It's sad that Salon's only sports column is shutting down. And, as far as I'm concerned, your sports daily was far and away the funniest writing to be found on this site.

I don't want to pile on here, but I have to join the chorus of people who lament the direction Salon has been heading. For me, How the World Works is now the only real draw here.

Anyway, forget all that. Just wanted to say thank you. You're a fine writer, and a good man. You're column has been--and will be--missed.

I love this HTWW because of posts like this.

Also, Walter_Map seems like an unhappy man.

I can't decide my favorite woodblock print. I've got it down to two:

1) "Catfish mallet"

2) "Cause of chronic abdominal pain"

The Andrews O'Hehir and Leonard really are capable of some beautiful writing.

That said, is it considered blasphemous to prefer "Smooth Criminal" to "Billie Jean"?

Love the picture of the Castle Grayskull from He-Man. If you scroll over it, it says "Pfizer HQ".

Yes, I'm a grown-up.

This is why HTWW is my daily first stop on the internets...Nouriel Roubini doesn't post nearly enough sick shit like this.

This quote in particular really annoyed me:

Perhaps exceptional women athletes would rise to the occasion, train harder, and attain greater personal bests while giving the men a run for their money.

Do you know how insulting this is sounds? Do you really think Florence Joyner-Griffith worked just hard enough to beat out the rest of the women in her field? I find it hard to believe that great athletes like Flo Jo and Dara Torres do not push themselves as fully as possible to attain what they have. This idea that competing against men would further motivate these women just strikes me as really stupid.

Look at a competition like the 100 meter dash. The 10th fastest time ever for the men's competition (9.86 seconds) is significantly faster than the fastest among women (10.49 seconds)--0.63 seconds is a world of difference in a 100 meter race.

It's a bit unfair to blame Armisen for the failure that is SNL's Barack Obama. He is one of the more difficult politicians to parody (I'm not saying that he's unmockable; it's just that he seems to have a certain self-awareness that makes satire more of a challenge). On the other hand, Tina Fey had Sarah Palin. And she was great...but she had Sarah Palin!!!

Also, I have to come to the defense of Armisen. To me, he's been one of very few bright spots on SNL (Fey's Palin, Samberg's digital shorts, um...I'm out). For anyone who thinks it's fair to assess Fred Armisen as a comic performer after seeing only his Obama impersonation, please watch this:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/3a3626d0dd/fred-armisen-intervention

"Idiocracy" starred Luke Wilson, not Owen.

As I was watching this video, the whole time I was thinking about the criticism Franken received when running for Senate. It was never substantive--he wrote for and performed on SNL for Christ's sake!!! How can anybody take him seriously?

I also always hated the way he was grouped with Michael Moore. Moore--though he has made some fascinating and important movies--has a habit of being selective with facts. Franken, on the other hand, has always been about substance. It's as if because he's funny about it, some people feel he should be marginalized. But on the run-up to his election, nobody really made quarrel with the man's arguments; it was always something like, "Al Franken? Al Franken???". And that was it.

Anybody who has really read or listened to Franken is not surprised by this video. Any argument I've ever heard from the man has been grounded in stockpiles of evidence and/or compassion (imagine that--compassion).

One of the main things that struck me about Franken was when he was hosting his radio show and talking about other pundits. People like Hannity would approach him in a jovial manner and talk about their back-and-forths like it was all just part of some game. But Franken never considered it a game; he actually seemed to care. I like the person who knows their shit...but I really like the (rare) person who knows their shit, and also happens to be passionate about it. Franken is that rare person.

While I think the tenor of a lot of the comments on this story is just wrong, I have to agree with iamironman.

The fact is, the DA dropped any charges against Merriman, and there is not one witness who backs up Tila's story.

If Broadsheet (Salon, really) has any kind of journalistic standards, they would update this post with the inconvenient fact that all charges have been dropped. It's kind of a big deal.

...however, recently, I've had my reservations. Numerous accusations of voter fraud and multiple videos indicating prostitution-enabling do call into question any quality checks ACORN has. If it was a conservative organization, would Salon not be all over this?

Also, Salon has done no reporting (at least as far as I have seen) on the Lockerbie bombing scandal. There are allegations England had a part in the release of a convicted terrorist due to oil considerations, and the usually dependable investigative journalism of Salon has been non-existent.

I'm starting to think of Salon as something I never would have imagined in the past--totally predictable.