“We had trouble spending all our money.” Umm, yeah. I realize that you’re getting a nice return on your pounds stirling and all, what with the U.S. dollar being in the toilet, etc., but come on, people! This is New York City! I’m sorry, but if you can’t spend all your money here then either you’re from Bahrain or you’re just not trying hard enough. Contact me at “suckahs” at this domain next time you’re in town and I can help you with your, um, problem.
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This etsy color-driven interface is quite fun. Usually I think that more complicated interfaces (especially flash-driven ones) are more hindrance than help, but in this case it doesn’t seem like overkill. The two problems with it, however, are that it’s unclear when you might need something of a specific color but not care what that object might be (earrings! a notebook! a tea cozy!) and the search algorithm doesn’t seem to be able to pick out the main object in the photo, so if you choose green, you get green objects as well as objects photographed on a green background. But in general it’s a good way to explore what’s on offer at etsy.com.
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My new favorite kind of pasta is called campanelle, which means little bell in Italian. It’s listed as a “specialty collection” pasta at Barilla, which I really hope does not mean that it will some day disappear. The pieces look like some kind of non-delicate flower, like a lily or some other flower that doesn’t take any shit, not a wussy peony or pansy. Campanelle goes so well with broccoli rabe and garlic and some white wine.
It’s the last day of NaBloPoMo and it’s clear I’ve failed. I’m not really a “post daily” kind of person in a good month, and this month happens to be both “finish qualifying paper” month and “drive to Michigan for Thanksgiving and then drive back again what seems like a few days later, and is in fact less than a week later” month.
So here goes my final post of November. I was reading the Machinist column over at Salon.com¹, and came across this dialog which took place over electronic communication:
IN TOUCH: They are saying britneys pregnant and you’re the father…
JR: Its true
IN TOUCH: OK, awesome, do u think Britney will keep it? She’s already talking about it to people
JR: No clue on what she will do. She is unpredictable.
It was posted online by In Touch magazine to “prove” that their reporting re: the pregnancy status of Ms. Spears was accurate. It seems to me, however, that the “it’s true” response can in this context very felicitously be applied to the initial assertion, that is, JR could be agreeing that people are indeed saying that she’s pregnant and that he’s the father. This would have been more apparent had he followed up his remark with a phrase to clarify the scope, such as “It’s true, they are saying that.” So not that I expect high journalistic standards from a magazine like In Touch,² it does seem that there is enough room for ambiguity here to think that this might not have been the confirmation they needed to run the story…
1. Why was I reading Salon.com during “finish qualifying paper” month? you might ask, and you’d be right to.
2. Not to knock it, though — my gym has a subscription and sometimes when you’re running that third mile you don’t want to read anything more challenging than “who wore it best“. Actually that’s Us magazine, but whatever.
Read MoreCynematic tagged me with the seven random/weird things idea. I only know one person who is “up-to-speed” enough on the technology for me to even consider tagging her, however she tagged me in the past and I lamed out (although to my credit, I was in Sri Lanka at the time), so I’m going to skip nos. 3 and 4, and hope that completing 50% of the assignment will get me partial credit.
- Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
- Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.
- Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
- Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
So here goes:
- Up until August 2006 I had not “modified” my body in any way (at least permanently — in high school I was a big fan of Crazy Colours, like all the punk rock kids…). No tatoos, no plastic surgery, no piercings, not even pierced ears. Then I broke my leg while hiking the AT and had to have surgery, and now I have titanium wrapped around part of my right fibula.
- When I was younger I really liked the fife and drum corps all dressed up in their revolutionary times getups at Colonial Williamsburg. OK, by “younger” I actually mean last year.
- I can recite the list of all 50 U.S. states in alphabetical order, thanks to the “Fifty Nifty” song (see video below). It comes in handy quite a bit, most recently when trying to figure out a Sunday Puzzle with Will Shortz puzzle that had to do with some state.
- I think the Pulaski Skyway is beautiful.
- Three of my great grandparents were alive when I was born, and two lived long enough that I remember them quite well. One taught me how to play chess.
- I prefer freezer-on-bottom to freezer-on-top, even though I realize it’s less efficient from an energy standpoint. It’s more efficient from a user standpoint. I’ve never bought a refrigerator, however, so the only place I’ve used a freezer-on-bottom is my parents’ house.
- I do not own a suit.
So cringe-worthy that even seeing the link on the main page of the Sunday Magazine made me cringe: Deborah Solomon “interviews”* Umberto Eco. One of my favorite lines:
I am wondering if you read Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code,” which some critics see as the pop version of your “Name of the Rose.” I was obliged to read it because everybody was asking me about it. My answer is that Dan Brown is one of the characters in my novel, “Foucault’s Pendulum,” which is about people who start believing in occult stuff.
Ha ha Deborah — your question which isn’t even a question gets the answer it deserves!
* “INTERVIEW CONDUCTED, CONDENSED AND EDITED BY DEBORAH SOLOMON”
(this was added to her “interviews” after it became clear that she’s a hack, not a journalist)
Apparently many NYU students would be willing to sell their votes. Half of the freshman polled in a recent NYU study would sell their right to vote (forever) for one million dollars. Here’s a quote from the article:
“The part that I find amazing is that so many folks think one vote can make a difference,” Dalton Conley, sociology department chairman, said.
The part I find amazing is that a department chair would go on record saying this.
(via kottke)
Read MoreOut of every 100,000 people in the U.S., four have the surname Schweitzer. It’s the 3,293rd most popular surname in the country. Check it out: how does your surname rank?
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