Moroccan Women Gliding By
I’ve just finished Jeffery Tayler’s book about his trip across the Sahel in Africa. So I found his other journey journal, called “Glory in a Camel’s Eye,” on Amazon and extracted this nugget. “In any case, I discovered a distraction that brought me closer to Moroccan life than any job […]
Men Killed Hundreds of Birds Who Dared Eat Their Fish
A grey Saturday in South Deerfield, a day to let your eyes close and nap, and one to read the local papers. I picked up the Recorder and found a big front page story about an atrocity against birds. The owner of a Sunderland fish hatchery had more than 250 […]
A Database of "Every Call Ever Made"
“Today, there are new claims about other ways we are tracking down al Qaeda to prevent attacks on America,” Bush said.The government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval. Third, the intelligence activities I authorized are lawful and have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress, both […]
Haiti: Trust is Hard to Find, Fear is Everywhere
Wendy Goodman lives in Greenfield, MA and just returned from Haiti, where she opened a community arts center in 2003. She explained the difficulties of trying to make progress in a country such as Haiti, where mistrust of outsiders and strict class boundries are so sharp. She was interviewed in […]
The Wisdom of Abe Rosenthal–It’s the Heat
David Andelman wrote a tribute in Forbes about the Timesman who just passed away this week. The Times takes a lot of flack, but Abe Rosenthal was a class act. “After three months of total immersion in Vietnamese at Berlitz, I was heading to Saigon as a newly minted foreign […]
Where Do the Celebs Go: Find them on Stalker
Gawker is the biggest of all blogs. Some of their sticky features explain why. I was just browsing on their Gawker Stalker page. There every day, they chronicle where readers have run into stars. All of the stars you’d think they would log the comings and goings of, from Lucy […]
A Pair of Homegrown Porn Magnates in Montreal
Craig Silverman writes in the Toronto Globe and Mail about a pair of porn magnates. “As he hoovers his way through a pack of cigarettes, McAlear explains how he went from working stiff to porn king. He was a mechanical engineer at Bell Helicopter when he introduced his wife to […]
Nathaniel Cosme’s First Birthday
Today is a big day. Nathaniel Javier Cosme turns ONE! It was exactly one year ago, I was basking in the nude at D’Anza Springs Resort in the California desert, and Kate called me with the big news. I ws thrilled for her then and remain in love with my […]
RSS is Coming On Strong–Choose Your News Sources
Steve Ballmer is a rich man and knows what is coming down the pike from Microsoft. He spoke at an industry event and predicted great things for RSS feeds. “While feedreading has been more embraced by those who work and use technology very frequently in their lives, Microsoft should be […]
"I Remember by Reading" Says Chick Lit Plagiarist
Chip Scanlan, writes in the Poynter.org website about Harvard’s now infamous “Chick-Lit Plagiarist” Kaavya Viswanathan. “When accusations of plagiarism began to spread this week about a hot new novelist — a 19-year-old Ivy Leaguer who’d pulled down a reputed $500,000 two-book contract and a DreamWorks movie deal to boot — […]
Stopped by the Blue Lights of Hadley
So I’m tooling down Route 47, and it is a lovely day, about 83 or so….farm fields rolling by, coffee in the cup holder, en route to the bank. Around a corner… COP!…I brake, a little too obviously, and he tools past me. Down a ways, I think I’m clear, […]
Girls with Big Boobs Get Battleship Bras
The Mincemeat Vixen writes a saucy blog called “Not Well Planned.” Great stuff from Ontario. “Last summer I went to a fancy bra store to buy a bra, asked for a C cup and the woman laughed at me. She put me in a changeroom and started bringing me Double-D […]
It’s a Great Day for Smoothies at the Cafe
Today is such a beautiful day you would think the sidewalks would be crowded with strollers, and people would flock into the cafe. While the weather is indeed in the low ’80s, producing near euphoria in our New England populace, we are slow up at the cafe…but that gives us […]
No One in NY is Impressed That You’re British…
The Press Gazette in the UK ran a story about what it’s like for a British reporter to work in the Big Apple. Carey says her experience on publications such as Star magazine and the National Enquirer taught her that American journalism isn’t just Sex and the City’s Carrie trotting […]
There’s Big Money–in Roads
Transurban Group, Australia’s second- biggest toll road owner, agreed to buy Virginia’s Pocahontas Parkway for $611 million, gaining its first U.S. highway. Bloomberg had the story on line. “The Melbourne-based Transurban bought the rights to manage, operate and maintain the 8.8 mile (14 kilometer) highway known as State Route 895 […]
Minutemen Say No to Al Jezeera TV
The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, an anti-illegal immigration organization that patrols the border in Arizona, has refused another interview request by Al-Jazeera TV, calling it a “terrorist TV station.”Little Green Footballs had the story. “The Minutemen volunteers, many of them Vietnam, Korean and World War II veterans, said they would […]