January 2009
48 posts
deep freeze
Flying through Detroit this afternoon, I picked up a copy of the Detroit News. The lead story was about corrupt city officials, the lead feature the story of a reporter who gets a tip about a body frozen in an abandoned warehouse. People see the body for weeks and don’t give a shit. The reporter calls 911; they don’t give a shit. A day later the Fire Department finally comes to saw the...
Grandfather’s obituary: He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Ohio State University and M.S. in Civil Engineering from Harvard University … The company [he founded] donated a farm on Four Mile Creek to the Butler County Parks District which became the A******* Nature Preserve. Active in Hamilton’s civic affairs, Jay at various times served as President of Greenwood...
i know, let's blame poor people →
There are so many things wrong with the logic behind this article’s conclusions, but perhaps most importantly is the fact that babies sleeping with their parents in the same bed caused only 12.5 deaths per 100,000 live births a year - a tiny percentage that has increased since 1984, but it’s possible that reporting has just gotten better, not the actual rate has increased. Instead of...
“That was its historical name. Contrary to some people’s thinking, it was not a house of ill repute.”
- Owner of Summitville Tiles on his inn, the Spread Eagle Tavern.
That quote is from an excellent WSJ article about how Summitville laid off 1/3 of its workforce.
ladies and gentlemen, this train is delayed...
This afternoon I was googling how to buy an asset-backed security and it doesn’t seem that straightforward. There’s no such thing as Collateralized-Debt-Obligation”R”Us. (Well, that is ever since the investment banks stopped peddling the things.) Experts say the government will need to buy billions of CDOs, ABSs, MBSs etc from banks and other places before the financial...
Nasty Tasty by Luminescent Orchestrii
ha!
A famous scientist, James Lovelock, agrees with me that most proposals to help the environment are scams. He was interviewed by New Scientist:
Your work on atmospheric chlorofluorocarbons led eventually to a global CFC ban that saved us from ozone-layer depletion. Do we have time to do a similar thing with carbon emissions to save ourselves from climate change?
Not a hope in hell. Most of the...
My grandfather is back in the hospital, sedated and hooked up to breathing tubes - all of this on top of seven years of Alzheimer’s. The idea that terrifies me about growing old, and also hospitals, is that you lose agency over your mind, your body and the decisions made about both. Yet, this process does not happen at the same time. Your mind might work; your body not. Your body can...
Ordered from Amazon: beard trimmer and Life and Action by philosopher Michael Thompson.
The news that all merchandise would be discounted 10% to 30% drew throngs of customers to stores across the nation over the three-day weekend. But many shoppers left angry and empty-handed.
“What happened to 30%? Lies!” shouted customer Gabriel Ifrah, 52, at the store on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles on Monday, where most items were priced at 10% off. Another customer, Bob...
pygmalion in academia
The department head Was holding forth
Telling us what we needed to know Maybe even more
In measured sonority He was reading what he’d written
Words chosen carefully Points finely chiseled
From the massive totality Of his vast learning
Obviously, he was in love with them Like Pygmalion creating his Galatea
In the end it became embarrassing To see hm caress those well-rounded sentences
...
what happened to the russian futurists?
One of the more interesting things to watch in the coming weeks (and years) will be to see what Cass Sunstein does with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Who knows that this office does, but Mr. Sunstein has produced a mind-boggling amount of work on lots of different subjects, so I’m sure he’ll do something worthwhile. He recently has focused on the question of how...
“Janak, who was carrying a pistol, says he grabbed one of the suspected looters...”
– A. C. Thompson, ProPublica
Based on the latest trends in trend pieces, see the previous two posts, it appears Californians of a certain social caste discuss food and New Yorkers of the same caste discuss New York, but no can escape the fact that the real action is in DC.
New York might cut off needy families’ access to medical care, America is headed towards economic collapse and yet if you believe Haley M. Rubin, 23, as quoted in the Times, the primary problem for New York City is that “a sheen is missing … [my friend’s] tolerance for the ‘price of exclusivity’ has waned.”
second in the occasional series...
California is headed towards insolvency, America towards economic collapse and yet if you believe the SF Chronicle: “In the Bay Area, where food is discussed with the same passion as politics, the real hot topic is: What is [the new president] going to eat?”
first in the occasional series “America’s Demise”
two more bite the dust →
so when do they start the shredding machines in... →
is irony really this dead?
When the news broke about that plane landing in the Hudson - the moment when no one knew if anyone on board had perished - I announced at work that “they deserved it.” For some reason, the remark angered some folks and I was accused of being one of those preacher people who blame random acts on the perceived sins of others - what an insult.
the solution to our nation's problems? the raccoon
Raccoon meat is some of the healthiest meat you can eat. During grad school, my roommate and I ate 32 coons one winter. It was all free, and it was really good. If you think about being green and eating organically, raccoon meat is the ultimate organic food,” with no steroids, no antibiotics, no growth hormones.
- Jeff Beringer, a furbearer resource biologist with the Missouri Department of...
bon voyage, president →
Planned Parenthood-NYC party next Monday.
Tell me, why are you so good to me? Shall I climb up and tell you why?
Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in North By Northwest
sunday writing editorial
After I file a story, I’m content for a moment. Then I start to worry I got an obvious fact wrong or I grossly misspelled a name or other type of word. These worries stay around for a few hours until no one else has brought to my attention a passage that offends the truth. (I dread most an angry phone call from a quoted source. He will complain. I will look at my notes. I misread them. The...
“As a reader, I finally knew what I wanted to read, and as someone now yearning...”
– Gary Lutz
Shit Talker - Headphones
From one of David...
saturday editorial
There is a lot of talk right now about stimulus plans and comparing the present situation to the Great Depression. Everyone likes to point out that it took WWII before the economy really got going again and the unemployment fell. So we are told right now we should spend, spend, spend!
It’s less often pointed out that America has been fighting two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, since 2002. The...
Molly Makes Him Pay - The Teeth
The WSJ sent a reporter to Europe and back just to find the “perfect white shirt.” Sort of seems like a wasted trip to me, but maybe for business executives this is a useful article??
The hour-long CNBC interview with our new President was some of the best television I’ve watched in a while, especially when the commentators yelled at each other. (read the transcript.)
Read the new Foreign Policy website: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
“I am a registered nurse three days a week at a hospital and a bartender one day...”
– Question posed to The Ethicist
“[Helen Suzman] saved her deepest scorn for leaders of the now-defunct National...”
– Glenn Frankel, Washington Post
thursday editorial
Let’s face it. Most of the coverage of America’s favorite Alaskan governor is pretty classist. Recently, this has shown up in some people’s use of the fact that the boyfriend of the governor’s daughter is not attending a regular high school as a reason why the boy is a loser - thus making the daughter and her mom losers, too. Nonsensical moralizing! In fact, as the governor...
favorite songs 2008*
- Dengue Fever: Tiger phone card - Headlights: Market girl - Plants and Animals: Feedback in the field - Shy Child: Summer - The Supreme Genius of King Khan and The Shrines: Took my lady to dinner - Usher: I want to make love in this club - Vampire Weekend: M79
* List doesn’t include songs from favorite albums. My overall favorite song is Old White Lincoln by Gaslight Anthem (listen).
favorite albums 2008
- The Gaslight Anthem: The ‘59 Sound - The Raveonettes: Lust, Lust, Lust - Wolf Parade: At Mount Zoomer
Runners up: - The Black Angels: Directions to See a Ghost - Brightback Morning Light: Motion to Rejoin - Deerhunter: Microcastle - TV on the Radio: Dear Science - Women: self titled
Positive Jam, The Hold Steady
So last night I ended up with friends at an 8th floor walk-up on W. 27th St. Whatever stereotype you can think of New York stoner loft this place had - old wood floors, spartan furniture, modern art on the walls, ashtrays all over, smoke filled room, DJ in the back spinning vinyl. When we all first got there the folks already there refused to recognize our existence and I sort of hoped the hosts...