July 2010
4 posts
“At which point I write the word “hooker” on the bottom of the...”
– A story called Sledgehammer and Whore
“Beyond the ethics of lying and smear one’s opponents, I would think...”
–
Matthew Yglesias » The Shame of the Daily Caller
June 2010
5 posts
Siamese Twinner
Naturally, if you, and a friend, split entrées with each other, you’re having Siamese twinner — or, if you like, conjoined twinner.
This term is taking off.
“Chief among the criticisms of Obama was his response to the spill. Pundits...”
– Christopher Beam , What if political scientists covered the news? [via Yglesias]
Twinner
The next time you go out to dinner with someone and you both order the same thing, remember to call what you’re eating by its proper name: twinner. It’s dinner, for two.
Spread the word.
Phrases I would like to employ in wider...
Cool your jets.
[more will be added at a later date]
May 2010
5 posts
The End of the Pear Story →
In explaining how I thought the kids in middle school were all telling one another to get a uterus, I failed to explicate on how I learned the truth.
“In my experience, a lot of college-age people from reasonably privileged...”
– Matthew Yglesias » Q&A With My Dad
“Elizabeth writes (on her blog):
When I was younger - say eleven or twelve - I...”
– Elizabeth Cason, Locomotive Hootenanny: Things I Wish Were True
April 2010
7 posts
“Represent your clients like an adult.”
– kung fu grippe · No. Let ME reach out to YOU!
Grape Vines
Annie and I spent the last few weeks pruning and binding grape vines in Tuscany — on a family farm near San Miniato, a few minutes outside of Florence.
The vineyard was beautiful, on the top of a hill overlooking a village. We learned about the vines, too—not many people know this, but grape vines are technically considered herbivores.
Also, there was a herd of sheep next to the...
“The device does so many different things so well that there’s a constant urge...”
– NSFW: I Admit It, The iPad Is A Kindle Killer. I Just Wish It Weren’t Going To Kill Reading Too
“You have a whole ideological movement that, to a substantial degree, relies upon...”
– The Conservative Misinformation Feedback Loop, Cont’d | The New Republic (He means conservatives.)
“When he came to, he later wrote, he first assumed he must have died, but then he...”
– Chasing the Sound Barrier, in a Leap From 23 Miles Up
March 2010
3 posts
Show or Tell: A Critic at Large: The New Yorker →
This is important reading for people in creative writing programs.
“Instead of impressing focus groups, designers should do a thought experiment:...”
– Tufte on the Windows Phone 7 Series interface design
February 2010
1 post
January 2010
1 post
“CORNISH, NH—In this big dramatic production that didn’t do anyone any good...”
– Bunch Of Phonies Mourn J.D. Salinger — The Onion
December 2009
2 posts
IF NO ONE HAS YET TAUGHT YOU HOW TO AVOID OR... →
A grammar worksheet by David Foster Wallace. (via kottke)
I would use this, were I teaching next quarter.
WatchWow.
OK Go - WTF? on Vimeo (via Vimeo)
Wake up, wake up.
To live sanely in Los Angeles (or, I suppose, in any other large American city) you have to cultivate the art of staying awake. You must learn to resist (firmly but not tensely) the unceasing hypnotic suggestions of the radio, the billboards, the movies and the newspapers; those demon voices which are forever whispering in your ear what you should desire, what you should fear, what you should wear...
November 2009
6 posts
Challenge: The Roethke-Hugo Exercise
merlin:
ADILEGIAN | “Stray Thoughts on Roethke and Teaching” by Richard Hugo
At length, a quote from The Triggering Town, in which Richard Hugo lays out a really cool exercise from Ted Roethke’s poetry classes, fiendishly appended by Hugo.
Read More
“City resident Mark Little said he’s so genuinely tantalized with Palin and her...”
– This makes sense.
Fort Wayne News-Sentinel: Palin makes connection with ‘common folk’ during visit
(via zachklein)
“My eight-year-old son, Joel, comes into my office to ask if there’s a worse...”
– Jon Ronson, ‘I’m going to tell my son the worst swearword in the world’ (via df).
“The Wall Street Journal: When you sell the rights to your books, do the...”
– Cormac McCarthy on The Road - WSJ.com
October 2009
4 posts
“Reporter: “What do you say to parents who think the Wild Things film may be too...”
– Interview with Maurice Sendak, via df.
“Beety-Beedies: Diabetes
The High-Five: HIV
Bulldonkey: Bullshit
‘My...”
– Wow!
Some words and phrases, as used by Elizabeth, a person on the internet.
—locomotivehootenanny
Locomotive Hootenanny: Lexicon
“Welcome to the Ogori cafe!”
– cabel.name: Kashiwa Mystery Cafe
September 2009
6 posts
“A group of schoolchildren who reared a lamb from birth and named it Marcus has...”
– Kids send Marcus the lamb to slaughter
My school council never had this much power.
“I used to give pretty good backrubs. At least to my mother. I don’t know...”
– The gentleman at the next table.
“There are people who read too much: the bibliobibuli. I know some who are...”
– Minority Report: H.L. Mencken’s Notebooks (1956) (via 52books)
August 2009
15 posts
“The playwright David Mamet and the theatre director Gregory Mosher affirm that...”
– Mark Singer on Ricky Jay. Secrets of Magus, from The New Yorker.
“I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a...”
– Thomas Jefferson (via 52books)
T.J., endorsing bacon.
“A Texas judge ruled Tuesday that Microsoft cannot sell one of its flagship...”
– Judge: Microsoft can’t sell Word anymore
Patent abuse is annoying; imagining a world without Word is nice.