Which hurts more: a phaser on stun or...

Click here to read a blog post about the Barguments book. The author doesn't really follow the rules when he cites an ongoing bargument with his friend about whether childhood scars get bigger as you age. There must be a right answer to that, making it an argument, even if you have it at a bar.

But others certainly qualify, especially the one about whether the Enterprise would beat a spaceship from Battlestar Gallactica.... I'm going to resist mentioning Romulan Ale here.

Horrible choice

Another weekend, another great bargument from Commodore Buller:



If you had to choose one drink to have for the rest of your life, which would it be?



This was a tough one. I picked Miller Lite, figuring beer is probably the most versatile drink out there. Besides, what else are you going to have out on the boat?



Marc picked rum and Coke, but keep in mind he and his wife named their boat: Otro Cuba Libre.



Carrie, pictured here, picked champagne. Then she burped and passed gas. True.

Marc Buller, commodore at my favorite bar, offered this bargument the other day. It prompted quite a bargument at the time...

You've been signed to a Major League Baseball team. Which position do you want to play?

This quickly prompted the question: are you somehow an expert ballplayer, or are you stuck with your current abilities? The consensus seemed to be you're magically given the skills along with your MLB contract.

Ripped off by today's headlines

A new Harvard poll -- yes, Harvard-- seeks to find the definitive answer to an actual bargument from the book:

Who's funnier: Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert?

You could read the results at the Harvard site, but there's lots of OTHER questions you'll have to sort through that's also in the poll (who likes Obama, who's white, who thinks what about immigration, blah blah blah).

Better just to click over to The Fix, a political blog at The Washington Post that does a great job covering the presidential race and really deserves a signed copy of the book.

(Oh, and the Harvard poll doesn't actually ask who is funnier. The polls asks young people their preference. That will NOT protect Harvard from a lawsuit from one bitter and under-selling author.)

Why there's so much wire copy in newspapers

As deadline neared Friday at The Miami Herald, two fellow business reporters gathered around my desk and offered two new barguments.

Scott, who covers the economy, offered this one: What cocktail can a guy order and not look like an ass? (My wording.) Pretty easy to come up with some strike-worthy drinks: cosmopolitan, Long Island iced tea. But where does margarita fall?

Our small business reporter, Jim, came up with one: If you were traveling back in time 100 years, which invention would you bring with you? (Remember: there are no gas stations or electric outlets in 1904.)

Shark jumping?

Not a great response to my Office spin-off bargument on the right, so I put up a different bargument on barguments.com yesterday:

If Jim proposes to Pam, will it ruin "The Office?"

I say the scene alone where Jim says it's coming HAS IN FACT ruined the show. Those two bug me, anyway.

I sent a note to a blog devoted to the Office-- the Scranton Branch Office blog -- and they put a link up to barguments.com. This way we'll get some expert opinion.

Note: On the British version of the Office-- the original, and the funnier by an exponential increase-- when the Jim and Pam characters finally get together, they ended the series at that exact moment.

Just got this via the barguments submission button.... Bridget, our tech reporter and professional young person at the Herald, suggested this too. I'm on it (whatever it means)

New bargument: Title: How long before barguments will link into My.Yahoo, my.aol, etc via RSS or other Feeds?
Options:
1. Never- Webmaster is stuck in 1960
2. Soon, but not soon enough!
3. Already in the works for \'roll-out\' 3rd edition...

User name: Bill Gates
Location: Redmond, WA
Email: william_gates@msn.com