something, 56
The man in the restaurant bought the dog on the street guacamole. The homeless man Sieg Heiled.
from the spam
Why are all plus size clothing stores targeted at African Americans? There are plenty of white overweight people too….
quote out of context
My mother tells the story of sitting on the beach one morning, and my 16-month-old sister climbs onto the lap of a famous movie star and says, “I smell Scotch.”
givhimasac
Did I ever tell you about the priest at the summer camp I worked at who came up with the acronym givhimasac to remember the Ten Commandments? It was supposed to be pronounced Give Him My Sac.
The Tae man
Bit of a treat inspired by the recent conversation about accents. Eamon Kelly the incredible seanchaí, tells the story of the adventures of a tae man, the first bringers of tea to Ireland. Not many of these guys left now.
Via Stan Carey.
the flavor industry
A great, long article about the flavor industry (via):
More than half of Givaudan’s business — which generates nearly four billion dollars in revenue a year — is built on deceiving our senses when we eat. The consumption of food flavorings may stand as one of the modern era’s most profound collective acts of submission to illusion. When you watch a movie or look at photographs or listen to an iPod, you tend not to forget that what you are taking in has been recorded and re-created for you in some fashion. Flavor additives are no less a contrivance; in fact, flavor re-creations typically have less fidelity than digital photography or MP3s. They more closely resemble paintings: subjective creations, made by people who work in competing styles. There are the hyperrealists, who strive for molecular-level precision; the neo-primitivists, who use centuries-old palettes of extracts and essential oils; the Fauvist types, who embrace a sensually heightened sensibility. Placed in the context of art history, the flavor industry today would be in its modernist phase, somewhere in the waning days of Cubism, for even the most outlandish flavor concoctions take direct inspiration from the real world. Whereas a perfumer can invent commercially successful aromas that are totally nonrepresentational — a Pollock in a crystal bottle — the flavorist must still respect the deeply held conservatism that people tend to hold when it comes to putting food in their mouths. Snapple’s use of kiwi-strawberry flavoring in a juice drink may seem unusual (and the sum flavor of it may barely approximate real strawberry combined with real kiwi), but we can imagine that the flavor is authentic — that it captures some platonic gastronomic truth.
You’ll probably want to use Readability for this one, the margins are narrow and text small.
The explosions will not happen for 10, 15, 20 years.
I can’t get enough of this Gohmert dude. It’s like he’s impersonating himself. To a hilarious and fearsome result.
And what Troy Duffy does not give…
Zach and Tyler Go To The Redbox is great. They just reviewed Overnight.
Always painfully aware of the documentary crew following his rise to fame, Duffy casts himself as a hiply superior Artist of unparalleled integrity who “[would] never work with Keanu Reeves!” and thinks Ethan Hawke is “a no-talent hack.” Because he’s Troy Duffy, and what Troy Duffy does not give is a fuck.
Calvin and Hobbes search engine
via Mary Popova
Eat Pray Love. Or, Don’t.
I reviewed Eat Pray Love. Andrew Simone called it the only Eat Pray Love review you’d ever need to read.
The film itself is constantly bathed in shimmering light, as if heaven itself had shed a glow upon its most favored daughter. The dining sequences border on gastro-porn as incredible food is ordered and consumed; each meal looks tastier than the last. It reminded me of a foreign film for people who don’t like foreign films. All the comforts of home are here, English-speaking beautiful people with exotic locales, friendly conversations, and happy endings.
On an interesting note, two of the reviewers I like the most– Roger Ebert and Karina Longworth both panned it.
Arcade Fire, Ready to Start
headline of the day
Is tainted milk to blame for China’s infant puberty cases?
Laura Pannack’s portraits of British youth
Wired.com: Do you want to photograph these youngsters as they grow older?
LP: No. I aim to capture our generation now. I want us to consider who these youngsters will grow up to become. There always needs to be an element of mystery to my imagery. Giving an audience too much information limits the potential of their imaginations.
Afterward He Plans on Biting a Dog
Dutch Olympian to teach orangutans how to swing…
artisanal pencil sharpening
David Rees, the man behind the popular political comic Get Your War On, wants to sharpen you a pencil. Slowly. Attentively. And with a carefully selected sharpener or blade that suits the pencil best. If there are movements for slow food and slow reading, why not for slow writing implements?
“With an electric pencil sharpener, a pencil is meat,” Rees said. “It’s this thoughtless, Brutalist aesthetic. For me, it’s almost a point of pride that I would be slower than an electric pencil sharpener.”
From his web site:
Traditionally people mail in their pencils to be sharpened; however David now offers a new service: He will provide the pencil.
(via marginal revolution)
from the comments
The rhythm of the Cicada’s song (so loudly coming to me this instant, this evening), the metronomic meter of a Bach invention or fugue seem so much more logical to me than the soft logic of human divination.
dear clusterflock
Favorite accent.
freelancing sounds delectable
Freelancing means being so poor and so hungry for so long that you “eat” a bowl of soup that’s just hot water, crushed-up multivitamins and half your spice rack (mostly garlic salt).
quote out of context
Although Petitioner apparently wishes it were otherwise, the simple fact remains that Petitioner is not a dog.
Words
A companion to a Radiolab episode, the quiet of this video reminds me of my secret sentences.
Summer Presto
Help Me Name This Series
Perhaps the best one yet from the public law library:
Flamboyant skinny white man wearing daisy-duke shorts: “What I gotta do if the other person won’t folla the judge’s orders that was in the divorce decree?”
Librarian: “You can file a motion to enforce the orders.”
Daisy [indignant]: “Why I gotta enforce the orders when the judge already said it in the decree?!”
Librarian: “Well, that’s just the….”
Daisy [angrier]: “Why do I have to do that when she’s the one – the po-leece wouldn’t do nothin, legal aid wouldn’t hep me — my ex-wife got outta jail, come home, beat up my homosexual ass, took all my drag clothes, took all my drag jewelry, an’ lef’ me standin’ nekkid in my apartment! The women at the shelter are so proud of me for standin’ up for myself, but I am disabled: I cain’t see t’ read, and I’m gay. But nobody will help me!”
I am not Christopher Walken
more inspired collages & ruminations on John Haskell, Roberto Benigni, Schopenhauer, Morissey, The Avengers & everything else i am not I
He picked the wrong girl to rape
The $100,000 Bill
The $100,000 bill was released only as a Gold Certificate in the series of 1934. Today it is equal to $1,620,000 in 2010 dollars. It featured Woodrow Wilson on the Front and a gold back that said $100,000. There is one on display at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
