If you're wondering why your traffic numbers have been down, one reason may be that I was out of town for a week or so, and am just now catching up on all the web-surfing and blog-reading I missed. So, I thought I'd toss out a few links to some of the items that caught my eye.

1. Among a lot of good posts at the PrawfsBlawg, I enjoyed this one about law school videos posted on YouTube. Who knew anybody at Chicago had a sense of humor?

2. I saw this item on Deadspin about shenanigans by the Wisconsin band (warning: some nsfw comments!), and this post at The Conglomerate fills in the sordid details. I won't tell any stories here, but it brought back some memories of some of our band bus trips.

3. From Reason: the long tail phenomenon as applied to beer. Hooray beer!

4. Although I don't know a lot about the issues involved, I was fascinated by the discussion of "Crunchy Con" Rod Dreher's conversion from Roman Catholicism to the Orthodox Church. But now Dreher's long post explaining his conversion is mysteriously missing. Anyway, Feddie and Mark Shea had interesting reactions.

5. From the New York Times: severe protests at Gallaudet University have prevented the semester from starting. Some students and faculty oppose the new president of the school.

6. This comment at Amber's is one of the best subway stories I've ever heard. Of course, the best one is the one about Eli Whitney (an inside reference for those in the know).

7. From the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board blog, the sign-off from Kinky Friedman in this week's Texas gubernatorial debate: "Ask not if you're proud of Texas. Ask if you've made Texas proud of you." And from Reason, a defense of Kinky's wacky candidacy.

8. Finally, two from New York magazine. First, a nice profile of Stephen Colbert. And second, Kurt Anderson on the failures of the mainstream media (and the triumph of a blogger, KC Johnson) covering the Duke lacrosse team rape case. Relatedly, "60 Minutes" will devote a big segment to the case this weekend.

If I've missed anything else worth noting, please pass it along. I was starving for internet access for a few days there, so I still haven't surfed my fill.

RIP Michael Monsoor. Monsoor was one of four Navy SEALs in a sniper bunker in Baghdad a few weeks ago. Someone threw a grenade in the room. Monsoor dove on it, saving the lives of the other three SEALs. I sat here for a while trying to come up with something to add to that, but nothing I could say would add any more weight to those basic facts. This story has a little more background on Monsoor, including the details that a broken heel forced him to drop out of the SEAL training once, before he came back for another shot, and that Monsoor was scheduled to come home next week for a visit. Although Monsoor's actions certainly merit a posthumous Medal of Honor or Navy Cross, he doesn't need those recognitions to convince me of his bravery and heroism.

I broke my lifelong rule this weekend and went to a movie by myself for the first time ever. The occasion was The Departed. Freaking awesome. It was a little different from its source material, the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, and I might could have a quibble here and there. But still, it was the best movie I've seen in a long time. Damon and DiCaprio were solid, Nicholson will win another Oscar, Sheen was very good. But Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg were my favorites, real icing on the cake. (Baldwin acted as if his character from Glengarry Glen Ross were now a cop. I half-expected to get the "ABC" speech.) It's not a perfect movie, but it's very, very good. Highly recommended.