[Hat tip to Dantzerdaze.com] NEWSWEEK: If you’re a man of a certain age, then you spent a lot of Sunday afternoons building ramps and wearing capes and trying to be the first on the block to jump over your labrador retriever. Or maybe you spent some time in an emergency room because your banana seat bike — the one with the sparkly flag seat — almost made it from the roof of the garage to the cow pond. When it was all over and the stitches were in place and the arms set, your mom had one man to blame: Robert […]
RECONSIDER THIS: My So-Called Life
BY EVA LIAO Here’s one for the kids of my generation, the kids who grew up stuck between the loud, crude fads of the ’80s and the comparably apathetic, bereaved children of today. Here’s to the victims of a less dramatic, and all-the-more innocent decade known as the ’90s. Last month the DVD series of My So-Called Life was released to the elation of the pathetically nostalgic, such as myself. It’s been 13 years since the show last aired on ABC, running only one season. The series came to an unexpected halt once lead actress Claire Danes, who was only […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Devil’s Playthings
NEWSWEEK: After years of humiliating sexual-abuse scandals, Roman Catholic Church officials are trying harder than ever to convince parishioners that they’re doing everything they can to prevent such tragedies from happening again. That means public education, training programs and — in the New York Archdiocese — a surprisingly direct, abuse-themed coloring book for kids that’s being sent to parishioners across the area. At first glance, “Being Friends, Being Safe, Being Catholic” is what you’d expect from a Christian handout: lessons in loving thy neighbor and knowing we’re all special in God’s eyes, plus a fun word search with names of […]
DUBIOUS ACHIEVEMENT: Didn’t Need To See THAT
Eric Draper/White House In the Blue Room of the White House, before the Kennedy Center Honors, from left, the pianist and conductor Leon Fleisher; the movie director Martin Scorsese; the singer Diana Ross; President Bush; the songwriter Brian Wilson; Laura Bush; and the actor and writer Steve Martin. [via NEW YORK TIMES]
WORTH REPEATING: A Beautiful Mind
THIS I BELIEVE BY ALBERT EINSTEIN The most beautiful thing we can experience is the Mysterious — the knowledge of the existence of something unfathomable to us, the manifestation of the most profound reason coupled with the most brilliant beauty. I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, or who has a will of the kind we experience in ourselves. I am satisfied with the mystery of life’s eternity and with the awareness of — and glimpse into — the marvelous construction of the existing world together with the steadfast determination to comprehend a […]
TECH: Did This Man Just Kill Print?
Books have been very good to Jeff Bezos. When he sought to make his mark in the nascent days of the Web, he chose to open an online store for books, a decision that led to billionaire status for him, dotcom glory for his company and countless hours wasted by authors checking their Amazon sales ratings. But as much as Bezos loves books professionally and personally — he’s a big reader, and his wife is a novelist — he also understands that the surge of technology will engulf all media. “Books are the last bastion of analog,” he says, in […]
TRENT REZNOR: Warning
For more on this, check out THE ART OF MENTAL WARFARE.
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
PHILLY WI-FI NO-GO: Earthlink Cries ‘Uncle,’ Says Internet Just Too Damn Hard With municipal Wi-Fi networks fizzling across the nation, EarthLink will stop making major investments in such systems and is considering “strategic alternatives” for its municipal wireless business. That suggests that the company is open to selling the municipal unit, which is responsible for the pacesetting Wi-Fi deployment in Philadelphia and systems in other cities. At the same time, Philadelphia City Councilman Frank Rizzo is reported to have called for a hearing to discuss difficulties with the Wi-Fi rollout. The Philadelphia Wi-Fi deployment is EarthLink’s largest and, like many […]
DVD: Back When Sesame Street Was Keepin’ It Real
NEW YORK TIMES: Sunny days! The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia. Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.” Say what? At a recent all-ages home screening, a hush fell over the room. “What did they do to us?” asked one Gen-X mother of […]
ABORTION OF JUSTICE: Saudi Court Sentences Gang Rape Victim To Six Months In Jail & 200 Lashes
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A Saudi court sentenced a woman who had been gang raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes — more than doubling her initial penalty for being in the car of a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported Thursday. The decision by the Qatif General Court came in a case that had sparked rare debate about the kingdom’s justice system when it surfaced more than a year ago. In its decision Wednesday, the court also roughly doubled prison sentences for the seven men convicted of raping the 19-year-old woman, the Arab News […]
IMAGINE: What $611 Billion Could Buy, Besides Bullets
BOSTON GLOBE: If the Bush administration succeeds in its latest request for funding for the war in Iraq, the total cost would rise to $611.5 billion, according to the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit research group. The amount got us wondering: What would $611 billion buy? 18 MONTHS OF FREE GAS FOR ALL U.S. drivers consume approximately 384.7 million gallons of gasoline a day. Retail prices averaged $3.00 a gallon in early November. Breaking it down, $611 billion could buy gasoline for everybody in the United States, for about 530 days. * CONVERT ALL THE CARS IN AMERICA TO ETHANOL […]
DIA DE LOS MUERTOS: Day Of The Dead
…is today. So cheer up! On the 31st of October, families create an ofrenda in their homes. Essentially an altar, the ofrenda is anoffering of love and respect for the souls of loved ones. Various traditions include placement of photos of the deceased, bread known as Pan de Muerte (Bread of the Dead), water, and other food items they might have enjoyed in life. Ofrenda have also been known to include clothing, and personal grooming items for the souls to freshen up with following their journey from the afterlife. There is always an abundance of flowers, known as cempasúchil, valued […]