September 30, 2003
Orangutans are in danger of going extinct
But on the plus side, one of my prayers have been answered...
the hangover cure
September 29, 2003
NAFTA Hangover
We've talked some about globalization and free trade on the N American continent. Protectionist economic policy has never hit quite so close to my heart as now.
Mexico is threatening to cut off all bulk exports of Tequila
Economic warfare? Not with my sweet-nectar-of-the-gods, you don't!!!
Headz Up
NOLAN
October 24, 2003
Siberia Bar 9pm
NYC, NY
w/ Dipso-Maniacs, Bastards of Melody, and the Slats
Other info: Midnight time slot
Maybe Jimmy Fallon will be there.
Cosby
80 and i have taken a beast into our home. he is perfection.
September 27, 2003
September 26, 2003
R.I.P. George Plimpton
I loved you as the crusty old dean and psychiatrist who liked to putt in the rough...
Bigger, Stronger, Faster?
Man with no arms has bionic arm installed.
/welcoming our new cyborg overlords
September 25, 2003
Wow. Our legislators are good for something!
So maybe you haven't heard, but a judge in Oklahoma ruled that the FTC did not have the authority to administer the National Do-Not-Call List that 50 million people have signed up for.
Our lawmakers have decided for once to move their fat asses quickly
What about the constitutional issue here. Anyone wanna take the whole "free speech" argument against this? Personally, I think commercial speech should not be protected. To take a line from Geoff, commercial speech can suck a dick!
UPDATE: I knew it. The damn free speech thing. Why oh why does anyone think businesses have free speech? Free speech is about your right to say what you want to who you want. You - the individual. So you can air your political beliefs. My phone is not a public space.
But asshat judge thinks they deserve it.
September 23, 2003
Drugs are for losers... and mute eunuchs
Ok, I've read some horror stories in my day about drugs... but this one just about takes the cake. Probably this kid had some issues... like most kids do. But this? When was the last time you wanted to cut off your willy with a hedge clippers? Maybe the last time you cut out your own tongue? I thought so.
Student cuts off penis and tongue after drinking hallucinogenic tea
A student cut off his own penis and his tongue after drinking an infusion of the latest drugs craze to sweep Germany...
link...
September 19, 2003
New contact info, delivered in a typically tasteless fashion
Just a heads up that my email address has changed. I've shaken off the albatross known as Hotmail and my new address is: jake@specificobjects.net
I will be retiring my hotmail account by giving it the same heart disease John Ritter had, so it'll only be around a few more days.
September 18, 2003
Liberals Hate America
Paul Krugman wrote an article in the New York Times Magazine this week about tax cuts and their long-term effect on the federal government. I'm having a hard time finding the part where he's full of shit, and he doesn't really paint a pretty picture. What's the other side of this story? Does he overstate the political difficulty of rolling back tax cuts? Or does he overstate the calamity of collapsing social programs? The forum on the webpage is down and I haven't been able to find any conservative reviews of it yet. I want to hear that he's full of it. Otherwise, the future is starting to look really shitty.
I'm probably preaching to the proverbial, but I thought maybe one of you heads might know more than I do about this hoo-ha.
Here's another site with the article if you haven't submitted yourself to the NYTimes Spam machine yet. It's uglier, but it's the same text.
September 16, 2003
September 13, 2003
Captain Murphy too...
Bad news always comes in threes...
I found out today that Harry Goz, "Captain Murphy" of Sealab 2021 died Sept. 10th. Death Sucks.
September 12, 2003
The Man in Black
RIP Johnny Cash. Man. Other than the news about Black Francis and Co., it's been a really shitty couple of weeks for music.
Multi Organ System Failure blows. Fucking diabetes.
Okay, let's get REALLY serious
I played a game with one of my customers last week. Okay, so it wasn't really a game, it was just mindless bar banter. I think that in light of the recent Madonna/Britney liplock, it's time for a round of . . .
WHO'S IN YOUR CELEBRITY PORN?
And what are they doing? I want details, people.
September 10, 2003
well, this infuriates me...
12-year-old settles music piracy suit for $2,000
Presidential Poser
Who would be more likely to be able to be elected president of the US: a white woman or a black man?
September 09, 2003
What Vacation?
An Open Letter to all:
So, I know that it's far away . . . but I would like to invite any and all who are interested to celebrate New Years with Anne and me in Amsterdam.
Our tickets are already booked, so we'll be there no matter what happens.
We'll be there from December 28 - January 5.
Hope you can make it.
September 08, 2003
Bringing them up right
Anybody read Salon? I read Salon.
A few days ago, there was this article about the new "Thirteen" movie, where they interviewed a passle of thirteen-year-old girls to see what they thought. The gist and consensus of the interview was that none of these girls thought the movie presented anything like a realistic portrayal of thirteen-year-old life, which was none too surprising. Kind of the same reaction we all had to "Kids" when it came out, I guess.
But the big thing I noticed reading the interview, more than what any of the little airheads babbled on about, was that the girls were all from New York City. I had my doubts that they represented an accurate sample demographic.
Then, today, there's this letter from a reader in there, and by way of sort of addressing that same demographic question, I think it may have also managed to nail down one of those elusive NYC properties that I've never been able to put my finger on. I've always thought there was something different about all the kids I saw running around Manhattan -- creepily precocious and dolled up, sure, but also fascinatingly self-possessed. Watching those weird little lab rats always made me feel like the city would be a fantastic place to raise kids, despite the lack of riding mowers and foam rubber corners on everything.
The Salon letter is in the "extended entry" part below, reprinted without permission or conern for anyone's welfare. Check it out -- what do we think? An important point made? Or a hopeless glossing-over of the NYC problems (cutthroat preschool admissions, ecstacy-popping eight-year-olds) that we've all learned about from watching Law & Order?
The Letter:
"As a woman who grew up in Manhattan, I have been at great pains to defend the idea that children who grow up in New York don't have the same variety of problems as their counterparts throughout the country. There is something intangible about the experience of growing up a New Yorker that makes most of the problems afflicting teenagers nationwide seem somewhat over-the-top and petty to those who grew up here -- or at least completely inapplicable.
"These three students made what I consider to be the most important point to be made about school life in New York: the fact that the "popular" and "insular" clique pretty much doesn't exist. Students in New York are generally multi-faceted -- we don't have jocks, nerds, artsy-fartsies, and druggies like they show on TV. We have football players taking AP chemistry, chess teams smoking up after practice, and dancers who take time out to play a little soccer. New York students defy classification, and that's why they're not shooting up their schools. When everyone is a little bit attached to every group, it's hard to feel completely out of the loop.
"I hesitate to say that these students are smarter because they're from New York, but they're certainly more realistic and understand that experimentation throughout one's teenage years is normal while at the same time understanding the limits of normal and knowing when a classmate has crossed the line into unhealthy behavior.
"In fact, popular media portrayals have never resonated with New York kids. In my youth it was "The Breakfast Club" and "Heathers," and my friends and I wondered who these weirdo kids were because it didn't even approach a representation of our school lives. Could it be that instead of paint huffing and mailbox destruction, New York kids have vast cultural opportunities unheard of throughout the rest of the country? Could it be that the simple act of getting from place to place on one's own, navigating mass transport and city streets, enables our kids to be more self-sufficient and savvy? Whatever it is, there's no mistaking that a movie like "Thirteen" with its doomsday message of adolescence would never make sense to a teenager in New York who has outlets for his or her pent-up creativity, anonymous and supportive resources to combat drug problems, unwanted pregnancy, and suicidal feelings, and perhaps, the knowledge that it's just not cool to fall apart if you live here."
September 06, 2003
Rah
Happy adenday, Birth.
And sorry to everyone else who's day I never remember. Aden's is the same day as my dad's, so it stuck.
 How rich are you? I'm loaded. It's official. I'm the 57,547,565 richest person on earth! |
September 05, 2003
You know that you're a drunk....
when you dig a tunnel into a military base to steal 58,000 boxes of beer
I'm not sure what got into these guys. Don't they know that successful tunnelling is only done in order to get out of prision when you're innocent or to smuggle drugs across a border?
Sheesh.
JP! send us some tracks!
let's get some nolan on jeaun, AIIIGHT?
"independent producer Mark Paulson"
September 04, 2003
Give it up for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
So they've issued a stay to stop the new FCC media ownership rules from going into place until all the court cases are done.
NYTimes article
(Registration required)
Is there anyone not employed by a large media conglomerate that's for this? You can call me names like "liberal" and "lefty" but is there any way to explain this whole deregulation ploy other than a move to appease business interests at the cost of multiple voices in the press?
September 03, 2003
The Amy Sedaris Special
I was watching a rerun of Late Night with Conan O'Brien last night, and Amy Sedaris was on the show. She talked about something that will cause expolsive diarrhea when a few drops of it are added to a person's drink, but they bleeped out the substance...
One quick Google... and I found this.
Any idea why it works, E Lo?