Approaching Chicago: "Now we’re moving through the old industrial wastelands – strange blasted places that stretch for miles – smokestacks without factories, vast weedy parking lots, half-demolished factories, warehouses still in use, barrel fields. A few minutes later, luxury housing developments. A few minutes later, a barn. It’s not like I remember the Eastern Corridor, which was an interminable iron ditch lined with sagging rowhouses. But you can never judge an American town by the view from the train. They always drag you through the alley to the back door."

StarTribune.com: Minnesota. Hmmm. "One of Minnesota's 10 presidential electors broke from the pack and cast a vote Monday for John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential running mate for John Kerry. The other nine Minnesota members of the Electoral College voted for Kerry, who won the state's popular vote in November."

you write a post saying you're not going to post anything for a while, & that's what gets you interested again. As you will see if you compare my fun links page to this blog, I have meddled with the template a little to put the title box at the upper right, lose some of the dead links, and widen the column with the posts in it. I'm going to run a "how to set up a blog" program at work & one of the "how-to" sites I'm using suggests firmly that the posts should be wider than the links. So. Template meddled with.

Now there really will be a holiday posting pause while I figure out what to put here. In the meantime, read the vastly expanded and much more interesting blogroll.

The Seattle Times: "In a late scene, as the gang has been scattered, three of them try desperately to think of a course of action, running down names of tried-and-true cons. "What about Hell in a Handbasket?" one suggests. No, says Damon, perfectly deadpan. "We can't train a cat that quickly," and there's "not enough people. "

As you can see from the datestamps, I'm taking a break from the posting... I think in part because my pre-election social conscience is being pushed back into it's box for another four years, & I'm casting around for a new focus for my web-crawling expeditions. This was a britblog until I realised that I'm not "in the loop" about Britain & all my news was coming from the BBC. Then it was a pre-election "hope the dems win" blog. Throughout, it has been a "man, that's cool!" blog, & maybe that'll be where it ends up.

A new focus, of course, requires new input, new ideas and new material. As a beginning, after a non-functioning flirtation with a feedster feedpaper, I have set up a Kinja digest of some regular reads, & added some new blogs to my blogroll. I'm starting to read more culture, art, design, & local stuff , and less law & politics. Hopefully come the new year my new reads will lead me to more new reads & away from the well trodden political path of the past 12 months. The thing is, a ton of people already do that more creatively & from a more informed position than I do. Temporarily, I've decided to be a reader not a writer & a lover not a fighter.

Nothing new, then, 'til January, except hopefully a new creative notion of what this blog is for.

Bug Me Not!!! Sign-in info for all those newspaper websites that want to know everything about you before they let you read last week's TV guide. Via Cronaca.

but what's this? A purchased diploma?

Asymmetrical Information: Elizabeth Paige Laurie, an heiress to the Wal-Mart fortune...not only had to go to college, she was also expected to complete coursework. So, like any enterprising spirit, she appears to have done what came naturally: hire someone to do it for her. . . .

...or did they do that already? Now they're going to offer simple blogs that tie in with Messenger.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: For many people the key selling point will be the ability to easily post photos. It will also be possible to update an MSN Spaces site remotely, via e-mail or mobile phone. The blogging function of MSN Spaces comes with many traditional weblog features, such as sections for comments under each blog post. MSN Spaces also lets users send out RSS feeds.

To quote the Cranberries: Everyone else is doing it so why can't we?

Jimmy Saville, Steve Wright, Mike Reid... Glory days of Thursday Night pop-culture. Now the show will be on BBC 2. Samizdata tells you why:

Taste is fragmenting, and what is now Number One is no longer a matter for the BBC to decide on behalf of the Youth of the Nation. We each decide for ourselves. It no longer matters to each of us what anyone else likes.

Absolutely. I frequently wonder how long it will be 'til you can see/hear any music, film or TV prog that takes your fancy, any time, by downloading it from some humongous entertainment database.

in discussion at Instapundit & elsewhere. Their 4th quarter numbers suck, & bloggers have some ideas as to why. Land of the Lemmings references the other posts in the discussion, and hits the nail on the head, as far as I'm concerned. It is all about service.

Wal-Mart employees have no motivation to do a good job, their compensation and benefits suck. CostCo, for example, has better employee retention numbers and better starting salaries, according to this article. Contrast that with some of the reports about Wal-Mart’s wonderful employment record. If you know you are just an easily replaced cog in the giant machine, why try to do anymore than just what is necessary to get by?

Of course I have a special relationship with the big-box stores whose toy-wars last Christmas put me out of a great job and forced a career change, (see posts from last winter: 1, 2) but I believe that retail success is about great customer service, and that we the people will eventually tire of trawling through drafty poorly merchandised barns & will once again look for a local, personal and regular relationship with a business person whose investment is in the community.