Networking & The News from Crawford

Hello again,

One of my "correspondents" sent me an amusing little ditty about W in Crawford and I'm just passing it on below.

However, the real reason I'm showing up in your e-mail today is to ask: Do any of you subscribe to either Netflix or Yahoo Music? If so, I'd like to get you in my "friends" networks on those services.

For those of you not familiar with either service: Netflix is an Internet-based DVD rental service. For a flat monthly fee, you can watch all the DVDs you want. You go online and tell them what movies you want to watch, and the disks show up in your mailbox; when you're done, you put the disk back in the mail and a coupla/few days later, the next movie in your list arrives. Depending on the level of your service, you can keep three or eight (or more) DVDs at any one time and for as long as you want.

I think Yahoo Music is, the future of music distribution. For another flat monthly fee (the introductory price is presently $60/yr = roughly the cost of a whole four CDs), you get virtually unlimited access to a truly impressive library of music. In addition to whatever is in current release, I've been finding a gold mine of old rarities. For example, yesterday I found recordings by Tim Hardin that I haven't heard for years. I've been listening to all kinds of stuff that I would not otherwise have heard were I not subscribed to such a service. And there is a "to-go" function that lets me transfer tracks to a portable player so I can listen in my car, etc. (Unfortunately the file format is not compatible with my iPod, but that's a subject for a whole separate rant one of these days...).

Anyway, both of these services offer "networking" capabilities that allow friends to tell each other what they're watching and listening to, and I would like to expand my networks by including any of you who might subscribe.

In Netflix, there is "Friends" function. You invite people in to your "friends" network using their e-mail address, which in our case is "driver@49chevy.com" If you're a Netflix subscriber, either invite us into your network, or send me your e-mail address and I'll invite you into mine.

With Yahoo Music, you share stuff via the Yahoo Messenger, which I find I'm using a lot more these days than the old AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). On Yahoo, I'm "perfessr@yahoo.com" -- if any of you use that service, please add me to your buddy list; And, by all means, check out the Yahoo Music Service, it's absolutely the most economical way to access a vast library of music.

So please, let me know if you are using either of these services, and let's connect-and-share through them.

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Now then, the news from Crawford, TX, from www.borowitzreport.com , with thanks to PJ Wright for passing it on:

BUSH REFUSES TO SET TIMETABLE FOR WITHDRAWAL FROM CRAWFORD
Early End to Vacation Would 'Send Terrible Signal,' President Says

The Borowitz Report
August 14, 2005

President George W. Bush said today that he understands and respects the views of those who are calling for him to cut short his summer vacation, but warned that an immediate withdrawal from Crawford, Texas would "send a terrible signal to the enemy."

"The enemy would like nothing better than to see me cut short my vacation and get back to the White House," Mr. Bush told reporters. "They hate my freedom."

While the president said that he would withdraw from Crawford "soon," he refused to set a timetable for his departure from the ranch, saying that much work there still needs to be done.

Mr. Bush, who has been spending much of his vacation clearing brush, said that he is making great progress in training ranch hands to take over that job for him, but cautioned that they are not yet prepared to do the job themselves.

"Once the ranch hands have shown that they are able to clear the brush on their own, I will withdraw from Crawford, but that day has not yet come," the president said.

Mr. Bush was dismissive of polls showing that the public thinks his current vacation is becoming a quagmire, much like his August 2001 vacation.

At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan defended the president's decision to remain in Crawford indefinitely: "President Bush deserves August off, especially when you consider how many summers he had to go to school."

Elsewhere, actress Angelina Jolie denied reports that she had become a citizen of Cambodia, saying that she and Cambodia were just good friends.

www.borowitzreport.com

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That's worth a chuckle or two. See y'all round the race track...

--PS