Unsolicited food endorsements:

• Starbucks' Caramel Apple Cider. Ohhhh, my is it good. Especially right now when there's a chill in the air. Highly recommended if you've ever enjoyed apples with tons of caramel around them.
  
  
• Edy's Dreamery Blue Ribbon Berry Pie ice cream. It's vanilla ice cream with some berry ribbons and pieces of flaky pie crust mixed in. It may not sound like much, but the effect is striking (and addictive).

Yet another visitor to DSL Hell: So I signed up to get DSL installed at the new place in Arlington. Early indications were very promising; according to more than one source, we're only about 5700 feet from the Central Office (well within tolerances for the highest connection speeds! Fabulous, yes?)

Well, many weeks later (Verizon strike delay, yadda yadda) the Bell Atlantic/Verizon dude comes out, tests the line and declares that it's 19900 feet from the C.O., well outside all tolerances for getting a decent DSL connection speed.

"How can this be?", you might well wonder. Apparently the 5700 feet is a straight-line estimate, and the reality is that the phone company's line snakes all around the neighborhood before it arrives at our door; thus, 19900 feet.

Any chance of BA/V installing a shorter run of cable straight to our place? Yeah, right.

Any chance of having a repeater installed to extend the signal's range? "Verizon/Bell Atlantic does not install repeaters."

So unless I'm missing something, I believe I've been given the message that DSL is not an option. (In the middle of Arlington VA, home of dot-coms galore! Oh, the bitter, sickening irony!)

All right, what else is there? Cable modem? Nope, it's 'not yet available'.

Bah. I can't believe that in the middle of big-time tech-savvy Northern Virginia, I can't get better than modem speeds. Bah again.

A particularly good piece by Michael Kinsley... the whole thing's worth reading. Go.

• Lies the Press Likes [Slate]
  ...there is a bizarre press convention that assigns every candidate an official flaw--Gore lies, Bush is dumb--and only plays up incidents that confirm the diagnosis. Gore can say stupid things without fear, and Bush can tell whoppers, but not the other way around.

It's the beginning of the new TV season and teevee.org is in fine form, reviewing your options for new shows to watch.

Yesterday's Bushism of the Day [Slate]:

"I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier to answer questions. I can't answer your question." -- In response to a question about whether he wished he could take back any of his answers in the first debate.