It fires my heart with the flame extreme
Via Tom Christensen’s Rightreading, which is always chock-full of goodness.
We’re making history.
For centuries to come—if the world lasts that long—history books will ask why Americans didn’t stop their government from doing this. Everyone else on the planet has been asking that question for years.
I don’t understand why we’re not rioting in the streets about it. I guess because that’s not considered effective nowadays? But what is? Is anything effective? I’m going to write more letters and make more donations, and I’ve already been doing this but I don’t know what else to do. What else can we do?
This is not a rhetorical question, dear Clusterflock.
Dear Clusterflock,
It’s real hot and sticky this weekend—too sticky to move out of the airstream of the fan—so I’ve been sitting on the couch rereading Mighty Maggie Mason’s (months-old) lists of 100 Things Worth Doing (parts 2, 3, 4) and 100 Things to Do Before I Go (parts 2, 3, 4).
And so, of course, I’ve also started making my own lists. It’s fun but surprisingly difficult—at least the “to do” part. Apparently I’m not very good at setting goals: I’ve got twice as many dones as to dos so far, and I can assure you that that is not because I’m a stellar overachiever.
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Hitch
Oh, and I do not “profess” to despise religious extremists. I really do despise them.
From “Just one question,” The Guardian, May 27, 2008. Part of a longer piece in which luminaries at The Guardian Hay festival ask each other questions. The full classic Hitchens comment is after the jump.
Meanwhile, in a completely different country . . .
About four out of five UK businesses believe the type of biscuit they serve to potential clients could clinch the deal or make it crumble, a survey says.
The outcome of a meeting could be influenced by the range and quality of biscuits, according to 1,000 business professionals quizzed by Holiday Inn.
The chocolate digestive was deemed to make the best impression followed by shortbread and Hob Nobs.
Lawyers were most impressed by good boardroom biccies, the survey added.
Biscuits ‘key’ to clinching business deals, BBC News, Monday, 2 June 2008.
Mmm. I think I will get me some Plain Chocolate Hob Nobs at lunchtime.
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In case you woke up this morning forgetting to feel outraged
One of my fellow prisoners in Guantánamo was at sea on an American ship with about 50 others before coming to Guantánamo … he was in the cage next to me. He told me that there were about 50 other people on the ship. They were all closed off in the bottom of the ship. The prisoner commented to me that it was like something you see on TV. The people held on the ship were beaten even more severely than in Guantánamo.
Quoted in “US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships” by Duncan Campbell and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, Monday, June 2, 2008.
The Luke arm
Via Dylan
“You say liar; I say poet.”
composure bench
mirdle
crate training
occasion
faulty male introspection
collaborative thought leadership
federal building
intense greeting interaction
These are just a few of the handy terms you can learn from Buckle up your mirdle! Euphemisms from heck by Mark Peters, who’s guestblogging over at OUPblog.
Cheneyhenge
Best. Gothamist post. Ever. By John Del Signore:
Dick Cheney Visit to Neutralize Tonight’s Manhattanhenge
Manhattanhenge, the visually stunning phenomenon that occurs twice a year when the sun sets in perfect alignment with Manhattan’s street grid, is happening tonight. It’s just too bad that Vice President Dick Cheney has arranged to be in town at the exact moment of the sunset, to speak at the New York Republican State Committee Dinner and simultaneously smother the golden light under his all-encompassing shroud of darkness.
Of course it’s no coincidence that the famously secretive Cheney would time his visit to Manhattan to coincide with Manhattanhenge – he’s long been devoted to ensuring the triumph of darkness over light; as he once told Tim Russert, “We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will.” So don’t be alarmed when tonight’s sunset is suddenly eclipsed by a frigid black miasma – that’s just Cheney taking the podium . . .
The hour approacheth. I’m scared.
“[T]he single portion offers calorie control.”
Aside from a light gown of salt, it rests naked within its deplorable womb of plastic.
—”The Individually Wrapped Cashew,” Culinary Abortions from Japan
(Via Robyn Lee at Serious Eats)
Dear Clusterflock,
In defiance of the shocking exchange rate and all common sense, I am going to visit friends in London and Paris later this month. Both my hostesses have day jobs, so I’ll be at my own disposal much of the time. What should I do, see, or eat while I’m there?
Bonus points for activities that are free, cheap, or involve cake.
Stepping outside for a cigarette before taking a shower
Shaare Avraham, Israel, 2004
By Rachel Papo, from her book Serial No. 3817131. Nextbook posted an interview with her yesterday.
The Well-Tempered Saxophone
Ladies and germs, the Capitol Quartet:
(via My Brilliant Mistakes)
At least it’s not Basque
[I]n my early thirties, I went with my parents to the Basque country. . . .
This trip went down as the most colossal linguistic failure in Harris family history. Never mind the fact that Basque has twelve grammatical cases (versus Latin’s cushy five); it’s linguistically unrelated to any other tongue. This means—as I learned when I cracked open the textbook Dad [a famous linguist] and I had each bought—that trying to learn it is like trying to stick Velcro to particle board. I’d do the exercises, biting my lip, and get them all wrong. The moment I’d finish, I’d forget everything. You don’t know how close I came to hurling the damn book off the subway. Me? Unable to learn a language? This was a soul-challenging, humbling, deeply frustrating first.
“Bet Dad can do this,” I thought. I emailed to find out. “How’s the Basque going?” His reply: “Fucking language from hell. This is a waste of my time.”
—“Tongue Tied” by Lynn Harris, at Nextbook, my place of employment
I’m currently attempting to cram a bit of French for a trip, and this article makes me feel a lot better—about French, not my inability to learn it. I could be trying to learn Basque! Or Hebrew!
So, dear Clusterflock, what languages are you competent in, and which ones would you like to learn?
The Porsche Dress
(Via a comment on A Dress A Day)
“Where do people find the time?”
My mom has often asked me, in a tone of disdain, how people find the time to do so much stuff on the Internet—stuff that she thinks is, with a few tiny exceptions, worthless—and I’ve been saying to her for years, “They spend less time than you do slackjawed in front of the TV.”
In this short talk, Clay Shirky puts a number on that amount of “found” time. And then he explains how what people are now starting to do with that time is fundamentally different from watching television.
I think it’s fair to say that if you’re interested in Clusterflock, you’ll be fascinated by this talk.
Here’s a transcript, for those who are distracted by Mr. Shirky’s fidgeting around next to the podium: Gin, Television, and Social Surplus.
McKean’s Law at work
I was just searching the archives to see if a particular link had already been posted (it had), when I came across this perfect comment, on a post about eggcorns:
You’ve managed to totally bung up two seperate idioms in one sentance. You say “by enlarge”, and “manner from heaven”… the correct set of figures of speech which you’re attempting to use are “by-and-large” (an old nautical term, meaning everything in view), and “mana from heaven”, (mana being a biblical food provided to the Isrealites in the desert in the book of exodus.
Said comment is not only a shining example of a completely missed joke, but also a virtual love song to McKean’s Law, aka Skitt’s Law, which states, “Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling, or typographical error.”
Let’s just savor this moment again. Thank you, well-meaning but not terribly perceptive Tim, for brightening my afternoon!
Generic Antidepressants 400% Faster Acting!
Sounds like a good thing, doesn’t it? Um, maybe not so much.
Wellbutrin . . . is one of the best-selling antidepressants in the U.S., with sales of $1.8 billion in 2006. The FDA approved a generic version of Wellbutrin XL 300, a long-acting once-daily version, in December 2006. The generic, named Budeprion XL 300, soon accounted for roughly 40% of the one million monthly prescriptions for the antidepressant.
But patients soon started logging complaints about Budeprion at PeoplesPharmacy.com, a Web site that has become a clearinghouse for medication gripes. “We’ve received hundreds of complaints about generic drugs in general. But with this one drug, all of a sudden — kaboom — right after it was approved,” says Joe Graedon, a pharmacologist who runs People’s Pharmacy with his wife. Readers’ postings cite side effects such as tremors, headaches, anxiety and sleep disturbances. Some consumers said their depression had returned, in some cases bringing thoughts of suicide. Many reported that their adverse effects stopped when they returned to the brand-name drug.
Whack-a-Rat
So, I was walking down Canal Street this evening toward the end of a long walk, and I saw a rat stick its whiskery little nose up from a perfectly round hole in the sidewalk directly in front of me, and then duck back down. My first reaction was to yelp and jump straight up in the air, as one does. My second was to exclaim, “What is this? Fucking Whack-a-Mole?”
(Above: An actual piece of promotional mail I received from an exterminator a few years ago. One of my treasured pieces of ephemera.)
From the comments
People have distinct flavors and smells — not literally, but in my mind. One of my friends is strawberries and cinnamon; another is black coffee and pencil shavings. An ex-girlfriend was lemons and sandalwood.
The weirdest ones, for me, are the people who have no flavor or smell at all. These people creep me the hell out, because it’s like they’re not really there.
—Jeff Harrell on having synesthesia
All of those sound like yummy friends. If you could choose your flavor/smell, what would you be?
Dear Clusterflock,
What have you been denying yourselves, and why?
(Excellent question posed by The Morning News, who request your 75- to 150-word response by Wednesday, 4/23. Last month they asked, What was the last great thing you downloaded?)
Stand up (and put your shirt back on) for what you believe in!
We have to make books cool again. You know? If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t fuck ’em. And DVDs don’t count, either.
—John Waters, This Filthy World
(Via Ultrasparky)
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Dear Clusterflock,
What gifts do you tend to bring to friends’ houses when you visit (for a party or meal, or for a multiday visit)?
What gifts do you like or not like to receive from people who visit you?
What do you say to guests who ask, “What can I bring?” when you are hosting a do?
(Brought to mind by the Kitchn: Entertaining Tip: Our Answer to “What Can I Bring?”)
How to sell binoculars
Love can be tough. That’s why I’m so lucky I met Lucy. She only knows me as Bert, the guy from the flower shop. But my BARSKA Point ’n View binoculars have brought us close. Much, much closer than she’ll ever know. Sure, some may call me a stalker, but I prefer to think of myself as a stranger enthusiast.
See this and two other creeptastic ads at Copyranter: I prefer to think of myself as a “stranger enthusiast.”
Dear Clusterflock,
Nathan asks, What are your computers/hard drives/networks named?