I almost re-watched all of Robert Drew's Primary over again the other day. It's a favorite of mine. I particularly like this clip of punditry gone wrong. Kennedy can't win Wisconsin. Until he can.

I love this collection of photos. I spent 20 minutes distracted by them when I had important things to do. Once again, I'm struck by the power of photography to transport us in the middle of our work day. One minute I'm looking at the latest CBS poll and the next I'm in the fields Tiblisi Georgia.

I wrote about this before in a post entitled "intimate desktop photography" which gets quite a lot of Google hits. I think people who get to the post are really disappointed to not find one damn frilly thing.

Everyone was out of town this weekend which allowed me to play the opening riff of Blackbird over and over for 20 minutes, but it also gave me a chance to gorge on podcasts. I listened to them while I organized the garage, cleaned long neglected parts of the house, worked out and drove to and from my interactions with the outside world.

 

In addition to my regulars here are three new favorites:

 

Berkeley's History 5, the history of Europe from Renaissance to the present. The course is taught by Carla Hesse who is direct, charming and alive. I even liked listening to her housekeeping section at the start of her first lecture because in it she outlined how to learn. "Don't be frustrated by weirdness," she said." Weirdness is the moment when you learn something." Carla Hesse

 

KCRW's To the Point on the Bush tax cuts, the deficit and the election. I like Warren Olney. I've been on his show. That's not why I'm recommending this. He had good guests and touched on all the important political and economic issues. The section on electric cars was a bonus.

 

David Hacket Fischer talks about George Washington's crossing of the Delaware as a part of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History podcast series. Perhaps I liked this because I know so little about this period.

 

I downloaded all of these through iTunesU but you can also get them from their various web sites.

 

"The first comes from James Madison at the end of the 18th Century. In a republic, he said, where the people not the government possess the absolute sovereignty, the press must be free to inform the people about the merits and measures of public men." The second came from Alexis de Tocqueville: "The hallmark of the American journalist is a direct and coarse attack without any subtleties on the passions of his readers. He disregards principles to seize on people, following them into their private lives and laying bare their weaknesses and their vices,"

From an Anthony Lewis lecture

My wife sent me a text the other night "not sure if I can get a can." She meant cab (though to be sure, can is in short supply in this economy). It was the latest in a series of auto-correct mild amusements. When I try to respond "yay" to an email or text message, my Blackberry steps in and sends "gay" which makes me seem very 1940s.

Ages ago,  I asked people working the Twitter to offer some of their auto-correct nightmares. Here are some of the responses:

 

@kscincotta: @jdickerson - My phone keeps trying to change "Yankees" into "wankers". #correxmenot

@nancyscola: iPhone changes my mom's nickname, Joojee, to "Hooker"

@thenote: Kagan is Jahangir on my Droid

@ sacca My iPhone corrected "AT&T" to "Ayatollah".

@ zachroth92 'yeah' being changed to 'yeshiva'!  

@JonHenke I once had this happen "you should turn that room into a murderer". Or a nursery. Your pick.

@JonHenke: My Droid used to change "fyi" to "dying"

@Sutebia   I live you. 

 Tmerrifi congatulating a Duke grad on their win I wrote "Dulles!

derektixx once typed "in a loud bar need me?" ...to "in a loud bar need men".

@andylevy iPhone changes OMG to IMF.

@FeistyShelia  iPhone also corrects to "ducking" "Cynthia" which adds to my grouchy.

My colleague Farhad Manjoo wrote a piece about how the cell phone's autocorrect software works and why it's getting better.

A little Slate contest. The president gets so much advice on everything he does, this seemed only fitting.

The Amazon page for my book:

 

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Blue Lizard Australian Sunscreen Daily Moisturizer Face SPF 30+ (3 oz) by Blue Lizard$11.49 

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Nieman writes about Slate's efforts to engage readers with long, well-reported pieces. Also known as our Fresca initiative. My risk series is mentioned.

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

General Mattis will replace David Petraeus. My story about the announcement here.

My profile of Mattis, as a part of my risk series here.