Octopodial Chrome

From Epionons.com comes DrFaustus’s December Mix. Read the entire article (which has comments on each piece), but here’s the list of titles:

1. Snow Patrol: Chocolate
2. Matt Pond PA: Holiday Road
3. Pezband: Baby It’s Cold Outside
4. John Mayer: Waiting on the World to Change
5. Steely Dan: Reelin’ in the Years
6. Simon & Garfunkel: Homeward Bound
7. Warren Zevon: Keep Me in Your Heart for a While
8. Fountains of Wayne: Valley Winter Song
9. The Pretenders: 2,000 Miles
10. Supertramp: Even in the Quietest Moments
11. The Flaming Lips: Do You Realize?
12. Semisonic: Closing Time

I’m downloading the songs now, but just from the familiar ones and the mix notes it sounds like DrFaustus knows his stuff. I first discovered his January Mix, which sounds just about perfect for that month, and can’t wait to move forward through the rest of the year.

Yes, Virginia, sometimes stupid people become programmers. I’m not certain how they graduate and get jobs, but it happens. Perhaps they bribe those who should be failing them and turning them away.

Milton Friedman died a few weeks ago; it seems a fitting tribute to link to the open letter he wrote Bill Bennett regarding Drug Prohibition. From the letter:

You are not mistaken in believing that drugs are a scourge that is devastating our society. You are not mistaken in believing that drugs are tearing asunder our social fabric, ruining the lives of many young people, and imposing heavy costs on some of the most disadvantaged among us. You are not mistaken in believing that the majority of the public share your concerns. In short, you are not mistaken in the end you seek to achieve.

Your mistake is failing to recognize that the very measures you favor are a major source of the evils you deplore.

And:

Drugs are a tragedy for addicts. But criminalizing their use converts that tragedy into a disaster for society, for users and non-users alike. Our experience with the prohibition of drugs is a replay of our experience with the prohibition of alcoholic beverages.

Milton Friedman’s was a brilliant and penetrating mind; his death is a great loss to our republic.

Countryman’s Cooking is back in print, but I’ve thus far been unable to find a source for it here in the States. It looks just wonderfully excellent.