. Mr. Santorum is Catholic.

An editing error, eh? Anyone else hear the sound of one arm twisting?

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Good Night, Irene IV

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Campaign Outsider

The hardworking staff promises to stop when the wind does . . .

From Irish Central:

Notes from the eye of Hurricane Irene —Goodnight Irene, be on your way

The real thing, from forextv.com:

Good Night Irene: Bloomberg Says He Will Turn Off The Lights In New York City

From American Blues Scene (with a good essay on the song):

From CNN.com:

And etc.

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Good Night, Irene III

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Campaign Outsider

More ballast for the old-school side of the ledger (see here for background).

From CNSNews:

On the Secret Decoder Ring today: Links to “Goodnight Irene” sung by the Weavers

From Port Chester Patch:

From Livingston Patch:

More, no doubt, to come.

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The Things WordPress Says To Us

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Campaign Outsider

The hardworking staff has mentioned this before – and again, not to look a gift host in the mouth – but really, you guys at WordPress: Please stop!

Please stop saying after every post, “This is your (umpteenth) post” followed by one of the following:

Groovy! Rock! Hip! Cool! Far-out! Super! Nice! Radical! Neat! Bomb! Nifty! Tight! Boss! Wicked!

You have no idea how tight or groovy our latest submission might be.

Not to mention it feels like we’re trapped in some ’60s acid flashback.

Please stop. We’re begging you.

P.S. WordPress said this post is Dandy!

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Good Night, Irene II

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Campaign Outsider

For all those who mocked the hardworking staff for our old-school sensibility (we’re talking about you, Stein), take this:

(Via New York Times)

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Will Someone Please Remove Bill Keller From His NYT Column?

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Campaign Outsider

Like kids and matches or Tom Wolfe and a spaghetti dinner, Bill Keller and a newspaper column should be kept apart at all costs.

As the hardworking staff has previously noted, New York Times staffers should have staged an intervention after he threw a hissy fit at Arianna Huffington; or when he argued that authorities should not, despite a critic’s recommendation, “[frog-march] a shackled Bill Keller into court” over the paper’s WikiLeaks  revelations; or when he submitted this toe-curler about the nudnik nature of social media.

New comes his latest column, which, Mediaite reports, has got the Come to Jesus crowd all lathered up:

 Most of the outrage centers on Keller’s clunky comparison of religion with a belief in space aliens, and the sense that he’s picking on Republicans. What does the Bible say about all of this, are candidates’ religious views fair game, and is Keller’s column just another excuse to highlight Mitt Romney’s Mormonism?

Better question: Is Keller’s column just a vanity project that he wouldn’t accept from any other writer? And how bad will it get when he becomes a fulltime writer?

C’mon, Jill – make it stop.

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‘Come On, Irene?’ What Happened To ‘Good Night, Irene?’

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Campaign Outsider

From the Atlantic Wire on the wave of “Come On, Irene” references:

The cliché: As Irene gained strength and set her sails for the east coast this week, a familiar Celtic fiddle started sounding in America’s head. It started on Twitter as observers began repeating the refrain. “Come On, Irene!” they tweeted. Pretty soon it was making its way into news headlines. New York magazine’s Daily Intel wrote on Aug. 23, “It has the potential to be a category four storm, with winds between 130 and 155 miles per hour. Come on, Irene!” “Come on, Irene — it’s hurricane season,” blogged Bryan Walsh for Time. Come on, everyone, let’s calm down. As the hurricane continues to advance, the “Come on Irene” gags have taken over.

The source, of course, is “the 1982 song Come on Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners.” But that shortsighted connection passes over the more venerable “Good Night, Irene,” Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter’s blues classic.

Come on, Ireneniks. Get your Lead Belly on.

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