One last thought (I hope) about the Boston "bomb hoax" — amazingly, that completely incorrect phrase is still being used in some major media headlines, despite the well-established fact that nothing of the kind ever happened.

The phrase occurs in this case not because it’s related to reality, but simply because authority figures used it. And now it continues on, lingering, refusing to die despite its uselessness in describing the event.

Consider: this is what happens when local officials briefly utter complete nonsense about a single, simple and local issue that is immediately debunked. The horseshit still takes weeks to filter out.

Now consider the case when powerful national officials repeatedly utter half-truths about multiple, complex, faraway concerns that are later debunked. Are there enough filters in the world to clean out that crap? Possibly not.

And then, years later, the reality-based community wonders why millions of Americans still don’t understand either basic stuff like Iraq’s lack of connection to 9-11.  We wonder how Bush can get away with blurring Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda in the recent State of the Union address.  But maybe it’s no wonder at all.

The Mooninite incident is kinda scary to think about. But not because of any blinking lights in Boston.

The book project is eating my brain, so I’m short on time to post of late — precisely as our valiant webmaster Colin offers to post stuff the Canadian news runs that most US media might miss.  So I thank him here for his timing and slack-picking-up-of.  Brilliant.

You can spot Colin’s posts either by noticing his byline or simply reading each entry aloud.  If the letters "ou" sound slightly different, Colin wrote it.

And to any new Canadian readers who wander in from his blog, welcome.  I wish you much full-spectrum light.

In case you missed it, here’s footage of a pudu-related deer being rescued from an icy doom by force of a helicopter’s wash:

How much do you want to bet that deer was on the very next bus to Florida?

I think this is how teeny Key Deer came into being.  They just got down to the islands, got a little sun, went on a diet, and now they’re tiny.

As am I, with a book to finish, so I’ll be offline for a few.  Have a great weekend!

When I was a kid, I used to look forward to baseball Opening Day every April as if it were the beginning of life itself.

Now it’s the Super 14 rugby season.

Hard to explain, but here’s one of my favorite plays ever, a dramatic and somewhat lunatic attack (beginning with a near-impossible and even foolish pass — which worked!) from a match between the Blues and Crusaders a few years ago.  This beautiful invention came as time was running out, and it was both triggered and finished by my favorite player, a madman named Carlos Spencer, who even has the presence of mind to run out the clock before downing the ball.