Via Paul Riddell, I see that Penthouse Magazine is in serious trouble.

Is this bad news for publishing in general, or just the sign of a once-powerful brand being usurped by newer, hipper brands offering the same kind of thing without the smarm? I don’t know. But ever the optimist, I’ll try to take the “Half-full” line and hope this doesn’t mean the beginning of the end for magazine publishing. Seeing as how I’m trying to become a freelance writer, you know.

(Not that Penthouse is a market I plan to submit to, in any case. But I imagine Oliver Willis may be sad at this news.)

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Two words: Here’s hoping.

UPDATE: As the hours pass today, the word gets more and more optimistic that the men killed were, in fact, Saddam’s sons. If this success leads to a certain neutralizing of the current guerilla effort and the finding of Saddam himself, then great. While I personally have been critical of the Administration and its prosecution of the war to this point, I’m not so blindingly partisan to the point of hoping for continued mishaps.

(I’m also always conflicted as to whether I should even post news like this or not, since the likelihood of anyone learning of events like these through reading Byzantium’s Shores is so remote that, were it to be the case, I would advise that person to get out more. Oh well….)

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What do you do when, as a member of the Majority Leadership in the House of Representatives, something with broad-based bipartisan support comes along that you just don’t like, for reasons passing understanding? You use your power over parliamentary procedure to simply remove it from consideration.

Nauseating.

(Link via Matthew Yglesias.)

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Over on Collaboratory, Scott wants to come up with a ranking of the Top Twenty figures in American history. This is in response to another such ranking that puts Ronald Reagan at Number Two, oddly enough. So, if you want to come up with a top 5-10 such figures, e-mail him by next Monday. He gives his address in the linked post.

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ESPN has been sending some of its Page2 columnists on a tour of all the big-league ballparks. Fenway is up today. Man, I’d love to go there.

(And every time I read one of these articles I get in the mood for a hot dog.)

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One week to go, and Lance Armstrong will catch Big Mig. Wow.

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A lot of times when I’m watching a movie or TV show, I’ll spot an actor – – usually in a secondary role – – whom I’ve seen in some other role before, or even more than one; and I will then spend some time trying to figure out exactly where I’ve seen that person before. Some people find this kind of thing distracting because it takes them out of the story for a moment or two, but I don’t. I enjoy it, actually – – it’s like an “Easter Egg” for me, and I’ve never found that it detracts from my enjoyment of the film. The most recent notable example I can think of (it actually happens all the time, but this one stands out) is that King Theoden in The Two Towers is played by the same guy who played Captain Smith in Titanic. Some actors make an entire career out of playing such secondary characters, and then sometimes when they get to be “Elder Statesmen” of the screen trade they’ll get a role into which they really sink their teeth, and walk away with an Oscar nomination or even an award. Such a person is said to be a character actor.

Here are some of my favorite character actors, in no particular order (and not exhaustive, either – – I’ll come back and add more in later posts).

:: Carrie Fisher. Yes, she started out as a leading lady in the first Star Wars trilogy, but for various reasons she receded into character-actor status, with notable appearances in films like When Harry Met Sally… and Austin Powers (the first one). She’s also kept busy as a writer.

:: James Rebhorn. This guy is one of my favorite character actors, despite the fact that I can never remember his name. His turn as the smarmy Secretary of Defense in Independence Day is excellent, as is his portrayal of the attorney who prosecuted “the gang” in the final episode of Seinfeld. He brings a sense of businesslike precision to just about every role he does.

:: Maury Chaykin. He’s been all over the place. For me, he’s most memorable for the first time I saw him, as an insane Army officer in Dances With Wolves.

:: John Hurt. A fine, fine actor who can do just about anything: a billionaire industrialist in Contact, an elitist nobleman in Rob Roy, the owner of the Magic Wand Shop in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – – he is always outstanding.

:: William Petersen. He may not count anymore, really, since he hit it big on CSI. But he was a fine character actor before that, with his work in Cousins being an outstanding example.

:: Stockard Channing. I’ve always loved her. I’m also glad that she’s had more exposure in recent years, after taking on the role of First Lady Abigail Bartlet on The West Wing, because that means whenever Channing shows up in a movie, some bozo in the theater doesn’t yelp, “Hey, it’s Rizzo!”

:: Clint Howard. God, I love this guy. He’s been around forever, almost as long as his brother Ron. (He played Balok in the original series Star Trek episode, “The Corbomite Maneuver”.) He’s especially notable as one of the Houston controllers in Apollo 13.

That’s enough of those for today. More at another time.

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Via MeFi, I see that American citizens are considering moving to Canada because things are more liberal up there.

Believe me, I occasionally understand the sentiment. Hell, I’d love to live in Toronto for the dim sum alone. But America is my home. It’s my country. And as a democracy, it’s intended to be a self-correcting mechanism. But the problem with self-correcting mechanisms is this: by definition, a mechanism therefore has to be “incorrect” now and then if it’s going to correct itself. That’s what is meant by the old saw, “My country, right or wrong: when right, to be kept right; and when wrong, to be put right.”

And besides, no matter where you live, there will always be no shortage of stuff that nauseates you, no matter what your political or religious beliefs may be. So, packing up for Canada is just postponing the inevitable. Plus, it will probably annoy the Canadians, and we can’t have that, can we?

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I’m glad to see that there’s one industry out there that may be adding a substantial amount of workers in the near future.

Or, given what those new workers will probably end up being used for, maybe I’m not so glad.

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An unpublished novel by Robert A. Heinlein has just been unearthed. All the copies were thought destroyed, but apparently one has been unearthed and may see publication at some point in the future. The book is called For Us, the Living. I’ve bounced off Heinlein more times than I can count, but I’ll keep trying, I suppose. (That title, by the way, sounds creepy to me, like an Ayn Rand thing.)

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