HBO’s Best of the Friends’ Blogs — 1/3/07

This trio of sparrows enjoy their own version of the Polar Bear Plunge in a backyard birdbath/Kerri Thoreson, www.fyinorthidaho.com.

* Pickaxe Pete /The Bodie Specter provides video of Saddam Hussein’s hanging (which includes “the drop” and a blurred shot of the ex-dictator’s face afterward) here .

*”Nothing is more forced sounding than ruminating about the new year. At least, it sounds that way to me sometimes. Still, I suppose it must be done in order to wipe away the foggy old, so that the clarity of the new can glisten on our newly bought souls” — Toadman /Synaptic Disunion here .

* TUBOB /Unbearable Bobness of Being talks about the swell novel by Cormac McCarthy, “The Road,” and his pending career change here .

* Sara Anderson /F-Words had never eaten spaghetti and meatballs until a year ago — and now she’s prepared her first S&M dish (with photos to prove it) here .

*While racism no longer is tolerated in 21st century USA, sez Tom Forbes /Palousitics, classicism is alive and well here .

* Julie Fanselow /Red State Rebels sez another “rock star” is coming to campus to join the Boise State Broncos — Al Gore — and the tickets are going fast here . And she introduces a new blog dedicated to documenting conditions on the Boise bus transit system here .

Meanwhile, Bubblehead makes his 2007 predictions here , Hindu opines that Hillary needs a southerner rather than “lightweight Obama” to win the presidency in 2008 here , Brent is reading nonstop about China here and here , Karl isn’t surprised that celebs are vain and worthless here , Southwark Lad tells of his tour of London, Rome and Positano with JBelle and Portland Pup here .