1. In (vague) honor of the opening of Terminator: Salvation, here's a post from Overthinking It where the authors come up with a Grand Unified Theory of Schwarzenegger. Funny stuff.

["Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of the first action movie stars of the 80s. Perhaps he was one of the first action movie stars, period. His predecessors to that title - Steve McQueen? Clint Eastwood? - had dramatic credits to their name as well as escapist fare (Papillon, Play Misty For Me, etc). But Arnold Schwarzenegger will never direct Million Dollar Baby. Explosive action movies sit at both the beginning and end of his range. Consequently, not many critics take Schwarzenegger seriously as an actor. He's a muscle-bound lunk, they claim. He's nothing but a stony face and some catchphrases. He always plays the same role. But what if that's deliberate?"]

2. Justin Fowler's The Comics Section takes a look at just how far relatability can take you when you're writing a newspaper comic strip.

["Because as much as I thoroughly despise Pluggers' self-congratulatory blue-collar populist bullshit, that's not its biggest problem. Pluggers' biggest problem is that it's basically relatability porn, so much so that it's actually written by the readers. The characters are not even archetypes, but instead completely blank slates onto which the readers are to graft themselves. And the drawing rarely has anything to recommend it; the characters exist as animals, for example, but for no good reason."]

3. The LA Times looks at the ever-diminishing number of car dealers in the U.S. in the wake of the latest economic crisis. Good stuff.

["With struggling automakers expected to announce the shutdown of thousands of dealerships starting today, cities are bracing for a wave of blight. The closings will dump thousands of large, oddly configured parcels into an already reeling commercial real estate market. Many are likely to remain empty for a long time, monuments to the decline of the U.S. auto industry and the intensity of this recession."]

4. Onward, Don Quixote. Nancy Nall examines author Harlan Ellison's long fight against people who post his copyrighted work to Web sites and newsgroups. (h/t: Lance Mannion)

["I suspect King is wrong, that there are Russian and Chinese and American hackers working on sites to sell the Twilight novels for half off the retail e-reader price. Or maybe not—maybe this is all a matter of the cheap and sleazy undercutting the talented and successful. 'The robinhood of ebooks' says a lot about the ignorant mindset of the people who do this, as Robin Hood took from the rich and gave to the poor. I've known a few authors in my life, and they range from middle class to upper-middle. A few more can't quit their day jobs (usually teaching). All of them work harder than most of us, and if you saw what they earn for every copy they sell, you'd be amazed—it's far less than you probably think. The Stephen Kings and Stephenie Meyers and J.K. Rowlings are rare exceptions."]

5. Grey's Anatomy had another typically overwrought season finale last night, but this interview by Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello with showrunner Shonda Rhimes is just a tremendous, tremendous model of evasiveness.

["There was a period there where the show was being relentless mocked, especially where the 'ghost sex' was concerned. Did you ever take it personally?
RHIMES: You're the first person to tell me that, because I, of course, don't read a lot of press. One thing we've gotten used to is being in the public eye and we learned to let everything roll off our backs. We knew where we were going; we had a road map. The rest of the audience didn't know where we were going. We all thought it was really surprising that anybody thought there was a ghost on our show. We're a medical show. We thought it was surprising that anybody would look at it and go, 'Gee, that's a ghost.' So that was surprising to us. But, other than that, we took it with a grain of salt."]

Quote of the Day:

Image of the Day (click to enlarge): Let's continue our occasional series of places I have lived with a visit to Custer, SD.

Clip of the Day: Yay, pigs!

"Links for the Day": A selection of Links that will hopefully spark discussion. Comments encouraged. Suggestions for links are also welcome. Please send to todd@vanderwerff.us.