Meritocracy
I, too, once bought into Fitzgerald’s idea of the personage, but growing up in Princeton meant I needed to take a different path:
I enrolled the next fall, but with no intention of staying. I’d read my Fitzgerald, and I wanted to go east; I wanted to ride the train to the last station. As a natural-born child of the meritocracy, I’d been amassing momentum my whole life, entering spelling bees, vying for forensics medals, running my mouth in mock United Nations meetings and model state governments and student congresses, and I knew only one direction: forward, onward. I lived for prizes, praise, distinctions, and I gave no thought to any goal higher or broader than my next report card. Learning was secondary; promotion was primary. No one had ever told me what the point was, except to keep on accumulating points, and this struck me as sufficient. What else was there?
Poop report, follow up…
This looks like fun. Taking your morning coffee up the bum.
It’s the little things…
By Elisabeth in Oslo
dusk
View from the front porch, looking down the avenue.
a picture is worth three words
(thanks, Rob)
For Sheila and anyone else on hold.
Funkadelic – You Scared the Lovin’ Outta Me
With a little help and inspiration from Russ Meyer and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
The Poor Man’s Murphy Bed
I am not going mad.
It is the world.
This, I swear, was not an auditory hallucination.
I had made a water bill payment, an ‘electronic check’ payment delivered and authorized over the phone to whichever middleman-bandit reaps a fee for collecting and relaying my money to a utility company. I phoned the water company in order to give them the [cough -- splutter] confirmation code they claim to require in order to credit my account.
The line was busy. I was put on hold. As I waited, I listened to a canned news feed, complete with commercial interruption.
I was encouraged to visit Israel by a voice claiming an association with the Reverend Jack Graham. I was urged to visit http://www.goisrael.com.
A jingly chorus reinforced the message, urging me to “Go Israel — You’ll ne-ver be the sa-a-me!”
10 Best Swimming Places
Looking for a bit of a swim? Behold, the ten best swimming places in the world. I particularly like the place with the tiny free floating islands.
The name Zacatón comes from the free-floating islands of zacate grass which move about on the surface with the wind. They are visible in the pictures as the surprisingly-large circularly symmetric islands. Because they aren’t connected to the lake bed they float with the wind. Besides swimming and diving in the cenote you can swim to the islands and suntan and picnic as they slowly drift on the surface of the sinkhole.
Working Fire
A short visual poem based upon the work of Australian potter, Ben Richardson. Shot in southern Tasmania, this video accompanies the exhibition, ‘Working Fire’, currently showing at the Carnegie Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania. Direction Glen Dunn and Ben Richardson, Camera and Editing Glen Dunn, Music and Sound Jethro Woodward. 7.5 minutes.
The Gubler
It’s hard to explain precisely what this is, but I find it beyond brilliant. Matthew Gray Gubler is an actor, mostly known for his work on the TV show Criminal Minds. He made a series of documentaries about his life, and presented them as if someone else had made them. They are strange, and hilarious. The first one’s all right, but as they go on, they get better and better. More after the jump.
English Manners
Unnerving though it was to watch a loony dash onto the court during the second set of the men’s final at the French Open yesterday, all’s well that ended well, and Roger Federer took it in stride, observing after the fact that “he had not felt threatened in the past by spotlight-seeking interlopers“.
“I remember the English guy [who stormed the court at the 2006 Wimbledon quarterfinal] was actually quite funny. He looked at me and goes, ‘I’m so sorry I have to do this.’ I was like, O.K., just don’t touch me, you know.”
Today’s poop report
Types 1 and 2.
Repo Man
For Learjets (via):
When Popovich and two of his colleagues arrived that evening at a South Carolina airfield, they were met by a bunch of nasty-looking thugs with cocked shotguns. “They had someone in the parking lot with binoculars,” Popovich says, recalling the incident. “When we went to grab the plane, one of them came out with his weapon drawn and tells us we better get out of there.” Undeterred, Popovich continued toward the plane until he felt a gun resting on his temple.
“You move another inch and I’ll blow your fucking head off,” the gravel-and-nicotine voice told Popovich.
“Well, you better go ahead and shoot, ’cause I’m grabbing that plane.”
A shot was discharged in the air.
The gravel-and-nicotine voice again. “I’m not kidding.”
“Then do it already.”
Popovich’s first rule of firearms is pretty simple: The man who tells you he’s going to shoot you will not shoot you. So without so much as looking back, he got on the plane and flew it right to Chicago. “My job is to grab that plane,” Popovich says. “And if you haven’t paid for it, then it’s mine. And I don’t like to lose.”
Whoa.
Internet Politics
The Pirate Party, a political entity that wants to reform copyright law and abolish the patent system, won its first seat in the EU Parliment yesterday:
she did it again!
Bonnie Richardson, the only female athlete on the Rochelle, TX track team, has won back-to-back team state championships. By herself.
Richardson captured first in the long jump (17-04.50), second in the discus (126-09) and first in the high jump (5-8) on Friday for a total of 28 points. Returning to Myers Stadium on the campus of the University of Texas on Saturday, Richardson placed third in the 200 (25.78) and fourth in the 100 (12.51) for a two-day total of 38 points – two points better than second-place Cayuga in Class A.
Ural T sidecar
your money is no good here
A federal grand jury brought charges against Bernard von NotHaus and three others for manufacturing a currency popular among some Libertarians.
The U.S. District Court for Western North Carolina indicted four North Carolinians with conspiracy and counterfeit charges stemming from their manufacturing of so-called “Liberty Dollars.”
Liberty Dollars are a private currency based on a gold and silver standard, with a purported exchange rate with the U.S. dollar. Its manufacturers say that the U.S. dollar is unreliable due to the effects of national monetary policy.
Money shot:
Among the seized coins are the $20 dollar mark produced by the group, which features Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), a libertarian icon and monetary policy critic, on its “heads” side.
I went to Iraq and all I got was this shaved head
I gave you bread and now you’re walking away from me
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
You owe it to yourself to watch this Werner Herzog film. It’s odd and brilliant, like many of Herzog’s films, and the lead character looks like Chris Pontius.
Robbin Craig “Moose” Neece
B: Jan 5, 1957. D: Jun 4, 2009. He is my brother, y’all.
Overheard
“I only call him on the phone charged by the solar cells.”
dear clusterflock
What does Dallas shine with?
Alek Lindus,
photographer extraordinaire and friend of ClusterFlock, has just published écrasement du temps.
