No Books for You! I see Your Undies!
Falkenberg, Sweden — A Swedish school library is refusing to lend books to pupils if their underwear is showing. Pupils of Tullbro School in Falkenberg do not have to wear a uniform but librarians are clamping down on some teenage fashions. Students who wear hipsters which show off their underwear […]
Ms. Mudflap Meets Yosemite Sam, Drives into the Sunset
Home at lunchtime baking lemon poppy and pumpkin bread, I usually turn on the television down in the basement. Today it was Modern Marvels…about UFOs. But what got my attention was this clever ad for the new Honda Ridgeline truck. Therein, the silver girl on the mudflaps slinks her way […]
It Ain’t as Interesting if I We Have to Buy It
At the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the execs are up in arms about what happened after they tried making the employees pay for the newspaper. Below is part of a letter to them: “There has been one unfortunate and unacceptable byproduct of the switch – employees are stealing print copies from […]
Oh Tiger, You Spaz!
America’s leading newspapers yesterday helped Tiger Woods evade controversy by ignoring his use of the word `spaz’ to describe his poor putting in the final round of the Masters at Augusta,” Lewine Mair wrote in the Telegraph. “The LA Times, changed the word to ‘wreck’ while The New York Times, […]
The 24 Guy’s Had an Interesting Life
Rolling Stone published a long interview with Keifer Sutherland, star of the show 24. “As a kid he was tossed about some. One minute he’s being born in England, his extravagant dad setting him up in life with the extravagant name of Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland, the […]
Chasing the Rich, Rich Richest
The New Republic writes on the love affair between big media and the super rich. The story began with a report on the NY Times Shopping Writer Alex Kuczynski’s new $5000 shearling coat, and how ‘glad she was that she had already paid her credit card bills.” The writer couldn’t […]
Most People Don’t Have What it Takes
“Do you have what it takes to be a 21st century pioneer?” I read about Northwest North Dakota in Sunday’s Times. Here is how the website prairieopportunities.com entices urbanites to flee to their northern paradise. “Most don’t”. NW North Dakota has openings for 5,000 people to live under clear skies, […]
George Schrieber Comes to Lunch
George Schrieber came to lunch with Cathie and Robbie, our neighbors in Holyoke. George is one of my father’s oldest friends. They met in the early ’50s and married in the same year 1953, in New York City. George is a hale and hearty 87 now, and he moved four […]
Probing the Korean Psyche with Park Chanwook
Today’s NY Times Magazine was rich with fascinating nuggets. First was a profile of a Korean filmmaker named Park Chanwook who has made superviolent yet intriguing movies that mostly have to do with vengence. In one film, a man whose daughter is kidnapped takes brutal revenge on the captured kidnapper. […]
Chip Tells it Like it is–The Sox are Greedy
Chip Ainsworth wrote for the Valley Advocate back in the ’80s, when I worked there in paste-up. He covered sports, and now he’s made a comeback of sorts; every Saturday his column runs in the Recorder. He is a talented wordsmith, I loved this opener about the Red Sox this […]
NASCAR Says Its Fans Won’t Take NBC’s Bait
NASCAR said Wednesday it was “outrageous” that “Dateline NBC” targeted one of its race tracks last weekend for a possible segment on anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States. NASCAR said NBC confirmed it was sending Muslim-looking men to a race, along with a camera crew to film fans’ reactions. The […]
Bringing Girls Gone Wild Back to Civilization
You can count on the Onion for something blogworthy on this rainy Friday night, when we’re all staying in, and Sam is here for pizza. “In what wildlifestyle reformation volunteers are calling a “positive step,” the first group of rehabilitated Girls Gone Wild were released back into the civilized world […]
Fondling Lighters in the Shapes of London’s Phallic Landmarks
Dennis Lim writes about the new but familiarly-titled movie in the Village Voice. “At one point in Basic Instinct 2, Sharon Stone’s castrating nympho-bitch is diagnosed as a “masked psychotic”—a sneaky acknowledgment, perhaps, that the real subject of this sadly anticlimactic sequel is not sexual warfare or the pleasure principle […]
Vannah Calls, the Big Gala Approaches
More media today: got an early call from Tom Vannah, he said the story that the Advocate published about the Karakoram Mountains in Pakistan would be linked up on their website. Tom is a bundle of energy, They just began publishing two new glossy magazines, PreviewCT and PreviewMA, and GoNOMAD […]
You Call THAT Coffee?
MSNBC explains why airline coffee is often really bad, and what to do about it. “It’s all in the H2O. Many people believe that bad coffee comes from bad water, and they might be right. It is certainly true that airplane water doesn’t taste all that great. It is, after […]
Going Around the World with Arthur and Barney
Where does the day go? That must be what other business owners say to themselves, as the day winds down and you look at the clock to see it’s after five. I often wrestle with five, that’s when we close, because nobody seems to want coffee between 5-6. So we […]
All You Need to Know about Tom DeLay
Joe Conason writes in the NY Observer: The two individuals most responsible for the end of his political career are Senator John McCain, whose committee hearings on Indian gaming drew attention to the Abramoff scandal; and Emily Miller, the press flack who squealed on Mr. Scanlon to the Justice Department […]
France Just Doesn’t Get it—Firing is OK!
Today’s Republican included this column by William F. Buckley about the strikers in France. Like the author, I have been amazed by the naivete and belief that laws allowing employers to fire people are such a sore subject in France. Buckley first states the problem: more than 30% of the […]