CRASHING THE GATES OUTFIELD WALL: It is a good day for Internet-based journalists, as today the Baseball Writers’ Association of America approved the membership applications of Baseball Prospectus columnists Will Carroll and Christina Kahrl, as well as those submitted by ESPN.com writers Keith Law (formerly of BPro) and Rob Neyer, making each (among other things) eligible to vote for baseball's major awards next year, and in ten years eligible to vote on Hall of Fame inductions.

BROCKTOON! Members of a certain fan club, as well as Leon Redbone, can exult--Mr. Belvedere is due out on DVD in 2009 from Shout!Factory.

WHEN WILL PEOPLE FINALLY COME TO GRIPS WITH THE FACT THAT JUST BECAUSE HUEY LEWIS SAID IT DOESN'T MEAN IT'S TRUE?: I've lived through, and in many cases, opposed, the advent of terrycloth casualwear, parachute pants, man-perms, shower caps over Jheri Curl, Uggs (with miniskirts in LA in August, no less), trucker caps, stripper platforms, and tramp stamps. Today's irritating sartorial tomfoolery, though, is the use, in DC, of the lanyard badge as fashion statement and status symbol. I realize that people in DC yearn to fill that hole in their tribal behavior that elsewhere is populated by actual, honest-to-God fashion -- as I've said before, this is the only place in America where you can't tell a Democrat from a Republican by the precision and placement of the part in his hair -- and that the lanyard is a like a cry in the wilderness, announcing, "these are the secure doors behind which my dreams are writ in the passive voice," similar to the cry you'd hear elsewhere from a pierced eyebrow, male eyeliner, or a logo splashed across one's buttocks. But: people, please. Nobody outside of the security checkpoint wants to sniff your tags to find out who you are, which agency or contractor or lobbyist employs you, or how photogenic you aren't. There is no need, or excuse, for the conspicuous display of a lanyard badge on the Metro, in Quiznos, or in line to board a plane at Dulles. Is it possible that an entire metropolitan area might wake up one morning and decide that it would be best if everybody sported a "HI, MY NAME IS: ___" tag and wore his or her housekeys as jewelry? It's things like this that just confirm that, no matter how densely we populate a certain region of California with men who wear short-sleeved dress shirts and knit ties and cut their own hair and shower only on even-numbered days, DC is still the dorkiest place in America, and not in a hip-to-be kind of way. So, DC, if you're listening, untangle yourself from that fashion noose, tuck it into the front pocket of your Dockers, and join the rest of the world, where your status depends not upon the initials on your swipe card but rather upon normal things like how low your REI number is or the cost of the sweatpants into which you tuck your guns.

PUT THAT COFFEE DOWN! COFFEE IS FOR SENATORS! Is it just me, or does a large portion of the Rod Blagojevich indictment seem like a David Mamet play?

SHERILYN FENN, BUT NO CHERRY STEM? There's a medical term which one doesn't hear very often, but when it comes up on a television drama and you have any memory at all, your heart just sinks. So thank you, A Very Hizzy Christmas, for breaking my heart.

YOU'RE THE GOOD GUYS NOW: If there's one thing we love around here, it's well-done heist films. If there are two things we love around here, they're well-done heist films and obscure details of the U.S. legislative process. I enjoyed the pilot of Leverage well enough, but tonight's second episode, which featured a heist rotating around the theft of an appropriations bill from "the hopper," and (relatively correct!) discussions of how appropriations riders can be used to make significant legal changes, cemented that it's getting a season pass from me. And, man, those are some impressive production values for a cable show.

IN VOLATILE MARKET, ONLY STABLE INVESTMENT IS...: Apparently, Trekkie Monster's theories on investing have been proven false by recent events in Prague. (Arguably NSFW content on both links, though the second is from the International Herald Tribune.)