March 2010
46 posts
WatchThis was recorded on March 26, 2008. It’s my flat in London, shortly after I moved in. Yes, all of it (my sister and I shared this space for almost 4 months). It was a beautiful spring. I didn’t mean for it to sound so melancholy, I was just listening to Johnny Cash that day. I am moving out in a couple of weeks.
— From London.
“As of the 90s, everybody was so fricking concerned with everybody’s...”
– Prof. Jon Smith of University of Montevallo in Alabama thanks Simon Cowell for allowing him to teach again in an interview with Nancy Updike of This American Life. Minute 42’28” is when episode #402 gets interesting. I suggest you give it a listen.
— From London, still packing.
Jason Permenter, summed up.
Him: I know you don't want any advice.
Me: Yeah, thanks, I'm just a bit anxious...
Him: ...
Me: ...
Him: Anyway, here's my advice.
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WatchA young girl stands silently in her white nightgown at a building’s entrance. People FREAK. OUT.
— From London.
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Alright, kiddies:
I’m going to confiscate your blogs until you learn how to spell PERMANENT.
PERMENT is not a word. It’s not even a thing. Except, maybe, the first two syllables of my guy’s surname.
— From London.
Pipefish will burn in hell.
I’m learning about natural selection in guppies. So I look something up online and find a blog post that reminds me why I love animals so much: Pregnant Male Pipefish Abort Babies from Unattractive Females. BOOM. Oh yeah. — From London.
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My life is officially different.
After six years, I quit my job.
So I guess we’re really doing this thing, eh, Darling?
— From London, not for much longer.
“People would probably enjoy Paris more if they were allowed not to enjoy it....”
– Michael Lewis, interviewed in an Amazon podcast, wrote an apparently harsh book about fatherhood. He is interested in telling the truth, no matter how unpleasant or uncomfortable, and ignoring people who will berate him for it, ”invested” as they are, he said, ”in a lie.”
...
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“How do I know a relationship’s for real? A few months to a year in, I...”
– Friend Michel, giving me the best insight into a male mind I have ever had.
— From London.
I can't even take a 20-minute nap.
Symptom #1 of mounting anxiety due to imminent life change.
— From London.
“I could be totally wrong about everything. But we could also do nothing and I...”
– Jill Tarter, director of the SETI Institute*, breaks it down for the Times who just asked whether she ever has any doubts about their mission.
— From London.
*Well fancy that, I just discovered SETI stands for Signals of ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence.
The problem(s) with the P.S.A. test, by the... →
The most widely-used test to detect prostate cancer not only is “hardly more effective than a coin toss,” it’s also a gaping financial hole.
— In the NYTimes, from London.
My president may be a total joke. →
But I find solace in the fact that approximately one French person in 13,594 (press excluded)* gives a toss about the fact that his new wife probably cheated on him.
— From London.
* I prefer to err on the conservative side.
You want sex? Let. Them. Sleep. →
Here’s my personal nomination for the Studies That State The Obvious category. But you know what, it’s worth posting, if only as a reminder, so that you can tell your darling: “I’ll rock your world if we send the kids away for a week, turn off the phones and get some sleep.”
— In the NYTimes, from London.
Apesar de Você, Chico Buarque.
Blogged for Jason,...
WatchSerious young insects. We like Pascal Baes.
— Thanks Haze, from.. The Left Bank until the end of March.
For the love of god, please Back Up!
I bring my laptop into the Genius Bar at the Carrousel de Louvre for examination. In contrast to the detachment found in the surrounding arrondisements, I am met with the vision of MacNiceness. It’s like staff have been employed in this utopia of cutting edge product design and free wifi - why wouldn’t they be happy?
Host: This is Taz, he will be your Genius for the next twenty...
Shake it. Work it.
London’s birthday bash in Paris last night was a hoot. This is one graceful woman and you should see her salsa, merengue and cha cha. Muy caliente!
Equally hot on the floor was London’s friend Alex - a comic darling who gave me a lesson in salsa.
Alex: You need to feel like a whore, a moneyed whore. Wiggle your ass, tease it.
Minutes later..
Alex: Take hold of my shoulder like...
Sumo Wrestler Uproots Moscow Cash Machine, Flees...
Hello.
By Anastasia Ustinova March 5 (Bloomberg) — A Russian “sumo wrestler” stole a cash machine containing 25,320 rubles ($848) from a convenience store in northern Moscow, local police said. The man “uprooted an ATM in complete silence” and carried the 90-kilogram machine (198 lbs) out of the store on his shoulders, the police said in a statement on its Web site today. ...
Future bosses, be warned.
Extensive studies have shown: I shall never fight the urge to nap at work. All I need is five minutes or less to be back on top of my game. Take it or leave it.
— From London.
Continental Airlines’ newsletter said: “Extra Legroom Offer.”
But of course, being a French bride-to-be, I read: “Extra Le Groom Offer.”
I’m a disgrace.
— From London.
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damselesque:
Happy Birthday, Anna!
Love, Beth...
For my birthday, the Guardian got me the perfect... →
God knows I need one.
— From London.
Asylum for German homeschoolers. →
A German family who wanted to homeschool their kids, a pratice prohibited in the Fatherland, were granted asylum by a court in Memphis:
In a harshly worded decision, the judge, Lawrence O. Burman, denounced the German policy, calling it “utterly repellent to everything we believe as Americans,” and expressed shock at the heavy fines and other penalties the government has levied on home-schooling...
Steven Strogatz, in Opinionator:
… suppose we add all the consecutive odd numbers, starting from 1:
1 + 3 = 4 1 + 3 + 5 = 9 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 16 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 9 = 25
The sums above, remarkably, always turn out to be perfect squares. (We saw 4 and 9 in the square patterns discussed earlier, and 16 = 4 × 4, and 25 = 5 × 5.) A quick check shows that this rule keeps working for larger and...
“I had the weirdest dream last night, which Involved my sister having another...”
– Friend Paul, just now. I’ll have whatever he’s having.
— From London.
It's been a long, long day.
It’s 6:17 p.m., the window’s open, the sun is setting, the birds are chirping and I love London.
— From this great town.
“I’m not one of those people who get’s annoyed when apostrophes end...”
– Ian McMillan, in the Guardian today.
He does, however, get’s annoyed by the overuse of “Absolutely!” as a more emphatic version of our good old ”yes.” He proposes that a fine be directly debited from offenders’ bank accounts.
And why not. I mean let’s face... 