News alert: American Music Club’s new album is done. (This according to an email update from the band — I can’t find any other mention of the momentous event online.) Sez the band:
Mark [Eitzel] and Tim [Mooney] spent the past couple of weeks in Denton, TX mixing with Matt Pence (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel) at his Echo Lab studio. Final mixes are in and ready for mastering…Still don’t know the title of the record.
Eitzel’s been in Denton and he didn’t even look me up? Me, who named his damned web site for an AMC song? Harrumph.
Anyway, the album is due out on Merge October 12.
30 May 2004 |
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I’m off to Rayne for the holiday weekend. I’ll say hello to Mazie for you, don’t worry.
28 May 2004 |
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In slightly happier news, the Chromeo album kicks 19 flavors of ass. Imagine the robot from Short Circuit had come alive and become 1986’s top NYC DJ, crafting electro-funk paeans to rusty robot love.
Those of you with a fat connection can listen to a streaming version of the album here. I’ve got a special place in my heart for “You’re So Gangsta” and “Rage!” Two MP3s available for download, too. Perhaps best of all, you can hear a few tracks here in what could be termed their natural environment: as the background to video of people rollerskating in too-tight shorts.
27 May 2004 |
3 comments
How to be a Crappy Public Relations Person, Lesson No. 3,462:
Let’s say you’re the P.R. person for a public school district. And let’s say an education reporter — oh, we won’t name any names — calls you up and says he wants to visit one of your schools. He’s writing a story on a new wrinkle in the state’s testing system, and he wants to talk to teachers and students about it. It’s a story that will probably put your school in a positive light and get cute pictures of your school’s kids on the front page of a major daily newspaper.
You say yes, and he drives the 30 miles to visit your campus. You’re there to meet him. He does a quick interview with the principal, and then says, “Great! Now I’ll just go interview some of your teachers and students.”
What do you say?
A. “What a great idea! Here’s my card, with my cell number on it. I’ll go back to my office now, but if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to call!”
B. “What a great idea! I think Ms. Smith and Ms. Johnson would be particularly good interviews, but feel free to talk to whomever you’d like! This is a free country, after all!”
C. “Oh, heavens no! You can’t talk to any teachers or students! I had no idea a reporter coming to a school and writing a story about teacher and student reactions to an educational issue might want to interview teachers and students!”
If you want to be a Crappy Public Relations Person, the correct answer is C. Today, someone passed this test with flying colors!
27 May 2004 |
3 comments
There is no Easter bunny! There is no Easter bunny! “Melissa Salzmann, who brought her 4-year-old son J.T., said the program was inappropriate for young children. ‘He was crying and asking me why the bunny was being whipped,’ Salzmann said.”
In unrelated news, Ed Heeny, GOP candidate for the Florida state house, says he has found a new reason to dislike gays and lesbians: “He’s even found it difficult to shoot pool because ‘you have a situation where the lesbian community’ is buying restaurants and bars. ‘It’s really impossible to be a straight white man in this society,’ he said.”
26 May 2004 |
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What kind of jerk would get his jollies hacking apart opensourcecms.com? It’s a great site that provides a worthwhile public service: letting people try out various content management systems (like the aforementioned Textpattern or WordPress) without first going through the bother of installing them on your server. Someone decided, just for fun, to kill months worth of work. I hope he’s happy.
26 May 2004 |
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For those who have web hosting needs, Dean Allen — the savant creator of Textism (the blog), Textile (the web text processor), and Textpattern (the intriguing tho’ still-in-development blog authoring/content management system) — is launching his new project: Textdrive, a web hosting operation. If it’s anything like his other projects, it will be elegant, robust, and worthy of your attention.
Dean is charging $199 for a year of hosting (about $16 a month). Not a bad price for what appears to be a very solid setup. But the reason I’m pimping it here is the very special deal he’s offering to early adopters: Sign up now, pay your $199, and get free web hosting for life. Rather than go the venture-capital route, he’s counting on the early signups to provide a portion of Textdrive’s seed money — he’s calling them the VC200, since he’s limiting their number to the first 200 signups. (Plus, you get a free t-shirt!)
Now, with the vagaries of Internet economics, “for life” means “for the life of Textdrive,” and who knows how long that will be. But (a) Dean is a top-notch fellow whose business model makes sense to me, (b) he’s got some good people working with him, and (c) even if the life of Textdrive is only two years, you’re still looking at a hell of a deal. If it lasts longer, of course, it’s an amazing deal.
I signed up yesterday. Read the lengthy (15 screens at this writing) discussion to learn way more than you need to about the technical aspects. At the moment, there are 33 spots left in the 200 — they’ll probably be gone in a few hours, so sign up now if you’re interested. As I said, $199 a year is a very good deal, but there are probably better ones available if you dig. But $199 for life (or even two years) is essentially unbeatable.
(Update, 4:19 p.m.: The last space just sold out.)
26 May 2004 |
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Alas, this edition of ChandaWatch has come to an early close: Chanda has withdrawn from the French Open, a victim of that knee problem I mentioned.
25 May 2004 |
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Regular ol’ toilet seats not doing the job for you? Thank heavens the Germans and the French have independently hit upon a solution.
True love isn’t about to be stopped by a simple knife to the skull. “I fell out of love with him for a couple of days afterwards, but I love him again now.”
Cooper Black: Behind The Typeface.
25 May 2004 |
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Just did a live shot on TXCN that will be repeating through the afternoon (and probably evening). I talked about the state’s test scores released today.
25 May 2004 |
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Another update on the Orange County gang rape case — this time on the victim’s cross-examination by Joe Cavallo, seemingly the most repugnant of the defense attorneys.
R. Scott Moxley, the reporter, reminds me in style of Mencken at the Scopes trial, back in the days when bias was expected from reporters. Unlike the folks from the L.A. Times and the other dailies, Moxley’s free to toss aside objectivity and report things as he sees them — in this case, coated with a thick layer of disgust.
24 May 2004 |
2 comments
Maybe saying this makes me a bad person. (In fact, it almost certainly does.) But fantasy WNBA? Fantasy WNBA?
24 May 2004 |
3 comments
Travis Morrison has posted his 100 favorite albums of all time. He does it in what strikes me as a fundamentally honest way:
It got me to thinking—hey, what the hell are my Top 100? And really, really, what 100 records have I listened to the most? Not the records I want everyone to think I listened to the most. Not Albert Ayler, although Live at the Village Vanguard is pretty unreal. Not the Nurse With Wound record I would love to claim to be my ninth-favorite of all time, in certain company. What records did I really just play over and over again? What got the most spins, regardless of any other factor?
The list shows him, surprisingly, stuck in 1987-1992. But you have to admire a man with the self-shaming capacity to name OMD’s Dazzle Ships to his personal top 20.
24 May 2004 |
1 comment
As some of you may know, Blogger recently redesigned. I wanted to see what it looked like, so I logged into my Blogger account for the first time in forever. And I realized that all my old posts from an earlier, non-public iteration of this weblog were still stuffed deep in Blogger’s craw.
Note: We’re not talking about the first iteration of this blog — that would be these two abortive posts from May 2000, back in my Toledo days. Nor are we talking about the first version of crabwalk.com, which was a modified version of this page. (Love that purple mug shot!) And we’re certainly not talking about my first web page, the enchantingly titled Cajun OnLine. (Love that capital L!) It was, I believe, lost to a tragic Yale server accident circa 1994.
But we are talking about my first sustained attempt at blogging, in December 2000 — nearly a year before the launch of the current site.
I know you’re all waiting with baited breath, so here it is. (The template is new, since the old one was lost long ago. But the old color scheme was red and gray.) I apologize now for that first entry on December 6.
22 May 2004 |
5 comments
Yes, friends, it’s that time of year again. Time for another installment of that crabwalk.com franchise we’ve all come to know and love: ChandaWatch.
(For newish readers, I went to high school with Chanda Rubin, one of the world’s top women’s tennis players. So, for the last two years, I’ve posted updates on her career here, focusing on her progress through the grand slams. Also, this gives me an excuse to mention the names of many women’s tennis stars — a pattern which, when combined with out-of-context use of the word “naked,” leads to many, many Google hits. If only I had a nickel for every “anastasia myskina naked” search that leads crabwalk.com’s way.)
Anyway, seeds were announced for the French Open today. Chanda’s the 13 seed this time around, a bit lower than normal. That’s no doubt because of her recent knee problems. (She had left knee surgery in both 2001 and 2002; she tweaked the knee again whooping up on Rita Grande in February.) Chanda took three months off and had her first match back on Wednesday. Unfortunately, she lost to Trotskyite nobody Alina Jidkova, 6-7, 7-6, 4-6. In other words, the knee’s not exactly 100 percent.
Anyway, as the bracket lines up, Chanda is favored by seed through to the fourth round, facing a qualifier and then (if seeds hold) the Zimbabwan Cara Black and the Colombian Fabiola Zuluaga. Then would come Venus Williams and a likely demise. (At least that’s how it worked out in 2002 at Roland Garros.) But cross your fingers anyway, everyone.
21 May 2004 |
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Here’s my story from today’s paper, on how Dallas schools have more than twice as many unqualified teachers than any other large Texas school system.
19 May 2004 |
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It’s well established that I’m a Sy Hersh groupie. He’s such a wonderfully tough old bastard, and he’s been kicking ass on the Iraqi prison story.
Here’s another piece on him (and, more broadly, The New Yorker’s war coverage) in the Boston Globe. (Written by the potentially Cajun Don Aucoin.) My favorite quote is the last one, after Aucoin apparently has gotten gruff ol’ Sy saying nice things about New Yorker editor David Remnick:
“You’ve got me saying nice things about my boss. I’m going to lose my Guild membership. I’m out of here. Goodbye.”
18 May 2004 |
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It’s commencement address season, and Chris Matthews had a good one the other day.
18 May 2004 |
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This Emily J. Miller sure seems like a saint. The best is what she told a WaPo writer who was profiling her previous boss, Tom DeLay:
“You lied!…You betrayed him! You twisted his words!…We don’t know you. You don’t exist….You are dead to us.”
For the record, anyone who has ever said the words “You are dead to us” — in any context other than mocking hilarity — is a self-important ass.
18 May 2004 |
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For those of you who read my post Thursday on the Orange County gang rape case, the O.C. Weekly has been doing a good job following the case. (And taking advantage of the fact that, as an alt weekly, they can publish all the bad words the O.C. Register won’t.)
First, this piece, which does a convincing job showing was a bunch of drunken teenaged goons these rapists are.
But this piece is the one to read. The first half is about a (probably minor) courtroom screwup by the prosecution. But the last two paragraphs may be the a new low for the legal profession. How these defense attorneys can sleep at night, I’ll never know.
The victim in the case, known only as Jane Doe, testifies tomorrow.
17 May 2004 |
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Today’s Word That Should Be Used More Often: harpy.
17 May 2004 |
2 comments
Since this web site was long ago established as the source for photos of Suze Orman looking bite-the-head-off-a-puppy crazy, I present this ad taken from Yahoo Mail today.
Crazy, I tell you! She’s crazy!
17 May 2004 |
2 comments
A fun parody of Pitchfork. I loved the band names for the fake album titles (Ed Neilson and His Fantastic Broken Casio Keyboard, Dreams of Motorbikes and Stew, J.E.R.K., Underground Indie Band, Zero Zero Zero Zero Zero One).
17 May 2004 |
1 comment
Here’s my story from page 2 today, on educator reactions to yesterday’s collapse of the legislature’s school finance special session.
15 May 2004 |
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You hear a lot about blame-the-victim strategies in rape trials, but this seems to take the cake. (It’s a case where three teen boys — one of them the son of an assistant sheriff — are charged with gang-raping an unconscious girl and videotaping the act.)
In just his opening statement, a pacing, finger-pointing [defense attorney Joseph] Cavallo told the jury that the girl—next to the tape itself, the prosecution’s star witness—is “a nut,” “a pathological liar,” “a cheater,” an “out-of-control girl,” “the aggressor,” a wanna-be “porn star,” “a troubled young lady,” “a tease—that’s what she is!” “a mess,” a “master manipulator,” a “little opportunist,” “a compulsive liar,” “a cheat—that’s what she is” and a “callous” drug addict and alcoholic who trimmed her pubic hair, bragged about liking group sex and once drank a beer in a car.
“Why was her vagina and anus completely shaved?” Cavallo asked jurors. “How many teenagers have a shaved vagina and anus? I don’t know, but I can think of a reason. Sex! She’s a sexual person!”
During preliminary hearings, Cavallo called Doe a “slut”; on this day, he stayed away from the word. However, he told the jury several times that everyone, including the girl’s parents, “knows what she is.” Talk outside the courtroom was less coy. In the hallway just outside, a defense consultant openly and repeatedly called Jane Doe “a fucking whore.”
Read the rest to see what happens when the legal profession hits a new all-time low. It’s astounding, really.
13 May 2004 |
4 comments
Huge, epic, sweeping congratulations to one of the world’s most wonderful people, Fiona Havers, for getting engaged. Stephen is a very lucky man. Their offspring will someday rule our planet.
13 May 2004 |
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I had to babysit the governor yesterday, and here’s the story that came out of it.
(For the record, “to babysit” is not a derogatory term in the journo world. It just means “to attend and cover a function at which an important person is expected to attend — even if no news is expected to be generated.”)
13 May 2004 |
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When I meet someone, he/she always gets Googled. This freaks some people out. (Probably not crabwalk.com readers, who I imagine are more Internet-savvy than most. But it can freak out the civilians.) And quite often, when someone meets me, he/she will return the favor and Google me.
There’s one problem, though: I’m not the only Joshua Benton out there. And that can lead to some difficult questions.
I remember a couple years ago, going on a first date with someone. A couple days later we were talking. “I Googled you,” she said. “Is there something you’d like to tell me?”
There was an ever-so-slight accusatory tone in her voice. “Um, I have this web site, crabwalk.com?”
“No, I know about that. Something else.”
Turns out she was freaked out that “Josh Benton” was writing awful fan fiction dedicated to some comic book characters named Logan and Ororo. She’s a fellow writer, and she was disturbed that she thought I was capable of writing crap like this:
“The rough looking man named Tracker, well his expression didn’t change much one way or the other. He was here to do a job, and even as Logan spoke he was scanning the room, trying to gain a more accurate fix on his prey. As for the woman who called herself Steel Dragon, she just laughed, the sound like bells tinkling. ‘Oh but Logan, I’m not giving you any sort of choice in the matter. I am here to retrieve something and then leave, and if you stand in my way, then you will be put down.’”
For the record, that’s not me.
Also for the record, I’m also not this Josh Benton (“Josh Benton is a 20-year-old Print Journalism major at the University of Florida. He has Tourette’s Syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder”).
I’m also not the Sea Captain/Street Preacher in this play, I’m not this Marine based in Japan, I’m not this underachieving high jumper, and I’m not this critic of the Northern Ireland peace process (although I did write this lame piece on the Northern Ireland peace process back in ‘99).
But at least all those are real people. I’m also not the various fictional Josh Bentons out there. There’s a Joshua Benton in Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres, mentioned in an aside as a potential love interest. I’m also apparently the centerpiece of Clubhouse Threat, Margo Sorenson’s teen novel on the wonders of juvy golf:
“Fourteen-year-old Joshua Benton is stuck between a sand trap and a hard place. Caddying at Glenwood Country Club is the only summer job where he can earn enough for football camp. But unlike football, a real guy’s sport, golf is a sport for wimps. And his friends will laugh at him for carrying golf clubs around for stuffy old country club members…
“Becoming a caddie is almost as hard as school. Joshua has to interview for the position, train for five weeks and pass a test, watch his ‘smart mouth,’ and put up with the head honor caddie’s needling. Then the real trouble starts when the Country Club offers a golf clinic for inner-city kids in Joshua’s neighborhood and someone frames them as thieves! As he plots to catch the real thief, Joshua relies on principles he is learning from the game of golf.”
While I’ve heard the “smart mouth” thing before, I’ve never played golf in my life.
Finally, there’s Episode 110 of Secret Horizons, which appears to be some sort of online soap opera. I present the entire scene for your reading enjoyment:
“Why do you want to know about Joshua Benton?” Gwen asked, raising her eyes from Liza’s plans for the ball to Hallie giving her a searching look. “How do you know him?”
“I don’t,” Hallie replied carefully, going over her story in her head. It would never do to have Gwen curious. “I was talking to Denise Cleary at the PAC and she mentioned bringing a ballet troupe to the Glen. She said he was available if they needed a director and I just wondered who he was. I assumed you would know,” Hallie added.
“I do know Joshua Benton…but not very well,” Gwen answered warily. “He might agree to help a new ballet.” She leaned back in her chair. “I’m sorry Hallie. I don’t buy your story. I know you want me to but I don’t. Why are you really interested in Joshua?”
“You’re far too suspicious,” Hallie answered sharply.
“Am I? I think I might have good cause to be suspicious of you, Hallie.” Gwen stood and passed her niece to the open door. She glanced outside quickly before closing the door, secreting them both inside for the time being. “So, are you going to tell me why you want to know about Joshua Benton? Or are you going to make me guess?”
“Truthfully,” Hallie replied with an airy laugh. “I think you’re being ridiculous. I was curious…that is all.”
“Right. I’m not buying it.”
“Well, I don’t care if you believe me or not,” Hallie returned rolling her eyes. Gwen was a dead end, that was certain. She would have to try Ellen later. “I was curious, I’m sorry if you don’t trust me.”
“Trust you?!” Gwen laughed aloud at Hallie’s comment, her hand covering her mouth as she did. “Trust you. That is rich coming from the very person who only a few months ago was trying to destroy my family.”
“Wait a minute,” Hallie shot back, getting instantly annoyed with Gwen’s implication. “First of all, I was not out to destroy your family. Just you. Secondly, you’re the one who forced me out of ME! You knew I wanted to run ME and yet you still begged Jamie to come home and take over from Dane.”
“ME is Jamie’s inheritance,” Gwen answered haughtily.
“You mean Jude’s. He is your first born after all. Or have you forgotten that already?” Hallie snapped back. “You did deny him his identity after all.”
“You are the most self-centered, selfish, and vain woman I have ever met. And I have no inclination to help you no matter what your dirty little plan is,” Gwen replied coldly. “Whatever it is you need Joshua Benton for, you can find it out on your own.”
Hallie opened her mouth to respond sharply but thought better of it. Instead, she marched past her aunt to the closed door and yanked it open. Without looking back, she headed straight for the front door. There was no need staying here and letting Gwen upset her. She pulled the door open and came face to face with Stephen.
“What are you doing here?” Hallie demanded. Stephen raised his eyebrows in surprise taking a step back from her. “Well? What are you doing here, Stephen?”
For the record, though, if a new ballet comes to town — sure, I’ll help out.
I haven’t read the other episodes, but apparently I get a little action with Liza later on. And later still: It was a lie. She stared at Matty’s birth certificate. Father’s name: Daniel Benton. Hallie had her information right. Joshua Benton was Matty’s father not Danny. And had Joshua Benton known, he would have taken her son away without hesitating. Galen was right. She would do whatever it took to protect her son from a man who would do more damage than good.
12 May 2004 |
4 comments
I wonder if they have that spray-on infomercial hair in North Korea.
11 May 2004 |
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“A network called ‘Internet,’” an awesome 1993 introduction to the subject from the CBC. Ah, the days when “the Internet” was just “Internet,” kind of like “Skeletor,” “She-Ra,” or “Beyonce.” Also, the days when “Internet” was, for CBC purposes, a synonym for “Usenet.”
Six days before this piece aired, I was busy posting on rec.sport.basketball.college, comparing the careers of UNC centers Eric Montross and Scott Williams.
11 May 2004 |
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I’ve been rereading The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language the last few nights. (Yeah, I’m a geek.) For anyone even remotely interested in language, it’s an interesting primer on the language’s evolution over the centuries. (It’s particularly fascinating on dialects — the ways in which, say, New Zealand English differs from Australian English, or how what people speak in Alabama differs from what they speak in Minnesota.)
Anyway, last night I was reading a short section on West Indies English, and how it’s a unique variant in part because the region has both British and American English influences in close proximity. That’s when I noticed this (you can see it here, in the box at page bottom):
“Puerto Rico became part of the USA following the Spanish-American war in 1898. Donuts is one of the consequences.”
The donut reference is to an accompanying photo of “Raul’s Mini Donuts”; the point the author is making is that Puerto Ricans spell the word “donuts” and not the British “doughnuts.”
But: “Donuts is one of the consequences”? Donuts is?
Is this right? It’s a book about the English language, so I presume an editor would have caught it if it’s wrong. And I can understand the way in which “donuts” is being used as a concept, not a number of items. (As in, “The donut is one of the consequences.”) We’re talking about the Platonic ideal of a donut, the ur-donut. Or if the word donuts had been put in quotes, making it a clear reference to the word “Donuts” in the Raul’s sign, I could sign on.
But isn’t it wrong the way it’s written? Or am I showing my American English bias? I know I’ve got some copy-editor readers — hook me up, people.
10 May 2004 |
3 comments
Here’s my column from today’s paper, on the perils of principal turnover.
10 May 2004 |
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Summer 2001: Hoodlum breaks into my car, tries to steal CD player. Luckily, hoodlum is stoopid and can’t figure out how to get it out. Steals a cell phone.
September 2002: Hoodlum smashes left rear window, breaks into my car, successfully steals CD player. Also randomly pours a bottle of Coke on my backseat.
August 2003: Hoodlum smashes right rear window (thank heavens for variety!), breaks into my car, successfully steals my CD player. Also takes about $40 (estim.) in change. Leaves my TollTag and my Texas state map.
Last night: You’ll never guess! Hoodlum smashes my left rear window, breaks into my car, successfully steals my CD player. Completely rips apart the car’s central console in the process, ripping out my air conditioner and fucking up the electronics so that my turn signals (and god knows what else) don’t work. Steals about $60 (estim.) in change. Leaves my TollTag, my Mapsco, and my Parking Spot repeat-customer card.
Those motherfuckers who run my fucking apartment complex did their usual blame-the-victim schtick when I called them a minute ago. (“Oh, you must have left some valuables in clear view!” Um, actually no, fuckface — even took off the detachable face on my stereo.)
At least I’ve established a number of meaningful business relationships with auto-glass repair shops, thanks to all the smashing experiences Post Uptown Village has provided me. I think this is the latest in a long string of incidents conspiring to tell me something: It is time to move far, far away from here.
I’ve said it before, and if history tells us anything, I’ll probably say it again. But to Hoodlums No. 1 through 4 and the mind-blowing cretins at Post Properties, I give a rousing:
Thanks, assholes!
10 May 2004 |
3 comments
Long-time readers may remember Jessie Deeter, who was one of my fellow Pew Fellows last fall. She went to Sierra Leone to make a documentary about U.N. peacekeeping. She blogged on one of my servers while she was there. (She also shot, with her hubby Rob, these photos for Slate.)
Well, she’s back in Africa for some more reporting, and back blogging again. Check it out. Plus, some of her video is now up on the Pew site.
07 May 2004 |
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Why George Orwell hated Esperanto: “Apparently, Orwell, during his down-and-out phase in Paris, had to accept a room in the lodgings of a cousin. The fact that she and her live-in lover spoke only Esperanto together at home — a language he could not understand — left him less than enthusiastic.”
There is something about a couple speaking only Esperanto to one another that is really romantic. And I’m not even kidding.
07 May 2004 |
5 comments
If you’ll excuse what appears to be a porn focus on this blog of late, the LA Times does its usual excellent job on the porn/HIV story.
06 May 2004 |
4 comments
Here’s my story from today’s front page, on how the Texas House has slipped an unusual and unnoticed clause into its school finance bill: eliminating the high school TAKS test. Reports from the field suggest this story is even being talked about on the radio in Austin — so it must be important.
Also, here’s my sidebar.
06 May 2004 |
1 comment
I’m on TXCN tonight (assuming they found time to edit out my stumbles). And that story that was supposed to be on today’s front page will be on tomorrow’s.
05 May 2004 |
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“When the United States went off the gold standard in 1933, the government went bankrupt. Government leaders, in order to secure credit from foreign powers, secretly pledged the ‘lifetime worth’ of American citizens as collateral.”
Square trees.
“The best TV I had in my whole life, it was history. I had over 2,000 of them snap-on ties I lost in that fire. I had 16 Western shirts that was homemade. You can’t buy them in the store.”
Great NYTimes story on two Alaskan “bridges to nowhere.”
Porn for a good cause. “We believe it is possible to use people’s need for sexuality as a way to raise money for nature. And create interest for preserving our forests.” They’re looking for models, ladies!
While we’re working blue, this story begs for more detail.
No more hog-dog.
“Let this steed serve the cause of international peace and reconciliation – let him display his beauty, before which all people bow, irrespective of their homeland, religion or skin colour,” [Turkmenistan President Saparmurat] Niyazov was quoted by the Neitralny Turkmenistan daily as saying at a meeting with foreign diplomats to discuss the plan.
05 May 2004 |
1 comment
Here’s my story from today’s metro front, on how one school district’s needs have increased over the last 20 years. Perhaps not my most interesting piece. I should have a better one on the front page tomorrow.
Also in today’s paper is this piece on walking to work, featuring official Friend of Crabwalk.com Cortland Kelly.
04 May 2004 |
No comments
Warren Buffett on the future of newspapers:
Buffett and [Robin-like sidekick Charlie] Munger were surprisingly bearish on newspapers, a major investment for Berkshire through its large stake in the Washington Post Co. and its outright ownership of the Buffalo News.
After saying that he and Munger are “newspaper addicts” and that “it’s still an unusually good business,” Buffett struck a somber note.
“The economics of newspapers are very, very close to certain to deteriorate over the next 10-20 years,” he warned. “I see nothing that will turn around the erosion from both the circulation and advertising standpoints.”
Yay!
03 May 2004 |
No comments
A Brand New You: How our favorite brands help assemble our self-image, and how we interact with them. Quote: “For most people, Jell-O shows up as a childhood friendship. Johnson & Johnson is more a mother and child relationship. Microsoft, for a larger than average number of people, forms a master-slave relationship.” And: “Apple Computer doesn’t create new family members so much as brothers- and sisters-in-arms…It invites users to think of themselves as revolutionary—even though, by buying and supporting Apple, they’re really just responding to another marketer’s push.”
03 May 2004 |
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