Budget cuts at the copy desk?

Oops.

(from The Smoking Gun)

It's not exactly "Dewey Defeats Truman," but the New York Post made a colossal error today on its editorial page. The paper somehow printed an editorial bemoaning last night's Yankees loss to the Boston Red Sox, noting that the "Curse of the Bambino boomeranged this year" and that the Bronx Bombers "couldn't get the job done at home." The editorial concluded, "Wait'll next year!" Obviously, the Post piece was drafted while the Yanks were trailing the Sox, but was--unbelievably--not yanked when the club tied the game in the eighth inning and won it on Aaron Boone's walkoff home run in the 11th.

I sometimes lose sleep wondering whether I misspelled a name in a story that's gone to press or get sick to my stomach when I discover an easy-to-check error. I can't imagine what the editors at the Post are thinking.

I feel safer already

At Iraqi Depot, Missiles Galore and No Guards

Is it just me, or is Donald Rumsfeld looking dumber every minute?

Crossing the picket line

Doing our best to imitate France, pretty much everyone in L.A. went on strike this week. I don't have to ride the bus, but I do have to buy groceries. The workers have a right to strike, of course, and it's always in a person's best interest to maximixe one's salary. But at the same time I don't feel too much sympathy for them. Their main gripe is that they'll finally have to start shelling out co-pays. I say this is a good thing. One of the reasons health care costs are spiralling is because drugmakers and hospitals can keep raising prices, knowing insurance will pick up most of the tab. If people had to pay more of the costs, demand would wane, and prices wouldn't continue going up so quickly.

Of course, insurance should be set up in such a way as to encourage preventative care, without triggering abuses by patients or doctors.

Hey! Maybe we could set up some organization designed to carefully watch costs -- set up discounts with networks of doctors and reward them for being more efficient and making costs part of the health care equation -- and pass those savings onto the insured. Oh yeah, that's what an HMO is supposed to do.

Welcome to the real world, grocery clerks.

On the move again

I've signed the lease, ordered electric and phone (more importantly, DSL) service and contacted the movers.

I'll be in a decent location in Sunnyvale about 10 minutes away from work. It's Andrea's old apartment complex, only the rent has dropped $150 since she lived there, not counting the $50 discount I get because of the death of the previous tenant. The renter was required to tell me about the passing, presumably because the law reflects the sensibilities of thr Bay Area's Chinese population.

Anyway, I'm close to a grocery store and In-and-Out Burger, and a short walk takes me to a P.F. Changs's, Starbucks, Borders and misc. places. And then there's downtown Sunnyvale, which has a few shops and restaurants.

And of course, my beautiful girlfriend is a short drive away.