Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader enjoyed watching the Washington Capitals hockey team beat the New York Islanders last night in HD on tee-vee. He sat and watched the game with the Wee Villain. (The Wee Villain only watched until his bedtime.)

It looked a little dicey for the Caps until Donald Brashear’s goal. Your Maximum Leader was fearing that the Caps losing streak would extend to three games. He is glad it didn’t happen.

Your Maximum Leader especially likes it when the Caps can beat the Islanders. Your Maximum Leader regularly refers to the Islanders as the I-holes. Your Maximum Leader remembers the I-holes beating up on the Caps every time they came to town back in the late-70s and early 80s. He remembers their annoying fans too. It is nice to get a little 20-years in the making revenge.

Did you happen to see Thomas Boswell’s peice on the Caps yesterday? If you are a Washington sports fan you should. The Caps are the best show in town right now. Your Maximum Leader hopes that they will remain so for a while…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader made an interesting misreading of a headline he saw somewhere on the web today.

The headline: “Republicans Strike Back in Georgia.” (Your Maximum Leader would link - but he can’t recall where he saw the headline.)

Your Maximum Leader first thought, “Oh! The army of (the Republic of) Georgia must be leading some offensive against the Russian army. That could be a problem.”

Then it turned out that the story was about Saxby Chambliss winning re-election to the US Senate in the (US State of) Georgia.

Your Maximum Leader doubts that many people made the same mistake.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader’s thoughts continue to be dominated by Venetian floods. He isn’t sure what it is that is creating this idee fixe in his mind. It is what it is he supposes…

Here is a link to a 1 minute video courtesy of the Guardian of London. It shows a guy surfing in Piazza San Marco. That is disturbingly cool.

Also from the Guardian an interesting piece by Tanya Gold. A highlight your Maximum Leader found interesting:

So I am looking out of my second floor window at the Hotel Monaco & Grand Canal – normally seeing a street, but today a canal – watching carrier bags float past. Ah, Venice! City of Casanova, Titian and the floating carrier bag. Some of the designer shops on the alley are actually open, although they all have high metal boards at the entrances, keeping the water out. Pucci and Gucci are open. Harry’s Bar is sort of open. I watch, amazed, as a woman in waders stops outside a handbag shop and demands to be shown a handbag. The shop girl shows it to her across the board. She touches it, debates with the seller, and eventually buys it. Three foot of floodwater, and still she shops. She must be Italian.

Your Maximum Leader likes the imagery there. A woman shopping in three feet of flooding for a designer handbag. Your Maximum Leader knows a few women like that… He might even be related to one or two… (NB - they are not Mrs Villain.)

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was tagged by Mike at Curmudgeonry with a little meme thingie. According to Mike we should: 1) Grab your iPod. 2) Select “All Songs” then hit “Shuffle.” 3) Go online and find the lyrics to the song that is selected and post them.

So… Needing content and seeing that this is an easy post to write…

The random song dished out was “Up Above My Head” by Kirk Franklin’s Nu Nation off the “God’s Property” album. Lyrics are:

Up above my head I hear music in the air
Up above my head there’s a melody so bright
And fair
I can hear when I’m all alone
Even in those times when I feel all hope is gone
Up above my head I hear joybells ringing
Up above my head I hear angels singing
There must be a God somewhere
There must be a God somewhere

I hear music in the air
I hear music everywhere
There must be a God somewhere

There must be a God somewhere
There must be a God somewhere
There must be a God somewhere

Your Maximum Leader believes that he has a version of this song sung by The King of Rock and Roll. He also believes that he has never listened to this song before. It is one of nearly 9000 songs on the iPod.

Your Maximum Leader has a playlist of his “top rated” songs that he uses for background music a lot. In iTunes one can assign a rating of 0 to 5 stars to a song. Your Maximum Leader has approximately 2100 songs rated with 4 or 5 stars. Those songs make up the contents of the “top rated” playlist. The other 7000 odd songs tend to languish unlistened to. Your Maximum Leader has decided that he’ll start playing more random songs from the “lower rated” songs to expand his horizons some.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has, in this space and to anyone who will listen, shared his desire to go to Venice for Christmas. He’s read that November to February is the worst time to visit Venice if you are concerned about the acqua alta (or “high water” as the Venetians call it). But he figured that when the time came, he’d just risk it…

Well… The time to visit is not December 2008. This is because your Maximum Leader would risk the unholy wrath of Mrs Villain if he just packed up and went. The second reason is because the worst acqua alta in a decade has hit the city.

Kevin directs us to the Times of London which writes:

Sirens sounded across Venice yesterday as flooding submerged 95 per cent of the city and left tourists in St Mark’s Square thigh-deep in water.

The highest water levels in more than 20 years paralysed services. Elderly residents were carried to high ground and some people took to the piazzas in inflatable dinghies.

As the water retreated it left a layer of sludge and debris. There were fears of more flooding, with another surge into the city from the Adriatic predicted today as high tides coincide with bad weather. Temperatures in the past few days have barely risen above freezing.

“Venice is completely paralysed,” one official said. “We are submerged.” Massimo Cacciari, the Mayor of Venice, advised residents and tourists to avoid moving around unless it was unavoidable. “Anyone thinking of coming should think again,” he said. “These are exceptionally high waters. Don’t venture out unless it is necessary.”

Driven by strong winds and heavy rain, the water rose to just over 5ft above sea level, the highest acqua alta since the 5ft 2in (1.6m) of 1986. The tide monitoring centre gave warning that the levels could yet reach a 30-year high.The water reached 6ft 4in above sea level in 1966, causing devastation to homes, shops and historic monuments and artworks.

Oy! Your Maximum Leader has got to get to Venice before it is completely subsumed by the lagoon.

Thanks to the AP you have photos of the flooding:

Here is a link to the whole AP photo slideshow.

Carry on.

UPDATE - Link to now expanded slide show should be working.