Quote Of The Year

Dan Rather and Mary Mapes are back, with a story to tell! Scott Johnson of Powerline takes on the NY Times "love-fest", and includes this gem:

[Times reporter] Koblin memorializes Mary Mapes’s Bartlett’s-worthy quote from the Times love-in: “There is a tremendously strong perception that we bungled, bungled, bungled very badly. I think we were within the normal journalistic range of bungle.”

For “bungle” I would read “bias” and “malice,” and then concede Mapes may have been within the normal journalistic range of bungle at CBS News, and among Mapes’s fans at the Times.

If they tackled the NY Times movie review I can't find it. Spoiler Alert - the Times loved the movie and barely alerts the reader to possible problems with the intersection of this film and, well, reality, or at least those small slices that both parties still share.

Review: ‘Truth’ Treads a Perilous Political Tightrope

By STEPHEN HOLDEN   OCT. 15, 2015

The title of “Truth,” a gripping, beautifully executed journalistic thriller about the events that ended Dan Rather’s career as a CBS anchorman, should probably be appended with a question mark. More than most docudramas about fairly recent events, it is so well written and acted that it conveys a convincing illusion of veracity.

Just as there are conspiracy theorists who will never be satisfied with the Warren Commission report on the Kennedy assassination, there are some who passionately believe that Mr. Rather and his producer Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) conspired to tarnish George W. Bush’s reputation.

Well, wait - are the people may be agnostic about their motivation but believe that CBS ran off the conventional journalistic rails by relying on non-authenticated documents also conspiracy kooks?

The Sept. 8, 2004, episode of “60 Minutes II” alleged that family connections enabled Mr. Bush to avoid the draft in the Vietnam era by serving in the Texas Air National Guard. After Ms. Mapes’s failure to authenticate documents indicating that Mr. Bush, during his term of National Guard service, was lax in his duties and went missing, she was fired, and Mr. Rather stepped down as anchorman.

OK. But...

Their defenders believe that Mr. Rather and Ms. Mapes and her team were fed to the wolves for political reasons. The movie insinuates that CBS, to avoid further embarrassment and to curry favor with conservatives should Mr. Bush win the election, allowed it to happen. “Truth” doesn’t voice an opinion, and none of its characters express their political beliefs even in private. Still, its treatment of Mr. Rather, who exudes the stately aura of a grand old man, and Ms. Mapes, who was a kind of surrogate daughter, makes it perfectly clear whose side it takes.

Yes, and the reviewer makes his side clear as well:

“Truth” which tells Ms. Mapes’s side of the story, is sympathetic, but doesn’t try to exonerate her. Ms. Blanchett, in one of her greatest screen performances, offers a compelling portrait of a driven, high-strung television journalist fearlessly operating in a cutthroat professional climate. She is relentless in tracking down documents that appear to have been written in the early ’70s by Mr. Bush’s commander, Jerry B. Killian, who died in 1984. And when she finally secures an interview with Lt. Col. Bill Burkett (Stacy Keach), an ailing National Guard veteran, who produces incriminating documents that seem to be authentic, her case momentarily seems airtight.

She fearless, she's relentless, and she made a little mistake. A bit later:

Ms. Mapes is the heart and soul of “Truth.” The family breadwinner, she lives in Dallas with her husband, Mark Wrolstad (John Benjamin Hickey), and young son. Ms. Blanchett plays her as fiery-eyed go-getter who pursued the story with a dogged ferocity. Her eyes flashing, she describes a tip linking Mr. Bush to the bin Laden family that went nowhere as “a juicy piece of brisket.”

But she wasn't anti-Bush, you conspiracy kooks.

The screenplay brings in her bitter relationship with her abusive father, whose unkind words about her after the scandal breaks incite savage, profane invective from the right-wing bloggers who call her “feminazi” and “witch.” Ms. Mapes has a thick skin but not so thick that she isn’t wounded by her father’s public scolding and asks him to stop speaking out.

And that is all we hear about savage, profane right-wing bloggers.

The reviewer inadvertently hints at one explanation for the collapse in journalistic standards:

In such a hypercompetitive environment, undercurrents of anxiety and tension of run deep. To combat the stress, a conspicuous amount of alcohol is consumed by both Mr. Rather and Ms. Mapes.

Drunk, stupid and anti-Bush is no way to go through life. But let's not lose sight of our heroes!

“Truth” doesn’t try to resolve mysteries that may never be solved or to drum up paranoia for the sake of extra heartbeats. But it still casts a pall of dread, an ominous sense that people in high places, whether in government or the news media, will stop at almost nothing to protect themselves and their interests. The retaliation against Ms. Mapes and her crew is similar to the smearing of the San Jose Mercury News journalist Gary Webb after his articles about cocaine smuggling and the funding of Nicaraguan rebels by the C.I.A. That story, told in Michael Cuesta’s “Kill the Messenger” (2014), a lesser film than “Truth,” though still a powerful one, sends the same warning. Investigative journalism intended to upset the status quo can be dangerous and costly.

The mysteries are unresolved! And investigative journalism can be dangerous! Especially when people get all nit-picky regarding facts and authenticity.

Meanwhile, we still await the movie on the corporate interests and vested power that shut down NBC News after they aired the 1998 Juanita Broaddrick interview with Lisa Myers alleging Bill Clinton raped her. Of course, NBC waited until after the Senate had declined to convict Clinton, so who knows? And Lisa Myers did step down sixteen years later, so maybe the wheel of vengeance turned slowly. Oh, there I go with the conspiracies again...

BACK WHEN LIFE WAS LESS MYSTERIOUS: Here is some contemporaneous Times coverage of the Rather/Mapes debacle:

CBS Apologizes for Report on Bush Guard Service

By JIM RUTENBERG and KATE ZERNIKE  SEPT. 21, 2004

After nearly two weeks at the center of a news media storm, Dan Rather and CBS News admitted yesterday that they could not authenticate four documents the network had used to raise new questions about President Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service and said the news report had been a "mistake in judgment."

Network officials said a former Texas National Guard officer had misled their producers about how he obtained the documents, which came under scrutiny almost as soon as the network broadcast its report on the CBS Evening News and "60 Minutes" on Sept. 8. While CBS stopped short of calling the memos a fraud, it said it could not now say for certain where the documents came from.

"Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in the report," said Andrew Heyward, the CBS News president.

...

The day's concessions were a sharp turnaround from more than a week ago, when CBS News officials and Mr. Rather, for decades the face of CBS News, were standing steadfastly by the report, dismissing days of accusations from document experts that the records were fakes produced on a modern computer.

Network officials yesterday admitted that the man who gave them the documents had lied about where he got them, and that inconsistencies in the cloak-and-dagger account he gave them in the past few days had left CBS unable to say definitively where they came from. Moreover, CBS was unable to reach the person the man identified as his source, Mr. Rather said .

In an interview broadcast on CBS last night, the former guardsman who gave the memos to the network, Bill Burkett, acknowledged that he had lied. Mr. Burkett told Mr. Rather that he had felt pressure from CBS to reveal his source, and so "simply threw out a name" to explain how he had come by the documents. He insisted he had not forged them.

And as a supplement to the primary debacle:

CBS Says Producer Violated Policy by Putting Source in Touch With Kerry Aide

By JIM RUTENBERG and BILL CARTER   SEPT. 22, 2004

CBS News said yesterday that the producer of its flawed report about President Bush's National Guard service violated network policy by putting a source in touch with a top aide to Senator John Kerry.

"It is obviously against CBS News standards and those of every other reputable news organization to be associated with any political agenda," the network said in a statement.

The source, wanted to talk strategy with some top people in the Kerry campaign, but no one would take his calls until CBS producer Mary Mapes intervened on his behalf. In an agenda-free way, of course.

More here:

Mr. Burkett told USA Today in an interview published yesterday that he had agreed to turn over the documents -- appearing to be from the personal file of Mr. Bush's squadron commander -- if the network would arrange a conversation with the Kerry campaign. CBS officials said they did not believe there was any such deal. But the network said in a statement that it was against its standards "to be associated with any political agenda" and that the matter would be investigated. It also publicly rebuked the "60 Minutes" producer Mary Mapes for putting Mr. Burkett in touch with Mr. Lockhart.

Mr. Burkett has said that the documents were not discussed, and that he wished only to make his case for a more aggressive strategy to defend Mr. Kerry's military service.

A decade has passed and the fog of memory has left the Times confused.

Comments

[Dave (in MA)]

How dare anyone question the journalistic standards of CBS. Just ask Sharyl Attkisson.

[sbw]

Zeroeth!?

[sbw]

Rats!

[Beasts of England]

We didn't expect the Times to be honest did we? These things happen! Hyper competitive environment, abusive dad. Did I mention that these things happen?

[henry]

What's the frequency Kenneth?

[Beasts of England]

Does the film mention that their source made a copy of the document and then burned the original? I'm sure that was mildly important in gauging its veracity.

[buccaneer morgan]

No why interrupt the narrative, like I said the director was uncreative with the material in the past As an adapter of graphic novels,

[buccaneer morgan]

Killing the messenger by contrast included those flashbacks to events that there is no Perot they happened. A supposed threat by a Langley operative inside the very confefence where Webb was meeting.

[jimmyk]

Does the film mention that their source made a copy of the document and then burned the original?

Am I remembering correctly that the source made a copy of a copy of a copy, so that what was supplied to CBS was somehow thought to look older and was less obviously produced on MS Word?

[buccaneer morgan]

So had a cia hit team hunted Burkett team, and mapled escaped with a secret data stick, that she tranfers to rather before she succumbs from the injuries.

[Beasts of England]

I think you're right, jimmyk. That's what bothers me - nothing said by their source should have ever had the first drop of credibility once they saw the copied memo. Fake but accurate was the point of departure for the new left. The truth became a serving suggestion, like on a can of peas.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Does Jarles Chonson have a cameo in this? Or has he renounced his role?

[Joan]

I like Redford's movie where he gets kidnapped by a disgruntled former employee, marched through the hills and woods, toyed with by the kidnapped letting him think he's going to be saved, and then is shot and killed a whole lot better than The Truth.

Why doesn't that wrinkled old man just stay in Sundance and not come out. Ever.

[Joan]

Oh, lol, Captain Hate.

I never could understand how Johnson could turn 180 degrees into such a leftist when he didn't even believe the documents were genuine. I've never seen such a flip. His site is impossible to read now.

[Beasts of England]

You mean you haven't been banned from LGF, Joan? C'mon - join the club! ;)

[Miss Marple 2]

Even Vox didn't like the movie! When those cretins don't find it believable, you know the New York Times has gone full nutter!

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

Joan, my hypothesis was that bike boy was getting frozen out of crummy smooth jazz gigs by his fellow dipshit musicians, a probable gaggle of political retards, unless he renounced his apostasy. Which, like a fat ignorant turd lacking in core beliefs, he rapidly complied.

The site got so horrendous I never wasted enough time to get banned, unless I was part of a mass purge in absentia.

[Miss Marple 2]

Captain Hate,

Much the same thing that happened to David Brock, although one can substitute "hot dates" for "smooth jazz gigs."

[Jack is Back!]

Wasn't the problem with the whole thing that W ddin't need a political introduction to the Texas ANG since they were at the time begging for members due to unpopularity of the war among college age men? Then if memory serves me correct, he had over-achieved attendeance before he was excused to take his job out-of-state.

Beside the memo being a time-fraud, the essence of it was untrue.

[Beasts of England]

Especially for the jet he was qualifying in, JiB.

[jimmyk]

This is particularly remarkable:

Just as there are conspiracy theorists who will never be satisfied with the Warren Commission report on the Kennedy assassination, there are some who passionately believe that Mr. Rather and his producer Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) conspired to tarnish George W. Bush’s reputation.

This in reference to a movie that apparently promotes a wacky conspiracy theory that CBS execs sought to curry favor with conservatives??? I'm willing to believe that Mapes and Rather suffered from extreme confirmation bias, and simply failed to scrutinize "evidence" that supported their agenda. But surely the likelihood that they knowingly went along with the hoax is much greater than CBS kowtowing to conservatives.

[Dave (in MA)]

CH@03:43 PM, I figured he fell off his bike and conked his head.

[Beasts of England]

Overtime in Cleveland.

[Dave (in MA)]

Hugh Hewitt has a sad.

[buccaneer morgan]

Anyways I found my film idea more interesting, if you're going to dispense with toof, as manny Davis would say.

[Jack is Back!]

Snowing in Southampton. Wet but its high altitude snow that survives in our descending chill. And the sun is still out:)

[Algonquin]

jimmyk

You are being too generous to Mapes and Rather, read the post further where Mapes in "an agenda free way" (this is sarcasm of course) helps her source--Burkett--get in touch with the Kerry team's top people.

That's more than overlooking the documents, that's more than even bias, it's the usual media corruption of a press that is percentage wise more Democrat than San Francisco proper, and that has abandoned all appearances of maintaining ethical standards.

[Algonquin]

Speaking of randomization, CBS only seems to attack one side-- particularly around election time.

Mere mistakes would show a different pattern of distribution.

[clarice]

Not one word in that story was true. The memo was just one part of it.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2005/01/what_the_cbs_report_actually_a.html

[Jack is Back!]

CBS are pro's at writing friction. Remember one of their spawn is Ben Rhodes. Masters in Fiction. Libyan video was a best seller in DC.

[Janet S.]

I'd like to know how Redford made his latest crap film without fossil fuels.
They didn't use lights did they?...or better yet, ANY electricity.
Is he asking patrons to walk to see his film?...or ride a bike?
Hopefully the actors aren't flying around to promote the movie.
Hopefully there is no AC or heating in any of the theaters showing the film. We don't need THAT carbon footprint destroying our planet just for entertainment.

Robert Redford is one gigantic hypocrite.
His entire cushy life - from birth until the moment his wrinkly ass is sitting in some lousy Hollywood chair made by a machine run on fossil fuels...has been made possible because of fossil fuels.
His glasses, his shoes, his clothes, the hospital he was born in, the schools he went to, the carpets, the furniture, the buildings, the lights, the foods he ate all his lousy life, the transportation he used, AC, heat,...

and then it fans out from there. The people he encountered in his life ALSO were blessed by fossil fuels...the Dr. that delivered him, his eye doctor, his teachers, his friends, .... They all ALSO had lives of prosperity because of fossil fuels.

[Algonquin]

Here's an interesting link from Washington Monthly--hardly a conservative blogger. He felt that even worse than the supposed authenticity of the documents themselves was the providence of the documents.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_01/005432.php

[clarice]

Remember, too, at the same time Simon & Shuster was publishing every crap lie book on Bush they could get their hands on and CBS was promoting those books on prime time shows.

[henry]

Proving left wing sanity never goes away, Kloppenburg is trying to get on the WI SC again. Good pic of her for your Halloween decorations.

[clarice]

http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/260492/muslim-refugees-berate-female-aid-workers-daniel-greenfield#.

[Jane]

I never could understand how Johnson could turn 180 degrees into such a leftist when he didn't even believe the documents were genuine.

I agree, Joan, that was beyond weird.

[lyle]

What is this "left wing sanity" you speak of, henry? Isn't that one of those oxeeMOrons?

[henry]

That was iOS changing what I typed. Good catch. "insanity"

[Beasts of England]

Philip Rivers' wife expecting their 8th child? I'm sure there's a quarterback joke in there somewhere...

[Dave (in MA)]

Maybe he should take the snap from shotgun more often?

[henry]

Protection breakdowns keep him from the super bowl as well.

[DebinNC]

Truth was made for a paltry $6M. For Redford, Blanchlett, et al, it was an unselfish act of love - the love of skewering the conservatives they so vehemently despise.

[glasater]

could understand how Johnson could turn 180 degrees into such a leftist

Ditto for David Corn, Joan.

[glasater]

I meant David Brock..

[narciso]

well we saw this with a lot of bloggers, in that era, the proprietor of Balloon Juice, was perhaps the next most extreme switch, followed by Outside the Beltway,

we have a real life that painted the Sahara red, which has compromised our national security secrets, in part for private political interests, and little seem to care about it, in the press,
this is of course, intentional,

[narciso]

Stacy Keach, the original MacBird, of the 60s outrage theatre, is in this, so apparently is the late Admiral Pike, Bruce Greenwood,

[Beasts of England]

Hopefully after seven kids, Mrs. Rivers will at least be able to manage a bit of a spiral when she delivers the eighth.

Was that bad?

[narciso]

all that needs to be said, on another matter,

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2015/10/18/the-syrian-offensive/

[squaredance]

Well, folks like Johnson were most liley plants on the first place. That is feature of propaganda campaigns, infiltration and "entryism". Never forget, you are dealing with pros here.

[squaredance]

Interesting.

[Extraneus]

Maybe he should take the snap from shotgun more often?

lol

(Had to spell it out for my wife.)

[lyle]

Better than a personal foul, Beasts

[narciso]

it's been a long strange fifteen years:

https://stream.org/carson-communications-director-gave-big-bucks-democrats/

intellectual conservative was one of the first such boards that I engaged in, that showed the craziness

[lyle]

That's not so interesting as it's utterly predictable, squaredance. It's also utterly predictable which political party runs the entire apparatus of all government, whether it's fed, state, or city with some but few exceptions. It's also worth pointing out that all levels of the gubmint are the largest employers of minorities which are in turn unionized. Try dismantling that leviathan.

[lyle]

A republic if you can keep it indeed...

[narciso]

the obvious questions are often not raised,

http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2015/10/18/why-was-hillary-clinton-transferring-secret-historical-state-department-documents-to-her-private-server/#comments

[narciso]

why would those files, be among the included, put it another way, how did Manning not felch them first,

[Janet S.]

This is interesting - " The rumor that Hungary had used the chaos to empty out their prisons, is persistent."

http://vladtepesblog.com/2015/10/13/bordertown-nickelsdorf-drowns-in-garbage-and-feces/

Who would know?...

The world over, politicians have sold out their own citizens. It is unbelievable.

Like this here -
Governor Says Residents Questioning Refugee Settlement Should Leave His State
Tells taxpayers they should "find another state" to live in if they don't like refugees.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/10/15/governor-says-residents-questioning-refugee-settlement-should-leave-his-state/

[narciso]

so they say, but until they confirm he's norwegian blue, on the other side,

http://www.weaselzippers.us/237175-pentagon-confirms-it-has-sent-senior-al-qaeda-official-to-hell-via-airstrike/

[Beasts of England]

Which is why some leftards say that reducing the size and scope of our federal gubmint is rayciss, lyle. Geez.

[Beasts of England]

Go Tom Brady's balls!

[Beasts of England]

And go Carrie Underwood's sequined dress!!

[Dave (in MA)]

Oh, is that who that is?

[Beasts of England]

It is, indeed.

[lyle]

Same here, Dave. I never knew who that gal (if you'll pardon my redneckism) was. By the way, who is she? ;)

[lyle]

That is to say, how is she famous? I mean, other than the babaliciousness? I'm outta touch these days with who's the latest cheesecake.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

That Wretchard column is of course a must read.
The thing that struck me after reading it is the inevitable conclusion that to win, at some point we will be required, just as we were in WWII, to fight as the enemy fights.
There is nothing mysterious about muslims. they like all fanatics have to be killed to be defeated.
Not selectively by some hapless drones slinging the occasional missile here and there, nor by an air war delivering shock and awe, nor by an armored force of moderate size occupying territory.

Barry is partly right that we are fighting an idea. He is utterly wrong in how to defeat it but he at least seems to consider it something of a danger. It is and it is an existential one despite its lack of military might.
To defeat it we will have to mount a massive mobilization to invade, conquer and destroy several national regimes and we will have to hunt down and kill many hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of our enemies.
Anything less will constitute a stalemate which most likely favors the muslims, despite Spengler's fanciful idea they are about to crash and burn within their own footprint, of their own volition, in a few years.

It's simple; if we aren't willing to kill and destroy them and keep them out of our nations in at least as thorough a fashion as they desire to kill us, we will lose.

[narciso]

she's a country star of some note,

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3278441/Revealed-British-son-Indiana-Jones-movie-director-al-Qaeda-jihadi-poster-boy-bent-terror.html

kids today, with their phases of behavior,

[narciso]

well surely, Kadyrov, who is Volodya's man in Chechnya, is a ruthless sort, probably tied to at least three prominent dissident killings,

[Beasts of England]

She won American Idol in 2005 and can really belt it out. Not a big country fan, but she's got the (vocal) goods.

[Jack is Back!]

Hell, I can understand it and it all starts at the family.

[lyle]

I agree with Ig's trenchant analysis. Again. Zero doesn't WANT to defeat the jihadis. He's simpatico. Heavy on the simp.

[narciso]

nothing to see here,

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/18/us-swiss-election-idUSKCN0SC0ZI20151018

[lyle]

Funny, I've never heard her open the Hilligula network's show (a lot of competition for that) because I'm always listening to classical music while watching the game. Or jazz. I never listen to Al and whathisface. No need. I used to like some C&W but not anymore. Blech.

[Beasts of England]

We should start by nuking that stupid meteorite out in the fucking desert. During the hajj.

[Dave (in MA)]

Or take it hostage.

[Beasts of England]

Even better, Dave! That would be hilarious.

[clarice]

http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/what-is-your-israel-iq-watch-these-answers-on-the-ucla-campus-and-youll-be-floored-by-the-cluelessness/

This is what we are dealing with==the chocking ignorance of college students

[Beasts of England]

Is Brady wearing slippers?

[Jack is Back!]

Europe trying too late to save themselves. Who knows it may work but my money are on the invaders from everthing I see, read and hear from the in-laws. Not posotive. No one has a savior only a complaint.

[The Brady Thread.]

Seven-Up!

[Beasts of England]

It's too cold outside for a Klondike Bar™. Think I'll have a couple of Pumpkin Spice Oreos™ and a big glass of moo juice. Mmmm.

[Jack is Back!]

It doesn't look like Tom's dad dream will come through. Pats will be lucky to just win.

I am going to bed. Slaap lekker. Tots morgen.

[lyle]

I'm having a glass of Patz & Hall Pinot waiting for my oven roasted chicken with rosemary bread dressing and braised Brussels sprouts. Pan gravy. Comfort food at it's best. Salud! Oh, and listening to Bruck violin concertos while watching Brady's balls vs the Colts.

[Stephanie]

Lucy, I'm back!

Didn't do well in the first slot tourney but placed in the money in the second and again busted out in the third one. Love the three day slot tourneys!

It was 88 degrees in Gulfport on Friday and 77 on Saturday and 72 or so today. Got home and turned on the heat - it's 59. Brrrr.

Beasts, noticed you said you were back on FB and you have a friend request outstanding.

[Beasts of England]

Here's Ms. Underwood bringing the heat (and her Louisville Slugger) in one of her big hits.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WaSy8yy-mr8

[Beasts of England]

Thanks, Steph!!

[narciso]

this is what I was referring to yesterday,

http://linkis.com/www.telegraph.co.uk/7ECNS

[narciso]

so in that memo, that pops now, there are at least two redacted blocs, I'm distrustful of all documents that purport to describe one state of mind,

[narciso]

the Daily Mail is unfortunately prone to these squirrels,

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/10/has-hillarys-last-defense-been-destroyed-by-a-smoking-gun.php?utm_

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

If any of you are ever in the Rehomoboth area, visiting David Brock maybe, you should amble over to Milton and take a tour of the Dogfish Head brewery. Our group had a former theater major doing a very entertaining and informative narration; much more engaging than a prior tour that my former roomie had taken.

[Beasts of England]

Rosemary bread dressing? Sounds wicked-good - recipe, please!

[Dave (in MA)]

I follow pop country about as much as I follow golf.

[Beasts of England]

lol, Dave!!

[lyle]

We buy this rosemary bread in SV. Cubed it with roasted garlic, onions, mushies, toasted almonds, Parmesan and baked with butter and chicken stock. Lots o' dill. The house smells... Comforting.

[Stephanie]

BTW filled up the car in Gulfport this morning for $1.80 a gallon.

[daddy]

Good Morning! OT.

On this 2 week trip we do 4 layovers in Japan, so for the last 2 days I've been walking 'Inop', the Jet Lag Lounge's famous bar dog,
drinking beer with the usual suspects, and enjoying heaping bowls of chili pepper noodles and gyoza at Ramen Bayoshi, the best noodle shop in Japan.

TV is relatively terrible. No football, but at least I've been able to pick up the Mets/Cubs games.

Guy I'm flying with majored in Japanese History in college, then taught English in Sapporo, and wound up marrying one of his students, so he is excellent to have as a drinking buddy, as he teaches me bits and pieces of the language. Knowing we were going to be in Japan 4 times, and knowing I had him as my beer swilling professor, I am reading The Tale of Murasaki, an excellent fictionalized history of the woman 1,000 years ago who wrote the famous 3000 page Japanese novel "Tale Of Genji." I'm really enjoying it, as it gives you slices of what the cultural norms were in Kyoto back in the year 1,000 AD, and it's been a great conversation starter for me with the very pretty Jet Lag BarMaids, who are always interested in having an opportunity to laugh and chat about fun Japanese stuff from yesteryear. All of them were exposed to The Tale Of Genji and the author, Lady Murasaki , back in High School (since she is their equivalent of Shakespeare and Jane Austen all rolled up in one). And Genji is such a ribald, rakish sort that he fits in beautifully to interesting bar chat.

Last night the topic was this bit that I found fascinating---something called A Koshin Night.

Apparently there was this Daoist belief back then that inside each human resided 3 supernatural worms. The worms kept tabs on a persons sins, and every 60 days, on a Koshin night, when the person was sleeping, the worms would leave a persons body and travel to heaven and rat out the sins a person had committed. As a result of those sins, the gods would shorten the lifespan of the offending human. This led to the practice of everyone trying to stay awake every Koshin night, in order to prevent the worms from running to Heaven to rat you out:) What a cool and interesting concept, beautiful for partying and all sorts of other mischief, and of course excellent for bar chit-chat.

Anyhow, jabbering with pretty girls about such stuff is what I've been up to the last few days. Excellent Pieces Clarice.

Cheerio.

[Jeff Dobbs]

CH:
If any of you are ever in the Rehomoboth area

This week we'll get fairly close - but down south closer to Chincoteague.

RV TRIP!!!

[clarice]

I loved Tale of Murasaki.

Thanks, daddy.

[Jeff Dobbs]

I thought Murasaki was the person daddy ran against as a fellow write-in candidate in the 2010 Alaska Senate race?