How did a cheesy Scandinavian pop group in jumpsuits and blue eye shadow become as seriously beloved as the Beatles?

They aren't, for anyone with any taste. They rank right up there with K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Steve Miller, the Captain and Tennille and Neil Sedaka.

. . . Mike Love has always been a dick.

McCain has already expressed his love for the Beach Boys, and Mike Love at least is a Republican. Maybe McCain can have a Beach Boys song (he'd probably choose one that Charlie Manson wrote).

-- Sally the Werewolf

This problem goes beyond music. There seems to be a certain attitude people have towards everything (music,movies,sports) which is: I personally don't like it therefore it sucks, and anyone who likes it sucks and is shallow, brainwashed, immature, etc etc etc.

I don't specifically care much for ABBA, but I know my day is brightened if I happen to hear the Cars "Just What I Needed" on the radio. But normally I listen to . -- HughAnderson

Hugh, ABBA's was hardly the same kind of music as the the Cars. Was that just a trial balloon to see if it's still okay to like the Cars? Any other skeletons lurking - Culture Club? Duran Duran?

The answer is yes. Listen to Eliot Easton's great appropriation of the guitar lead in the Beatle's "I Will" for "Best Friend's Girlfriend" or his quasi-Frippotronics on "Since She's Gone."

For next time, please read chapter 6 of Jonny Green's Passion is a Fashion, and be prepared to discuss how Topper Headon's drug addition affected Sandinista, if at all.

Class dismissed.

NPR is running this, thankfully, without comment this morning.

You lived in Nebraska.

I heave my knapsack over my shoulder and trudge out into the sticky Nebraska heat, crestfallen. It wasn't that I liked school so much. It's that I hated summer.

Obviously, it's not a movie version of some crappy 1970s television show (Starsky and Hutch anyone?). But If you must see a filmed adaptation, there is no excuse for not watching the Thame's version done in the early 1980s. It is one of the few such works that is an almost word-for-word and scene-for-scene reproduction of the book, and nearly perfect for it.

Who Cares? Edwards isn't a public official (unlike Vitter and Craig), nor is he a candidate for public office. . . -- escowles

Because he would have made a fine VP and maybe an even better AG. Unless we learn unequivocally that this story is shit, his political career is done.

Snopes has a fake-article about this. . . . debunking a widespread e-mail saying that African American women can no longer name their babies because it can get over-ridiculous.-- Lulu Lulu

I worked in the municipal court of Seattle about fifteen years ago. All my co-workers were African-American women. They were quite frank about why mothers gave their sons such odd names - it helps keep them from getting mixed-up with someone sought by the law. Robert, or even Rodney, Jones is much more common than Rasheed or LeBron Jones.

This doesn't necessarily explain, however, any of the made-up names so commonly given to their daughters.

The examples in this article show why all utilities, be they water or power, need to be public entities.

Coal-fired power plants work hand in glove with coal producers promoting what is essentially a 19th Century energy source. Coal is about the dirtiest form of carbon energy available and has few other uses. As soon as we get rid of coal-fired plants, that whole "industry" collapses. So even making coal-fired plants more efficient and "cleaner" is an anathema to them.

Mr. Romm's main thesis is spot-on. I just wish he would have stayed clear of the unfortunately common device of vilifying a straw man in order to make his point. There are some utilities that will dig in their heels, but there are others who are already pushing for reform. Since they'll all figure in the eventual solution, I think it's important to make that distinction. -- ukiyo

Impeach now!

. . . he calls the capital of China "Peking"? Odd.

"I have my suspicions," he says. "Judging by their Chinese, they're not from Peking."

. . . Obama is the best Democratic candidate since 1968. Do you want Denver to be a repeat of Chicago?

I know I'm the wrong demographic (40+, married w/ children), but Jesus, don't you young people have anything better to do than set up a virtual circle of friends so you can "poke each other" and post pictures no one cares about?

Facebook: E-crack for yuppies

I'm a self-proclaimed yuppie . . . -- Krasnaya Zvezda

"Self-proclaimed yuppie"? Are you also either living in a time warp and/or have perfected time travel? Yuppie went out of the American lexicon about 20 years ago.

. . . April Fools don't you think?

. . . tell me where the audience for table tennis is outside of China?

And if tennis goes, take badminton with it and, yes, rhythmic "gymnastics" (even though my niece may qualify for 2012), and everything "synchronized." No soccer, no rugby, no bowling, no inline figure skating, no bump competition for skiing or snowbording, no equestrian, no boating except sculls, and no shooting of anything other than archery.

The Olympics have become bloated with events that have little world-wide popular appeal, world championships that already give the best participants a chance to compete against one another or simply aren't athletic in the least.

. . . is entering late middle age on the arm of Lou Reed.

You go to college, don't get married, don't have kids, become Laurie Anderson, make all this money and sing your song. And then our 30s came along, and reality set in.

Sandra got a guitar player too, and probably one with a better personality.