Just on the off chance ...

One of our close friends has recently entered the fromage biz. She maintains that I was the first one to make any cheese shop quips. In case you're one of the 3 or 4 people, world-wide, who aren't familiar with it, here's the initial version of the Cheese Shop Sketch.

Later versions, both audio-only and a live stage version, performed in the US when Python were on tour, tweak the dialog a bit, substituting, for example, a more explicit adverb in the phrase "I don't care how excrementally runny it is, hand it over with all speed." Nevertheless, the version linked here remains the original, doctrinally pure reading of the text.

For those interested, culinary concerns were a continuing thread in the work of M. Python, ranging from such oblique references as the fish-slapping dance to the more thoroughly explored themes of deliberately-introduced harmful substances and the iconic rat tart exposition.

A helpful suggestion

There's a new McCain ad that says Obama may be too popular -- too many people like him. If that turns out to be a real minus, I have a suggestion. Offer the Democratic Vice-presidential slot to George W. Bush. That'll fix the problem, tout suite.

As a comic, in all seriousness (as Eugene Levy's character, Bobby Bitman, used to say,) if I were in charge of McCain's advertising, I'd really question the wisdom of an ad showing his opponent as the center of adoring attention.

In an even more comic, though apparently true, development, the Hiltons are upset about the ad, which features news footage of what McCain thinks are Obama-like celebrities, such as ... yes, Paris Hilton.

Thanks to our favorite Saturday morning entertainment, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, for bringing this to our attention.

Can you identify this building?

How big a process geek are you? Hint: it's not a Starbucks, and it is in Pittsburgh.

Yes, friends, it's Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute, home of CMMI-DEV, CMMI-ACQ, and soon, CMMI-SVC. I just got back from a week there, drinking the Kool-aid. Go ahead, ask me what maturity level risk management is assigned to. Ask me the difference between a managed and defined process. Go 'head, Command Sargeant Major, whip it to me. I know my shit. (Michael Casey, Obscenities)