OK, P&J have found a solution to that nasty little dispute about whether or not to include "Providence Plantations" in Vo Dilun's formal name — State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Your superior correspondents will now opt for State of Rhode Island and Kingdoms of Amalur, in honor of the new video game developed by 38 Studios that just made its official debut this week.
As you may recall, 38 Studios received a $75 million loan guarantee from the state Economic Development Corporation back in 2010, based upon the standard investment model that requires a CEO to have pitched and won a crucial playoff game against the New York Yankees, whilst wearing a bloody sock. At the time, then-gubernatorial candidate Linc Chafee controversially criticized the deal, arguing that the state should wait until a David "Big Papi" Ortiz-owned business applied for a loan, as the big guy had done more in the clutch in the playoffs.
That controversy over, it was rewarding to see that Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning seems to be a hit with the gaming nerds, even if Schilling premiered it across the border in Bellingham, Massachusetts. (Note to Curt: Seeing you on TV at a geekfest hawking Kingdoms of Amalur with a two-day stubble, wearing a baseball cap and a hoodie, was a bit disconcerting. You are a grown man, try to look like one. The kids aren't buying that you're one of them, trust us.)
But it is going to take more than a one-hit wonder to ensure that Little Rhody isn't on the hook for the $75 mill. 38 Studios is going to have to keep cranking out the big sellers.
One note to EDC head honcho Keith Stokes: if you see Schilling putting out any video games from his Empire Plaza palace with titles like Kingdoms of Amalur: Man On a Ledge or Kingdoms of Amalur: Mortal Central Falls Kombat, you know we're in trouble.
ROVE FEELING LUCKY
Normally we expect delusional overreaction to come from the Tea-for-Taliban Party, but the hysterical response to Chrysler's "Halftime In America" ad featuring Clint Eastwood climbed all the way up the devolutionary ladder to Dubya Bush's former right-hand man, the loathsome and porcine Karl Rove who, like the Tea-for-Taliban crowd, saw it as a flagrant sop to President Obama for his bailout of the once-mighty auto company.
This should embolden Democrats everywhere. The party has to delight in a public standoff between Eastwood, the revered Man With No Name — a well-known Republican who is now drifting away from the GOP as it morphs into a party he doesn't seem to recognize — and a pinkish, beady-eyed, gravy-sweating little Republican pimp. Rove making far-fetched and contrived attacks on Clint from his concealed position cowering under his bed in his parents' basement is not likely to go down well with the Americans who love Eastwood's all-American hardass, shoot-first-talk-later, rough-justice image.
As Dirty Harry might say to Rove, as he pursues this ridiculous stunt, "You have to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?"
He'd better.
COMMON SENSE
Old Mitt "Walking Robocall" Romney got quite a kick out of his "lead, follow or get out of the way" line snatched from the American Revolution's esteemed pamphleteer, Thomas Paine. (Well, of course, one his speechwriters found it and handed it off to Robocall for public consumption, but who's checking pay grades?)
