Why you're in South Florida right now, not in Cleveland: Cleveland Lighthouse on Lake Erie iced over

Under the Ice in Cleveland -TEN Network News, Australia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgq-c7E9D7I

------


Cleveland Lighthouse iced over on Lake Erie - photojournalist George Payamgis
http://www.wkyc.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=710985383001#/Wind%2C+water+create+%27ice+wonders%27+on+Lake+Erie/710985383001

Story at http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=164226

England fumes as snow & ice -and jack-knifed lorries- ruin sports, shopping and travel plans days before Christmas. Why so many lorries on roads now?

Channel 4 News: U.K. snow strands air travellers Correspondent Victoria Macdonald at Heathrow Airport
http://bcove.me/byscxokf
Story at: http://www.channel4.com/news/uk-snow-strands-air-travellers

Despite knowing that it was highly likely that the Chelsea-Manchester United football game would not go on today as planned in West London (at 11 a.m. my time in Miami) due to, supposedly, the treacherous road conditions caused by the unrelenting snow and ice -or as one website put it, "ran afoul of snow"- I'm still disappointed NOT to be able to see the game on Fox Soccer Channel, which has substituted a game in Switzerland between teams I've never heard of for the canceled game at Stamford Bridge.
http://www.chelseafc.com/page/Home/0,,10268,00.html

Especially disappointing when I am hearing differing stories today on what the actual road conditions around Fulham Road, SW 6 are like.

But then I have many viewing choices in the U.S., and was, of course, planning on watching the NFL games this afternoon, including the Dolphins game here against the Buffalo Bills and C.J. Spiller, whom I wanted the Dolphins to draft back in May.

Those choices I have put in rather stark perspective a strong sentiment I heard often yesterday and today on BBC Radio's 5 live about the much-discussed idea of the Premier League following the Bundesliga in Germany and taking a winter break, so that games are not scheduled when you know in advance that the conditions could be quite problematic weather-wise. http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/

After the jaw-dropping World Cup debacle in South Africa, where the English National Team performed perfectly miserably and looked old, slow, unenthusiastic and not-so-talented in their last game against Germany, there were many knowledgeable callers to live 5 in the immediate hours afterward who said that one of the many things that needed to be done to make ENT relevant again, was to finally end the idea of playing games at times of the year that don't make sense weather-wise. http://www.thefa.com/England

It was said often that this continuous playing of league matches, daily practice plus games in various UEFA tourneys and the FA Cup that pay big money and have much prestige, leads to players being worn out in ways that even vacations to the sunny climes of South Beach can not mend.
My own experience is that you tend NOT to get 'fresh legs' in South Beach.
Just saying...

Well, yesterday, the opposing sentiment to this notion of a winter break came in fast and furious and I must admit, it's self-evident nature caught me a little short.
"Then what are we going to do in the winter?"

Hmm-m...I hadn't actually thought of that!


On this show and many others I've heard since this summer, one caller after another has volunteered how much their own childhood memories of Christmas had to some degree been shaped by the Boxing Day fixtures on Dec. 26th, big games that I have watched for years from afar, but read about and followed in newspapers, magazines and books, and now online, for years, since they tend to get more mention historically.

They're NOT just regular season games because people's memories of this year's holiday will be shaped in some part based on how their own team does, regardless of what division they're playing in.

For some fans of more modest means, this may be the one home game they go to all year, or the only one they attend with their family and not their friends from work or the neighborhood.
That's not insignificant.

In some ways, though it's far from an exact comparison, those Boxing Day football fixtures are England's version of the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys always playing on Thanksgiving Day, and those NFL games becoming part of the national consciousness in ways that other NFL regular season games don't. If you're a sports fan, esp. a devout one, they become almost a subconscious part of your memory.

Real American sports fans of a certain age can even recall great games or foul-ups from years gone by that happened in Turkey Day games, even when they didn't involve their own favorite teams.

The 1993 Dolphins at Cowboys game, featuring Leon Lett, comes immediately to mind, though that is of a different sort, owing to my being a Dolphin fan for 40 years, since I still recall games I was at from 1971 and the Perfect Season of '72.




The idea that English sports fans would have little to choose from for their spectator or TV-viewing satisfaction is something that can't be underestimated.

There's no NBA or NHL or NCAA college basketball, men or women, plus the lack of the corresponding youth and High School teams in these sports to the extent that is true in the U.S. and Canada.
It's simply a different sporting culture.

I'll have more to say on this issue of a winter break for Premier League teams in the future, just wanted to share a few thoughts now since it seemed a propos.


Earlier today, just before Noon my time, I received my daily Channel 4 Snowmail, with Chief Correspondent Alex Thompson penning his pithy overview of stories that'd be appearing later in the night on the Channel 4 newscast, with weather being an integral part of that.

He asks a very reasonable question that nearly everyone seems to be asking,
"It is almost invariably lorries which stop [U.K.] motorways in snow... Why is this state of affairs allowed to continue?"

On the roads there is still serious disruption. It is time to tell a simple truth here: it is almost invariably lorries which stop our motorways in snow. They cannot handle the hills, they drive too fast too close (as every motorway-user will testify) and they jack-knife. As I write an LPG tanker's gone over on the M25, closing the motorway that is rarely far from crisis on a balmy June afternoon. Why is this state of affairs allowed to continue? Why cannot the haulage industry - including their heavy clients like the supermarkets - be instructed to take their fleets off the road for the six to 12 hours needed, once or twice a year?

We will not starve. We will not run short of fuel. Life will continue. And most of all the motorways will function far better because the gritters and ploughs can get through. In any case - since when was a very expensive truck, static for eight hours on a motorway, good for anybody's haulage bottom line?

You can read more and comment on Alex Thomson's blog at
http://blogs.channel4.com/world-news-blog/uk-snow-why-are-there-so-many-lorries-on-the-roads/14653

Video of jack-knifed lorries:
http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/display/playlistref/191210/clipid/191210_4ON_SNOWOTHER2_19

At the end of the Snowmail it grimly reads:

WEATHER WARNINGS OVERVIEW
There are several weather warnings being issued by the Met Office, see them in full: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/uk_forecast_warnings.html


TONIGHT Snow showers will continue in northeast Scotland overnight and outbreaks of snow will spread into the far southwest. It'll feel bitterly cold everywhere, with severe frost, ice and freezing fog patches.

TOMORROW
The snow in the southwest will spread to most of Wales, the south Midlands and southeast England during the day. It will be another very cold day with many places staying below freezing.

OUTLOOK
There's no sign of a break in the bitterly cold weather. Snow and ice will continue to be a problem throughout the week.

-----

See also:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/travelnews/

http://www.clubcall.com/

Sarah Palin's interview with Robin Roberts on ABC News' Good Morning America & Nightline

Article at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sarah-palin-good-morning-america-2012-presidential-run/story?id=12418168



Part 1: Palin for President? Sarah Palin on future and possibly entering the 2012 race. 12/17/2010
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/part-palin-president-12428592



Part 2: Palin on Motherhood Former VP candidate on marriage and raising five kids. 12/17/2010
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/part-palin-motherhood-12428604

In 2006 Sarah Palin defeated an incumbent governor of her own party in order to get the Alaska GOP gubernatorial nomination. After winning that nomination battle against longtime GOP U.S. Senator and sitting governor -and pork-loving blow-hard- Frank Murkowski, father of recently-re-elected U.S. Senator -and permanent sour face- Lisa Murkowski, Palin then got to run against the Democrat, another recent former Alaska governor, Tony Knowles.
And won.

As of two years ago, there was not a single LIVING Democratic politician in the entire United States who had ever run that sort of gantlet to get elected governor of their respective state. Just saying...

While it's easy for people to throw stones at Palin, especially from a distance, doing what she did, as mayor of a small and otherwise obscure city in Alaska that even most well-informed people in the Lower 48 had NEVER heard of, was and is pretty amazing.

That no LIVING Democrat has done anything like that is the proof.

I've always liked women with moxie, and Sarah Palin has that in abundance. As far as I'm concerned, whatever else she may lack, that particular quality will always help compensate for an awful lot, and endear her with average American voters, who quickly tire of pretentious, self-promoting phonies like John Kerry or John Edwards, whose innate shallowness, self-deception and disconnectedness to most of the country's genuine concerns eventually shines thru, no matter how talented or skillful their speechwriters.

The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza chimed in on Sarah Palin's political future on Friday from his WaPo blog, The Fix, pondering aloud, "Why Sarah Palin could struggle in 2012."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/house-tax-cut-vote.html?wprss=thefix

Transcripts of his Friday morning "Live Fix" online and video chats are at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2009/08/19/LI2009081903062.html

Here's the interactive schedule for the Washington Post's reporters, columnists and bloggers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/liveonline/

Yes, you're right, South Florida, in the year 2010, soon to be 2011, the Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel have nothing even close to this in terms of breadth of quality or quantity. Why?

Now, that's a good question.
Why don't the publishers of these two newspapers want to address those issues with concerned readers in South Florida?

Sarah Palin's Alaska: http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/sarah-palin-alaska/

http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin

http://twitter.com/sarahpalinusa

http://www.sarahpac.com/

http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/sarah-palin.htm


America by Heart -Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag
by Sarah Palin
http://www.harpercollins.com/books/America-Heart-Sarah-Palin/?isbn=9780062010964

http://files.harpercollins.com/AudioFile/9780062026910.mp3

YouTube videos mentioning Sarah Palin are added daily, almost hourly, regardless of whether they are pro or con. This chron link should provide you a way of seeing the most recent additions.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_filter=1&search_query=%22Sarah+Palin%22&search_type=videos&suggested_categories=25%2C43%2C23&uni=3&search_sort=video_date_uploaded

See also:
http://abcnews.go.com/nightline
http://abcnews.go.com/gma
http://www.youtube.com/user/ABCNews

Wry and insightful caffeinated news worth a second look: ABC News Nightline's "Champions of Breakfast?" Starbucks vs. Dunkin' Donuts

ABC News Nightline, March 18, 2009
Champions of Breakfast?
In the recession, Dunkin' Donuts goes head to head with Starbucks.
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7108261

Transcript:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/nightlinedailyline/2009/03/the-breakfast-w.html

https://www.dunkindonuts.com/

http://www.starbucks.com/

Worth a second look: ABC News Nightline's Slice of Heaven: Pizza Wars; Best pizza in Broward County

ABC News Nightline: It's On!: Pizza Wars, December 8, 2010

ABC News Correspondent John Berman on a "Slice of Heaven,"
December 8, 2010: The fight for slice supremacy as the humble pie becomes a recession powerhouse.

Story at: http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/pizza-wars-12350508

When I lived in Evanston and Wilmette in the mid-1980's, I used to go with friends to an Unos after every third Cubs game we went to at Wrigley Field.

The best pizza in Evanston back then was Carmen's, on Church Street, which wasn't cheap, but was delicious. http://www.carmenspizza.net/

In the Washington, D.C. area, where I lived for 15 years, I was partial to Armand's Pizza, usually the one on Mass. Avenue on Capitol Hill, that was located next to The Heritage Foundation and near the U.S. Senate buildings and Union Station, or the one in Tenleytown on Wisconsin Avenue near American University.

Not surprisingly, my friends and I were partial to their all-you-can-eat deals with salad.
http://www.armandspizza.com/newsite/index.html

From this you can deduce that my favorite kind of pizza is Chicago Deep Dish style.

There are currently no Unos in South Florida, which is a shame. Only wish there was one here in Hallandale Beach at the Village at Gulfstream Park or in nearby Hollywood.
http://www.unos.com/

2010 BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes Best Pizza:
Readers voted Joe Jamz Pizza & Baked Goods in Hollywood as the best pizza in Broward County.
Joe Jamz Pizza & Baked Goods, 320 S. Federal Highway, Hollywood, FL (954) 927-7707
http://joejamz.com/
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/bestof/2010/award/best-pizza-1148826/

The newspaper chose Sicilian Oven in Lighthouse Point.
Sicilian Oven, 2486 N. Federal Highway, Lighthouse Point, FL
(954) 785-4155
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/bestof/2010/award/best-pizza-1148935/

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/restaurants/search/?cuisine=Pizza

Color me pleased as punch: Wash. Post: Defeat of DREAM Act reveals failed White House strategy, advocates say

Given this bit of good news from Capitol Hill on what is otherwise a wet, cool and miserable Saturday afternoon exactly seven days before Christmas -may I suggest some hazelnut coffee at Panera's?- where I'm listening to BBC Radio's 5 live's Saturday Edition with Chris Warburton, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tl9cb and
http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/#two, amidst all the reports about the bad weather -6 inches of snow in 25 minutes at a North London mall and canceled football matches everywhere- I can hardly wait for tomorrow.

Yes, there will likely be hard-luck stories galore in Sunday's Miami Herald but likely little insightful analysis that matches what I have for you below from the Washington Post's Shankar Vedantam, who wisely keeps to the facts and doesn't editorialize in his stories, as seems so common at the Herald, where facts that don't support the passage of the DREAM Act simply don't appear with regularity in stories, despite the fact that a clear majority of the country opposes it.

Not that this stops the Miami Herald or their minions.
Their editorial board, reporters, columnists and editors have long championed a ridiculous immigration policy that defied logic and reason that was the very definition of "backdoor amnesty for lawbreakers" that critics like me said it was.

They lost because it was a bad idea that failed to persuade.

-----
The Washington Post
Defeat of immigration measure reveals failed White House strategy, advocates say By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 18, 2010; 12:55 PM

Whenever Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and other immigrant-rights advocates asked President Obama how a Democratic administration could preside over the greatest number of deportations in any two-year period in the nation's history, Obama's answer was always the same.

Deporting almost 800,000 illegal immigrants might antagonize some Democrats and Latino voters, Obama's skeptical supporters said the president told them, but stepped-up enforcement was the only way to buy credibility with Republicans and generate bipartisan support for an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws.

On Saturday that strategy was in ruins after Senate Democrats could muster only 55 votes in support of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, a measure that would have created a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country as children. Under Senate rules, Democrats needed 60 votes to overcome Republican opposition to the bill. The House of Representatives had passed the measure earlier this month, 216 to 198.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/18/AR2010121801679.html

Reminder: Miami-Dade State Legislative Delegation meeting Friday at 10 a.m. at M-D County HQ

Meant to post about this on Monday morning to give everyone a head's up.
Oh well...

From the Miami-Dade County legal ad website:
http://miamidade.gov/wps/portal/Main/legalads

Sunshine Notice - Miami-Dade State Legislative Delegation Meeting

NOTICE IS GIVEN that a Miami-Dade State Legislative Delegation Meeting has been scheduled for Friday, December 17, 2010, at 10:00 AM, to hear testimony from various community organizations and other entities, and discuss legislative issues and priorities for the 2011 session.
The meeting will be held in the Commission Chambers, located on the Second Floor of the Stephen P. Clark Center, 111 N.W. First Street, Miami, Florida 33128. Members of the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners may attend.

All interested parties may appear at the time and place specified.

A person who decides to appeal any decision made by any board, agency, or commission with respect to any matter considered at its meeting or hearing, will need a record of proceedings. Such persons may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made, including the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is to be based.

Miami-Dade County provides equal access and equal opportunity in employment and does not discriminate on the basis of disability in its programs or services.

For material in alternate format, a sign language interpreter or other accommodations, please call 305-375-1293 or send email to:
clerkbcc@miamidade.gov

HARVEY RUVIN, CLERK
DIANE COLLINS, DEPUTY CLERK

James Fallows shoots-and-scores (again) while lamenting U.S. news media's lack of curiosity or outrage: Peter Orszag: The Shoe That Didn't Drop

Sometimes, when you least expect it, the Blogger Dashboard located on my blog -under thehood, as it were, which tracks the various blogs and websites I'm subscribed to- hits a grand slam so obvious that you just know that when you see it list something as being only two minutes old at a little past midnight, your intuition, your internal news director, tells you that it will be THE must-read article the rest of that day.

And so it was just an hour ago when I was going thru my eclectic list of reading material before going to sleep. Or so I thought.
But here I am, blogging at 1:15 a.m. Eastern, Hallandale Beach temperature 45 F.

There it was under The Atlantic's James Fallows' blog: Peter Orszag: The Shoe That Didn't Drop.

Hallelujah!!!

Trust me, you'll thank me later.
Really.
That's why he's James Fallows, and there is no substitute. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fallows

And why I've been reading him in his various media manifestations, legacy media and new media, prescient overseas dispatches and domestic cultural and political analysis, since I was at IU.

And bought his books.

The Atlantic Online
Peter Orszag: The Shoe That Didn't Drop
By James Fallows
December 15 2010, 11:33 PM ET

I made a mistake several days ago when lamenting Peter Orszag's decision to take a senior job with Citibank, reportedly for several million dollars per year, so soon after leaving a senior Obama Administration post. Over the past two-plus years, Obama (and GW Bush) policies played a crucial role in saving Citi -- and in not holding its executives (or other senior financial-world figures) accountable for polices that brought on the world financial crisis or reining in top-end pay as profitability has returned. Now a senior member of the Obama team -- Orszag was budget director -- was going straight to one of those top-end jobs, even as his former colleagues in the administration have their hands full fighting the social, economic, and political effects of the crisis on "ordinary" Americans who can't find jobs or are losing their homes.

Read the rest of this fabulous post at: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/12/peter-orszag-the-shoe-that-didnt-drop/67869/

See also this excellent essay by Fallows in the June 2010 issue of The Atlantic:
How to Save the News
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/06/how-to-save-the-news/8095/

James Fallows archives from The Atlantic at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/james-fallows/

2010 St. Lucia Day in Stockholm: traditional songs and sweet sentimentality that ring true across the miles; SVT's Lucia program is sublime!; updated

The first five photos above are screenshots I took of Amanda Römmesmo Diaz (as Lucia) from Tuesday morning's St. Lucia concert at Kungsholms Church in Stockholm, that was broadcast LIVE by SVT -at 7 a.m.- in an event officially titled, Luciamorgon i Kungsholms kyrka.

The ridiculously cute St. Lucia icon/photo directly below those photos of Amanda is from Elina Thorsell's blog post Tuesday, as the flute-playing member of Timoteij recounts what she was up to today on one of the biggest days on the Scandinavian calendar.

This was updated in December 2015

------

Lucia

Av Elina den 13/12/2010

Idag är det den 13 december och julen närmar sig med stormsteg! När jag gick upp imorse så var tv.n på och luciafirandet strömmade ut ur högtalarna. Så fint!...
Read the rest of Elina's post at: http://www.timoteij.se/2010/12/13/lucia/

In Elina's particular case, the celebration of the Queen of Light amidst supernatural forces, included her going to her little brother's school to listen to him and his classmates sings some festive traditional holiday songs. What a sweetie she is!

As the ever-adorable Elina alludes to in her post, Swedish TV was in full St. Lucia mode today from the get-go, and one of those features was SVT's fabulous one-hour broadcast this morning featuring the Södra Latin Chamber Choir -conducted by Jan Risberg- singing traditional Lucia and Christmas favorites like, well, yes, angels, even as the St. Lucia action holds our attention, as our brunette Lucia, Amanda, stays perfectly still throughout the ceremony, with four burning candles on her head wreath.

Good job, Amanda!

Also appearing this morning to sing some traditional Christmas favorites and give it some oomph were some very popular singers like Darin, Sonja Aldén, Shirley Clamp and Sanna Nielsen.

As I watched it earlier today, the only word that fit was serene -except when that word was heavenly.
Watch the whole program on SVT Play at
http://svtplay.se/v/2265228/luciafirande_i_svt/lucia



As always when I recommend an SVT program for your enjoyment here on the blog, once you have pulled-up the SVT web page, click the word "Fullskärm" to the bottom right in order to make it "full screen." Though some of the program is in Swedish, obviously, you'll still be able to appreciate the songs without knowing a single word of svensk.

I really urge you to watch some of it -if not the whole thing- as a means of not only reducing your own holiday stress, but gaining some Scandinavian cultural awareness, PLUS, and I can't emphasize this enough, the audio and video production qualities of this are just flat-out amazing! Especially considering that SVT had this entire program up on their website within hours of it airing!

(I have a future blog post on the amazing technical quality of SVT and SVT Play's programs and website that features plenty of examples of why they win so many design and technical awards.)

There's no heavy-handed VO narration by some un-seen quasi-celeb, nobody in the audience aping for the cameras, nobody in the church trying to steal the limelight from the kids performing. In a sense, it's almost like watching a documentary on another culture, with cameras that are carefully hidden to prevent anyone from acting un-naturally.
The video is available for watching on the SVT Play web page until January 11, 2011, so you only have a month to catch it before it goes buh-bye!


2015 Update: Excerpts from SVT's 2010 Luciamorgon, i Kungsholms kyrka, via 398asa YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLycexat2xk
Luciamorgon i Kungsholms kyrka

-----

SVT's holiday webpage, http://svt.se/2.114277/julen_i_svt_2010 is chock-a-block full of interesting things and as usual, is not only clever and colorful -while a bit cheeky- but also well-produced, but NOT busy and cluttered, unlike the Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel's web pages these days, which cause me to get a headache at the complete waste of resources in an area like South Florida that is crying out for real news coverage, not more syndicated photo files of B-List celebs or amusing animals.

Will someone please put a stop to that madness before the shareholders finally find out what's been going the past few years?

Tell them that the second-rate websites and the duplication of stories isn't fooling anyone about the actual quality of the product anymore?

We see thru the self-serving lies, the ridiculous fallacies, clear-cut news mis-representation and the longstanding charade that most of the reporters, columnists and editors really want to bring compelling stories to the public's attention -they don't.

That dog doesn't hunt anymore, plus, it's so, so painful to wade thru all the junk online plus seeing links to so-called Breaking News that's already 18 hours old.

Me duele la cabeza!

----



I know that I am remiss in this, and I've already received some emails from overseas the past few days asking me why I haven't said anything yet about the suicide bombings in Stockholm.

Well, I'm working on something right now in regards to that specifically, as well as the larger change in Swedish political and social culture.
I think it'll give you some real insight into some matters that you won't find elsewhere in South Florida, though that clearly isn't really much to brag about these days, is it?

All-in-all, I think at least some of you of a more serious bent will be surprised at what you learn -as well as disturbed- and find out how much has been going on in a modern democratic European country like Sweden that you haven't been hearing about in the American mainstream media, print and electronic.

For instance, the efforts by certain non-native groups that aren't particularly keen to assimilate and adapt to Swedish norms of democracy and civics, to actually prevent people from being able to speak freely at public forums, and inciting violence so that they can then be cast by the news media as victims.
There has been an awful lot of that!

Whether you haven't seen it in print or on TV already in the U.S. because of journalistic laziness, editorial myopia or that old alibi, lack or resources, I can't say.

But after you read a bit and see some videos I have in mind for you all, you won't be able to say that you didn't know.
And the facts are pretty compelling, especially when you have the video that tells the tale.

If you think the mainstream news media in the U.S. is condescending and ideologically against the interests of the average American, you have no idea how much worse it is in Sweden, as the election coverage showed.

As Christmas nears in the U.S., nobody-but-nobody wants 'legacy media' in their Christmas stocking, not even their own employees.
It's the same thing in Sverige.

Everybody wants the 'new media!'

Nokia N8; When you combine French sexiness and un certain joie de vivre with Finnish design, you get... Nokia's House Party to end all House Parties!

Nokia N8 HD-- My Superfun House Party

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGamyeJsJ-4&feature=player_embedded

More than anything else, this video reminded me of:
1.) certain elaborate Capitol Hill and Georgetown parties I attended in D.C., minus the bikini-clad wrestlers.

2.) most of the the "Swimmer" parties at IU, in Bloomington, especially those thrown at the Lantern House Apts., circa 1981-83, by my great friend Dave Whitmore from Overland Park, KS, who lived across me at Briscoe Quad my freshman year.
Dave and I quickly became fast friends because of similar interests and geography, he just happened to be faster than me in the water -even while doing the backstroke, his specialty- which is just part of why legendary IU and Olympic swim coach "Doc" Counsilman chose Dave to be captain of the IU swim team, and why I became such a familiar presence at Royer Pool inside the HPER and at their social shindigs.
I even missed the 1980 U.S.-Russia Olympic hockey game the Friday night it was first broadcast because I was at Royer for a meet against Michigan.

"In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation."
-South Beach Hoosier, i.e. me, in 2007.



Those "Swimmer" parties were insanely fun and animated, and featured some of the most beautiful women on campus on a large Big Ten campus of uncommonly beautiful and smart girls-next-door to begin with, something my friends and I were eternally grateful for.

When there were big sorority social shindigs going on that we weren't part of, we got even MORE of the beautiful coed "Independents," like my sweet and talented friend Laura Seitz from Pittsburgh, also an IU swimmer herself for a while, always so breath-taking and dapper in her sweet cherry red Adidas IU swim jacket, something I can still see today with eyes closed.

Laura was someone I knew from her very first week on campus, as she was also at Briscoe Quad my sophomore year, and for me, sort of became the model for the sort of well-rounded college students that IU has so many of: diligent with her studies, always asking good probing questions, great sense of humor and always game for some tennis on a lazy afternoon or taking in a movie or an IU soccer game.
I was indeed fortunate to have so many high-quality and high-caliber friends at IU the likes of Dave and Laura.

3.) certain IU frat parties, esp. Alpha Tau Omega on Third Street the weeknd before classes started, which featured a live band, or the parties at Sigma Chi that I usually found out about after they'd started by my friend there who could recite the dialogue from Fast Times at Ridgemont High by heart the same way another friend down here at NMB had been able to recite dialogue verbatim from Gone With The Wind.
And accurately, in those pre-video and pre-YouTube days, too, which is all the more remarkable.

If only we had had cell phone technology, camera phones and blogs back then, the fascinating stories I could tell you about my friends and IU with photos...

Like with a Nokia N8, now that I think about it.
C'est la vie

Which reminds me, before it's too late...

Dear Santa, Secret and Otherwise:

The Nokia N8 comes equipped with a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash, HD-quality video recording, film editing software and Dolby surround sound.
http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/04/28/first-sample-hd-video-captured-on-nokia-n8/

Compared to what I currently have to work with now, it would really help a humble blogger like myself ferret-out more hidden facts and capture below-the-surface skullduggery and crony capitalism in action in chaotic South Florida -and look good while doing so!
I only mention it, Santa, since you asked me to be more direct this year and to not beat-around-the-bush.

If you have any questions, please see: http://events.nokia.com/nokian8/home.html

Nokia France YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/NokiaFrance

The official Nokia blog: http://conversations.nokia.com/

WTIU-TV's documentary about James "Doc" Counsilman
http://www.indiana.edu/~radiotv/wtiu/doc/

http://www.finnishdesign.com/

http://finland.fi/Public/default.aspx