Who2 Editorial Blog

Notes and Commentary from the Editors

Friday, August 29, 2008

McCain Chooses Alaskan for Running Mate

Sarah Palin, the first female governor of Alaska, is now the first female Republican candidate for vice president of the United States.

John McCain's aides made the announcement to reporters this morning.

Palin has solid conservative credentials, but is a surprise choice nonetheless. She's been governor of Alaska since December 2006, is 44, and just gave birth to her fifth child four months ago. See our complete Palin biography.

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 8:32 AM 0 comments

John McCain and Buddy Holly

Happy birthday to you, Senator John McCain. He turns 72 today.

Wow: Singer Buddy Holly was born the same year as McCain, 1936. Holly was 22 when he died -- he's been gone almost 50 years now. McCain rolls on.

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 6:05 AM 0 comments

Obama Accepts the Nomination

The Democratic Convention is over and it's official: Barack Obama is the first African-American presidential nominee of a major American political party. Congratulations to him.

His website has the transcript and video of his speech from Denver's Invesco Field.

The Rocky Mountain News headline: 'Obama accepts nomination, rocks Invesco.'

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 4:13 AM 0 comments

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Steve Jobs is Not Dead

Gawker has the accidental obituary of Apple Computer head Steve Jobs run by the Bloomberg news service yesterday.

At least Jobs got that rare opportunity to read his own obit. Many of the details are probably familiar to him already.

It is interesting to see how placeholders are used in the pre-obit for the final missing bits of the story. ("He was TK"?)

Jobs's health has been a hot topic all summer in Silicon Valley. He had surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004, and a super-skinny appearance in June started a fresh round of rumors. Fortune summed things up at the time.

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 6:43 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Photos of Phelps, Phinally

Sports Illustrated has an underwater photo series that shows how Michael Phelps touched the wall 0.01 second before rival Milorad Cavic in the 100-meter butterfly.

Even with the photos, and seeing the finish, Phelps still seems impossibly far from the wall when Cavic is just inches away. Quite a finish.

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 6:58 PM 0 comments

Lynn Johnston: "Farley is Coming Back!"

The Washington Post has two new stories on cartoonist Lynn Johnston. One talks about her krazy plan for starting For Better or For Worse over on September 1st, retelling the strip's early storylines in "new-runs."

Lynn reports with pleasure that Farley the Dog, long dead, will be once again alive under the new plan. (Though presumably he'll have to croak again in the future.)

The other story, Something for Everyone to Hate, wonders if FBOFW is the most-hated strip in the comics.

The Post is ditching FBOFW in its print edition, but will continue to run it online.

So now the only question is: Will grandpa finally die?

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 6:37 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Cher's Last Meow?

Oh, come on: Cher as Catwoman in the next Batman flick?

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 8:01 AM 0 comments

Michelle Obama's Convention Speech

"And you know, what struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name, even though he'd grown up all the way across the continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine."

Michelle Obama addressed the Democratic Convention last night

Here's the transcript from The Denver Post.

And here's the inevitable analysis of her outfit.

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 5:12 AM 0 comments

'The Torch Will be Passed Again'

"This is what we do. We reach the moon. We scale the heights. I know it, I've seen it, I've lived it. And we can do it again."

Ted Kennedy made a surprise speech to the Democratic Convention last night. CNN has the transcript.

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 5:05 AM 0 comments