Random Thursday

I entered this work day fully intending to accomplish some worthwhile tasks. Fortunately, I’ve come to my senses.

• Last night’s Country Music Awards program is always great fodder for those who contend that The Nashville Machine has crushed the soul out of the genre. They’re the same people who keep a candle perpetually burning in their homemade shrine to Conway Twitty’s hair (he is dead, isn’t he?). As for me, while I readily admit to being a fickle fan – I’m back in the fold after a years-long fling with, um, everything else – I also happen to believe that country music has never been in better health, and the music still rises above competing genres in almost every aspect.
• That said, it’s also completely true that only George Strait knows how to properly pick and wear a hat. (I never did figure out Billy Gibbons’s headgear…and I’m not sure I want to know.)
• One of the talking heads on a national morning news program today referred to Nidal Hasan as the “alleged” shooter. I couldn’t figure out how they justified this, but one of my pals on Twitter explained it thusly: “The “alleged” bit was added only after it was learned that he was alive and had retained the services of an attorney.” I guess scores of eyewitnesses don’t trump political correctness and legal weasel words.
• One other thing about Hasan has me really confused. How did a guy like that ever make major? That’s some serious rankage, and his achievement doesn’t pass the sniff test. Almost seems like the military equivalent of kicking someone upstairs in order to make them someone else’s problem. Hope I’m wrong about that.
• For you typeface junkies (surely I’m not the only one), here’s a list of “the best free fonts of 2009.” (Seems a bit premature, considering there’s still more than a month left in the year, but perhaps font designers have more liberal-than-usual holiday schedules.)
• And, finally, even more fontly goodiness, with a trifecta of articles identifying the typefaces used in some of the most widely recognized logos: Fonts Used in Band Logos, Fonts Used in Popular Website Logos, and More Fonts Used in Popular Website Logos.
• In case you’re wondering (no one’s ever asked), the font used in the Gazette’s header is Mona Lisa Solid ITC.