Awesome Rhetorical Combat Between Chris Matthews and Ari Fleisher

The kind of clip that Harrogate has been given to understand is known as "Da's Turn" in the Solon household.

Lots to chew on here. Rhetorically speaking, from Harrogate's perspective this battle is a battle in two movements, with Matthews getting somewhat out-maneuvered in the first half (though it will surprise nobody that Harrogate still agreed with what Matthews was trying to argue), and with Matthews at least bringing things to a draw with Fleisher in the second half. Harrogate always said Ari Fleisher was a masterful shit-talker, and it is manifest here that once again, he's good with the demagoguery.

Mostly at stake on the level of substance is rehashing our entry into Iraq. But they also argue about other things that might make a few Situationers' and Readers' blood race, such as whether it is honest, and for that matter whether it is decent for the Bush people to keep bragging that we "didn't get hit again under Bush's watch."

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Friday Musical Tribute: Who's Got the Best Girlfriend?

As Tacitus might have put it. Tacitus, of whom Herman Melville's most bizarre fictional creation once observed:

Drop Tacitus. Phrenologically, my young friend, you would seem to have a well-developed head, and large; but cribbed within the ugly view, the Tacitus view, your large brain, like your large ox in the contracted field, will but starve the more. And don't dream, as some of you students may, that, by taking this same ugly view, the deeper meanings of the deeper books will so alone become revealed to you. Drop Tacitus. His subtelty is falsity. To him, in his double-refined anatomy of human nature, is well-applied the Scripture saying--"There is a subtle man, and the same is deceived." Drop Tacitus. Come now, let me throw the book overboard.

So. As Tacitus would have no doubt put it: Fuck It.

There is nothing at all wrong with celebrating the same musical group a lot of times in a row, if that is what happens to be powering your steamboat at the time. Besides, this is all Sweet Toddler J's fault anyway.

And then, Harrogate was suddenly seized with the paralytic, ungraspable fear that Oxymoron has never heard this song. Which must be corrected forthwith.




"As we get older
And Stop Making Sense,
You won't find her waiting long."

Now that right there is worthy of Blake.

Thursday Musical Tribute: Getting Slippery With It

As Eric Cartman would put it, Harrogate is seriously.

Over the last 24 hours something has happened whereby nothing but stuff like this will do. This song, actually, has long been one of Harrogate's favorites. But it has extra cache today.

Remember Those Posts You Really Loved But Somehow Never Commented On?

Harrogate has had a few of those.

One that stands out is this one by Solon. In which the Awesome Musical Intro to Hitchhiker's Guide was featured. When Harrogate and Supadiscomama went to see the movie, Harrogate remembers expressing to her afterwards that while he thought the film itself a bit better than okay, he thought that the Dolphin Montage deserved an Academy Award nomination. He was not kidding. And he still thinks that highly of it, because it really, really captured the essence of what is to be loved about Douglas Adams, even as it did its own wonderful thing. Harrogate watched that clip like six times when Solon posted it, and yet somehow, he never wound up writing anything in the comments box.

This, Harrogate suspects, has happened a lot among Readers & Contributors in our brief history as an Award-Winning Blog. The writing, the videos, the pics all get pored over with interest, but sometimes, the comment box is left unvisited. (Although, as ye can see, the particular Post by Solon in question did not go uncommented. Oxymoron came through with his typical penache. All Posts should be so lucky, as to get such feedback).

And verily, another Word about that Post by Solon. Readers, how awesome was it to discover that Sweet Toddler J loves "Once in a Lifetime" by the Talking Heads? That discovery caused a Talking Head Renaissance for Harrogate. Even as he types this, in truth, Harrogate is listening to "Take Me to the River (Drop Me in the Water)."