Right then. Time to clear out some of the backlog. Buckle up.

Another illegal immigrant child in a difficult situation. But this one has no immediate family, which changes the equation. It seems the best thing for her would be to stay with the family she's grown attached to here, but she's likely to be deported. Where are the camera crews?

• The world doesn't know about Sophonie [Cox News, from rebecca's pocket]
  "She doesn't have a mother. She doesn't have a father who wants to receive her. She doesn't have relatives here who want to care for her. It's an incredible situation. And here is Elian, who has a father who wants him back in Cuba, and relatives who want him here. So who is worse off? You answer. It's not rocket science."

Who's on what late-night shows and when: The Late Night TV Page by Sue Trowbridge [seen on Megnut]

Coffee shops around the world, by location

Coffee shops in St. Louis (and check out that sensible, readable directory structure! Nice.)

(Thanks, Dannette)

The Budweiser "Whassup" guys, where they came from and where they're headed:

• They're up: With a stop at Comerica Park, the friends starring in Budweiser's 'Whassup' commercials say hello to success [Detroit Free Press, seen on /usr/bin/girl]
  Last fall Stone auditioned more than 240 people for the four spots, seeking a multicultural cast. On the last day, Stone's three buddies -- all of whom are African American -- came in to audition.
  
  They got picked to play themselves.
  
  They filmed five more commercials three weeks ago.
  
  
• The Whazzup commercials in QuickTime (see the bottom of the list)

Apparently it's hard to copy MP3s to MiniDiscs. (I wouldn't know, I don't have a player.) These folks can supposedly help with a product coming out this spring: http://www.thunderwire.com/home.html

(Eric S., this one's for you.)

I can't even begin to come up with a good lead-in to this:

• Bush Vows to Return Civility [Washington Post]
  "...Americans have seen a cycle of bitterness: an arms race of anger. And both parties share some of the blame."
  
  "It does not have to be this way," Bush insisted. "I will set a different tone. I will restore civility and respect to our national politics."
  
  Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway said yesterday that Bush showed his true colors during the GOP nomination fight, when he ran ads that falsely accused McCain of not supporting breast cancer research.
  
  "Make no mistake, when I am attacked in this campaign, I will respond aggressively," he said in his speech. "I will promote my principles. I will set the record straight."

"That's nice, George."

From dack.com: Macromedia Flash is evil (updated with reader 'feedback'). Curr (or, "what he said").

Another good read from Joel on Software. I'd never really thought very hard about just how bad Windows' combo boxes and edit boxes are. They're pretty brain-dead, as he points out:

• Chapter 7: Designing for People Who Have Better Things To Do With Their Lives, Part Two
  When you need to edit text, monospace has a major advantage over variable spaced fonts: it's easier to see and select narrow letters like "l" and "i". I learned this lesson after watching a sixty year old man in a usability test painfully trying to edit the name of his street, which was something like Fillmore Street.

This one has some weird font-sizing going on, but it's worth trying to get past it:

• Myths of Feminism [Jen Munn, from riothero]
  "Feminism is the belief that women are superior to men."
  Women (both feminists and non-feminists) can joke that they are superior to men but that's all it is. It is funny because it is so outrageous for them to think so when they are treated as second class citizens by society. Women are not superior to men and men aren't superior to women. They should be equal. I think that Radical Feminism might believe that women are superior but that is only that particular type.

Comics:

• Tom Tomorrow on the IMF protests [Salon]
  In D.C., protesters were subjected to tear gas, unjustified arrest sweeps, the closure of their headquarters on the flimsiest of pretexts -- isn't this the sort of suppression of dissent we always accuse our enemies of practicing?
  
  
• Carol Lay: "Fishbowl" [Salon]
  "I saw that."
  
  
• Tom the Dancing Bug: Rick Coleman, Important Tele-journalist [Salon]
  Next: Rick Coleman, important journalist, interviews the puppet mascot of a company his network's parent corporation bought.

From genehack, a really scary tale of the American courts:

• Mistrial declared after jurors decide conviction with coin toss [Nando Times]
  Jury foreman David Melton told The Courier-Journal for Tuesday's editions that jurors decided to flip a silver dollar to avoid a hung jury. Because all agreed on the coin toss, they thought it was legal, he said.
  
  "Realistically, I didn't think we had anything to lose," Melton said. "We were going to be hung without it."

Pyramid Scheme "Not A Pyramid Scheme" [new issue of The Onion]

The Elián Dept.:

Michael Kinsley on Republicans' reversals on childrens' rights:

• Republicans for Hillary [Slate]
  ...the GOP party line was that a 12-year-old was far too young to decide he'd rather not live with such people and that anyone who wanted lawyers and government to keep these parents apart from their child was a liberal sociopath.
  
  After Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen ... stated that the courts had given "little Elián" the right to asylum, [Newt!] Gingrich forgot to remind her that "Republicans trust parents and believe that they, not courts and lawyers, know what is best for their children." Instead, he criticized Janet Reno's timing on the adorable grounds that "This is a time for Easter egg hunts. This is a time for the Easter bunny."
  
  No one ever thought of this particular scenario back in '92. Maybe it's an exception. But then, maybe there are other exceptions, too. In fact, maybe if you've been self-righteously indignant on both sides of an issue, you should conclude that it's not an issue about which self-righteous indignation is called for.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez (!) with some additional background to the story:

• Shipwreck on dry land [Lbbs.org]

Maureen Dowd on even more Republican revisionism, in the form of a mock (revised) platform:

• G.O.P.: Guns Are Scary! [NY Times]
  [old:] The best care for most children, especially in the early years, is parental. Government must never hinder it.
  
  [new:] The best care for some children, especially in the early years, can come from a loony cousin-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown. Government must sometimes separate a child and parent, if that parent is hindering electoral votes.

Plenty of interesting links over at The Stuffed Dog over the past few weeks. Too many to borrow, so I'll just send you there...

Finally, many thanks to Laurel's TV Picks for the news that Sports Night will be on again for a two-part season finale. Excellent!

• "Sports Night" goes into overtime [Reuters]
  ABC will air a two-part season finale May 9 and 16 in the show's regular [8:30 p.m. Central] Tuesday slot.

There. Enough for one day, maybe? :)