Just a few things that are on my radar at the moment …

• First up, I just found this interview with Gore Vidal from May, in which he gives his current takes on Obama and McCain.
Vidal says he’s a fan of Obama now, but it took him a while to get there (hey, kinda like […]

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Some Tuesday-morning bagel bites for you …

In case you’re wondering what Barack Obama might look like with a small engine or wind farm on his head … after being attacked by the Evil Spellbinder in the employ of certain right-leaning but largely illiterate online communities … well, just go read this for your morning moment […]

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More breaking news from the world of fantasy science:
A giant rodent five times the size of a common rat has been discovered in the mountainous jungles of New Guinea.
The 1.4kg Mallomys giant rat is one of two species of mammal thought to be new to science documented on an expedition to an area described as […]

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Looks like the film version of The Hobbit is going to happen after all. And it’s going to be a two-parter (because they sell more popcorn like that, see).
New Line and filmmaker Peter Jackson have resolved their differences over Jackson’s profit participation over the $3 billion-grossing “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, paving the way for […]

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It’s been ages since I’ve done one of these little Chicago roundups, but there are so many head-splittingly good things going on this week that it seems like a dandy time to reinstate the tradition.
• First up, this weekend is the opening of the brand-new Theater Oobleck show Spukt, written by the mercurial Dave Buchen. […]

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In order to keep these roundups fresh as a spring daisy, I usually discard any links I’ve been keeping around that are more than a week old. But since this is OcPot’s first roundup in more than six weeks, I’m extending the freshness window slightly to include a few things that were just too good […]

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I haven’t weighed in on the whole gay Dumbledore thing, partly because everyone is already talking about it, and I usually view OcPot as a place to post about things that deserve more attention than they seem to be getting.
But Minnesota Malcolm brought it up in the comments to this post last night, and […]

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The official/final trailer for The Golden Compass is out, and the more I see of this film the better it looks. I am somewhere between guardedly optimistic and completely geeked out.

 
Also, here’s a nice little featurette called “Defining Daemons,” which looks at the animal companion-spirits that accompany the characters on their journeys.

 
Personally, I […]

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Eric Alterman has an outstanding column in The Nation on how the media’s mean girls (of all genders) develop the narratives they use to bring down the presidential candidates they take a dislike to. With examples of what they did to Gore in 2000, and what they’re doing to Obama and Edwards right now.
Two of […]

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Steven Moffat has won his second Hugo award for writing a Doctor Who episode — this time for the Season Two episode “The Girl in the Fireplace.” And well deserved, in my book. “The Girl in the Fireplace” was a beautiful script and a real standout in Season Two. (Moffat previously won for the “Empty […]

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Out, damned spot! Fox News caught red-handed, laundering entries on Wikipedia. Keep on scrubbing, Lady MacFox, but those stains belong to you always.

The GOP’s California strategy: winning the 2008 election by undoing California’s winner-take-all electoral system. Once the state goes piecemeal, the Repubs gain at least 20 electoral votes from safe GOP districts.
Arianna Huffington looks […]

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Finally! An “extended preview” trailer for The Golden Compass.
Been waiting for-EV-er for a look at this.

 
Hard to tell too much for sure, but it does seem like they’ve gotten the look of it right. And it seems like maybe it’s going to be fairly faithful to the book — fingers crossed anyway.
And also — was […]

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Jim over at empty-handed.com finally figured out who this Harry Potter person everyone keeps talking about is.
And he has provided no less than five new books chronicling the adventures of this popular character. The results are pure wizardry! With, um, surgical precision.
And lucky you, I’ve giving you links to the whole five-book series.
Book the […]

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It was a big week for Doctor Who news in the wake of the Season Three finale on the BBC this past weekend. Some of the major revelations include the Doctor’s most recent companion Martha Jones taking a break from the TARDIS, and Catherine Tate (who appeared in the 2006 Christmas special) signing on as […]

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