Exhibit 19.1

Things I've Been Reading Recently

* Nick Flynn's Some Ether - I really, really like this book. It looks like I'll never get around to doing a full writeup of this one, but that's probably for the best. Every time I try, I end up writing, "I really, really like this book." and then stopping.

* Jeffrey Toobin's article on John Roberts - The worst part is that we all knew he was this guy. There was never any doubt that Roberts was not only very conservative--which is fine, it was Bush's call--but also unprecedentedly political after his years in the White House. All throughout the hearings he gave answers like this one:

"If the Constitution says that the little guy should win, the little guy's going to win in court before me," Roberts said. "But if the Constitution says that the big guy should win, well, then the big guy's going to win, because my obligation is to the Constitution. That's the oath."

I mean, nobody believed this. So naturally we now have 5,000 word articles expressing shock--shock!--that Roberts maybe wasn't what he said:

In every major case since he became the nation’s seventeenth Chief Justice, Roberts has sided with the prosecution over the defendant, the state over the condemned, the executive branch over the legislative, and the corporate defendant over the individual plaintiff. Even more than Scalia, who has embodied judicial conservatism during a generation of service on the Supreme Court, Roberts has served the interests, and reflected the values, of the contemporary Republican Party.

Jesus, it's like he said what everyone wanted to hear then changed once he had a lifetime appointment. If only there was a group of people who could have gotten together--a sort of congress, if you will--and done something about this. Oh well.

* Higgs's interview - Good stuff and not just because I always get to imagine him rolling his eyes at my political talk. I like Chris.

* Dave's new website - Finally, a place for Dave to share his thoughts on the television shows of the day in the most egotistical manner possible. I have this theory he chose .org because Dave thinks of himself not as something he has to sell to you (.com) but as something you have to volunteer and pay dues for, like the AARP. I like Dave.

* Play at This Recording - That's a great website on any day, but it just so happens to feature pieces from Mathias's new Cupboard today.


Things I've Been Listening to Recently

* The Nazario Scenario - My life has been much richer ever since I discovered how to subscribe to podcasts. This is always one of my favorites. It made me want to meet Amanda Nazario. Then someone told me I did meet Amanda Nazario. But, like, I think I'd meet her better this time. Okay, probably not.

* Danger Mouse's Dark Night of the Soul - You can stream the entire album at that link since it's apparently never going to be sold. Or maybe it will be sold but you have to ask David Lynch nicely or something. I don't know, but I do know that it's good. You should go listen to it.

* Rany Jazayerli's Royals on the Radio - I don't think you're going to find a better radio show about the Royals hosted by a Muslim baseball statistician/dermatologist. Bold statement, I know. Unrelated to baseball, but his essay from the election which ended up on This American Life is still a must read.


Things I've Been Watching Recently

* Not much - But I did catch Frost/Nixon after Netflix skipped approximately 15 other movies in my queue (did that many other people really want to watch Bride Wars?). It was fine and sort of nondescript like Howard's other stuff, but I just can't get over the fact that its hero is someone that his most talented contemporaries passionately hate. Peter Cook and the entire cast of Monty Python, for example.