Halloween night chez Althouse.

1. I'm cooking up a large pot of Bolognese sauce to last us for a few days of repetitive but incredibly delicious eating. [UPDATE: I got...

Who the #*!^ is Hal Linden?

He seems to think he's famous enough to do a recorded phone call where he just says "This is Hal Linden" and then goes on to w...

A survey.

Here is a survey (from professors at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and University of Tennessee-Knoxville) studying "the moti...

Adding up the Electoral College votes and really caring about Hawaii.

I'm looking at the averages on the polls in the battleground states at Real Clear Politics and plugging the results for each state into...

Jesus arrested!

And his credit card was maxed out, so he couldn't pay the bail. Much as I'd like to just leave you with the link , I'm going to ...

Great cartoon.

Hey, I registered for the Atlanta-Journal Constitution's website so I could bring you the link to this very well-drawn Mike Luckovich c...

Voters to bin Laden: Crawl back into your hole!

What if you taped a video, and no one cared ?

"The Year of Passion."

Here 's a link to the article on the front page of the NYT Week in Review section, but you won't be able to see the whole illustrati...

Election Day predictions of the meteorological kind.

It's close enough to Election Day to check the weather reports and say all the usual things about voting and the weather. I see it...

The bin Laden "rebranding."

Some intelligence community experts, according to this L.A. Times report, read bin Laden's new message as an attempt at "rebrandin...

Must we fight about politics?

Here 's a piece in the NYT Style section (with a photograph that had me thinking way too much about the implications of the ketchup bot...

"To be honest, I couldn't imagine being anywhere else today."

Yes, of course, be honest if you want to be in politics. Chelsea Clinton speaks in Kissimmee, Florida at a rally for John Kerry (link via ...

Two Madison still lifes: Election Year 2004 .

Let me say this about that.

I didn't understand much about politics when I was 12, but I nevertheless bought the wildly popular LP "The First Family." Vau...

Speaking of email.

Do you ever wonder what stories are being pitched to me in the email that I don't post on? Well, I can't really tell you, because th...

Email advice of the day.

This is the kicker from an email, responding to this post over on Instapundit and chiding me for not telling the world that the Osama bin L...

The five items that came in the mail today.

1. An 8 1/2 x 11 inch glossy card addressed to me, from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. One side of the card has a picture of John Kerry,...

Consider this, my Madison friends.

Here's a line from the Instapundit email that came in today (as Glenn Reynolds has returned): Thank God you're back! You go away a f...

Two pre-election dialogues.

Dialogue #1: Chris (my son): I hope Kerry wins. Me : He might not. It's going to be a squeaker. Chris : I just heard a guy on TV ...

Halloween politics in Madison.

Madison -- as I just overheard in the beauty salon -- was voted by some publication or other as the best place to be for Halloween. The firs...

Camille talks!

Camille Paglia -- in a Salon interview -- declares her support for Kerry ... and also says any number of mean things about him. I liked thi...

Bill Maher and his audience, an unhealthy relationship.

I don't go out of my way to watch Bill Maher's HBO show anymore, though I do occasionally watch part of it until I get sick of him o...

Trippi says bloggers couldn't deal with the bin Laden tape.

Annoyingly, the transcript from last night's " Hardball " is not yet available on the website, but I was irked enough by Joe T...

The guestblogging gig winds down.

Glenn Reynolds has returned over at Instapundit , but he's invited us guestbloggers to stay for a while (until the election), so I'l...

A few things about movies.

"Ray" is still getting a lot of good reviews, but it's not "100% Fresh" at Rotten Tomatoes anymore. I don't hav...

We just completely forgot about "The Apprentice" last night at my house.

Does anyone care about that show anymore? I just read the Television Without Pity mini-recap and deliberately spoiled the episode for mysel...

A popular pro-Bush video.

This video is getting a lot of play today. I think it's kind of funny but also too heterosexist. On the other hand, I hadn't been r...

"Going over to see Hairy Scary or whatever it is they call him? You better hurry!"

That's what a street-type person said to me as I headed over to the big Kerry rally in Madison today. I describe the scene in some detai...

"No signs."

The tickets to the Kerry event on the Capitol Square today also say "no signs." Why's that? I'm guessing they need to ban ...

Today, I'll officially be one of "those fools."

Bruce Springsteen fans will need to get to the Capitol Square before noon -- the time my law school class ends -- if they want to see their...

Readers don't desert in droves.

The readership at Instapundit is remaining stable across the course of the week, despite the shock Glenn-fans had to have felt upon checkin...

Course number humor.

Chris sends this link and says "look at the title and course number of this class."

Most of what I'm saying today is on Instapundit.

So you might want to go over there . Is it intimidating to be read by 20 thousand visitors an hour? Funny, I feel completely used to it righ...

No, please, no, not streetcars!

Madison officials carted in the designer of Portland's light rail system to extol the benefits of what he makes his living designing. A...

Ving Rhames as the new Kojak.

That 's pretty cool. I love Ving Rhames, not just from " Pulp Fiction ," but from " Bringing Out the Dead ." Good lu...

One more week.

One more week and it will be all over, right? Oh, how I hope so. I'm looking forward to liveblogging the election results. Won't tha...

"'Born in the USA' will never ring truer'"...

according to the Capital Times , than when Bruce Springsteen comes to Madison this Thursday to do a concert in support of John Kerry's c...

The Return of Justin Guarini.

In a cruel but enticing new reality show , Guarini is one of the second-rate actors who are in on the joke of tricking struggling actors int...

Why not talk about al-Qaqaa?

The story I get the feeling the we-miss-Glenn readers of Instapundit most want me to write about is the news of the missing explosives at Al...

Post that I'm probably going to delete ...

... after I see whether it works to push the previous hung-up post through the Blogger machine. Unless I decide to leave it up as an express...

I can never take the place of your Instapundit.

Cool as it is to be guestblogging over on Instapundit , there are things people want from the site, things Glenn Reynolds has been willing t...

Blogger malfunction?

I'm getting a blank page when I try going to the main page of my blog. Is it just me? UPDATE: Hmmm .... Posting this post unsnarled the ...

"We have to remember that when we vote for our president, a commander in chief, we're voting for the father of our nation."

When actresses try to play the role of feminist.

Madison politics.

I walked up State Street, partly because I needed to get some food and partly because it's sunny and 60 degrees, but also to see what th...

"Luce del mondo e amore!"

"The light of the world is love." So ends " Turandot ," beautifully produced in Madison this past weekend, with fantasti...

Self-criticism heightened.

I find myself being much more critical about fussy details of writing for my Instapundit posts. For example, when I described Nina's wr...

The Instapundit experience so far.

So what's it like scampering onto the big stage? First, I find myself alone. Where are the supporting players? Where are Megan and Micha...

"Cow head hurts our image, some Cheeseheads say."

Even as I'm debuting on Instapundit, there's another Wisconsin debut today: the Wisconsin state quarter. And some people are not tha...

Guestblogging on Instapundit.

I've made my debut over on Instapundit , working with MovableType rather than Blogger for the first time, which makes it just that much ...

The big guestblogging gig.

Yes, it's true! I'm going to be guestblogging--along with Megan McArdle and Michael J. Totten--over at Instapundit for the next few...

A writer admires a writer he identifies with.

Tom Carson has a deft essay on Bob Dylan's "Chronicles," in the NYT Book Review. Carson writes elaborate start-and-stop sente...

Picturing and dreading a long litigious November.

If you want to demonstrate to yourself how mindbogglingly close the election is, refer to the polls in the battleground states here and tes...

Enough about the election! What about art?

Two new movies are currently listed on Rotten Tomatoes with 100% positive reviews: " Ray " and " Sideways ." There are o...

Why a goose?

Kerry decided it was a good campaign move to go hunting. But why a goose ? Clearly, the campaign people must have thought about all the opp...

Who's better at losing?

Instead of thinking about whether John Kerry or George Bush would do more good (and less harm) as President, let's consider the longterm...

More campaigning at the niche level.

The Washington Post collects some good examples of candidates campaigning at the niche level, a phenomenon I wrote about here . Most of us...

Must Jon Stewart change his interview style, now that Henry Kissinger is doing his show?

Damien Cave, in the NYT Week in Review, argues that Jon Stewart should do tougher interviews on "The Daily Show," because his aud...

Congratulations, once again ...

... to our Badgers .

Actresses 'n animals.

Two items from SF Gate : 1. "Emmy-winning actress Drea de Matteo is so concerned about the treatment of animals when they fly, she wan...

Kerry to return to Madison.

A few days ago, I complained that it looked like John Kerry was not going to make good on his promise to returning to Madison and do an app...

Reunited with his Iceman.

Helmut Simon, who found a prehistoric man frozen in the ice of the Alps, has been found dead in a stream in the Alps.

"There's no doubt in my mind that radiation at moderate levels is beneficial."

BBC News talks to a UW-Madison scientist.

Sinclair Broadcasting throws together an embarrassing mismash to replace "Stolen Honor."

I watched the Sinclair Broadcasting reconfiguration of the controversial "Stolen Honor" documentary, clumsily titled "A POW S...

Checking in with Tommy.

I read the the NYT "Fashion & Style" article about Tommy Lee. Here's a list of things I learned: Why the spousal abuse t...

What's with bleak tone this morning?

And 5 posts before 7 a.m.? What's got into you? I don't know, but I will say I got up at 1:30 a.m. this morning. I've been up f...

The final abduction.

Death comes to Betty Hill , who started the alien abduction craze with her 1966 book " The Interrupted Journey: Two Lost Hours 'Abo...

Caroline Kennedy comes to Wisconsin.

The Capital Times reports on Caroline Kennedy's visit to Milwaukee (where she appeared with Kerry): "My mother always told me, if ...

New snake in Wisconsin.

That reptile you think is a garter snake may need a new name and a new layer of governmental protection.

And speaking of bleak ...

Congratulations to Bleecker : UW scientist at center of fall leaf buzz ... This week, botany professor Tony Bleecker was honored with the 20...

Late night DVD ordering.

In an insomniac moment, I bought this . Which I'm going to double feature with this . (On DVD as part of this set.) For those who like ...

Feingold versus Michels.

What, no "Joan of Arcadia"? N0! It's Senator Russ Feingold against Tim Michels, in a big debate. The crawl under their faces t...

Getting out the vote: the motivation and the pitch.

It is interesting to see how niches of voters within a given battleground state are being targeted and cultivated. Here's a story I hear...

Walking backwards for 12 blocks for Kerry.

A Madison-style protest . (I need to get down to State Street more often. Sorry I missed photographing this one!)

"What we have found here is very rare."

What they have found is, in fact, a toilet. The most famous toilet in the history of the world!

Coming to terms with the "La Dolce Vita" DVD.

I've complained about subtitles before . I like to fixate on the photography of a movie and constantly moving my eyes to the bottom of t...

Who would Kerry appoint to the Supreme Court?

The NYT includes a strong proportion of nonjudge lawprofs in the potential Kerry nominees . No nonjudge lawprofs in the mix of potential Bus...

Most gratuitous Bush-bash in today's NYT.

It's this letter to the editor (sent from Cambridge): If the Boston Red Sox go on to win the World Series, the next big question will be...

Enforcing strict secularism in France.

The NYT reports : To enforce its new law banning religious symbols from public schools, the Ministry of National Education has decided to ge...

"Heroes for Bush."

It's a blogburst over there at The Truth Laid Bear .

Sharon Stone! Caroline Kennedy! In Madison!

Phone call of the night goes to a recorded call from a woman general (name forgotten) from some organization not officially connected to the...

That 60s mindset.

" No More Miss America! " -- first mentioned in the previous post -- really is quite a fascinating screed, a nice window into the ...