Author: Sean

The mlw got home from a week of traveling on Friday so we had white wine and order-in sushi while she caught up on "Dancing With The Stars." On Saturday after coffee and a lot of programming, we went on the Brookly Heights Association House Tour (more on that later). After that we trucked down to Carroll Gardens to have sangria on the patio at PJ's. We had eggs poached in red sauce at Savoia for Sunday brunch and then margaritas on the deck at Lobo in Cobble Hill.

I think I like Brooklyn. And drinking tequila.

Just opened the office to a beautiful Spring day and shouts of protest from opponents to the Sean Bell case. More coverage here.

You may not know this about me, but I love bar shuffleboard.

I just had a date leave me for driving dangerously, so I went back to an Irish bar, got drunk, got into a fight, drove drunk, and then got arrested. Then I robbed a cabbie and a bowling lane attendant. You either know this is all in the virtual sin haven of Liberty City and are jealous that I got GTA IV on release day (thanks, Dan!) or you don't. If not, just move along.

While in DC, we visited the Newseum, a museum dedicated to journalism and how the profession creates history by telling the story. Despite that terrible pun, I really enjoyed the experience. They Newseum features loads of artifacts from United States history, from an original first year copy of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette to the whiteboard the Tim Russert wrote "Florida! Florida! Flordida!" on during the last election.

While education, informative, and fun, the whole place is also very heart wrenching. Most of the news stories represented (like most news) were sad. Particularly emotional was the wall of hundreds of newspaper front pages from September 12th, 2001.

Feeling wretched, we found solice with the interactive touch screens that allowed us to dial-up Reagan getting shot outside the Washington Hilton. Because of Buckweat, that famous clip always makes me laugh.

Last night my wife and I were Time Magazine's guests at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Over 2000 guests filled the Washington Hilton's ballroom, creating a din that made it difficult to hear either President Bush or keynote speaker Craig Ferguson.

Throngs of Hollywood, DC and media celebrities peppered the room. We politely brushed shoulder with Larry King, Charlie Rose, BJ Novack, Heidi Montag, Marcia Cross, Tom Ridge, Wolf Blitzer, and Colin Firth. For the most part, celebs sip and chat just like everyone else. We only had two noteworthy interactions.

While waiting for her car, Martha Stewart ducked into a brick corner to send a text immediately behind where I stood. An autograph hound approached and creepily asked her to sign a baseball. She was perplexed and coolly informed him that she had never played the sport. The signature hunter then got testy, so I gave her a sympathetic look to which she returned a resigned eyeroll.

Shortly after that, we were moved aside by a gargantuan bodyguard with the Jonas Brothers clinging to his back like baby opposums. One of the boys politely said sorry, knowing that old people like me had no clue who they were. I sympathized with them when five feet later a pack of tween she-wolves fell upon them like a hobbled gazelle.

My most enjoyable encounter was with Joe Klein and his lovely wife. Talking with Mr. Klein, famous author of six books, most recently Politics Lost and also Primary Colors as the notorious Anonymous, reminded me how woefully unread I am on politics, Iraq, and the general state of the union. I've added the rss feed to his Time blog Swampland to my daily reader to make amends.

The food was good. The scene momentous. Craig nailed the middle ground between an irrelevant Rich Little and the history making Stephen Colbert. It's worth a look on CSPAN. My best worst moment came early. I was really only there as my wife's guest as guest of Time. Not knowing anyone from anything I accidentally asked the president of Time how he knew everyone. He took it very well and forgave me as arm candy. I like that, oddly enough.

I'm off to Washington, DC for the White House Correspondents Dinner, believe it or not. I've written some nasy things about the President in the past, but this is a press dinner. Also, I have too much respect for the office, if not the man, to scream "douche!" when he walks out.

Craig Ferguson is hosting (unfortunately not Stephen Colbert), but it should be a lot of fun. I'll try and make Twitter updates (over there to the right) as much as I can.

I love my two standard Nalgene 32 oz bottles, one in traditional gray and one in Steelers' black and yellow (pictured). I've takend them to the tops of numerous mountains and also keep them in the fridge for daily drinking. The think I like best about consumer bottled water is that it is cold. Keeping a Nalgene in the fridge accomplishes the same thing, but is nicer on the environment. But could it also be making me fat or reach puberty early? Yes according to some recent studies.

Check out these articles:

• NY Times: Bottle Maker to Stop Using Plastic Linked to Health Concerns
• Salon: Two words: Bad plastic

The summary is that most really hard and clear plastics contain a chemical called Bisphenol A that might possibly have some hormonal impacts on humans. The data are still really new, but sales of productd made from these plastics, baby and hiking bottles, are already tanking.

So what am I going to do? Nalgene is introducing a new line made with a plastic without BPA called Tritan copolyester. The line should be available any day. I plan to buy one smoke colored and one yellow bottle and pretend the whole thing never happened. I fear change.

Picture from the Altoona Mirror showing Obama eating a hot dog at Texas Hot Dogs in Altoona, PA. Chowing on hot dogs is not elitist.

I just returned from vacation to find every news agency in an uproar over Democratic candidate Barack Obama's "bitter" comments. Finding the actual quote was hard, but here it is (from The Huffington Post):

"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

I wanted to have that quote here because never before has someone so succinctly summed up the problems of my home town. If you are in PA, please get out there and vote. It really matters.

My lovely wife and I just got back from Barbados late last night. The weather was nice, the beach soft and white, the sea azure and warm, and the rum drinks well prepared.I'm officially scuba certified and not drownded. More pics later…I need to got to work. Ugh.