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I watched both Spies Like Us and Fletch today. Both movies featured Chevy Chase in a starring role (shared with Dan Aykroyd in the former film), and I wasn't very fond of his acting in either of them. He is in my estimation an awkward screen presence, and for his Fletch role - in which he is meant to play a master of disguise - all of his characters seem only very slightly differentiated. Oddly enough, I still found Fletch to be the more enjoyable of the two films, however; it had a sufficiently interesting plot, with enough twists and turns, to minimize the negative impact of Chase's limitations.

Alaska governor Sarah Palin announced her resignation as governor today, and rumors are swirling about exactly why she decided to resign. Some of her partisans (after initial shock) claim that she wants to lose the "ball and chain" of governing a state so far from the center of national politics in preparation for a presidential campaign, while others claim that she is finished with politics at a personal level, and merely wants to direct her energies toward raising her family and campaigning for other candidates. Her statement offered many openings for humorous observations, but no credible explanation for her resignation.

One source claims quite strongly that an embezzlement scandal, which was first reported in a speculative manner shortly after Palin was chosen as McCain's running mate, is on the verge of generating indictments, but there seems to be no independent confirmation of that thus far.

It's also possible that the continuing difficulty of maintaining a positive national profile in the midst of a steady trickle of unflattering revelations about her comportment during the 2008 campaign cycle (typified by the recent article in Vanity Fair) simply became too difficult.