So, someone managed to get Judge Alito’s son’s humorous profile of himself removed from an apparently defunct student magazine at Colgate. I had a link here until I deleted the post. I erased the post without knowing that it was involved in such intrigue.

Some background: I woke up late, had no idea Bush announced the nomination of the dude who wrote the dissent in Casey. I started doing stupid google searches regarding Alito. I mean, one of the bizarre and captivating things about the process of supreme court nominations these days is how it plucks people out of a fairly insular intellectual community and makes them pop culture icons. Combine this with the reality that all sorts of information exists about all of us on the Internet plus the fact that its easier to find stuff about people with distinctive names and you know that it’d be easy to find out stuff about Alito’s son. (Also, the kid thing is kind of in play now after Jack Roberts virtually playing beneath he’s father’s desk.)

What amazed me was how little there was about the Alito son. I’ve posted before about having a rare name and its effect on the info that’s out there. Anyway, I wrote up summaries of all the stuff on google about him and posted it with links. I went to class, came home, and thought about this for a couple minutes (I was reminded after watching the CNN coverage of Alito blitz indictment news off the map). Anyone who’s been to this blog knows that I make of lot of rash blog-related decisions. I’ve even pulled some stuff off before and I edit a lot. The bottom line is that I just didn’t want to be part of the sort of weird, not-so-spontaneous blogging that goes on these days with regard to Supreme Court nominees.* I felt bad about putting the stuff up, and I checked to see if anyone had actually seen it (not really, maybe 4 searches from the google blogsearch).

I guess I believe that people ought to be able to control the information about them on the internet. That’s why I erased the post. Then I started looking at if any other blogs had the info. It turns out that at some point between this afternoon and tonight the info had been removed from the Colgate site. Like I said, sometimes it sucks to have a weird name. The fake bio wasn’t even that interesting. I do feel its a bit creepy that when I copied the stuff onto my page I jokingly wrote something like, “I’m sure this is going to be erased in 10 minutes.”

Now, how does the actual info being removed go down? I have no idea. I bet someone realized it wasn’t good that the nominee’s son is recorded making fun of (“riffing” in the parlance of our times) a bunch of powerful democratic women from California. The site it was on was probably dead, and a couple of well placed calls probably scared the Colgate folks into calling their IT people to get it removed. I hope the son wanted it removed, it is his speech after all. However, the ability of the white house to strong-arm the process is remarkable.

Do I regret deleting the post? No. People whose parents are in the public eye don’t usually have much say in the matter. But, I do think that if spin machines want to use nice family photo ops to appeal to their base, then they should at least vet this kind of stuff ahead of time. None of this was hard to find, it wasn’t that interesting either.

*For the record, Patterico, Judge Alito was kind of making up the law when he used dissenting opinion precedent to redefine what the the words "undue burden" mean.

Strange Smell Sweeps City

Read all about it here. Although I have not smelled it, I have witnessed one confirmed smelling (of the maple syrup variety) at 6th Street and 3rd Ave.

Its a SUPER storm...or is it PERFECT

ARE YOU READY FOR A SUPER STORM?? Sucks to be Williamsburg....actually looking at the map kind of makes you think twice about a lot of recently hip Brooklyn and Manhattan locations. I'm thinking of a quote, somthing about remembering history or being doomed to repeat it.

An Open Letter to Lonelyplanet.com

To Whom it may Concern,

What you have done to the actual level of real content on your site is a travesty. This website USED to be helpful for those needing to find out more about where they wanted to go (BEFORE buying your guides). Now, the maps are a TOTAL DISASTER. If I wanted a small political map with random cities, I’d use one of the thousand of maps sites on the internet. People liked your maps because they USED to be focused on what travelers wanted to see. Why can't the destinations on the maps be linked to the content on the website? That's how it used to work. Aside from the maps, it seems you’ve cut the amount of information that’s available in half. Shame on you. The ONLY reason why you would have done this is because you felt like the free content on the site was cutting down on guidebook sales. I've used your books and site for years, probably spending hundreds of dollars on your products, the reason why I trusted your company was that I felt you all had something going on other than your bottom line. The changes on this site show me that I was wrong. You are wrong to think that the level of information available online has an effect on guidebook sales, they are mutually exclusive. Well, actually....they aren't...because I'm never buying a Lonely Planet guide again because of what you've done to your site.

-JS

Well, I'm heading back for homecoming. It looks to be a rain soaked affair. Hopefully I won't have to see anyone crowned (or any crowning ...but that's an entirely different can of worms...I had a link to pictures of actual crowning, but I really couldn't handle it...if you must see, go here, then click on #51...its a beautiful thing, I guess).

If I do see a king and queen crowned, I hope it goes about as well as it did during Carrie.

Actually, I'm only going back to Medford for a delicious buffalo chicken calzone. Its a long drive for a calzone, but worth it.

Check out the Harriet Mier's Blog!!!

Here it is. I love her pink template. Very pro-woman.

Jessica Biel is so hot. Congratulations are in order, as she has just been named Esquire's "Sexiest Woman Alive." The above photo is from her awesome photo set in Gear Magazine in 2000. That was the summer before she came to Tufts, and the photos had the student body (or certain parts thereof) very excited. Not only did every shot elegantly flirt the line between showing nipple and not showing nipple, but the subtext was that Biel was trying to break her contract with the Jesus freaks at the WB's Seventh Heaven.* She was in my Hollywood Comedy class....so hot...want to touch the heiny. Anyway, congratulations again to Tuft's most excellently proportioned daughter.

In case any of you need the above spelled out in antiquated SAT logic: Jessica Biel in Gear is to b-porn photos as Blown Away is to b-porn movies. Both are the best in their class, hands down. In case you don't remember. Blown Away has both Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, plus Nicole Eggert before she had her tits surgically enhanced.

If you need some connection to the pre-teen photos below....just remember that Blown Away came out in 1992 and went pretty quickly to heavy rotation on HBO. It held a special place in my heart (and pants) for many years.

*Speaking of which, does anyone else find it very unChristian the way the writers had Mary leave the show...the Camden's basically abandoned their daughter after she proved herself not up to the families baby-making standards. Now, they have a house full of needy, non-related children (all who happen to be kissing eachother in the broom closet), but their own child is just left to rot.

This picture is just f'ing awesome.

I was a little man

Everyone was such a good sport about posing for shots.

This is when I became a man, and where my photo journey ends...

This is me in Juno, Alaska....we were on a family cruise. I guess I liked booze back then. This is 1991, I was 12. I have a whole slew of Bar Mitzvah pictures, but you guys are gonna have to wait for those.

OK, here is some wild sleepover fun. I believe this is some sort of Backstreet Boys copycat thing. Not really sure. A few years later we were making some pretty awesome home videos. I still know all these guys. The one on the right is an Ob/Gyn resident.

This is me at my first rock concert....Billy Joel Storm Front Tour. Classy as always, I am wearing the shirt from the show. You may laugh about Billy Joel, but keep in mind that a few months earlier he was playing at the Berlin Wall 2 days after it fell. "We Didn't Start the Fire" was about as big as it got back then. This is 1990.

Fun with guns...India style. Later on the trip we ate porcupine.

This is how we do it in South Central Mt. Lebanon.

Here is the lawsign photo I referenced in the post below.

Jiminy Cricket! Its Jiminy Cricket! This is me and my sister at Disney World, circa 1988.

OK, there is a lot wrong with this photo. I should say that this is in my sister's room, I did not have purple flower wallpaper. In fact, I had space ship wallpaper. Was I dork? Yes, massive, massive dork.

I was one of the worst baseball players in history. This is a picture of me swinging wildly at a wild pitch. My mom couldn't even yell, "good eye" with any confidence.

New Years, 1988

Me, on my Vision Gater

1987!

Sunrise, Sunset

Well, I'm back in Pittsburgh (Mt. Lebanon more specifically). In what passes for news in this bucolic little town, I'll report that some as-yet-unknown confluence of events has produced the most overwhelming acorn crop in recent memory. I expect the squirrels to die from gout, or some other disease of the overfed. I'm serious about the acorns, there are thousands of them just in our front yard.

As far as I'm concerned, acorns are good for one thing and one thing only--throwing at cars from your tree house. This little hobby got me and some friends in quite a pickle one fine fall day many years back. We hit some road-rage filled commuter and he screeched to a halt and came running in to my back yard with a golf club. We ran inside just in time, and huddled in the corner listening to him yell f-bombs and threaten to call the police. Aside from the occasional potato-gun incident and/or laser-tag battle, this is what passed for excitement when I was growing up.

Continuing down memory lane, I was looking at old photo albums from 1988. Man, did I have bad fashion sense! I don't think I have scanner access, but if I come up with something, I'll post some pictures of what I'm talking about. Think about 80's new wave fashion, dumed down to Ocean Pacific shorts and spiked hair, mixed with a serious case of your-momma-dresses-you-funny. One thing that's cool about living in a quiet little mountain red-neck town is that you stay friends with the kids you grow up with. I have pictures from my 9th birthday party at the ice rink that include 3 or 4 people who's weddings I've been too.

My favorite photo from the album has to be one of me standing in the front yard with all our election lawn signs. We have the Dukakis/Bentsen, some assorted local politicians (my mom had just lost a bid for school board the previous year), and a Doug Walgren for Congress sign. The Walgren one makes me the most upset because after Walgren won in 88, Rick Santorum took his seat in 1990 (Walgren was a 14 year house veteran at that point, and Santorum won by actually going door-to-door to every house in the district). It is the lasting shame of my fine red-neck suburb that we brought this shithead to the national spotlight. In the spirit of the High Holidays, may g-d have mercy on our souls.

This brings us, naturalich, to Heriett Miers and her vast left-wing gay-rights agenda. Santorum, how can you stand idly by and let this fag hag from Dallas turn the whole country into happy hour at Lucky Cheng's! Jesus fucking Christ, we're talking about a woman who gave money to Al Gore's campaign. And, she DOESN'T HAVE A HUSBAND OR CHILDREN! What sort of unhinged, depraved nonsense is that! Rick, the armies of the right demand that you save us from eternal damnation.