December 2010
1 post
Though it probably comes too late for most of you,...
July 2010
1 post
May 2010
1 post
March 2010
2 posts
The East River →
unsustainable:
Technically, it connects the Upper New York Bay on its south end to the Long Island Sound on its north end.
It’s an ESTUARY!
New York City’s rivers are more complicated even than that.
The East River really is a “tidal strait” — you could think of it as a natural canal. It doesn’t flow at all except tidally, like the chilaquiles at...
February 2010
1 post
Welcome to the palindrome.
So, the film The Obsession? What a missed opportunity. First of all, they cast the one white woman that no black man wants to sleep with. Second of all, come on, Idris Elba could do anything.
That said, I am currently working on a “reimagining” of this film’s premise, with some important improvements. In my version, updated for 2010, Idris Elba’s best friend is a really...
January 2010
1 post
October 2009
2 posts
It's like Bob Saget never lived
unsustainable:
icanseenewyorkcityfrommyhouse:
She works as a bartender, three nights a week, at Dive 75 on West 75th Street, making about $800 a week.
They’re gaining life experience! Making more money than an entry level media job! With limited student loan debt! All the while having fun in New York! The horrors!
Perhaps I’m projecting?
While I don’t relate, I do sympathize. It’s...
September 2009
2 posts
Tennessee Williams steals all my ideas*
unsustainable:
newyorkdays:
Stumptown is finally open at the Ace! I couldn’t be more pleased, especially since it’s an approximately one minute walk from my office.
The experience was as good as I’d hoped- an authentically petite-sized cappuccino with a little heart on top, made for me by yet another James McAvoy lookalike (again, in costume. Where are they all coming from?). When I...
August 2009
2 posts
Comparative Literature
There has been a lot of bad poetry on Tumblr lately. I’d like to push the envelope a bit with a short course in comp. lit. with a poem I think will resonate with this audience. However, because it is the comp. kind of lit., you need to learn about something else first.
MATTHEW ARNOLD. HE WAS VERY BIG IN HIS DAY. THINK DAVE EGGERS CIRCA 2000.
Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) The...
March 2009
3 posts
February 2009
9 posts
The slow death of handwriting →
My handwriting has been poor from the beginning. Never had straight As as a kid because of “Penmanship”. So, fine.
The mystery of Ireland's worst driver →
This calls to mind the joke that is still popular on E. 7 Street:
What do the Polish do in Ireland?
Teach.
Back to New Orleans, January 1965 →
It wasn’t all Lucky Dogs.
A Haven for Spare Parts Lives On in Silicon Valley →
Robert Reich's Blog: Tom Daschle and the Populist... →
Typical Americans are hurting very badly right now. They resent people who appear to be living high off a system dominated by insiders with the right connections.
This means you.
January 2009
12 posts
Movie poster of the week: Made in USA →
POlitique
POetique
POlicier
PO
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's solution for... →
It’s good to see some people have relationships figured out.
Macintosh 25th Anniversary Reunion: Where Did the... →
From Guy Kawasaki.
No Snickering - That Road Sign Means Something... →
I don’t see what all the trouble is about.
Suckmaster Burstingfoam Ipswich
Is That an Emoticon in 1862? →
==|;o)>
In summary →
Man, are they good.
American regions explained
In California, the paragraph of the criminal code dealing with homicide is, famously, “187”.
In Oregon, the equivalent paragraph is “163.005”.
Therefore, no gansta rap is produced in Eugene.
A Bibliography of Second-Person Fiction →
Long ago, I used to write it. Recently I began wondering who else did, beside the few I knew of, and so found this excellent bibliography. It is no doubt complete, because second-person fiction is not a beloved form.
December 2008
7 posts
The Town That Became a Hotel →
Not many people would look at a dying town—some former homes were just piles of rubble, others had caved-in walls and no roofs—and think, This would make a great hotel. But Daniele, now 41, saw an opportunity to rebuild Santo Stefano and breathe new life into the local economy by transforming many of the abandoned houses into an albergo diffuso, or “diffuse hotel.”
This new type of...
Harold Pinter (1930-2008)
Lenny. And now perhaps I’ll relieve you of your glass.
Ruth. I haven’t quite finished.
Lenny. You’ve consumed quite enough, in my opinion.
Ruth. No, I haven’t.
Lenny. Quite sufficient, in my own opinion.
Ruth. Not in mine, Leonard.
Pause.
Lenny. Don’t call me that, please.
Ruth. Why not?
Lenny. That’s the name my mother gave me.
Pause.
Just give...
On "awkward"
unsustainable:
whatcriscilikes:
magicmolly:
Dave says there’s no good way to translate the word “awkward” into Spanish. This is interesting.
How would you describe awkwardness in English? I think it is something like ungainliness + self-consciousness, but this doesn’t quite hit it. I wonder if other languages have equivalent words.
This was really amusing to me because last year, the...
Second valediction
“I had wanted to be amazing. I wanted to be so amazing. I had already been amazing up to a certain point. I wanted to go past that point. I wanted to be more amazing than I had been up to that point. I wanted to do something which went beyond that point and which went beyond every other point and which people would look at and say that this was something which went beyond all other points and...
November 1999
1 post
Valediction
“Crimeless Victims” This isn’t cyberspace! This is your apartment! Stop this charade; let’s go to the bar, the one where the bartender hangs out on the nights she’s not working. In your life, any authority figure is ultimately a bartender— Bartender, just a little off the top. Bartender, I wish to appeal this decision. It’s likely that everyone I knew in college is currently making...