ABC Notepad

ABC's The Note is doing a fascinating thing with each Democratic presidential campaign (and will add Bush anytime he likes): the Notepad, a short burst of text from each campaign every day if they choose to participate. (That URL likely isn't the permanent one; this one might be, but it's got older content than the other link... could someone over at ABC work on their URL schemes and indicate what each feature's Canonical URL is? It's not like it's that hard. Don't get me started on their horrible archiving scheme, either.) Here are The Notepad's Rules:

The submissions:
1. must be 200 words or fewer (longer than that, we cut it off at 200).
2. will be printed in the order they are received.
3. should be irreverent and breezy - written in Note style.
4. must be signed by someone in the campaign (although they can be written by different people on different days).
5. must be received by 8:30 am each day (lazy boys and gals can send them the night before).
They can be on any topic: message of the day, reacting to something in the papers, whatever the campaigns wish.
When there IS a Bush campaign, we will welcome their Notepad contributions. Candidates of other parties will also be considered.

This seems like a New Thing, and I'm frankly surprised the campaigns are going along with it. It's a combination of free advertising and free-for-all debate, where they have to use text (i.e. say something), not just use three-word catchphrases or photos of 'working families' basking in nature.

I will watch with interest, and I hope they let other parties in too.  

 Miscellany!

Odds & ends:

• Nice batch of pictures from the Buffy wrap party. (I believe the two women I don't recognize are Marti Noxon and Julie Benz/"Darla")
  
  
• I agree with Girlhacker: this is a mighty interesting wristwatch with 32MB-128MB of storage and built-in USB. Particularly the pictures of how the connector fits unobtrusively.
  
  
• The other day the Washington Post had a fascinating piece on preparing modern-day pork chops in ten minutes, with eight different sauces to choose from. Will have to try one of these days.

  As good as it was, the pork roast of my childhood has vanished... Whether sauteed, grilled, roasted or braised, today's pork should come to the table with an internal temperature, as measured by an instant-read, digital meat thermometer, of no more than 160 degrees. Our mother's pork had all that fat to keep it tender and juicy even at 180 degrees. Most of the pork we find in the market today simply cannot tolerate that high a temperature. It is raised to be leaner and trimmed closer. In fact, the pork we buy today is 30 percent lower in fat than it was just 20 years ago.