Dude! Joe's Jottings, Mostly Junk

Bob Marbourg never wanted to spin records or read the news on the radio. One thing, and maybe only one thing, fascinated him: the mad struggle of a few million people trying to get from Point A to Point B each day.

And so for 30 years -- he celebrated his on-air anniversary this week -- Marbourg has sidled up to a microphone at radio station WTOP and narrated the breakdowns, slowdowns and fender benders that make up Washington's so-called rush hour (not much rush, and a lot longer than an hour now).

Whereas native-born children’s language skills follow a bell curve, immigrants’ children were crowded in the lower ranks: More than three-quarters of the sample scored below the 85th percentile in English proficiency.

To reach the widest audience, Sony BMG market X Factor contestants through the supermarkets rather than through more traditional outlets. Its CDs will always be in a prominent position in store, often next to the till. To secure these positions Sony BMG will have offered the stores substantial discounts, which are not made available to independent stores who, therefore, cannot match the price offered in supermarkets.

Even more damaging is the impact this has on the reputation of independent stores. If CDs are £4 more expensive in independent stores, customers are likely to perceive that they are being ripped off and so, in the future, their first port of call for buying music is increasingly likely to be the supermarket instead of the independent shop.

Here's what I think is very important to remember on this issue: There is not one Islam but many Islams, just as there is not one Christianity but many Christianities. The Christianity of Fred Phelps is different from the Christianity of Jerry Falwell, which is different from the Christianity of Jim Wallis, which is different from the Christianity of Barry Lynn or Bishop Spong.

The disagreements between these groups are so deep and so fundamental that it is absurd to group them under the same label. At one extreme are gay-affirming clergy and at the other extreme are those who want to put gays to death. At one extreme are those who want a complete separation between church and state and at the other are those who advocate a brutal theocracy.

The same is true of Islam. The Islam of Osama Bin Laden is not the same as the Islam of Muqtedar Khan or Louis Sufay. And just like the Bible contains enough contradictory statements that one can find inspiration and support for everything from sublime kindness to the most depraved barbarism, the same is true of the Quran. Decent, caring people will find plenty of support for being decent and caring in either the Bible or the Quran; cruel, brutal people will find plenty of support for cruelty and brutality.

We need to stop thinking of major religions as a single monolithic group. They simply don't fit that narrative.

A Zogby poll of 1,542 American grandparents published Monday found that grandsons were described as "very" to "extremely" talented by 1,542 of the respondents. "Participants in the poll were emphatic in their descriptions of the talents of grandsons in fields as diverse as advertising and sales, choral performance, baseball, talking, crawling, making their beds, video games, and instructing their elders on proper cell-phone use," pollster Tom Waterton said. "In addition, an overwhelming percentage of grandchildren were described as outgoing, sharp, and looking just like Uncle Andy, you remember Uncle Andy, he was always up to something, too bad he passed so young, he would have loved the grandchild in question." Sources at Zogby admitted that the survey was incomplete, as several hundred pollsters are still unable to get their assigned grandparents off the phone.

It took Earley four visits to the Fairfax/Westfields DMV office to get an ID card. All because her birth certificate didn't have her current name on it and that, according to new state and federal laws, means it doesn't prove that she is a U.S. citizen.

For women in particular, the passage of the Real ID law, which created standardized, federal identification standards in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has made the process of documenting who they are far more complicated, frustrating and unreasonable.

Coffee contains caffeine, and as everyone knows, caffeine is a stimulant. We all know how a good cup of coffee wakes you up, makes you more alert, and helps you concentrate - thanks to caffeine.

Or does it? Are the benefits of coffee really due to the caffeine, or are there placebo effects at work?

• Fantasia's Night on Bald Mountain
• Nightmare's This Is Halloween and What's This
• Fantasia 2000's shortened Beethoven 5
• Cruella deville

• Bela Legosi's Dead
• Big Pig's I Can't Break Away
• David Bowie's Scary Monsters
• Don't Pay The Ferryman
• Eurythmics Sweet Dreams
• Welcome to the Pleasuredome
• Golden Earing's Twilight Zone
• INXS Devil Inside
• Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill

• Madness's House Of Fun
• Men At Work - Who Can It Be, Dr. Heckyll, and Still Life
• Dead Man's Party and Weird Science
• Planet P's Why Me?
• B52s Channel Z
• The Cure - Lullaby, and the extended mix of Fascination Street
• The Fixx's Sign Of Fire
• Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence

• Alice Cooper's Poison, Elected (right time of year for it?), Nightmare
• Pink Floyd's Astronomy Domine and Welcome to the Machine
• Rush's Witch Hunt and Roll The Bones
• Sting's I Burn For You
• Jefferson Starship's Stranger
• Phil Collins's In The Air Tonite
• The Gathering's Nighttime Birds

• opening credits, Batman Begins
• The Temple of Doom
• Start The Countdown and End Credits (The Black Hole)
• V-jur Flyover (Star Trek I)
• Crash & Whale Fugue (Star Trek 4)
• Main title and Mountain Visions - Close Encounters

• 2004
• 2005
• 2006
• 2007 with discussion
• 2008

Red Grey!