June 2012
28 posts
“John Roberts was shaped working at the White House, developing a mind-set of defending Presidential power.”
—
Jeffrey Toobin’s profile of Chief Justice John Roberts in The New Yorker.
Today is a great, great day.
— From SF.
Why Are American Kids So Spoiled? →
newyorker.com
With the exception of the imperial offspring of the Ming dynasty and the dauphins of pre-Revolutionary France, contemporary American kids may represent the most indulged young people in the history of the world. It’s not just that they’ve been given unprecedented amounts of stuff—clothes, toys, cameras, skis, computers, televisions, cell phones, PlayStations, iPods. (The market for Burberry Baby and other forms of kiddie “couture” has reportedly been growing by ten per cent a year.) They’ve also been granted unprecedented authority. “Parents want their kids’ approval, a reversal of the past ideal of children striving for their parents’ approval,” Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, both professors of psychology, have written. In many middle-class families, children have one, two, sometimes three adults at their beck and call. This is a social experiment on a grand scale, and a growing number of adults fear that it isn’t working out so well: according to one poll, commissioned by Time and CNN, two-thirds of American parents think that their children are spoiled.
Elizabeth Kolbert considers new research on American family life the phase of adultesence: http://nyr.kr/L9sCOG
You do not want to get me started, New Yorker. You really, really don’t.
— From SF.
How movie theaters SHOULD be laid out →
theoatmeal.com
This. This. This addresses EVERY possible complaint I’ve ever had about going to the cinema in this godfuckingdammed country.
Most beautifully, the Toilet of Shame.
Because you’re a motherfucking adult, you shithead, and nothing in your fucking genetic makeup makes you need to fucking pee more and more often than your European peers. Grow the fuck up, motherfucker, or it’s Into. The. Dome. With the rest of the whiny babies.
— Via rrrrred, From SF.
Jesus
I just started reading Rich Cohen’s ‘Sweet and Low: A Family Story’ about the guy who invented Sweet’N Low and I’m loving it.
“When Ben was eight years old, his father, just thirty-two, was rushed to the hospital with chest pains. The next morning, Ben was sent to the hospital to bring his father a change of clothes. The room was empty when he got there. A nun led Ben into the hall and said, “Your father is with Jesus.”
Who is Jesus?
The man who fixed the boiler, is that Jesus? Or is Jesus the man who turns on the lights during the Sabbath?
Ben walked home. He stood in the doorway holding the bag of clothes. His mother said, “Well, Bennie, did you give your father his shirt and pants?” “No,” said Ben. “Pop is with Jesus.”
So begins the actual childhood of Ben.
— From London, via a recommendation by my friend Traxi.
“‘Michael Braun, the former chief of operations for the D.E.A., told me a story about the construction of a high-tech fence along a stretch of border in Arizona. “They erect this fence,” he said, “only to go out there a few days later and discover that these guys have a catapult, and they’re flinging hundred-pound bales of marijuana over to the other side.” He paused and looked at me for a second. “A catapult,” he repeated. “We’ve got the best fence money can buy, and they counter us with a 2,500-year-old technology.”’”
—
This bit caused the biggest, frankest laugh of my weekend. In Cocaine Incorporated — How a Mexican Drug Cartel Makes Its Billions, an otherwise brilliant piece by Patrick Radden Keefe for the NYTimes.
— Thanks to my sister, from SF.
Fairfax sacks 1900, moves Age, SMH to tabloid
Billionaire mining magnate Gina Rhinehart buys out 19.9 percent of Fairfax Media. She wants two to three seats on the board and editorial control.
Fairfax undergoes restructuring:
1,900 staff members including 380 journalists get the boot.
Fairfax editorial workforce drops by 25% from 800 to 600.
Two Australian papers - The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald - become nationalised turning two already shallow voices into one. The drop in journalistic standards is to be matched by the new tabloid format.
Heaven help us all.
— From Melbourne, via Crikey and Business Spectator.
Play
“To match the shoes with the jacket is fey. To match the shoes with the hat is taste.”
—
Gene Wilder to Director Mel Stuart in Letters from Willy Wonka.
— Via yenn, from SF.
