I never thought Wham's "Last Christmas" was considered anything but a joke to most people, but shortly after recently admitting that I liked it, Stereogum also posted at length about the appeals of the song. And apparently the power of the song is so universal that there's a blog dedicated solely to collecting covers of "Last Christmas." Who would have thought that I'd really like a Wham! song covered by Jimmy Eat Frickin' World?

Jimmy Eat World / "Last Christmas" (pillaged from Podbot)

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This story about Iranian students confronting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reads kind of like an SNL sketch:

A group of students Monday briefly interrupted a speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at their university by booing and chanting "Death to the dictator," Iranian semi-official news agencies reported.

But Iran's official state-run news agency, IRNA, said the students "expressed their views in a cordial atmosphere" when they chanted "Down with dictators" and were met with agreement by Ahmadinejad who denounced the "dictatorships" in the United States and Britain.

"A small number of who claim there is suppression here are themselves creating a suppressive atmosphere and will not allow the majority to listen," FARS [semi-official news] quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

IRNA said Ahmadinejad held "sincere talks" with the students and "During the three-hour meeting, representatives of various student groups expressed their views in a cordial atmosphere."

IRNA also reported on the protesting students, but gave the impression the students were not referring to Ahmadinejad as a dictator:

"In response to the students slogans of 'Down with Dictators', the president said, 'We have been standing up to dictatorship so that no one will dare to establish dictatorship in a millennium even in the name of freedom.'

"'Given the scars inflicted on the Iranian nation by agents of the U.S. and British dictatorship, no one will ever dare to initiate the rise of a dictator,' the president said."

Three cheers for state-run media.

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Salon profiles retired Air Force JAG officer Mikey Weinstein, who is none too pleased with the role of evangelicals in the military. I'm generally wary of any grown man named "Mikey" (doubly so of men named "Mikki"), but despite being rather hyperbolic he makes some interesting points.

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The EPA has decided to kill the myth it created that Priuses could get 55 mpg:

With the new testing requirements, the EPA is attempting to come up with estimates that more closely reflect the real-world mileage motorists can expect when they purchase a vehicle.

Under the current system, which has been in effect since 1975 and was last changed in 1984, actual mileage is often far lower than the posted EPA ratings.

Hybrids will be hit harder because the new test eliminates some of the all-electric driving that helped them produce impressive results under the present system, Wehrum said.

The mileage for gas-electric hybrids probably will be 20% to 30% lower than present estimates for city driving and 10% to 20% lower on the highway. These vehicles quickly lose their all-electric advantage when operated in cold weather or quickly accelerated, Wehrum said.

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One of my freshman faves, The Verve's "The Drugs Don't Work" has been *scientifically proven* to be the saddest song ever. And of course "Fake Plastic Trees" also made the top ten.

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"W.A.Y.U.H." wasn't one of my initial faves off Pieces of the People We Love, but it's grown on me and the video is pretty classic.

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Another reason why tuitions are likely to keep skyrocketing--many schools get more applications when they raise tuition.

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For cinema fans only: Slate tackles the sticky topic of the auteur:

The word auteur can be confusing because it can be used to refer to any type of artist's unique style—a painter can be an auteur, as can a musician. But there's a difference between the word auteur and auteur theory, which relates specifically to film and is part of a cinematic debate that has raged for the better part of 50 years. The word itself is derived from the French for author, and the first definition of auteur in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary is "a film director whose practice accords with the auteur theory" (the second definition is "an artist [as a musician or writer] whose style and practice are distinctive"). M-W defines auteur theory as "a view of filmmaking in which the director is considered the primary creative force in a motion picture."