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Friday, August 23, 2002
Burning question:: (From Pie Fight in Oregonian's A & E section) American Idol: The most exciting and suspensful show since Survivor, or further proof that TV's become a total slime pit? Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. (The more things change, the more they remain the same.) Or is a total Slim Pit worse than a Vast Wasteland? " . . when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit and-loss sheet or rating book to distract you--and keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland." --Newton Minow, 1961 Or: To suggest that American Idol provides "further proof that TV's become a total slime pit" is to belabor the obvious with the otiose. Tuesday, August 20, 2002
Welcome to the Funhouse:: Is there a drearier movie than In the Bedroom? Mr. Cranky got it right: Ironically, the film's most tense moment occurs in the kitchen and moves to the living room. Perhaps director Todd Field should have called the film "In the Kitchen" or "While We Walk from the Kitchen to the Living Room". Personally, I think he wanted to imply there was going to be some freaky hot monkey sex in this film and suckered me with the title. I figured I'd be seeing a film with Marisa Tomei running around buck nekkid. No such luck. Mr. Cranky A revenge story. Long meaningful silences. Slooooow. (When's the car chase, ma?) One of Mr. Cranky's fans provides a telling one-sentence review: This movie is virtually a 90 min. cigarette ad you have to pay $8 to watch. Sissy Spacek was nominated for an academy award? She should have been nominated as this movie's Marlboro Man . Reminds me of another cigarettesuckin video I saw recently. I ferget the name. Shocked, shocked :: Fed Reserve head Alan Greenspan, a cultist? "Ayn, this is incredible, 'he blurted out on one occasion.' "No one has ever dramatized what industrial achievement actually means as you have." (quoted in John Cassidy's Dot.con) Um William Blake's "Dark Satantic Mills" perhaps? "Alan Greenspan's name first appeared in the New York Times, not as one might expect, in connection with politics or economics, but as the author of a 73-word letter to the editor of the Times Book Review. The future head of the Federal Reserve wrote to protest a hostile review of Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged that had appeared a few weeks earlier." Bradford Apparently this is old news, but it just sifted down. SO says, "I heard this about 3 months ago and didn't tell you because I knew you'd blow your stack." (I have such illusions about people. I thought most people got over Ayn Rand after about their sophomore year in college.) Wednesday, August 14, 2002
Greatest Generation :: What nostalgia excludes :: Kevin Baker points out that many unpleasantries are ignored in our nostalgic view of the greatest generation: The triumph of the greatest generation ". . . did not come out of a Norman Rockwell painting. The America of the Second World War was a turbulent and often frightening place, characterized by immense social upheaval and dislocation. It might well have been true that the stranger sitting next to you in a restaurant felt the same way about things—unless, that is, he or she happened to be of a different race. Inasmuch as color was the deepest fissure in American society, it is not surprising that during the war we fractured most often along this line. "The most infamous case, of course, was the forced detention of some 110,000 Japanese-Americans in barren desert camps while their property was sold off for a pittance—and their sons formed some of the most decorated fighting units of the war. But racial hysteria was hardly restricted to Asian-Americans. In 1943 alone there were 242 race riots in 47 cities as the war sparked an epic migration of both poor Southern blacks and whites into urban ports and industrial centers. The worst was in Detroit, in 1943, where white mobs ended up roaming through the city’s downtown, shouting, “Here’s some fresh meat!” while they beat and shot any African-Americans they found—often with the help of the local police. Before it was all over, 34 people died, and pictures of the riot were gleefully plastered across the pages of Signal, Germany’s leading picture magazine, as proof that a “mongrel” country could not win the war. "Discrimination remained routine in all industries, with blacks making less money than whites for the same jobs, and with whites frequently refusing to work with them anyway. The great black labor leader A. Philip Randolph had to threaten to lead a massive protest march in Washington, D.C., before the Roosevelt administration would commit to equal pay for equal work on war projects. "Elsewhere, protests were not so availing. Mob assaults on black civilians and even soldiers continued throughout the Deep South, and the sad fact remains that the greatest generation was also the last lynching generation. --Kevin Baker, in American Heritage WordWatch :: You've had your fannypack, now it's time for your hiptop. "I've been playing with the Sidekick, the first Danger-powered hiptop device (yes, that's a play on laptop), which will be available from T-Mobile Wireless (formerly VoiceStream) in late September." so sez Josh Taylor, Contributing Editor, AnchorDesk Wednesday, August 14, 2002 Theocratese :: Theocratese is a neologism. It means ``the language of theocratic people'', according to the same pattern that dictates that Chinese is the language of the people of China. It should be capitalized, just as the name of any other language would be. The existence of such an entity is confirmed by the Bible writer Zephaniah: For then I shall give to peoples the change to a pure language, in order for them all to call upon the name of Jehovah, in order to serve him shoulder to shoulder. (Zep 3:9) Saturday, August 10, 2002
Doolie Watch :: 22 = Gallons of beer consumed by the average American each year. Number Nerd Someone got my share. Do not drink and drive. (And while you're at it, Do not Drink and Draw) GenePool Migration :: Ev writes, I don't think The Beach Boys' California Girls adequately considers the fact that there are tremendous numbers of Northern girls and Midwest farmer's daughters right here in California. I don't know that that makes them California girls, exactly, but if the reason you wish they were California girls is because you're here in California, which, I think, is the point of the song, well, that's a pretty good thing to consider. They & their mothers came to California because that's where blonde-blue-eyed babes were/are in demand. Just like bloggers, they wanted to be discovered. Raised in the Mid-West, Grable was groomed to be a star by her mother. As a child, she learned to sing, dance and play the saxophone. After a family vacation to California in 1929, Grable and her mother decided to move to the West Coast to try their luck in Hollywood, leaving her father and sister behind. Grable's first professional work came as a chorus girl at Fox studios. Though only thirteen at the time, she lied about her age. Precocious? Beyond the Tippling Point :: A teetotalers' guide to social drinking Giving up alcohol can be addictive. Mary Killen Friday, August 09, 2002
DoolieWatch :: Vermont Trooper Travis Kline arrested venerable PBS TV commentator Bill Moyers for driving under the influence on 7-27-02. A roadside breath test showed Moyers' blood-alcohol content to be .10. The legal limit is .08. A follow-up test at the barracks about 1 1/2 hours later showed Moyers' blood-alcohol content had dropped to .079 - within the legal limit. But police calculate how much alcohol would have left the driver's system in the time after the arrest and take that into account, Kline said. Moyers admitted drinking, but denied that he was impaired. In a faxed statement to the Bennington Banner, Moyers told the Banner he had left a friend's birthday party around 10 p.m., just before his arrest Saturday. He admitted to the arresting officer he had drunk a glass of champagne and "a small amount of wine" at the party. . . "Not only was I observing the speed limit," Moyers wrote, "but my companions - my wife and two friends - testified they had detected no signs of any problem with my driving, and that I appeared to be in full control of my faculties, as indeed I was. I intend to contest the charges." The usual amount consumed by individuals arrested for driving under the influence is "two beers." As in, "Officer, I only had two beers." (Or a "couple of beers".) Quick Vermont Doolie Fact:: Vermont law states that it is illegal to operate a motor vehicle if your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) exceeds .08%. Vermont observes a "per se" law: BAC at or above .08% is per se illegal. [States which enforce a "per se" DUI law maintain that is illegal to operate a vehicle if you exceed the requisite BAC legal limit. Evidence of a person's BAC at or above the prescribed limit is illegal. In other words, there need be no finding of impairment.] In other words, DUII/DWI is not "drunk driving." Moyers at 68 should know that. He is after all the host of a PBS series, Moyers on Addiction: Close to Home.The trooper did not recognize Moyers. "We don't judge people. ... It doesn't matter if you're a movie star or a next-door neighbor. People make mistakes. It's human, I guess." Advicefrom Bill Moyers :: Dear Family Member, Millions of Americans struggle with addiction to chemical substances. Something they take, drink, or smoke becomes the master of their minds and the tyrant of their lives. Many struggle in secret, ashamed or afraid to ask for help. The consequences are devastating.My new PBS series--Moyers on Addition: Close to Home--explores the science, treatment, prevention, and politics of addiction. This guide offers practical advice on ways you can help your family understand and confront addiction. It also offers suggestions for intervening with family members--spouse, siblings, parents--who already have serious problems with alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs. Hardly a family in America--including my own--has been spared some experience with addiction. The good news is that steps you take can make a big difference to you and your loved ones. Bill Moyers Legal Complications :: DUI,of course, is a crime in Vermont. First Offense—maximum fine of $750.00 or maximum imprisonment of two years or both, 23 V.S.A. §1210(b ("But I'm not a criminal." Umm, yes you are. Let's not split hairs.)
"How do I know for sure that it's addiction or alcoholism?":: [From the Family Guide Accompanying the Moyers PBS series] It's difficult, but the rule of thumb is this: It's addiction or alcoholism if the person has had negative consequences resulting from his or her substance abuse--yet continues to use anyway.
Words that come back to bite you in the ass department "You don't know who in the family is susceptible," said Bill Moyers. "If you're the son or daughter of an alcoholic, your chances of becoming one yourself is four times greater than another person. Genetics is clearly a factor in much of the picture, but it's not the only factor." As it turns out, Bill Moyers is the grandson of an alcoholic, but he did not know that. He knew his mother was adamantly opposed to drinking, but not until she was in her eighties did she and her sisters talk openly about their father. Overheard :: Walking in the evening with Venus bright in the western sky, he said, "It's nice that we have all that history and science behind us, otherwise we'd see that light in the sky and think that it's some kind of supernatural phenomenon instead of a star." She said, "A planet." "What?" "Venus is a planet, not a star." Duh Thursday, August 08, 2002
Overheard :: Walking in the evening with Venus bright in the western sky, he said, "It's nice that we have all that history and science behind us, otherwise we would see that light in the sky and think that it's some kind of supernatural phenomenon instead of a star." She said, "A planet." "What?" "Venus is a planet, not a star." Duh Wednesday, August 07, 2002
PoetryWatch :: Via A and L Daily, On the Prosing of Poetry, How Contemporary American Poets are Denaturing the Poem, by Joan Houlihan Poets continue to write chopped-up prose and call it poetry, making it the model for newer poets, who then continue the cycle. And, the more we accept that established poets will throw down their journal entries and jottings, their to-do lists and mind doodles, and that editors will publish these, dubbing them, not only poems, but accomplished and brilliant poems, the less able, we, as readers, are to protest. Because we are being told this is a poem by those who “know”—the poet, the editor, the critic and the teacher. For an earlier, less eloquently argued take on the subject, see A Lucidist Manifesto & Dialog. Poets, alas, are born relatively simple and lucid amid the booming, buzzing confusion of the world; but everywhere they are in fetters, shackled and trammeled by stout nonferrous manacles of obscurantism and the thin, high continuous veneration of the self-absorbed. Poets of the World, Rebel! Break the Bonds, Cut Loose the Subtle Snares, Shuffle off the Insidious & Diaphanous Coils of Truculent Self-Absorption and Willful Obscurantism! Bad Verse and Worse :: If you seek bad poetry, look around you. There is so much available in cardshops, in newspapers, in advertisements, at Conservative Party conferences, that we should have no need to anthologise the stuff. Tom Payne Of couse let us not forget The Chaucer of Cheese, James McIntyre. We have seen thee, queen of cheese, Lying quietly at your ease, Gently fanned by evening breeze, Thy fair form no flies dare seize. Not to mention the Sweet Singer of Michigan (and port laureate of that state), Julia A. Moore. 'Tis said that Brigham Young is dead, The man with nineteen wives; The greatest Mormon of the West Is dead, no more to rise; He left behind his nineteen wives Forsaken and forlorn; The papers state his death was caused By eating too much green corn. WordWatch :: Linkslut 1. (n) A Web site owner who loves to be linked by other Webpages. 2. (n) A Web site owner who often links to several other sites or blogs in their community in hopes of receiving a link back. Also Link prostitute, Link whore (link ho') Seen elsewhere: (via google cache) I am not a LinkWhore. I give it away for free. That makes me a LinkSlut. Also:: Perhaps all you traffic-sluts and link-ho's out there (you know who you are) need to read up on the psychology of weblogs . "Ultimately," says the author, "all blogs die." There's more at this Weblog Dictionary Here's one you haven't heard from for a while, but it's back in the buzz: Blaxploitation Cable network to uncork vintage 'blaxploitation' flicks Bush's Innumeracy :: Oregonian Columnist David Sarasohn writes about Bush's "fuzzy math" :: From his grade-point averages to the dismal balance sheets of his business enterprises -- now being dug up and displayed like embarrassing old fraternity pictures -- Bush's figures have rarely added up very well. Politics :: MP3 party :: From The Register, The inspiration for the party's name is drawn from the MP3 community, who swap digital media files on-line. "The downloading of music is not an economic phenomenon, it is cultural and political," Party Leader Ruslan G. Fedorovsky told ElectricNews.Net. "MP3 collectors aren't just people who want to listen to music for free, they are part of a community." The politics of music? Well, why not. Everyone knows that MTV and Levis were instrumental in bringing down the USSR, the old Soviet Union, so who knows what an MP3 party might accomplish . . . although I have my . . . doubts. Fedorovsky, who is the managing director of audiobooksforfree.com, said the party's philosophy is based on the mathematical theory of complex systems, which states that complex systems of any kind are inherently dysfunctional. Therefore when social, legal and administrative systems reach a certain level of complexity they cease functioning, he said. The MP3 Party wants to apply this mathematical theory to politics and government. In other words, not just: I want my free mp3s! Right. Abbie Hoffman, anyone? Tuesday, August 06, 2002
WordWatch :: five-nines, as in 99 and 44/100th percent pure--Ivory. Five-nines = 99.999 percent (efficient, reliable, etc). While everyone in telecom has been using the term "five-nines" for decades, I'm willing to bet that few actually know what 99.999 percent really means, and even fewer know if it's really necessary. Of course, we all know that five-nines relates to reliability, and expectations are high— dialtone is expected at all times. Way back when AT&T's #1ESS switch was being developed, the development team's goal was to have less than one day of outage in 40 years. Obviously no one kept one in service long enough to find out if that target was actually met, but the 1Es cranked along pretty predictably. --Business Communications Review WordWatch:: Neckbeard, H1B, Billy Bob Teeth, Birth control glasses (or Buddy Holly birth control glasses), Demosphere (see Neil Stephenson, Spew, 1994. fuckedcompany.com's a great place for jargoneering. Medical Notes :: Recreational Drugs Pass the Viagra, please! SAO PAULO, Brazil, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- The drug Viagra benefited the circulatory systems and sexual function of impotent men with congestive heart failure with no additional risk of heart problems during exercise or sexual activity . . . Is Viagra a recreational drug, or what? Is there a drug test for Viagra? |
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