Did anybody want a corn report? 

Nice drive to Ames today. Pretty farm land. The corn is way more than knee high, still a couple weeks from the 4th of July. What else?

- Gas costs less than $3 in Iowa.

- Listened to a couple of good podcasts. I'd recommend both: on Truthdig, an Iraqi-American medical doctor talks straight about what the Iraqi people want -- us out now; and Amy Goodman does a long interview with Michael Moore about his new movie.

Plus other stuff you'll never hear about because I either can't read the notes I scribbled while driving, or the ideas don't interest me tonight as much as they must have in the warm country sun.

What happens when you take your eye off the ball 

The Taliban takes back part of Afghanistan. BBC.

Wouldn't it be nice 

If we were older, and we didn't have to wait so long... no, wrong decade, fast forward 40 years.

I was just packing for a short road trip, loading up podcasts and removing a movie DVD from my laptop and couldn't help but mash up the two.

You know how it works fine to listen to just the audio of certain kinds of TV shows, like Meet the Press? Wouldn't it be nice if DVDs with commentary provided the commentary tracks as extra .mp3 files you could take with you? They could be offered as downloads and podcasts at the studio or show sites, too.

I've seen The Razor's Edge enough times that I've got the visual context in my head. Lots of times the commentary doesn't really match up with the action anyway.

Oh, but wait, I forgot. Anybody who remembers the Beach Boys couldn't be capable of dreaming up anything interesting involving portable audio. Therefore it must be a stupid idea, so never mind. Excuse me for a moment while I throw myself away.