Baseball, Movies, and Books: KC finally did it ... after blowing a two run lead in the ninth vs. Tampa Bay, it lost again today (losing pitcher: Anaheim castaway, Kevin Appier) fell from first place because the White Sox beat the As. Armando Benitez gave up a key insurance run ... for Seattle ... and Roger Cedeno (yeah) is playing good for the Mets (showing some life of late).

On the movie front, Freaky Friday was fun ... it started off annoyingly predictable, but the leads are good, especially once they switch. A few are annoyed that Asians are treated in a stereotypical matter (the switch is thanks to a charmed fortune cookie), and they have a makings of a point. It was not necessary ... amounting at best a couple of cute characters. I also saw the British immigrants being exploited (and struggling to survive) drama/thriller Dirty Pretty Things. Well, part of it ... the leads were too good to be true, and the story was a bit dull. It had potential, but not good follow through.

After a bit of a dry spell, I found a few good books as well. A couple were of the "enjoyable but been there, read that" sort of nonfiction that is like watching average television. A bit more notable was The First Impeachment: The Constitutional Framers and The Case of Senator William Blount by Buckner F. Melton Jr. It is the little known story of the very first impeachment, which actually was against a U.S. senator involved in an Aaron Burr sort plan (the subject of a later book by the author) to invade Spanish territory in the West.

After summarizing the constitutional history of impeachments and the background to the Blount (Blunt) Conspiracy itself, Melton discusses the complex goings on in Congress, which ended in a whimper -- the Senate did expel Blount, who jumped bail and eventually was elected to his home state legislature (and presided over an impeachment there!), but wound up deciding it didn't have the power to try for impeachment. Why? Apparently ... though they didn't specify ... because senators are were not considered impeachable. This is so even though many framers of the Constitution originally thought they were.

Interesting bit of history, American and constitutional. Good notes (footnotes, not endnotes, which is fairly rare) and bibliography.