Eight Feet Deep

Sigh! I hate to touch this one. But I’ve just got to do it. It’s my destiny, man.

A local Kenyan official has announced his offer of 20 cows and 40 goats for Chelsea Clinton.

Godwin Chepkurgor told CNN Tuesday that he had loved the former first daughter for seven years and this handsome offer, at least for Kenya, is proof. I was in Books-A-Million yesterday when I heard Chepkurgor being interviewed.

“I offer her as much as I could,” Chepkurgor told CNN. “I know there are a lot of differences in our culture.”

I said what in God’s name is this guy talking about? And then, an offer for sweet Chelsea’s hand was the answer. Well, I mean it is a pretty good offer. I don’t know how fat the cows are but goats, they’re the kitten’s PJs. I’d probably marry someone for just one goat.

On the World Wide Web

For whatever the reasons, I didn’t pay all that much attention to my StatCounter page after I installed the counter on the blog. As I had said after posting the counter I had heard various opinions of Web counters. Some were good. Some were not good. I still looked at the stats even though I am not being overrun with visitors.

It wasn’t until a day or two ago that I realized Stat Counter does some pretty cool tricks. The most interesting to me is the “Visitor Paths” tool. This lists over a couple of days’ time the computer host and location of the visitor. Using this I can sometimes determine, or at least have a pretty good idea, who is visiting. For instance, when I see the computer host is in Paragould, Arkansas, I can pretty well guess that my friend Suzie or someone in her household is reading EFD. Hey Suzie!

What I think is way cool is knowing I have international visitors. In the last 24 hours I had people check out EFD from Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Bahamas and the United Kingdom. The Visitor Path feature also provides referring links. I checked out some of those referring links and was dismayed to find one in the United Kingdom that proclaims: “We don’t like Americans.” Well, good for you. We don’t like people who don’t like Americans. I am not going to further its intentions of slamming the U.S. by providing its link.

Still, it’s nice to know people around the world are checking out some of my lunacy. And I am glad to welcome the global village to my musings but I must be brutally frank, Frank. If you don’t like Americans, you probably won’t like me, so just stay the hell away. Okay? Okay.

It was magnificent watching the space shuttle launch this morning although I do admit to feeling a bit uneasy beforehand. I don’t know when was the last launch that I watched. I don’t think I was even aware that the Columbia was up when I was awakened that Saturday morning in February 2003 by my then editor who told me the shuttle exploded over North Central and East Texas.

The Columbia tragedy touched a lot of lives of people I know because of where the debris came to rest. I also saw portions of debris that day while working on a story about the crash.

So I guess that is why I am glad the shuttle launch seemingly went off without a hitch this morning. Seeing that spaceship take off also rekindled a lot of childhood memories when I watched Mercury and Apollo flights launched on television as a kid. I never will forget the first moon landing. It was just an awesome moment in the history of the world.

The space program has its critics, especially those saying that the exorbitant sums of money could do other good. But space exploration has brought about tons of scientific and commercial benefits to make our lives better and easier. And even if wasn’t providing all such benefits the space program helps lift the human spirit. It lets people think about what is possible. It makes little kids dream. I think it’s a great bargain.

Problems with the news media? Why not. Flogging the media seems to be the biggest pastime to hit the Internet since Paris Hilton’s sex video. Goodness knows the media has its troubles. But I read so much punditry these days that takes shots here and there at the so-called “mainstream news media” that just makes me want to reach out and slap some people.

I read people’s rants on blogs against the “liberal” media. But most often these people are just ranting and can offer no proof for their contentions. Gee, do you think they got their proof from the likes of Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly or one of those, to use O’Reilly’s invective, “pinheads?” If you’re going to rail against something. I want to know why you are railing. You can call a duck a pig, but at least let me know why in the hell you are doing something so foolish.

Something else that is kind of baffling with all the media bashing is the touting of an “alternative media.” Certainly variations of news delivery exists beyond the so-called “mainstream news media.” Take Fox News, for example. Please! Fox is popular for many reasons. But one important reason is that it truly does have an obvious conservative bias in its news shows. And I don’t have a problem with that. There are magazines for conservatives, some for liberals and some in between. But don’t give me that “fair and balanced” crap. Because for the most part, Fox News is neither fair nor balanced.

Other alternative news sources exist as well. But many such sources are not really “news gatherers” as much as they are news commentary. Sure there are bloggers out there who actually go out and gather news. But I would guess the vast majority of those in the blogosphere get news that had at least some origin in the MSM. So certainly a lot of alternative voices exist out there but a lot of what they are saying includes slices of pie from the newspaper and TV.

What is really wrong with the media is more complex. Not to worry though because hand-wringing is the news industry’s primary activity.

Most of the problems I have with the news media are institutional. The concentration of media outlets into fewer and highly corporate hands is a real concern. The strains on the industry also takes it tolls on the quality of the product. You start bleeding money and another reporter bites the dust. Pretty soon you have one reporter covering not as ably the five or six beats that five or six others once had. I’ve seen it happen.

Other issues are out there as well. Quality control seems to be more of a problem nowadays because of both less seasoned editors and reporters. Then you have people who make crap up like Jayson Blair. That’s not good for the business. But with the exception of maybe a couple of handfuls of people I knew while working for newspapers, by and large the majority of media folks I have known are dedicated individuals who are passionate about doing a good job.

Oh no. Did I just defend the media? What in heaven’s name is wrong with me?

Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat and Darla are to blame

Do you know how sometimes you look for something on the Web and you end up down a much different path an hour or two later? That’s me this afternoon. I was looking at dog breeds on Yahoo Pets because I was trying to identify the breed of a dog that accosted me while I was out for a walk this morning. I ended up reading about the old “Our Gang” a.k.a. “The Little Rascals” series on Wikipedia.

This little dog came running out the front door of a house as I was walking by this morning. A man in his pajamas was calling after the dog. I think he called the dog “Ricky.” That’s kind of a strange dog name isn’t it? The dog headed right for me and it just appeared to be very friendly so I reached down and petted it for a couple of seconds before walking on. I don’t know exactly what breed it was. It looked kind of like a Pomeranian but then it also could be a Lhasa Apso. I haven’t a clue.

But reading about dogs I thought of Nipper, the RCA dog. I had always heard it was an American Pit Bull Terrier but the article I read said that wasn’t likely because it was born in England. According to the Wikipedia article I read, Nipper was a mixed breed of bull terrier and fox terrier.

Then I got interested in another pit bull, none other than Petey of the Little Rascals. So I read about Petey and then started reading about the various actors and what happened to them. I don’t think I ever knew that Alfalfa was shot and killed in 1959. The article I read said the killing was considered justifiable homicide because Alfalfa pulled a knife on the person who killed him.

All of that just trying to find out what kind of dog Ricky might be. Ricky? I just don’t know about that name.