“THE MEA CULPA CAME…” The NYT puts those words right after the Alberto Gonzales line: “I acknowledge that mistakes were made here.” Since when is the notoriously evasive “mistakes were made” a confession of personal guilt? Let’s not define “mea culpa” downward.

“OOOOOOH, SHINY! LAWYER GROG THINK PRETTY LADY in glittery snake shoes have mighty mojo.”

AND NOW I SUPPOSE TOM WILL ALSO do a post saying whatever it is I’m saying here. That we both did the jinx-on-Coke post simultaneously. Except that he got in first, so I’m the Coke debtor. He probably beat me to this one too.

CORRECTION: Actually, he’s the Coke debtor. I called it.

TOM OWES ME A COKE. (Check out how I’m trying to get a Corner-esque vibe going here. Will Tom banter? Will Megan poke her head in from whatever time zone she’s in? Stay tuned.)

AL GORE’S ALARMISM is criticized by some scientists, and they are — take note — spotlighted in the NYT.

CODE PINKSTERS CAMP OUT at Nancy Pelosi’s house. And, look out, they’ve got papier-mâché statue of Gandhi.

OH, PHEW! Tom’s back.

MICKEY KAUS AND ANDREW SULLIVAN ARE SQUABBLING AGAIN. I think their troubles would be greatly reduced if Mickey would keep up with “South Park.” Or if Andrew wouldn’t assume that everybody does or that it’s cool to create a divide between people who get “South Park” references and people who don’t.

STARDUST. Now, dust.

SPEAKING OF RECLAIMING LOST DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME. Pedant point of the day — I just got corrected over on my blog — it’s “saving” not “savings.” It’s not like a savings bank, apparently. Anyway, the guestbloggers seem to be sleeping in! I get the feeling about 50,000 people have already cursed us. I hope you realize it’s Central Time for me. So like it’s only almost 9 o’clock. Still, pathetic for a serious, public-serving blogger. You probably know all the news of the day already, without my pointing to things. But I’m on the job now, cooking up juicy nuggets. This is your appetizer. And I imagine 35,000 of you exclaiming: “Feh, bring back the regular chef.” Really, I imagine 35,000 people saying exactly those words in unison. Intimidating? Nah! Dr. Helen is pointedly advising us to “keep moving, moving, moving and to try scary things and not to give a s**t when they are rejected.” So let’s go!

“AWESOME FACTS ABOUT FRED THOMPSON.” From Frank J. Sample: “The actual cause of global warming: Fred Thompson’s burning rage.”

“REPRESSION BLOOMED INTO RAPTURE LIKE RAGING WEEDS shooting through cracks in the cement.” Patti Smith has a NYT op-ed about getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It’s kind of scattershot and incoherent as you’re reading it, but in the end you get the idea that what she wants is honor for Fred Sonic Smith and the MC5.

EDDIE IZZARD HAS A NEW TV SHOW.

He went with “The Riches” instead [of “24”], partly because he sees himself as a sunnier actor than “24” demanded. An actor must know if can be believably sinister, he says.

“I did a film with John Malkovich,” he says of “Shadow of the Vampire.” “If John says, ‘Come and have a cup of tea,’ you do think John has just murdered his family. He has that interesting feel, like, ‘John, what have you done?’

“And I have that light thing, a more positive, upbeat thing.”

I love Eddie Izzard! I have all his concert DVDs. Lately, I find I can barely force myself to watch television. Silly behavior, I know. Why would you try to force yourself to watch television? But I am going to… set the TiVo for this. Setting the TiVo these days reminds me of the way I used to Xerox law review articles. Xeroxing ≠ consuming. I kept magical-thinking it would. Ditto TiVo.

“THE MOST CHALLENGING RUBIK’S CUBE THAT WE’VE FACED IN OUR LIFETIME.” The early primary season is driving the strategists crazy.

YOUTUBE AND PHILOSOPHY COMEDY. Andrew Sullivan’s on a new kick: here and here. I guess if I was horsing around looking for crap in YouTube and got the idea of searching for two words I’d might pick “philosophy” and “comedy.” Not saying that’s what Sullivan did. Just saying that’s what I might do.

MAYOR GIULIANI’S MUNICIPAL JUDGE PICKS. Since they didn’t do constitutional interpretation, does this say anything about the kind of federal judges he would appoint if he became President? Lawprof Stephen Gillers says it’s “nonsense,” and Ted Olson says “It’s making a mountain out of a molehill. It’s not even a molehill. It’s an anthill.” (I tell you what I think over here, where you can bat this around in the comments.)

“I’M GIVING SOME THOUGHT TO IT. GOING TO LEAVE THE DOOR OPEN.” Fred Thompson certainly looked like a presidential candidate to me, just now on Fox News Sunday.

Translation: Yes!

UPDATE: Here‘s the video. If it seems hard to play, try fiddling with the buttons. (More Althousian tech advice.)

ANOTHER VIDEO: Here‘s some more video. It works better — and covers a different part of the show.

“A LOW, THROBBING, VIOLENT, READY-TO-RUMBLE HUM DRIFTS past the espresso machine, past the rack of alternative weeklies, past the wall exhibit of photos from a faculty member’s trip to Florence, past the plastic tub where you put your dirty cups and spoons.” RLC reads something rantish in the NYT and rants back — with pictures of “the menacing black hole that unnerved the Times writer.”

“I WAKE UP AT NIGHT AND I SPIN, countless thoughts, tripping over each other. My crazy work schedule this semester, the bid for a new condo, I’ll be moving, everyone’s moving, I’m in Cervinia but the Law School is just emails away. I need to write more, I need to moonlight, I need to sleep.”

“THE UNEASY, ‘INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS’ SENSE that regular people, who were funny-shaped and neurotic and sincere and inefficient, were suddenly having to compete with — and losing to, and inexorably being replaced by — a new kind of 24/7 success cyborg that had had doubt and depression and down time genetically engineered out of it.”

“STRONG AND CLEAR.” Not “soft and muddy.” If John Edwards seems to have changed, he says, it’s only a change in clarity.

“I should make absolutely clear: Nothing has changed about John Edwards as a human being and my value system,” he said. “It’s exactly the same as it’s always been, which is wanting to give people the chances that I’ve had.”

Well, there must at least be a change in your values about how forthright a political candidate needs to be.

UPDATE: A little muddiness on Edwards’ relationship with the netroots.

MIDWESTERN RIVALRY. “We’re No. 1!” Most corrupt!

SO, TOM. Are we doing boldface intros or all caps intros?

HI, TOM. I’m glad to see you’re here early, which is early early this Daylight Savings morning. I thought my Cingular cell phone was the best bet for getting the real time when I got up this morning, but — unlike my computer — it didn’t register the spring forward. Hello, Instapundit readers. I hope, with enough of us blogging in concert, we can serve up juicy nuggets at a Reynoldsian rate. And thanks to Glenn for letting me back in over here. The last time I did it, in August, I was also driving from Madison, Wisconsin to California and back — and counting on Holiday Inn Express to supply the internet connection. It was a bit insane. I’ll be more grounded this time. At least physically.

UPDATE: I can’t believe I’m giving tech advice, but turning the cell phone off and back on got it to spring forward.

THANKS TO GLENN for letting me dwell in Instapundit territory, and thanks to Brannon, Megan, and Michael for the excellent company. After driving all over The West — unaccompanied — and double-blogging for the past week, I have a delightfully mellow feeling about being back in Madison, Wisconsin and confining my blogging to Althouse. I hope you’ll keep reading me there. You might want to start here, with last night’s podcast, recapping the week’s blogging and — as usual — digressing. And digress over to Althouse whenever you can. I don’t need to tell you to keep reading Instapundit. How far can you get into a day without checking to see how the world looks from Instapundit? So, thanks again to Glenn for letting me stand on this lofty peak of the internet on those days when I was driving my car around the thrilling mountain roads of The West. Now it’s time for me to descend via the twistiest road over to the gently rolling, Wisconsinite landscape of a blog called Althouse.