Troy McClure's Filmography. The complete filmography of Troy McClure, the failed character actor on The Simpsons, with episode references:

# [7F13] "Here Comes the Coast Guard"
# [8F01] "Preacher With a Shovel" (with Dolores Montenegro)
# [8F03] "The Revenge of Abe Lincoln"
# [8F03] "The Wackiest Covered Wagon in the West"
# [8F14] "Calling All Quakers" (with Dolores Montenegro)
# [8F14] "Gladys The Groovy Mule"
# [8F14] "Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die" (1)
# [9F07] "Dial M for Murderousness"
# [9F07] "The Erotic Adventures of Hercules"
# [9F20] "'P' is for Psycho"
# [9F20] "The President's Neck is Missing!"

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(Thanks, Wickedfresh!) [Boing Boing Blog]

WHy I love the Simpson's and will buy every episode as it comes to DVD. My 13 year-old son has had several reading projects this summer. One was to read Hamlet, which he did a pretty good job with. He actually laughed out loud when Polonius said 'I'll be brief.' and wasn't! We then watched Olivier's Hamlet, so he could see how actors can transform the words by their actions and phrasing. But, and I agree with him, the Simpson's episode parodying Hamlet is a classic. This exchange sets the tone:

Moe(Claudius): Ok Hamlet, you know the rules, Laertes here gets one practice stab. Ralph(Laertes): Oh boy! (stabs self in chest, dies)

11:50:02 AM    

Friendster fakesters. Article in SF Weekly about folks who hack the Friendster world by creating profiles for wacky online aliases instead of their "real" selves. Needless to say, the folks at Friendster.com aren't crazy about this.

The site has attracted legions of young creative types: DJs, artists, media people, Burning Man freaks, and other hipsters -- particularly in tech-savvy San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. Not surprisingly, many of them went to great lengths to make their profiles unusual, or above-it-all and drenched in irony. Some, like Batty, took it a step further by not being themselves at all.

Batty and numerous other Friendsters routinely violate the site's user agreement by creating fictional characters as profiles instead of, or in addition to, their "real" profiles. These "fakesters" portray themselves as everything from inanimate objects like the World Trade Center to celebrities like Paris Hilton to historical forces like War (which lists its profession as "resolving disputes"). Emboldened by their masks and often preferring the weird over the normal, fakesters are turning Friendster on its ear. They link to other users they've never met in real life, flouting the site's original intent of connecting people through verifiable personal relationships. Many compete to link to as many other users as possible, so that their fictional characters function as social hubs in the Friendster network.

Link, Discuss (Thanks, ESC) [Boing Boing Blog]

As the old saw goes, on the Internet no one knows you are a dog. Or a metaphor. Or a large, inanimate object. Below I munched a little on the coach who tried to game the system but Little League also has a large part in that. Their rules actually encourage bad behavior. Many humans will attempt to gain an advantage, so why give them the chance. Here, we have people gaming the system for fun rather than profit . But it has the possibility of ruining the basis for the whole project. It demonstrates how easy it is to set up a fake identity and friends. If verifiable relationships is the key, these people have demonstrated that you can aparrently use any lock.  11:36:24 AM    

Kirkland team forced to forfeit game over intentional poor play. KIRKLAND -- The Kirkland National Little League girls junior softball all-star team has forfeited Wednesday's pool play game against Canada in the World Series. [Home]

This is what happens when you try to game the system. And it is what should happen. Granted, the Little League tie-breaker rules encourage these sorts of things. The 10 run mercy rule cuts games short but the tiebreaker favors the teams that play a full game. So you are penalized for having a big offense and beating a weak team. This is bad and should be addressed.

But, it is also against the rules to purposely play to extend the game. So we end up with a conflict and some coaches try to take advantage. Just like a boxer taking a dive in an early fight hoping to make more money on the rematch, you take a tricky path when you decide to do less than your best. Our society frowns upon this sort of behavior and rightly provides very tough penalties. It is one thing for a professional team to game the system to improve their draw. It is not right but it does happen. It is another thing entirely to have a group of children do it.  11:26:50 AM