The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved by Hunter S. Thompson The following essay was originally published in Scanlan’s Monthly, vol. 1, no. 4, June 1970. The text of this essay was taken from the book The Great Shark Hunt, Gonzo Papers, Vol. 1, Strange Tales from a Strange Time by Hunter S. Thompson (New York: Ballantine Books, 1979). I got off the plane around midnight and no one spoke as I crossed the dark runway to the terminal. The air was thick and hot, like wandering into a steam bath. Inside, people hugged each other and shook hands…big grins […]
MANSCAPE: Digital Bro Hang & Geator’s Heater
Gadabout, the Details mag blog for the modern man-about-town, says Facebook is for pansies in general, but if you’re “pokin’” you’re dead to them: In a few short years, Facebook has leaked out of the college dormitory like some rare tropical disease and has begun infecting grown men in disturbingly vast numbers. The fastest-growing demographic among Facebook’s 64 million users is those over 25. More than half of MySpace’s 110 million users are older than 35. The hosts, once infected, exhibit a tendency to “superpoke” each other, hyperventilate over friend counts, and share their thoughts about the latest episode of […]
CAUSE CELEBRE: Free Burma!
NEW YORK TIMES: “HITLER is alive in Burma” reads the words scrawled on a cardboard sign, held aloft by a sweet-faced Ellen Page, the “Juno” star, in a 90-second human-rights public awareness message that began showing on video-sharing Web sites last week. The spot is one of 30 produced for U.S. Campaign for Burma, starring celebrities like Will Ferrell and Jennifer Aniston. They will be distributed on Fanista.com, a social-networking and entertainment retail site, then passed along to sites like YouTube and Google Video every day for the next month. The goal of the campaign is to thrust the cause […]
MEGADICK: WAPO Sports Columnist Says Women & Children Flyers Fans Look Like They Could Work Security For Megadeth; Flyers Fans Threaten Parking Lot Beatdown; Dave Mustaine Sells The T-Shirts
[Hat tip to ROWDY YATES] WASHINGTON POST: The Caps’ postseason slogan: “Rock The Red.” The Flyers? “Vengeance Now,” which comes across as less of a slogan and more of a sequel to Charles Bronson’s “Death Wish.” The Capitals didn’t come out as Eastern Conference foes; they entered the playing surface like Russell Crowe entered the Coliseum in “Gladiator.” Flyer fans didn’t want to beat Washington as much as see Ovechkin bludgeoned, his teammates emasculated. It’s almost impossible to fathom, but the Capitals took the ice in front of a building as loud as Verizon Center last Friday. The fans wore […]
THE ROOTS: Rising Up
Featuring Chrisett Michelle and Wale. On Letterman last night. [Hat tip to ROWDY YATES]
WORTH REPEATING: The Hi-Def Of Print
BY CHRIS SATULLO INQUIRER COLUMNIST We’re living inside a Gutenberg moment. The advent of the Internet is a watershed in human history no less epochal than Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of movable type. Nowadays, the changes cascade far more rapidly than they did back when producing books stopped being the province of cloistered monks. It’s no wonder that, beneath such a cascade, so many feel drenched and disoriented. That the Internet is a big deal is not exactly breaking news. But a flurry of items in the New York Times’ Business Today put into high relief the scope of the changes […]
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING: The Trouble With Miley
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Miley Cyrus is taking issue with a photo of herself that’s going around, and it’s not another amateur, truth-or-dare Internet snapshot — it’s the handiwork of Annie Leibovitz. “I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be ‘artistic’ and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed,” Cyrus said Sunday in a statement through her publicist. “I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about.” The photos, appearing in the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair, were taken by Leibovitz, […]
The Wrongful Life & Death Of Kenneth Keith Kallenbach
INQUIRER: Kallenbach’s mother said the staff at the privately run Delaware County prison — which in 2005 was the subject of at least two inquiries into the deaths of five inmates in as many months — failed to properly treat Kallenbach’s cystic fibrosis, a congenital disease that affects the lungs and other vital organs and can lead to chronic infections and premature death. “If he had been home and gotten all of his medications, all these things he needed, he would be alive today,” the retired telephone operator for Verizon said in a phone interview. She said her son had […]
PETA Offers $1 Million To The Inventor Of Frankenmeat
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Animal rights activists are offering scientists a $1 million reward if they can produce commercially viable meat in a laboratory. People for Ethical Treatment of Animals leaders say lab-grown meat could satisfy appetites without harming animals. “People are surprised to learn that PETA is interested in lab-grown meat, but we have overcome our own revulsion at flesh-eating to champion a breakthrough that will mean a far kinder world for animals,” said PETA President Igrid Newkirk. The reward would go to the first scientist who develops a method that produces enough meat to be marketed in 10 U.S. states […]
HELLEVATOR: Man Trapped For 41 Hours
GAWKER: In 1999, BusinessWeek production manager Nicholas White went outside to smoke a cigarette and, upon returning, got stuck in an elevator. For 41 hours. The story of his ordeal is woven through Nick Paumgarten’s new New Yorker feature about elevators. There is (sped-up) security camera footage of him the entire time. It’s mesmerizing, because you can imagine him slowly going insane, which is exactly what’s happening. NEW YORKER: White never went back to work at the magazine. Caught up in media attention (which he shunned but thrilled to), prodded by friends, and perhaps provoked by overly solicitous overtures from […]
ASSHAT OF THE WEEK: George Stephanopoulos
Why? If you have to ask, you’ll never know, but suffice it to say THIS and also this… TOP 10 QUESTIONS STEPHANOPOULOS DID NOT ASK JOHN MCCAIN THIS MORNING 1. Do you agree with Pastor John Hagee that war with Iran is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy? In February, you shared a stage with Pastor John Hagee and said you were “very proud” to have his endorsement. You also called the Reverend Rod Parsley, a man who said of Islam “America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed”, your “spiritual guide.” Do you believe […]
CHARM OFFENSIVE: The Empire Strikes Back
INQUIRER: Under siege for customer-service woes detailed on Comcastmustdie.com and other blogs, the Philadelphia cable giant has gone on the offensive, trawling the Internet for Comcast chatter. Eliason’s assignment is very specific: If someone has a Comcast problem and is talking about it online, he contacts that person and offers help. If Eliason thinks it’s an emergency that could spiral into unpleasantness, like an expletive-loaded blog bomb, he gets on the phone and cuts through the corporate red tape. Eliason’s blog spotting is part public relations and part acknowledgment that the Internet is playing a broader role in defining company […]