Brett posts his top 25 most-listened-to records of 2003, and I am shocked, shocked, shocked, to find that I haven’t listened to any of them this year. I am heartened to see the Circle Jerks make the list for the second year in a row. God bless you, circle jerks, wherever you are.

Maura.com’s list for the Village Voice does better according to my criterion, since not only did Mark at Hard Boiled try to sell me the Dizzee Rascal record, I actually bought the Quintron record (but not from Mark. Sorry, Mark!). On the downside, I think I saw Adult in a bar and hated them.

And people, where is the year-end love for the Dirt McGirt track on the Neptunes record this year? You know what I’m talking about. Pop Sh*t. That’s what’s up. Straight crash dummies, that’s what you are.

No safety deposit box could be called self respecting if it does not contain at least three of the following five items:

1. 9mm handgun (extra clips of ammo are optional).
2. bound stacks of uncirculated currency, foreign and domestic (non-sequential serial numbers a must).
3. five to ten polaroids or other black-and-white photographs with criminal, sexual, or other deviant content.
4. forged papers (passport, drivers license, SSID card), in envelopes or folders labeled by false identity.
5. key to rented locker in bus/train terminal or garage/warehouse on outskirts of city.

In Chicago, I recommend the North Side Federal Savings and Loan Association.

Todd Martin has responded to my query and writes:

On Raw the night before the election, Lawler and Ross were instructed to go out there and bash Gore and support Bush. So they compared Gore and Lieberman to the Right to Censor, and Lawler at one point said he was going to vote for Bush. That was what I was referring to.

Well, that does sound like something Vince McMahon would do, doesn’t it? Could be a violation of election law, too.

Or is it something Linda McMahon would do? If one consults opensecrets.org, a database of large politcal contributions, an enterprising sort would find that Linda has given at least $9,500 to various political campaigns and organizations, including $6,000 to the Connecticut Republican Campaign Committee.

Another name on the list is Kevin Murray, who I think is a California state senator (D). He used to be a talent agent for William Morris Agency — perhaps he used to represent a wrestler? Stephanie Sanchez Hunter (D) challenged Christopher Shays twice for the U.S. House of Representatives seat in Connecticut’s 4th congressional district. John A. Stephen (R) ran for Congress in New Hampshire’s 1st district in 2002.

I guess we could call Linda an independent, if she weren’t giving the bulk of her contributions to the Republican party. I wonder whether Vince is contributing through her, or making no political contributions at all?

Todd Martin writes for the Wrestling Observer:

In any event, here was the point I was making. Prior to the 2000 election, WWE started a non-partisan campaign aimed at getting young voters out to the polls. WWE said time and again that it didnt matter who people voted for, just that they voted. Then, after they had registered many voters under those auspices, they specifically endorsed one of the candidates the day before voting. Who they endorsed is immaterial to this specific point. The crime would have been the same no matter who they endorsed.

While I remember the 2000 “get out the youth vote” campaign and the appearance of the Rock at the GOP convention, I don’t remember the actual endorsement of Bush by the WWF at that time. I’ve emailed Todd (and Dave Meltzer) about this, hopefully I’ll have something to report on this later. Can anyone remember this for me?

Note to self: find out why corporations never seem to endorse political candidates.

411 relates:

The plan now for the WrestleMania XX World Title match is to have a three way involving Triple H, Chris Benoit, and Shawn Michaels. It was originally thought that Triple H and Benoit would go one on one for the title.

The only way this is a good idea is if it’s an elimination-style match. “Triple threat” is highly correlated with “lower buyrate” in my mind. It’s also very closely related to “one of these people is obviously jobbing”.