Friday Geek Blogging.

The next Olympic Sport? Seriously.

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As the Crowe Flies

A good way to spend Memorial Day is watching a movie that reminds you both how ugly war is for those involved in the fighting, and also the reasons why some things are important enough to fight for. Robin Hood hasn't received good reviews for cinematography or narrative. It's true the film is wanting - everything from the American accents to the tired battle scenes to the deplorable way that Lady Marian conducts herself at the beachhead.

But I still liked it. It's always good to see a version of Robin Hood in which Richard the Lionheart is portrayed as the butcher he was instead of a just, noble king whose only failure is his absence. Also, I'm a sucker for political narratives that can't be easily stuffed into conventional boxes.

Readers' thoughts?

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Frakkin' Awkward

Who says you can't empirically observe the effect of BSG on actual politics? Former Congressman Eric Massa to a male aide:

"What I really ought to be doing is fracking you."

See? See? (Only the series does not appear to have influenced political perceptions of how to spell "frak.")

The Congressman (D-NY) resigned Monday due to a "cancer resurgence scare." Dana Milbank at WAPO has more about his train-wreck of an interview on Glenn Beck last night:

Conservatives had hopes that the now-former Democratic congressman from Upstate New York, who resigned abruptly under an ethics cloud, would deliver the goods about corruption and strong-arm tactics in the Obama White House and Congress. But instead, Massa served up an icky new confession.

"Now they're saying I groped a male staffer," he volunteered. "Yeah, I did. Not only did I grope him, I tickled him until he couldn't breathe and then four guys jumped on top of me. It was my 50th birthday."

Beck looked aghast. "Was your wife at that one?" the Fox News Channel host asked.

"No, this was in a townhouse; we all lived together, all the bachelors and me," Massa explained. "My chief of staff had a conniption and said, 'You can't live there, that's not congressional.' "

Beck tried to move the conversation in a different direction, but his guest resisted. "Let me show you something," Massa proposed, proffering a book with photos of bawdy Navy rituals from the days when he was a sailor.

"You're going to show me tickle fights?" Beck inquired.

"I'm going to show you a lot more than tickle fights," Massa promised. Beck put on his reading glasses, then judged that the images should not be shown on television.

The right's romance of Eric Massa was off to a messy start."

Frak yeah.

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