I am mentioning this in case someone else is left scratching their head about why songs that they have left “unchecked” in iTunes are suddenly appearing on their iPod, iPhone or AppleTV.

It appears that the behavior around checked songs in iTunes changed in a recent release. Previously, if you had an item unchecked, iTunes ignored it for all intents and purposes. Now with release 8.0.2 of iTunes (at least that’s when I noticed it), each smart list has a new option “Match Checked Items Only”. I’ve had to go in and modify each Smart playlist to honor that condition. Annoying!

It is no surprise that the talented author, Bob Greene, has crafted an appropriate and eloquent eulogy for Paul Harvey – “He was famed for his voice, but the writing itself was so beautiful — his respect for words, his understanding of the potency of economy, his instinct for removing the superfluous. The world heard him speak, but the world never saw him write, and I think he honored both aspects of his skill equally.” You can read the full article on CNN

As it happens Bob Greene and I are about the same age (he is slightly more famous), we both grew up in the Midwest and Paul Harvey was part of the pastiche of our youth. Paul Harvey was so uncool but he was a pleasure to listen to. As a high-school debater, I was in awe of how few words it took for him to express a complete thought. His cadence was exquisite, leading you to the punch-line with a precision that you could only hope to allude to in your own arguments.

Paul never wore his patriotism on his sleeve as so many seem to do today. It wasn’t used to make a point but you had no doubt about his pride in the country and the many cultures and ideals that give its strength (and, on occasion, its failures.) Unlike the bombastic demagoguery that passes for radio today, Paul Harvey was a unique American voice that built upon that which is uniquely, the American experience.

Dave Winer reminds us that 25 years ago today this commercial introduced the world to the Apple Macintosh.

I distinctly remember, a few weeks later, walking through Marshall Fields & Company (now Macy’s Chicago – yech!) to look at one. The bright white 9″ screen, the few applications (Paint was amazing) and the overall design – unlike anything we had seen before.

It was a few years later in 1996 that I got my first Macintosh. My new employer already had one Mac Fan Boy working there and offered me the choice between a Mac Plus (the “new” Macintosh) and an IBM PC. I went Mac and have never looked back. While I have not made it a point to own every model since (thank goodness, some of them were awful), I have kept up with the times and couldn’t be happier.

I figure that I have probably saved months of time over the last 23 years by not having to fiddle with operating system, chase down viruses, solve incompatiblities, and otherwise suffering through the trials and tribulations of most Wintel PC owners. Now I’ll confess that I have had a PC or two over the years for testing and just to get along in the world (i.e. work with clients whose software product was PC-based.)

But my belongs to Mac – Happy Aniversary Macintosh. Here’s to another 25 years of togetherness.

see more Funny Graphs

John McCain is one of America’s great heros. His honor and duty to the country would be enough to make him a figure of history.

As I mentioned in personal discussions throughout this campaign, America would be hard pressed to lose in this election as both candidates were men of honor and civility. Reasonable men can disagree reasonably.

In John McCain’s concession speech, we saw the man that I wished had shown up during the campaign. The one for whom we could reasonably consider casting our vote. The speech’s graciousness and aspirational vision of an America were ideals that any American, regardless of party could relate. It stands in sharp contrast to the worst moments of the campaign itself, we got pandering to the “right”, and to the worst instincts in ourselves.

I doubt anyone will be surprised that once the glow of the fabulous oratory of these election nights speeches fade in the bitter gales of partisanship in the coming month, we find ourselves wishing we could reconnect to the emotions and joys of tonight’s result.

“SASKATOON, Saskatchewan (UPI)—Police in Saskatoon, Canada, Tuesday shot and killed a 100-pound wild cougar spotted relaxing in a man’s yard.

Young men of Saskatoon had mixed feelings and admitted that they would miss her when last call came around.”

(Via Woot : Bzzt Bzzt Black Sheep: Woot Weads The Wire.)

I am pleasantly surprised at the new album from Linda Eder – The Other Side of Me. I’ll steal one of the iTunes reviewers lines – “Reminds me of Jane Olivor” (another favorite of mine.) The good news is that Ms. Eder keeps the “belting” to a minimum on this album.

This song got **** from me. (and oddly enough, is not reminiscent of Jane Olivor at all!)

Waiting for the Fall • Eder, Linda • The Other Side of Me ★★★★

With a tip of the hat to I’m Gina Smith:

“The First Dude and more …

• If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you’re ‘exotic, different.’ * Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.
• If your name is Barack you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim. * Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you’re a maverick.
• Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable. * Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.
• If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience.
• If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive.
• If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real Christian.
• If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
• If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you’re very responsible.
• If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don’t represent America’s.
• If you’re husband is nicknamed ‘First Dude’, with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

One of the touted features of Amazon is its recommendation engine. I have to admit to loving Amazon (some months too much!) even when I pay sales tax on every purchase. But I find the recommendation strangely useless.

If you purchase often, you end up spending more time weeding the engine than shopping from it. For example, I tried some coffee beans from Amazon (they were on-sale and I was out – so why not). Now my recommendation engine lists bag after bag of coffee beans – just because I ordered a bag of coffee beans.

It would seem smarter for Amazon to ask me if I liked the coffee and would like to re-order (something that is surprisingly difficult to do on Amazon – you can subscribe, but re-ordering is hard.)

And while we are talking grocery shopping on Amazon – why can’t I get a listing by cost per unit of measure. For commodities – it would make it easy to spot a bargain. Try comparing coffee prices on Amazon – there have to be over 40 different quantity combinations and no easy way to compare the price per oz.

I love Amazon. I just don’t love how hard it is to love Amazon.

I can’t let the death of my cat go by without remarking on it (but there is nothing to see here – move along!) This is for me, not general consumption.

One half of my personal comedy team – Bob & Ray – died this week. Apparently he had been suffering from hyperthyroidism and by the time the symptoms caused a trip to the vet, the end was near. Despite the vet’s best efforts, he just slide downhill very quickly.

I adopted Bob & Ray from the Lancaster PA Humane shelter over 12 years ago and we have survived many the adventure including a cross-country airplane trip. Ray was my buddy. He was everybody’s buddy – he never met anyone he wouldn’t try to coax some attention out of – and all of us were suckers for him. He even loved the mice that found their way inside from the woods. I don’t think he ever killed one (although a few died of exhaustion) – he just played with them until I could coax the mouse into safer place for extraction to the outside.

Ray was amazingly brave – he once rushed past me to confront a raccoon that had invaded our deck. The raccoon quickly backed off the deck and Ray was very proud of himself for several days.

He was also responsible most of the destruction of my furniture. Why use a perfectly good scratching post when there is a untouched piece of furniture that needs to be clawed up. And he loved to talk – all hours of the day (between naps), he would walk around his house talking up a storm.

Bob will not miss being the target of the cat ambushes and is quickly adjusting to her role as sole cat (a position that she has always thought was hers.) But Ray will be deeply missed from both of our lives.