The class of ’92

Word came from Romenesko’s blog the other day that Mark Halperin, ABC News’ political director for a decade, would step aside to become a political analyst for the network. Halperin was part of the political Class of ’92 — those of us who slogged along with Bill Clinton on his long, strange trip that ended up at the White House.

I like to think we’ve done pretty well for ourselves. Gwen Ifill, then of The New York Times, hosts PBS’ Washington Week. USA TODAY’s Adam Nagourney went to the Times to write big political navel-gazers that I still love to read. John King of the AP is now CNN’s chief national correspondent (and he eventually was replaced at the AP by Ron Fournier, a former colleague of mine in Little Rock). Joe Klein of New York magazine became Joe Klein of many magazines and broadcast outlets, and eventually ‘Anonymous’ of Primary Colors fame.

Kit Seelye of the Philly Inquirer went to the Times; the AP’s Jill Lawrence wound up at USA TODAY; Dan Balz remains at The Washington Post and Ron Brownstein is still at the Los Angeles Times; Andrea Mitchell is still Andrea Mitchell; the Chicago Tribune‘s Mitch Locin, like me, went the dot-com route (although he stayed at the Tribune); Time‘s Walter Shapiro, my former row-mate on Clinton’s barely-airworthy fall campaign jet, went to USAT and then to Places Unknown; and George Stephanopoulos, who tried to chase the press out of the White House and pretty much made life tough for  Dee Dee Myers,now is a  member of the group he once so actively misled.  That’s the way it goes in this business.

Adios, Curly

Curly drank the belladonna tea last night. He had a good voice but was too snarky by half. That eventually got tiresome, so we booted his butt to the curb. Sure, his goal to make David Hasselhoff cry was funny, but so was his scary Coldplay-esque arrangement of a Diana Ross song a couple of weeks ago, and so was his consistent inability to sing on the beat (harder than you think, by the way — even some really good pro singers struggle with it).

What does he do this week? He picks a song with an odd bass beat that exacerbates his most obvious weakness. Begone!

Whatshername (this year’s Hottie Cyborg) survies, as does Nosferatu. The Kid is untouchable right now, although the teeny-bopper vote traditionally is swept aside when about six or so contestants are left. The Rocker put on her best show ever and I’m suspecting she’s a top-four person now. Beatbox Boy made a song by The Cure even more depressing, if that’s possible, but the judges loved it anyway and I secretly suspect he’s headed for The Final Show. Don’t look now, but I think he also might win — he’s a lot fresher than Gladys Knight Jr. or Ms. Wigs ‘R’ Us, even though they both can sing rings around him.

Note to God: We give up

Look, Lord, you give us an unbelieveable December and January, and for that, we are truly grateful. That was the nicest first three weeks of January I can ever remember, actually.

And then…came February, the coldest month I can remember since I moved out of the Midwest 23 years ago. And when February broke, and March came in somewhat normal, there was hope.

On Wednesday — a day I really couldn’t enjoy because I was in a drug-induced stupor from some dental work — the high was 81. By Friday night, it was sleeting and snowing. Whatever it is we did to piss you off, God, we sincerely apologize. To quote Archie from A Fish Called Wanda, in one of my all-time favorite movie quotes (Archie is being hung by his ankles out of an upper-story window at the time):

I’m really really sorry, I apologize unreservedly. I do, I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, and was in no way fair comment, and was motivated purely by malice, and I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you, or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.

Now can we have some spring?

Thou shalt follow this style

USA TODAY, like most big newspapers, has its own style guide for reporters and editors. Stylebooks are dry, humorless things — usually.

I was perusing USA TODAY’s stylebook today when I came across this entry for the Bible:

Thou shalt capitalize, without quotation marks or italics, when referring to the Scriptures in the Old Testament or the New Testament. Thou shalt capitalize related terms such as the Gospels, Gospel of St. Mark, the Scriptures, the Holy Scriptures.

Thou shalt lowercase biblical in all uses.

Thou shalt lowercase bible as a non-religious term: My dictionary is my bible.

Thou shalt not abbreviate individual books of the Bible, and thou shalt not italicize or put quotation marks around books of the Bible. Citations listing the number of chapter and verse(s) use this form: Matthew 3:16, Luke 21:1-13, 1 Peter 2:1.

Stylebook humor. Who knew?

Pincer update

Several months ago, I mentioned in this space the photo collection I was building of various public figures making a little “I’m crushing your head!” pincer gesture with their index fingers and thumbs.  That collection is up to 38 photos so far, and includes a wide variety of politicians and well-known folks, including everyone from Tony Blair to Bill Gates. Here it is, in my office cubicle: